Document zomvq1EbbEQVoQbg43yomLa17

i&<B1Pa@Sa 26th National Safety Congress NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL, Inc. KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI OCTOBER 11 to OCTOBER 15, 1937 Municipal Auditorium 1997, N*U*mI Sofa* Cwull, Uc. Foreword THE Transactions of the Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress, 1937, are published by the National Safety Council in two volumes. This, the first, contains the general, the special subject, and the Industrial Section sessions. The second volume contains the sessions of the Child Education, Home Safety, Street and Highway Traffic, Commercial Ve hicle and Transit Sections. All industrial members of the Council automatically receive Volume I. Volume II is sent to members believed to be inter ested chiefly in the sessions it covers. Other Council mem bers, however, may obtain it upon request. Many members have found it worth while to distribute copies of the Transactions to supervisors, foremen, and Others in an administrative or supervisory position who may make practical use of them for reference purposes. The fol lowing quantity prices are quoted on extra copies: 1 to 10 copies of the large volume (Volume I), $2 each; 11 copies or more, $1.75 each; copies of the smaller volume (Volume II), 75 cents each. THE Transactions are published as a condensed record of the proceedings at the National Congress. The papers of each session or division of the Congress have been edited carefully to eliminate extraneous matter and to abbreviate the less essential portions because of space limitations. Thus the material herein presented is not a verbatim report of all the speeches presented at the Congress, but rather an abridged version made as compact as possible, yet without injury to the technical aspects of any address. The original manuscripts are on file in the Council's Bureau of Informa tion, where they are available for additional reference. Where illustrations were sent by the speakers to the Council, these also arc on file. The National Safety Council at its Congresses seeks to eliminate from discussion matters which are not pertinent to the aim of the Congress or which are contrary to Council policies. It cannot accept responsibility for the views ex pressed either in the papers presented or in the discussions based upon the papers. NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL, Inc 20 North Wckr Drive Chicago Contents Council Officers and Directors................................................................ 4 Council Purposes and Policies........ ........................................................ 9 Annual Meeting of Members................................................................... ll Annual Banquet.............................................................................................. SI Subject Sessions- After Work Accidents............. ......................................................... 33 Agricultural Safety............................................................................. 41 Community Safety Organization.................................................. 51 Fire Prevention ................................................ 59 Health Service'in Industry............................................................... 71 Industrial Dusts .................................................................................... 85 Industrial Fumes, Gasesand Vapors........................................... 99 Industrial Safety Lectures................................................................109 Maintaining Interest in Safety..................... 141 Pressure Vessels ...................................................................................157 Safety Fundoment.il* ......................................................................... 173 Safety Inspectors ............................................................................... 183 Safety Training ................................................................................... 193 Safe Use of Acids.................................................................................. 201 Aeronautical Section .................................................................................... 211 A.S.3.E.--Engineering Section............................................................... 221 Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press Sections...........225 Cement and Quarry Sections......................................................................249 Chemical Section ................................................................................ 271 Construction Section.................................................................................... 285 Food Section..................................................................................................... 307 Industrial Nursing ........................... 323 Marine Section .............................................................................. 341 Meat Packing, Tanning and Leather Industries Section.........371 Metals Section ......................................................................................381 Mining Section................................................................................................. 401 Paper and Pulp Section................ ..............................................................429 Petroleum Section .........................................................................................489 Power Press Section........................................................................... 535 Public Utilities Section................................................................................ 537 Quarry Section................................................................................................. 557 Refrigeration Section .................................................................................. 559 Rubber Section ............................................................................................... 577 Safety Equipment Section............................................................ 581-- Steam Railroad Meeting........................................................... Textile Section ........................................ 587 601 Wood Products Section..........................................................................611 Index................................................................................................ 621 National Safety Council, Inc. HONORARY MEMBERS Association op Ikon and Steel Engine*** Robert W. Camfsrll Lew R. Palmer OFFICERS (T937-1938) D. D. Fennux, President c. W. Demfesy, Vice-president for Finance and Treasurer Hauy Guiucrt, Vice-President or Membership Frank H. Harrison, Vice-President for Industrial Safety Hon. Harold G. Hoffman, Vice-President, for Public Safety Walter S. Paine, Vice-President for Engineering A. V. Rohweder, Vice-President for Local Safety Councils A. W. Whitney, Vice-President for Education W. H. Cameron, Secretary and Managing Director EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (1937-1938) H. W. Anderson, General Motois Corporation J, I. Banash, Past President C W. BtacflUisT, Past President Henry W. Bocckks, Petroleum Section C. B. Boulet, ASSE-Engincering Section H. \V. Boulton, Automotive and Machine Shop Section Harold S. Buttenhkim, The American City Magazine W. H. Cameron, National Safety Council, Inc. Robert W. Caui>uii, Past President Robert I. Catlin, Aetna Casualty & Surety Company R. A. Chaffin, Metals Section Lewie A. DeBlois, Past President C- W. Dempsey, The Liquid Carbonic Corporation Marcus A. Dow, Past President D. D. Fennell. Consulting Engineer John B. Gibson. Western Electric Company Harry Guilbert, The Pullman Company Frank H. Harrison, International Harvester Company P. L. G. Hasskaki, Lehigh Valley Safety Council Hon. Harold G. Hoffman. Governor, State of New Jersey S. B. Horrell, Food Section Walter G. Ki.yc, Past President 4 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, Continued Wii. C- Knojojc, Milwaukee Safety Commission John E. Long, Past President Thos. H. MacDonald, U. S. Department of Agriculture Walter B. Martin, Peoria Association of Commerce Safety Council I. W. Millard, Industrial Gloves Company Harold L. Miner. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Prof. Roger L. Morrison, Street & Highway Traffic Section E. J. O'Brien, Jr., Louisville Safety Council Walter S. Paine, Aetna Life & Affiliated Cos. Lew R. Palmer, Past President C. E. Pettirone, Past President Al-BERT S. Regula, Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc. Lt. Col. Henry A. Keninger, Past President A. V. Rohweder, Dululh, Missabe & Iron Range Railway Co. George E. Sanford, General Electric Co. Charles B. Scott, Past President Gen. John H. Sherburne, Massachusetts Safety Council Judge Lee E. Skeel, Cleveland Safety Council C. W. Smith, Standard Oil Company (Ind.) Walter Dent Smith, Delaware Safely Council R. T. Solenstrn, Elliott Service Company C. P. Tolman, Past President Georg G. Traver. Greater Chicago Safety Council, Inc. Ds. C. H. Watson, Past President A. W. Whitney, National Conservation Bureau T. A. Wilson, Textile Section W. E. Worth, International Harvester Co. Arthur H. Young, Past President DIRECTORS (1937-1938) George J. Adams, Paper and Pulp Section H. W. Anderson, General Motors Cnrp. A. L. Armstrong, Kastman Kodak Company H. H. Bailey, Chattanooga Safety Council J. T. Banash, Consulting Engineer Carl Barker, St. Louis Safety Council G. J. Barrett, Mining Section Ernest W. Beck, United States Rubber Products, Inc. C. W. Bergquist, Western Electric Co. E. F. Blank, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. Henry W. Boggzss, Petroleum Section H. E. Bolt, South Bend Civic Safety Council 5 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, CooUnud C. B. Boulet, ASSE*Eginccring Section H. W. Boulton, Automotive & Machine Shop Section F. S. Brown, Standard Accident Insurance Co. W. A. Brown, Safety Department, Nashville Chamber of Commerce W. T. Buckerioge, Employees' Publication Section S. W. Bijeciuel, Safety Department; Automobile Club of Rhode Island Harold S. Buttenheim, The American City Magazine B. J. Callaghan, Contra Costa County Safety Council W. H. Cameron, National Safety Council, Inc. Ray Carnet, Kenosha Safety Council Roaert I. Catun. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. R. A. Chaffin, Metals Section Kenneth B. Cqluan, Seattle Traffic & Safety Council J. . Culuney, Bethlehem Steel Co. Lewis A. DeBlois, Consulting1 Engineer . Jay E. Decker, Mason City Safety Council C. \V. Dempesy, The Liquid Carbonic Corp. James B. Douglas, The Philadelphia Gas Works Co. Dr. Louis I. Dual.in, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. O. M, Edwards, Jr., Safety Dv., Syracuse Chamber of Commerce W. P. Elstun, Public Utilities Section D. O. Fennell, Consulting Engineer D. L, Fennell, Kansas City Safety Council Donald A. Finkbeinf.r, Toledo Safety Council Dr. Hart E. Fisher, Chicago Rapid Transit Co. Chester C. Fisk, Berkeley Traffic Safety Commission Howard B. Fonoa, Burroughs Wellcome & Co. (U.S.A.) Inc. Alexander Foster, Jr., Quarry Section John B. Gibson, Western Electric Co. Howard F. Gilbert, Elizabeth Safety Council Oreo M. Graves, The General Crushed Stone Co. W. A. GtUFriN, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Harry Guilbert, The Pullman Co. Isaiah Hale, The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fc Ry. Co. C. H. Harper, Refrigeration Section D. T. Harrington, U. S. Bureau of Mines Frank H. Harrison, International Harvester Co. P. L. G. Hasskarl, Lehigh Valley Safety Council It. C. HavjlN, Commercial Vehicle Section G. T. HellMUtH, Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee RR. Co. Chas. E. Him., New York Central Lines Hon. Harold G. Hovfman, Governor, Slate of New Jersey F. C. Hoi.in-x. Ik., Marine Section 6 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, Continual Everett Hokd, Madison County Safety Council S. R. HoRREW-, Food Section H. C. Howsam, Power Press Section Fred B. Hunt, Cement Section Major Norman A. limit. Columbus Safety Council R. D. Jewett, Springfield Safety Council Thomas P. Kearns, Industrial Commission of Ohio Thos. L. Kku.ey, Paterson Safety Council J. M. Kerrigan, Rubber Section Wm. C- Knoelk, Milwaukee Safety Commission Wu. S. Knudskn, Detroit Industrial Safety Council C. L. LaFountaine, Great Northern Kailw>ay Co. Millard C. Leeler, Child Education Section Barney Levy, Jr., Rochesler Safety Council A. Augustus Low, Brooklyn Safety Council Thos. H. MacDonald, U. 5. Department of Agriculture Walter B. Martin, Peoria Association of Commerce Safely Council F. W. Matson, Minnesota Safety Council R. A. McArthur, Transit Section Miller McCuntock. Harvard University l.W. Millard, Industrial Gloves Co. James K. Miller, Grand Rapids Safety Council Harold L. Miner, E. J. du Pont de Nemours & Co. R. B. Momley, Industrial Accident Prevention Assns. Prof. Roger L. Morkiso.v, Street Sr Highway Traffic Section Ernest Murphy, Albany Safety Council E. J. O'Brifn, Jr., Louisville Safety Council Geoc.ce C. A. Opp, The Detroit Edison Co. Walter S. Paine, Aetna Life & Affiliated Cos. Lew R. Palmer, The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U. S. David A. Patton, Newark Safety Council Mrs. G. M. Pklton, Evanston Safety Council Charles W. Pf.ndock, Safety Div. Milwaukee Association of Coin* mercc C. E. Pettidone, American Mutual Liability Insurance Co. Gen. George B. Ph.lsrury, United States Engineer Office Arthur Potterton, Hudson County Safety Council Albert S. Regula, Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc. Lx. Col. Henry A. Reningek, Lehigh Portland Cement Co. I3ESTOR Robinson, East bay Safety Council A. V. Rouweuek, Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Ry. Co. Walter Rosenbaum, Western- Pennsylvania Safety Council G. E. Sanford, General Electric Co. 7 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, Continu'd Henry G. Schakkner, Eric Safety Council Karl G. ScHOtrrLBR, Rahway Safely Council Harky A. Schultz, United States Steel Corp. H. E. Seely, Wood Products Section Earl S. Smartzek, Utica Safety Council Gen. John H. Sherburne, Massachusetts Safety Council Dr, L. A. Shoudy, Bethlehem Steel Co, Ernest I-, SiuoNOS, New Haven Safety Council A. E. SntcuiiR, Meat Packing, Tanning & Leather Industries Section Judge Lee E. Skeel, Cleveland Safety Council C. W. Smith, Standard Oil Company (Ind.) Edwin C. Smith, Blackstonc Valley Safety Council Walter Dent Smith, Delaware Safety Council \V. A. Snow', Construction Section R. T. Solensten, Elliott Service Co. E. C. Spring, Lansdale, Pa. George R. Stephens, Safety Bureau, Buffalo Chamber or Commerce John Stilwell, Greater New York Safety Council Arthur M. Tode, Consulting Marine Engineer Geokcc G. Traver, Greater Chicago Safety Council, Inc. Ma|or R.` D. Tumble, Richmond Safety Council Frank E. Vitz, Superior Safety Council Da. C. H. Watson, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Harry M, Webber, Wilmette, UL D*. David E. Weglzin, Baltimore Safety Council S. E. Whiting, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. A. W. Whitney, National Conservation Bureau Howard R. Whitney, Worcester Safety Council T. A. Wilson, Textile Section W. H. Wjnans, Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. F. B. Winslow, Safety Div., Birmingham Chamber of Commerce W. E. Worth, International Harvester Co. E. J. Zauft, Safety Bureau, Duluth Chamber of Commerce G. L. Zu'tcK, Sr. Joseph Safely Council 8 Council Purposes and Policies The conservation of Human life is the basic fers striking examples of the possibilities of purpose of the National Safety Council. accident reduction. The Council works toward this end through a continuous campaign of accident ReiulU of Organized Safety prevention that is nation-wide in scope, ap Since the National Safety Council was plies to all types of hazardous activity, and organized in 19(3, the national accident directly or indirectly reaches the entivc popu death rate in all fields except motor vehi lation. cle has been reduced 30 per cent. Because Recognizing that improvement of health conditions and the prevention of vocational diseases in industry are closely allied with accident prevention, the Council is also ac tive in these fields. The National Safety Council is a non profit, non-sectarian, non-political organiza tion. It has approximately 5,000 members, repre senting every slate in the Union and many of the Canadian provinces. There are about 400 foreign members. Included in the mem bership are industrial corporations, firms, individuals, public officials, schools, cham bers of commerce, clubs and civic organiza tions. About 70 per cent are industrial con cerns, including the large steel companies, the oil companies, most of the railroads In the United States, the automotive industry, and others of outstanding importance. the traffic field does not offer the possibilities of control that are found in the industrial field, the motor vehicle accident problem continues to be a serious one. White there was a slight decline in fatalities in 1932--the first decrease that Itad occurred since the advent of the automobile---increases have occurred in succeeding years, with an all time high in 1936. Bctter-than average results in motor vehi cle safety have been achieved among school children, in commercial vehicle fleets, in states with properly administered drivers' license laws, and in cities with an effective community safety organization. These casein indicate that the national problem can be solved by a careful study and application of the methods which have already produced results. The National Safety Council was started as an industrial safety organization. The Origin and Growth results of safely work in this field have often been phenomenal. The history of the Council begins with the first cooperative Safety Congress held under the auspices of the Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers in Mil waukee in 1912. As an aftermath of this Congress the National Safety Council was organised in New York in 191.1 with 14 members. During the first year the mem bership increased to 971. These safety pioneers based their pro gram on the assumption that accidents are unnecessary and avoidable. They began to develop the principles and the materials to make accident prevention possible. The continuous growth of the Council and expansion of its activities attest the sound For example, the steam railroad* have se duced the accident rate among employee* 74 per cent since 1923. A group of the largest steel industries has cut its accidents 90 per cent since 1913. It is not uncommon for an industrial establishment to complete an cn tire year without a single disabling injury among its employees. In the face of such reductions the psychol ogy of accidents is changing. Accidents are becoming out of date both from the view point of the employer and the employee. Tliey are being recognized as a reflection on the efficiency of the plant. Looking Ahead ness of these principles. Every field in which The universal character of the safety a coordinated program has been applied of problem makes it natural that the idea which 9 10 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress lias been fostered in the United States should read) into other countries of the world. Organizations similar in purpose and activity to the National Safety Council have been formed in many countries. Council post ers have been widely copied for foreign use. and several National Safety Council publications have been translated into other tongues. The National Safety Council is still young, but it has made amazing progress during its short lifetime. These achieve ments offer inspiration and incentive for continuing its humanitarian efforts. * * * Objectives The purposes and policies of the National Safety Council are not always understood by those who are not in close touch with the Council's work. As a concise presenta tion of the Council's objective*, the follow ing has been approved by the Executive Committee as an official statement of policy: "The National Safety Council's objective is the elimination of accidents to men, women and children, as being deplorable, unnecessary and wasteful. It seeks mem berships, cooperation and contacts fr> insure that its services may provide for instrumen talities and finances 10 accomplish tins ob jects f. "Through education it seeks to demon strate that the safe way is the right way and the best way, from the standpoint not only or human satisfaction but of social effi ciency and economy. It seeks those ways and means for safety that satisfactorily fit into the practical affairs of life. "Its financial policy' is to return in service all moneys received, so operating without profit, and to undertake only those activi ties which can be assured of reasonable permanence. Mud) of its administrative personnel consists of volunteer workers. "The National Safety Council holds itself open to give fullest and most cordial coop eration to all individuals, industries, or ganizations, communities, states and nations that are in accord with the principles and objectives of the organization, and the Na tional Safety Council likewise asks and seeks cooperation from all these in carrying out its purposes." Annual Meeting of Members MONDAY MORNING SESSION October 11, 1937 The Annual Meeting of Members of the National Safety Council at the Twentysixth National Safety Congress, assembling in Kansas City, Mo., was called to order by Dr. C. H. Watson, President, who pre sided. The invocation was delivered by the Rev. Walter H. North, Pastor, the Country Club Congregational Church of Kansas City. The secretary reported that a quorum of member* entitled to vote was present in person or by proxy, and (he formal roll call was dispensed with. The chairman then introduced D. L. Fen nell, President of the Kansas City Safety Council, who welcomed the delegates in behalf of the Kansas City Congress Com mittee. Address of Welcome for Kansas City Safety Council By D. L. FENNELL President, Kansas City Safety Council The Kansas City Safety Council in the Heart of America, welcomes you. This is a welcome in which every phase ot Kansas City's varied interests sincerely joins. Our schools, churches, women's organiza tions, civic clubs, fraternal societies--in fact, 1 feel 1 can speak for every citizen of this community--bid you welcome, because wc realize that the ideals of the National Safety' Council tend to make a happier life for all of us. The Kansas City Safety Council, in wel coming you this morning, is realizing a hope of which we have long dreamed, ami wishes to express appreciation to you for bringing your twenty-sixth Congress here, not because it is merely another large Convention, but because it presents a splendid opportunity lor Kansas City and this Mid-West area to learn from* the assembled delegates things that will make possible better safety records. Wc arc aware that the eyes, ears and minds of the entire nation arc focused upon this Congress in Kansas City, with prayers lor the success of its accident prevention pro gram. Otir Country wants this Congress to succeed in its purpose. Why? Because America today realizes, as never heforc, the terrible significance of its huge accident losses. Because America knows today, as it has never known before, lhai its homes and its dear ones are threatened with their very lives. This wonderful Safety Congress has the power, organization and unity to accomplish great things. The American people expect and have the right to expect that from this Congress will come a program adequate for their protection against death and tragedy by accidents. Kansas City, on the evening of October 0, completed a year in which wc had no fatali ties to children 15 years of age and under, from motor vehicle accidents. This is a record of which wc are extremely proud. The record as to motor vehicle fatalities to persons above this age is not such as wc desire, but our record for 1937 shows an improvement in this respect over the same period for 1936. With all public officials and civic organi zations cooperating with the Kansas City Safety Council, wc have made plans to the best of our ability to sec that your visit with us is an enjoyable one. H 12 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Following Mr. Fennell's address the of- tended to the delegates by Mayor Bryce B. ficial welcome for Kansas City was ex- Smith. Address of Welcome in Behalf of Kansas City By HON. BRYCE B. SMITH Mayor of Kansas City, Mo. For nearly eight years in my capacity as a city official I have extended this com munity's welcome to various anrl sundry conventions. Never before, however, have I ever offered our greeting to so important or so vital a group. Your goal, the reduction of America's staggering accident toll, reaches into every Itoine, every store, every office, every factory --it touches all of us in our daily lives. You who arc assembled here are the gen erals in the unceasing war on accidents, mobilized to devise new' and more effective tactics in the national campaign against a common enemy wlto last year caused a casu alty list of 111,000 killed and 10 million injured. fn your great, humanitarian undertaking you iiavc not only the best wishes and bless ings of this community, but of the entire nation, which has awakened to the stagger ing economic loss, the suffering and sorrows that are the results of needless and pre ventable accidents. Kansas City is proud to be host to the twenty-sixth congress of the National Safety Council. Wc of this community feel that in honoring us with this convention, you have given national recognition to our efforts to make Kansas City safe. And beyond a question of doubt, Kansas City is making a sincere and successful ef fort to be a safe community, and its citizens have become definitely safety-conscious. This result, I believe, is due to constant effort and close cooperation of our local safety council, Che Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations in preaching safety, and to the educational and enforce ment activities of our city administration. The city administration's part naturally is limited to the educational and enforce ment activities of its fire and police depart ments and the traffic division of the public .works department. We have made no effort to assume the duties and tasks that more readily may be fulfilled by the safety council and other civic organizations, but we have been ready at all times to cooperate. In our fire department we maintain an active fire prevention bureau, and frequent, checks of business, industrial and apartment districts are made in search of dangerous iiu^rds. Our active fire fighting force is trained in one of the finest drill and life saving schools in the United States, and is equipped with the most modern apparatus. Ill the police department an accident in vestigation squad is maintained with gratify ing results. A training school is conducted for traffic officers and first aid training is given to all officers. By the use of an inter district safety contest all uniformed officers have been brought into active traffic duty. Officers trained in public speaking give safety talks and show safety movies in the schools and to organizations. Enforcement of traffic laws is continuous, eliminating tiie necessity for sporadic "campaigns," and the most modern methods of enforcement, in cluding portable sliort wave radio sets for the checking of speed, are employed. Our traffic engineering division is directed by a competent traffic engineer. Surveys of traffic conditions are being made continually, based largely upon accident records; and traffic control signs, signals and markings are installed as indicated by facts learned from the survey*. More than 500 crosswalks are maintained for the protection of school children and raised concrete safety zones are being installed for the protection of street car patrons. And what have been the net results of (his concentrated campaign for safety? Per capita fire losses have been more than cut in half; traffic fatalities last year were 18^ lcr cent less than the average for the previ ous five years; and there has not been a rhikl traffic fatality in Kansas City tor more than a year. Such are the dividends of safety. May I extend to all of you the best wishes rtnnual Meeting of Members 13 of Kansas City and all its citizens for a we wish for you and your organization a pleasant and enjoyable visit with us. Wc full measure of success in your great and arc proud to have you as our guests, and 'noble undertaking. Unable to be present in person to wel come Congress delegates in the name of the state of Missouri, Governor Lloyd C. Stark was represented by Col. C. M. Casteel, Su- pcrintcmJent of the Missouri Slate High way Patrol. Col. Casteel read the address prepared hy Governor Stark for the oc casion. Address of Welcome for the State of Missouri By HON. LLOYD C. STARK Qovernor, State of Missouri It is a high honor and privilege to wel come the National Safety Congress and Ex position 10 the State of Missouri lor its 26th annual meeting. Safety--especially safety on the public highways and on the streets of our cities--is a subject in which wc arc all interested. Anything that can be done to educate the people to a closer observance of simple laws and rules for their own protec tion, and for the protection of others, is of vital importance. It has been said that the American people are the most wasteful people on earth. Wc have wasted our national resources until they arc sadly depleted, and in many parts of the country all but destroyed. It is charged that we waste our money, our time, and about everything else we have! And in no direction is this tendency toward national wastefulness more noticeable than in the appalling waste of human life which is taking place before our eyes every day. One has but to glance at the headlines in our daily newspapers to gain an idea how* many precious lives are lost and how many tens and hundreds of thousands of people are being crippled and maimed in the mad rush of haste and waste. And the pity is that so much of this slaughter and suffer ing--the greater part of it, I might say--Is absolutely unnecessary and uncalled for. Evidently and unquestionably, the time is ripe for a great nation-wide movement for greater safety--not only on the streets and highways, but in industry, in business; in our offices and in our homes. I am glad to see the National Safety Council and its affiliated organizations have taken hold of this question in a big, comprehensive way. The program of this Congress is itself a very comprehensive outline of your work, with general and sectional meetings devoted to almost every imaginable kind of action, and 1 am sure much good will result from your deliberations of the next four days. I am always happy to welcome visitors to Missouri. We believe wc have something to show them. Right here in Kansas City you have a fine example of what can be accom plished by an active, intelligently-directed Safety Council. You arc engaged in the serious business of saving human lives--of saving human suffering--of saving human sorrow and tragedy. What business can be more serious or important than that ? Your business has its economic side too, of course. For in saving human fives, suf fering and sorrow, you are, at the same time, saving millions and millions of dollars --for government, for industry, for indi viduals. Wc believe you have chosen wisely in selecting a meeting place, for 1 am proud to be able to report to you today that Mis souri is winning its war on accidents. There are many items in Missouri's pro gram of Safety to which wc can refer with pride. Our highways arc all designed for (he maximum degree of safety, and our Highway system is one which reflects credit upon the State of Missouri. Our State Highway Patrol, supervising the movement 14 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress of traffic upon these highway* is the pride of every citizen of this State, and, notwithstanding its limited personnel, its effective ness has been conclusively shown in so far as accident reduction is concerned. With pride we point to the fact that we, a western state, have finally taken the first step towards the adoption of a state-wide driver's license law. While this law will not permit us to eliminate from the highways those drivers who should be eliminated as a result of failing to pass the fitting examina tion. still it is so worded that wc will be able to take from our highways those indi viduals who, by their actions, prove that they are unfit to enjoy the privilege of driv ing a motor car. It is fitting that you should have selected, for your first Congress to be held west of the Mississippi River, the State of Missouri, because our forefathers, in the establish ment of this great commonwealth, selected as a motto to be written upon the great sea) of this State, a phrase which today is being recognized by every' state in the Union. The motto is, "The Welfare or Safety) of the People is the Supreme Law." I am told that this great Council started in industry and that only in the last few years has it launched into the field of public safety and home safety. In the field of home safety wc need special attention from the best experts in the safety field, when accident fatalities equal and sometimes ex ceed traffic fatalities. This record of acci dents in the home is one which we arc forced to face with considerable embar rassment. We are proud that Missouri furnishes to your national organization, one of the outstanding authorities on home safety, Miss Rosamond Losh, Director of the Children's Bureau of Kansas City. In the field of public safety there are seated on this platform, and there are in attendance at this meeting, experts who are recognized all over the world, as being the best authorities on all phases of high way safety. There are participating in this Congress representatives from the automo bile industry, wbo are bringing to you to day reports of improvements which they have made in motor vehicles, all tending to increase the safety to the occupant of the vehicle, as well as the safety to others upon the highway. As the executive of this state, as host to this Congress, I urge you all to carry on. The records indicate that you are starting to win in this great humanitarian battle for safety to life. I welcome you to our great State of Mis souri. I hope your stay will be pleasant and your sessions profitable, and that you may soon come this way again! In response Or. Watson expressed his National Safety Council. He then read his thanks and appreciation in behalf of the message to the Council. The President's Address By C. H. WATSON, M.D. President, National Safety Council; Medical Director, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., New York City It has indeed been a rare privilege to have served the National Safety Council as its president for the last two years. No one can occupy this post without appreciating the obligation and sensing its importance. Any contribution I may have made has been bal anced many times by the personal experi ences gained. These have made the holding of this office both profitable and delightful. Looking back over the years 1 have been associated with the safety movement, and taking stock of the benefits received, 1 (eel that none has been more important than the friendships established with those engaged in this great common cause. This applies not only to those who have been chosen to serve on your Executive Committee and in the Sectional Offices, but to all who are engaged Innuul Meeting of Members 15 in the field of accident prevention. May ], therefore, take this opportunity of express ing my appreciation to my fellow officers and to the membership of the National Safety Council and the Council's headquarters' staff tor their courtesy and consideration. No individual should be signalled out as deserv ing of special praise, but the loyal and de voted service of our thousands of members has given the safety movement a vitality and effectiveness which even economic stress has not been able to halt. It is proper, at this time, to express on behalf of the entire membership, our ap preciation to our Kansas City hosts. Here in the heart of America, we have found not only a welcome which is always extended to conventions, but a thoughtful understanding of the safety objectives and an appreciation of their social and economic values. Since I last addressed the membership of the National Safety Council assembled at the Annual Meeting in Atlantic City, twelve months ago, an eventful year has passed. It has been a year marked by certain enviable achievements and the laying down of an essentia! groundwork on which to build the safety structure of the future. It was in evitable that there should have been tome disappointments. The record of accidental deaths for 1936 and the projected estimates for 1937 of more than 100,000 of our citizens and the crippling of several hundreds of thousands of others can leave us little op portunity for self-congratulation. There has been a substantial increase in highway, home and occupational fatalities. However, there arc forces and agencies at work which will eventually improve this tragic situation. In this constantly changing modern world, we have yet to learn that the individual or the group which has freedom without disci pline will eventually have some control measures imposed from without, either for self-administration or for administration by others. This would seem to he inevitable as wc inspect the trend of our present accident experience. Self-administration Is always preferable, as self-intelligence then becomes the guide to personal performance. The most satisfac tory accomplishments in safety which have been recorded by so many industries have been the work of comparatively small disci plined groups. Discipline, it must be remem bered, should not be merely coercion, bat bespeaks reliance on intellect. It is true, an industry must have certain rule* together with penalties for violating them, but ( cannot believe that any outstand ing safety record was ever established on penalties alone. A point I wish to emphasize is that a group imbued with the importance ot an objective ran often achieve astonishing results. Such a group invariably has not only such essentials as safe work places and safe materials, but also the leadership and supervision which inspire men to extra effort. Transfer our attention for a moment to the field of public safety. We find the same principles of individuality involved but in a vastly more complicated and newer theater of operation. Rapidity of transport, from one place to another, has been an objective of mankind from the most ancient times dowu to today. For 250,000 years man, in the several areas of the earth where he sought to subject the environment and its contents to his advantage and wishes, has endeavored to get from place to place more and more speedily. The boat on swift water, the smooth surface runners gliding over ice or snow-covered hills, the wind-catching ex panse of sails all gave short periods of per haps excessive speed. But, it was not until the horse and certain other powerful fourfooted beasts were utilized that the greatest feats of transportation became possible. Then it was that the horse or horses and the vari ous vehicles devised prompted the possibili ties of other sources of power. For many centuries the races of mankind moved as speedily as possible, hither and yon, engaged in wars, business, recreation or simple transportation. The technique of the control of the horse and horse-drawn ve hicles became, with few exceptions, quite adequate. Occasionally, horses ran away, sometimes people were killed and maimed by them or by the vehicles which they drew, but nowhere in the historical records do we find much comment about the morbidity and the mortality. There were no governors' committees,, no department of commerce committees; and the police agencies were not greatly concerned. The desultory type of penalization for faulty* highway conduct tinder this form of transportation seemed adequate. So intrenched in our recreation, science and business has the horse become, that wc use and will continue to use the term "horsepower" as the name of the stand ard unit for measuring power. With the coming of the internal conihus- 16 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress lion engine, small units of energy *vcre possible, doubling and tripling transportation facilities. Wheels, tires, steering devices, brakes and the hundreds of other comple mentary attachments which have been so im portant in the high development of the present day motor car are stirring memorials to the ingenuity of the motor car manufac turer in meeting the public's demands for speed, safety and luxury. Within a scant 20 to 30 years, our now civilized nice of man, brought up for thousands of years to use quadruped transportation, has been obliged to care for and manage a new agency en dowed with many horsepower. The speediest horse of a generation ago registered less than a mile a minute, controlled in a large degree by the pulling of the reins and the tones of the driver's voice. This is quite different from transportation possible where control through the touch of the hand or foot on levers or steering gear governs a machine which can go 80 to 100 miles an hour and can keep the pace all day long. Human reaction time tuned to the biological equipments developed over a hundred thou sand years cannot be adequately adjusted to meet the situations which arise under condi tions imposed by the super-speed of today in the course of a 20 to 30 year interval We should, then, not be too pessimistic over the present deplorable record, but rather marvel that it is not worse. Every motorist is an individualist, some of extremely rugged varieties, others grossly unfit for physical, mental and temperamental reasons, and still others can be classified as the great group of normal every-day compe tent drivers. How individualistic all these forty million motorists may be is always going to be diffi cult to ascertain through any reasonable and economic plan for licensing. Many of these persons would not be allowed to operate a stationary engine, but are permitted, under very simple regulation, to drive motor ve hicles capable of speeds up to 100 miles an hour. By and large, most of the physical de fects would not be serious if the individuals were aware of them. Even more serious are the faulty mental and emotional attitudes. In other words, after a hundred thousand of years of relatively slow transportation, the ihotor vehicle has within a short period of time been thrust upon us and we have not been competent to meet the requirements of its safe operation. Engineering skill has developed these won derful machines and made them available at prices which make automotive transportation possible for practically every family. The motor car is here to stay, and it has affected our entire economic and social structure most profoundly. Viewing the situation as a whole, neither the highway systems nor the individuals who drive upon them are, as yet, equal to ilia safety demands which modem traffic imposes. Rebuilding the highways, the seiarating of groups of different classes of traffic and many other engineering improve ments are most desirable, but such projects involve many years and staggering sums of money. Furthermore, we cannot overlook the fact that a large number of persons do not have at all times the exacting natural qualifications needed to drive a motor car at speeds of more tluut 50 miles an hour on any road. Society, automatically, has provided a psy chological laboratory where the various types of accident prone people have been studied and classified. They may be tabulated as follows: 1. The person with a marked hostility to authority, (There is a vast number of us unconsciously included here.) 2. The exhibitionist with insatiable crav ing for admiration, attention and acclaim. 3. The day dreamer. 4. The persons with well developed de structive impulses, and there arc many such. 5. The great multitude of persons who suppose themselves to be normal, yet who on unpredictable occasions may take the cliaractcrestics of any of the previously mentioned four groups. At work these types are restrained to some extent by their working environment, by su pervision and by the influence of fellowworkers of more stable mentality and tem perament, but on the highway away from these control influences, they may perform very differently. Our efforts, therefore, should be directed toward preventive rather than punitive legislation. I can think of no better example of con structive legislation than the standard driv ers' license laws which have proved their value in many states and in the formulation of which the National Safety Council has played such an important part. Of course, no test yet devised can detect all potential accident makers. A relatively small propor- AumiaJ Meeting of Members 17 lion of them are so obviously unfit that thc^ may be eliminated at the start on the basis of certain minimum requirements. Others will demonstrate their unfitness by their driving, often before they become involved in serious accidents and under suitable administrative policing be refused the privilege of driving. It is quite possible that such a procedure i> more logical than the imposition of drastic penalties after the incompetent driver lias raused death and destruction on the highway. We are not, however, recommending any re laxation of the penalties for gross violations, but it is to be remembered that the indis criminate use of penalties will often defeat the purpose of legislation. We have learned too, that adult education has very decided limitations and while child education through the schools has given a good account of itself, it cannot do the entire job of preventing accidents. Teaching children to cross the streets correctly is of die utmost importance, but it should be only the beginning of safety training. The in clusion of motor vehicle operation in the high school training has many advantages, but should not be limited to the purely me chanical side. Students must also learn the morals and manners of traffic, and it may he possible that in time the class room will prove to be the place where potential dan gerous drivers are detected. Much of our propaganda has been based on '* appeal for greater courtesy. Too many people regard courtesy as something that can be smeared on like a cosmetic. Instead, it is usually an outward index of character. The road hog, the driver who weaves through heavy traffic, the chronic hom-blower and many oilier types would seem to have some character deficiency, some personality defect or aberration, the nature of which we are not able to predict in advance. As for the dan gerous types, it is debatable whether the intelligent boor is more of a menace at tlie wheel than the mild moron. Recently, appeals to fear have been used quite freely and we have read some appall ing word pictures as to the results of acci dents. The featuring of the fear motive must be limited in effectiveness, because if read often enough, it but serves to excite an un desirable morbid curiosity. It would seem, then, that our propaganda needs the cooperation of the psychologist and other specialists in the vagaries of human l>chavior. Personality, exaggerated, de pressed or normal, owes its contribution to performance, to certain agencies of control tlie most effective of which are the natural ones, but with our growing civilization and its increasing hazards, artificial regulation, education and licensing arc inevitable. However, not all of the influences which menace safety are within the individual. Our development, particularly within the present century has been lopsided. We have accom plished wonders in the control of natural forces, but humanity's ability to live and work cooperatively has not kept pace with inventive genius. Science has released a host of new materials and processes of tremen dous value to industry as well as iu the mere matter of living. We are constantly learn ing of their value and at the same time we find that many possess qualities dangerous to health and even to life. This means re search is necessary with respect to hazards as well as for the purpose of establishing proper methods of usage. I cannot agree with those who feel we should declare a holiday on scientific prog ress. Nobody can ignore the strides that have been made in advancing man's physical wel fare and the pressing need for still further progress. Changing customs and conditions demand it I, for one, would hesitate to trust the removal of my appendix to the best surgeon of 1880, nor would I care to have my mouth decorated with the dentistry of that period. Our progress in medicine and public health has been one of the brightest achieve ments of the past half-century. There arc many social, economic and industrial fields that cannot boast of anything comparable in the way of progress. Middle-aged people often recall, with pleasure, the static calm of their earlier years, or what appeared to be calm as viewed in retrospect. But, if we take the trouble to read contemporary literature, we find there has been no millennium at any period. Our economic and diplomatic ma chines have groped more or less continuously and broken down at intervals even before mechanized and formulated methods were the vogue in industry. Those who bewail the dangerousness of certain things in'this era forget that injustice and lack ol considera tion are not new. Not so many years ago neither the public conscience nor civic pride were much dis turbed over the high death rate due to typltoid. Many in this audience can remember 18 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress when certain industrial plants were apt))' described as slaughter-houses and butcher shops, ami neither the management nor the public were much concerned. Today, loose charges are frequently made against indus tries concerning the prevalence of accidents, in the great majority of eases, they represent but hearsay, poor judgment and even preju dice and ignorance. Undoubtedly, wc must continue to learn more about the new projects of the chemical age and interpret the recent advances in me chanics, pure physics and chemistry into forms of safety operation and production. It may be advisable, in thinking along these fines, to delay increases in motor vehicle horsepower until highways can be rebuilt to accommodate them and legislation and edu cation formulated to insure the conduct nec essary to handle them. Turning from the many phases of the accident problem to the internal affairs of the Council, wc find much that is encourag ing. Never has the prestige of the Council licen higher and never have the membership, the officers and the staff faced the problems of the day with a greater conviction of the need for organized safety work. The prob lems of the future arc not different from those of the past. The same energy and enthusiasm will bring about their solution. The material services of the Council which were greatly curtailed, during the earlier de pression years, have been growing steadily during the past two years. The National Safety Nr.tvs and Public Safety have increased in circulation, adver tising revenue and total number of pages. The Industrial Supervisor, the Safe Worker and the Safe Driver are being used in industry in increasing quantities as aids to plant and fleet safety programs. The statisti cal publication. Accident Facts, is finding an increased field of usefulness and las called forth favorable comments from all parts of the country. Continuous work is being done to keep our own technical literature up to date. During the past year numerous Safe Practice Pam phlets have been reviewed and Industrial Data Sheets giving brief and authoritative information on industrial hazards have been made available. Our safety posters, NewsLetters. Safety Instruction Cards and other service items have improved in quality and popularity. The continued moral and financial support of the Automotive Safety Foundation and of the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters has been of inestimable value in the promotion of child safety education in the schools and in the continued'expansion of our public safety activities. Tliis support has likewise enabled our field representatives to visit hundreds of communities in all the states, thus enabling them to develop com prehensive safety organizations and activi ties, and improve and obtain legislative en forcement of educational remedies for traffic accidents. Especially encouraging was the result of the 1937 legislative campaign, in which the Council .took a leading part working with public officers and many national and local organizations. As a result 13 new drivers* license law's were passed. Another note worthy achievement was our symposium for safety organizers and managers in which 50 state and community safety directors re ceived a 'week of intensive training. During the year several valuable pamphlets on com munity and traffic safety were published. The distribution of the Council's income through the various channels of accident prevention work is receiving the continued attention of your officers. In a cooperative association like the Council there are likely to be differences of opinion on the emphasis which should be given to the various divi sions of the accident prevention job. In our membership solicitation we have always made It clear that business and industry have a large stake in the prevention of public and home accidents as well as those accidents which take place in the industrial field. On the average, an employee spends not more than eight hours in the day on his em ployer's premises. For the 16 hours he is away from the work place, the idea of safety fostered by the plant safety program must be supplemented by other safety activities both governmental and community. It has been the policy of the Council to spend about one- third of its income in what is termed "general safety'." It has long been our hope that through philanthropy, memorial funds, foun dations or a general appeal to the public, adequate sums of money could be secured to meet the issues presented to us. Our na tional problem, after all, is not so different from that of the industrial safety man. We must have leaders and workers in every community. Tlic men we need and the Annual Meeting of Members 19 men who arc rendering outstanding services vehicle operation a part oi youth's are busy men. There are many others, lead education for modern living. ers in their communities, who wootd gladly 7. Psychological and physiological re serve if the opportunity were presented to ' them in its true public significance. search into accident causes and studies of the accident prone. In conclusion, let me summarize some of Safety is not independent, iti fact, there our major problems as I see them. are few conditions involving so many phases For industry: 1. Increased attention to simple and often neglected fundamentals of safe-housekeep ing, ventilation, mechanical safeguards, pro tective equipment. These have been repeated so often as to have become axio matic. No industrial plant Itas yet reached 100 per cent on these most elemental require ments. 2. Skilled medical supervision for all workers. 3. Continued research in the industrial ma terials, processes and methods of protection, by governmental as well as by private enter prise. 4. Job training and supervision to meet present day requirements. of our everyday lives. Only in recent years have we begun to realize its complexity. It embraces science in exactness from psy chology to mathematics. Safety will profit by any raise of the general standard of both morals and intelligence and the safety move ment in turn can help to raise these levels. It is our duty to be faithful to the truth and to scientific methods $o that our author ity is accepted everywhere. Publicity wc must have if we are to reach the public with the message, but we must avoid the methods that bespeak sensationalism. Progress is always fraught with danger. Progress in human society always means that something is being changed and that when we change something, we interfere more or less with the interests of others. If 5. Participation in community safety pro there are going to he any dianges in human grams and instruction in methods of meeting living, therefore, there must be taken into the hazards of home and highway as well as consideration the contributions which have those of the factory. been made to condoct, out of the distant as Turning toward the broader national as pects of the problem, the National Safety Council recommends: well as the recent past, and which liave been responsible probably for racial continuity. Safety perhaps is a state of mind. The 1. Cooperative effort of community and state organizations. 2. Promotion of laws which will remove a large percentage of the unfit from the highways. 3. Uniform fundamental traffic laws throughout the entire country. safe machine, safe materials and safe proc esses, after all, are but contributions to this thing we call safety. They are entirely static and without function, until the human ele ment is introduced. Safety, then, is a state of being. Patterns of conduct must be found, and this takes time. That is why progress in safety as well as in all other things is so 4. Firm and impartial enforcement of rea slow. . sonable traffic laws throughout the Nevertheless, universal safety is wet) entire country. within the reach of human endeavor. It is 5. Improvement of highway systems based purchasable as health may be purchasable. on traffic requirements and financial And, it may be attained through proper con considerations, realizing, however, that duct. It waits upon knowledge, but also upon engineering, alone, is not a curcall for some imagination and greater courage. accidents.' We have many, perhaps most of the pat 6. Extension of child safety education to terns of safety procedure available. Let us the high school with training in motor determine to pul them to the maximum use. The Executive Committee having ap pointed three inspectors of election, the chair appointed these men to act as tellers of the meeting. They were Rcyburn Hoffmann, George Travcr, and Walter D. Ladd. Since (lie minutes ot the last annual meeting of the Council had been printed and distributed, their formal reading was dispensed with. 20 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress Report of Nominating Committee The chair called for the report of the Nominating Committee, which was pre sented by C. B. fioufet, chairman of the Committee, as follows: "Complying with your instructions, wc, the Nominating Committee, appointed by you, with the approval of the Executive Committee, and as provided for in Sec tion 4, Article 7, of the By-Laws of the Council, and as further provided by Sec tion 5 of Article 7 of the By-Laws, present herewith the report of the nominations for directors to serve until the Annual Meet ing in 1940. "The names of the following directors, whose terras expire October 11, 1937, are submitted for re-election: W. H. Cameron. James B. Douglas, D. D. Fennell, Howard Q. Fonda, John B. Gibson, Otho M. Graves, \V. A. Griffin, Harry Guilbert, Isaiah Hale, Charles E. Hill, C. L. LaFountaine, Thomas H. MacDonald, R. B. Morley, Lew R. Palmer, A. V. Rohweder, G. E. Sanford, C- W. Smith, and W. E. Worth. "The names of the following are sub mitted for election as directors; C. W. Dempesy, Frank H. Harrison." No other ticket having been nominated, it was moved and seconded, in accordance with tlie by-laws, that the secretary be di rected to cast one ballot for the candidates named, for the terms for which they were nominated. The motion was carried. The secretary cast the ballot. The report of lte tellers showed that I81S votes Itad been cast for the nominees and none against. Titc chair man announced the formal election of the nominees. Report of Resolutions Committee Chairman Watson called for the report of the Resolutions Committee, and the fol lowing resolutions were presented by Past President John E. Long, chairman of the committee, and were approved by the dele gates: WHEREAS indications now are that more than 100,000 men, women and chil dren will be lolled accidentally in the United States in 1937 on highways, in the Homes, in industries and elsewhere; and WHEREAS this huge army of the in nocently killed is as great or even greater than last year's human toll of accidents; and WHEREAS increasing and continuing prosperity is bringing millions more men and women onto the highways and-into fac tories, thereby greatly increasing possibility of accidents of ail kinds; and WHEREAS this situation throws the National Safety Council face to face with the plain fact that its job is growing con tinuously greater; and .WHEREAS the Council's figures prove conclusively that in localities and states where energetic, intelligent safety meas ures have been applied conscientiously and continuously, definite results have been ob tained in reducing traffic, industrial and school accidents; therefore BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the National Safety Council, assembled at the National Safety Congress and Expo sition in Kansas City, Mo., October II, 1937, do hereby emphatically, unqualifiedly and militantly refuse to accept any sug gestion that any such toll 'in death and suffering is inevitable; and' BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we also refuse to accept increased popu lation or increased traffic or industrial ac tivity as justification for more accidents or more deaths or injuries; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that wc put this question squarely and without qualification to every state, dry, locality, factory, school, home and individual in this country: "Do you actually Tcwnf to reduce accidents?" And BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Safety Council enlist every person or organization that answers "yes" to that question and lead them into even more relentless and vigorous warfare on carelessness and accidents of all kinds through tlie following specific program: innual Meeting of Members 21 Public Safely 1. Take a fresh hitch in our belts on the Council's Five-Year Campaign to re duce accidents which was launched on a nation-wide basis January 1, 1936, defy the fact that the first two years of this plau have brought increases rather than decreases in accident fatalities, and wade in amt fight alt the harder to put this campaign across. 2. Work ceaselessly and fearlessly for better, up-to-date and uniform traffic laws and ordinances, especially stand ard drivers' license laws and stand ardization of signs and signals. 3. Fight for stricter, fairer and more in telligent enforcement of all traffic laws and personally support such en forcement at all limes. 4. Create efficient safety organizations in every state, city and community pos sible throughout the country- 5. Work for more and better traffic en gineering. with safer highways. 6. Demand regular inspection of all motor vehicles in properly equipped inspection stations, either operated or closely supervised by state or city. 7. Encourage, promote and actively work for intelligent safety instruction and training m all schools--elemen tary, high schools ami colleges--and make definite instruction in safe driv ing compulsory' for every high school student. 8- Probe still further thrungb statistical engineering and psychological re search into causes and possible means of prevention of highway accidents. 9. Encourage and help every practical measure to increase safety on land, water and in the air. as well as in rec reation and all public places. Industrial Safety 1. Encouraged by the definite gains al ready made, go still further into the causes of occupational accidents and diseases and their remcdMS. 2. Drive home the fact to every designer or builder of industrial and other ma chinery and equipment lint safety MUST l>c built into their products, else those products are unfit for use anywhere. 3. Step up our efforts to establish or ganized safety more securely in smaller plants, businesses and fleets, and at the same time continue vigorously our similar campaigns in the larger indus trial plants. flame Safely 1. Push a nation-wide and vigorous edu cational campaign to bring home to the housewives of the country titc dangers and tragedy of home acci dents, backing up th*s campaign with an intensive further study of the causes and remedies for home acci dents. 2. Mobilize every interested agency in this drive for greater safety in the home and thus approach (lie house wife and other members of the house hold from every possible safety angle. WHEREAS, This Twenty-sixth Con gress and Exposition of the National Safety Council convening in Kansas City, Missouri oo October 11-15, 1937, promises to be one of the largest and most notable couferences in the history of the Safety Movement, an achievement made possible not only by the enthusiastic welcome of the entire citizenship of Kansas City and ad jacent communities, but also primarily be cause of the forethought, careful planning and untiring cooperation of numerous civic organizations, trade bodies, technical and professional groups, prominent busi ness and social leaders and others through out this city, tlie State of Missouri and many neighboring States, together with the support of the press and of radio, all of whom have put into the elaborate prepa rations for this Congress a zeal and devo tion inspired by a true appreciation of the vital imtionancc of the Safety problem; and WHEREAS. The membership of the National Safety: Council, represented here by delegates from multitudes of communi ties in all parts of the United States, from f*Mih and from other countries of the world, is fully appreciative of the generous and tlxMightful contributions of the citizens of Kansas City and its associates, and rec ognizes the great value of these contri butions in furthering the Cause of Safety and in strengthening its protective inftu- 22 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress encc for all person*, both in our own coun try and in other nations, wherever there is this lofty ideal of conduct for the preser vation of human life; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED. That a standing Vote of Thanks be extended to the Honor able Lk>yd C. Stark, Governor of the State of Missouri; to the Honorable Bryce B. Smith, Mayor of Kansas City; to the Hon orable Henry F. McElroy, City Manager; to Joseph H. Porter, Sr., General Chair man of the Congress Sponsoring Commit tee of the Kansas City Safety Council, together with all the heads of sub-com mittees and members of this Sponsoring Committee; to D. L. Fennell, President, and to all other officers and members of tho Kansas City Safety Council; to Otto P. Higgins, Director of the Police Department of Kansas City, Missouri, and to all other directing heads and officials of Governmen tal Departments, the Courts and the var ious other units of the official life of this municipality where safety is a daily ideal; to Colonel B. M. Casteel and all members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol; to the Suicrmtendcnt of .Schools and other leaders of the educational forces of the community; to the Parent Teachers Asso ciation, the Women's dubs, the Civic and Fraternal and all other societies and to the Churches of the city ; to the Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, and to all other powerful industrial, transportation and business interests of the city; to the news papers, die magazines, the radio stations and other sources of publicity whose influ ence is incalculable in the Cause of Safety; and finally to the State Departments, Offi cials and others both of Missouri and of the neighboring States of Kansas, -Okla homa, Iowa, Arkansas, Nebraska and all this great western country; and to cadi of them this Vote of Thanks is accompanied with the deep and sincere appreciation of the leaders of the Safety Movement throughout America, who understand the vast volume of work and of intelligent planning that preparations for litis Con gress have necessitated, and particularly because by this culmination of their efforts the true facts about accidents aod the scientific methods for their control will be placed before the people of this city and State and of the whole nation, to which task this Congress of the National SafetyCouncil is dedicated. ** BE IT KESOLVED, That the sincere appreciation and thanks of the National Safety Council are due and arc hereby ex tended to all the volunteer officers and to the Executive Committee of this body, who have given so generously of their time, their resources and their energies during the past year to the end that the Safety Movement shall be advanced, and whose counsel and active efforts have had such exceeding value in furthering the service and the prestige of the Council. *** BE IT RESOLVED, That in recognition and deep appreciation of the long and dis tinguished services of Dr. Cassius H. Wat son as President of the National Safety Council, during which this body has made such notable progress both in membership, in active service and in vital influence very largely through his personal devotion to the Cause of Safety, now therefore we join in extending to him a rising Vote of Thanks and herewith offer him the heart felt good wishes of the entire membership of the National Safety Council. Chairman Watson then introduced Dr. Street Traffic Research, Harvard Univer Miller McChntock, Director, Bureau for sity, Cambridge, Mass. Safety Today and Tomorrow By MILLER McCLINTOCK Director, Bureau for Street Traffic Research, Harvard University This great safety congress is not the manifcslahon of a passing and casual phase of human existence. It is prompted by motives and instincts as basic as nature, itself, for it is said with truth that self-preservation is the first law of nature. But man, as an in- slnHual Meeting of Members 23 dividual is no higher, in this respect, than the lower beasts for they, too, are endowed with this same instinct. Man differs in that he has the intellectual capacity to band together for community ac tion against common dangers. Through all history there has been this unceasing warfare against the danger of the ferocious forest beasts, the danger of even more ferocious human enemies, of fire, famine and flood and those great and terrible powers of darkness. The race is old in its experience of self-preservation against the heat of the tropics and the numbing cold, the earthquake or the flaming forest or the deadly disease germ. By progressive knowl edge, man ha* been able to wring a partial compromise from his environment. He may exist in the depths of the sea or in the heights of the sky. Famines and plagues less often invade his security. Acts of God are more benign. But the battle has merely shifted to a new ground which has been chosen by man, himself. Herein lies the strategic advantage of the present safety defense. Increasingly, danger arises from man-made environment. Willi all of the age-old motives lor common action and with all of (he weapons pro vided by modern science, there is reason to hope that the time may come wlien man may live in peace with his surroundings. Let us. therefore, take new hope and redouble our energies. Too much of our safety efforts in the past have been based upon pious but vague hope and upon furious though futile energy. The present enemy to safety* is the product of our own scientific development and the in strumentalities for its defeat must be created in the laboratory. To know a problem is half to solve it so let us turn our minds to an evaluation of our task and, thus, add knowledge to hope and energy. Last year, more than 100,000 persons in the United States met a violent death through some form of accident--18,000 in their workshops, 38,500 in their homes--37,000 upon the public highways, and 20.000 in other public accidents. To many, these arc commonplace mortal ity figures, but to many millions still living they are the burning records of life-long tragedy. They mark the scope if not the depth of 9ur problem. The very existence >f these statistical records is of the great est significance for they nut only measure the problem but, more importantly, show that we have thought it worthwhile to meas ure which is the first step in a scientific, fac tual approach. Almost all of these accidental deaths were caused not by the powers of nature but by the ill-trained servants of mankind which we have not yet fully mastered. It is not where we are, however, that counts so much as where wc are going. What is the trend? In 1936 there was an increase of 11,000 accidental deaths over the preced ing year, an indication, perhaps, of our in creasing economic activity. There is a de crease in all classifications in 1937 save in those of occupational and highway deaths. It is in this latter classification of high way deaths that one finds much that typifies all of the current accident problem. It is al most exclusively a product of our rapidly changing mechanical life. It has discounted the contributions of an otlienvisc good and faithful servant. It differs from other haz ards in its inexorable quality. To a degree, one may avoid hazardous employment or rec reation; lie may use special caution m the protection of his home. But he must go forth daily to face all of the hazards of the public way. No active citizen can live a normal life without being a part of traffic and, cautious as lie may be, lie has little control over the actions of others. The problem, therefore, is not only universal but it is for community rather than for individ ual solution, with each citizen making his full contribution to the common protection. There hAve been highway deaths through all the ages resulting from pedestrians being run over by wagons, by runaway horses or similar mishaps. The problem In its pres ent form has become critical only in the last generation. It has arisen with such speed that there are inevitable maladjustments. In the first place, there was the change in veloc ity. Normal average speed of travel has been Increased at least four-fold in the last 40 years. Protective reactions to the slow movements of a horse-drawn age arc en tirely inadequate for a motorized age. Splitsecond decision places greater demands upon attention and accuracy and greater penalties upon poor judgment. It is a great tribute to man's flexibility' for environmental adjust ment that he has succeeded as well as he has. This change, however, is only a small part of 24 twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the story. The real explanation of the traf fic accident problem lies in the term ''expo sure." In 1890 there were no automobiles, no automobile mileage and, therefore, no auto mobile deaths. The American people did travel, but in a very limited manner Com modities and the major persona) movements were by rail. Each year since the introduc tion of automobiles an increasing proportion of the nation's burdens lias been carried over streets and highways. More and more of the total man-hours of the American people have been spent upon the highways. Today they own 28,000,000 motor vehicles, 40,000,000 citi zens are regular automobile operators. Each year they pile up the almost unbelievable to tal of 500 billion automobile passenger miles. The time of the nation has been increas ingly withdrawn from other recreational and business pursuits out onto the highways. One cannot imagine 40.000,000 people en gaged in any pursuit, no matter how inno cent and comparatively safe, for so many hours each day. without the inevitability of a larger number of accidental deaths each year. This is not said to depreciate in any man lier the seriousness of the highway accident problem. Any unnecessary or preventable injury or death from any cause is a challenge to the community wlioie first duty it is to protect its citizens. Nor docs it matter that the motor car has so affected the character of American life that it has undoubtedly con tributed to a more healthful outdoor exist ence, to longevity and to the actual saving of lives through the more expeditious handling of emergencies. Those who love automotive transportation and have devoted their lives to its advancement and the great majority of the citizens of the country who have so widely adopted it, will never be satisfied un til it has been freed from all unnecessary hazard and inefficiency. The goal of highway safety can he reached only by organized community action using all of the tools of our modern civilization. The expression "organized community ac tion" should be taken with the utmost se riousness. Otherwise, failure is certain. Herein lies the real significance of the Na tional Safety Council and this National Safety Congress. So today \vc may view the public safety problem w'ith greater hope for tomorrow than ever before, for never before has the country bceu so well organized for effective action. One of the most significant steps ever taken in this field was the organization in June, this year, of the Automotive Safety Foundation under the leadership of Paul G. Hoffman. This organization places the full and potent influence of the great automobile industry in all of its parts behind the public safety movement. This great civic leadership of the automo bile industry is fortunately typical of the growing interest in public safety winch is being manifested by other industries less directly concerned with the details of high way safety. Industrial executives are be coming increasingly appreciative of the fact that their efforts to protect their employees must extend beyond the factory walls. In many industries there are from two to six times as many injuries to employees outside of the plant as there are within. Organized national efforts such as have been made pos sible through (he expanded program of The National Safety Council will inevitably have a deep effect in arousing a more intelligent attitude toward the entire safety problem. It must be recognized, however, that na tional activities may provide only the leader ship and the inspiration--as it were, the mu nitions. The actual fighting must be done by the citizens of each community. This they can and will do as has been proved so many times and with such great success, when they realize that they are participating in a civic activity that is of the highest humanitarian as welt as economic significance. With recognition of the problem, with an aroused public opinion and with effective organization the machinery for success is ready to work. What is it to do? How many great crusades have vanished in vague though sincere exclamations such as 'The situation is serious. Something must be done about it!" Here may be as good a place as any to examine tiie personal equation in our prob lem. Anyone would be quick to agree that if all street users were perfect we would have no traffic safety problem. But this is exactly like saying that if all human nature were perfect most of our human ills would disappear. For many years we have been laboring under the delusion that highway accidents are caused by a very small group of citizens; a small group characterized by physical infirmities, moronic intelligence, and vicious anti-socUl attitudes. This con- . humat Meeting of Mcnifwji 25 elusion has been heightened by the fact that not more than about one-tenth of one per cent of our 40,000,000 drivers are involved in fatal accidents in any one year. If it could be assumed that this same small group goes on year after year causing the trouble the problem would be simple. They would be quickly identified by their own acts as the "carriers of accident virus" The cur able would be redeemed by educational or punitive processes and the incurable would be classified as hopeless and ruled off the high ways. Vigorous actioo in any ooc year would thus give an alnou complete solution. Put in this way one realizes that the assump tion of a small band of malefactors is an impossible one. No proper perspective of the problem can be had unless it Is recoftized that everyone of the 130.000.000 citizens of the United Slates is an acodem-prone person, and that every active citizen is exposed. Each of the 40^000^000 drivers of auto mobiles is in daily and almost constant po tential conflict with each of the other 40,000,000 drivers and. what is more important with the 80,000,000 pedestrians who must make daily use of the streets and highways. One cannot read accident statistics year after year without recognizing that the problem is not limited to a small growp bat is uni versal in its impficatsoos. The escape of any individual is conditioned more upon good fortune than upon any special degree of skill or any particular righteousness of at titude. This conclusion as enforced by a study of the records and personalities of those who are involved in accidents cither the unfor tunate victim or in many cases the almost equally unfortunate survivor. One finds in these records the occasional face of the de generate, die brutal act of the reckless, the flagrant disregard of the rights of others, or the sordid tale of drunkenness. But, on the other hand, one cannot but be startled by the fact that those who make the great total of our street and highway victims are honest, normal law-abiding citizens going about their daily business with the exercise of rea sonable caution. Equally true, it is apparent that the great majority of those who are held blameworthy in traffic accidents can scarcely be classified as of the criminal class. Most of them are ordinary, average citizens, who have driven automobiles for many years without trouble and to whom the idea of injuring a fellow human being would be entirely repugnant. Even though their fatal act may have in volved some technical violation of the law, this violation is of the bead rather than of the heart, and. m most instances, the worst that can be charged it an exercise of bad judgment rather dan a fixed intent to jeop ardize themselves or anyone the. If thoc conclusions be tnu and each year more fully substantiates them, than the tout public safety situation iqpeart in a different light. If "Drive the fool* free* the highway" be a sound and hnwesf dopa. then to a consid erable degree all of the UQjBMUSOO citizens of the United Soto muse stand indicted. Furthermore, the aeesdmC pi ullua becomes a highly personal protkn for every single individual No one may feel snort and aloof from a relation to it h law i in normal re spects he is a decent lam abiding person. Let nothing: said here create the taupmston that there should be any less vigor m the strong and firm poaiihmem of tbo*c com paratively few who have proved vicious tendencies, but let us not be deluded into believing that they form an important part of our problem. The principal difficulty in the drafting of automotive law, in the education of the pub lic and in the enforcement of preventive measures is that the rules and regulations cannot he of a character involving specific question of moral right and w*rong. A defi nite commandment, "Thou shalt not kill within the public way,** would be concurred in by everyone as a sound moral principtc, but it would have no effect whatsoever upon the accident rate this year or next. The great majority of the acts which would lead to a violation of these injunctions would in themselves create no sense of moral turpi tude either on the part of the viotater or anyone who might observe him unless they led directly to tragedy. He who lifts his hand against his brother, or who steals his brother's wallet is con scious of a wrong doing, yet, despite this restraining conscience and legal penalties, the courts are full of such offenders each day. But he who drives with brakes a little less than good, or he whose tights arc a little too blinding, or he who drives a few miles an hour faster than may be safe, or he who day dreams a little, has not even the warning hand of conscience to restrain hint for lie is conscious of no wrong doing. 26 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Furthermore, except in the case oi a flagrant violation under the eyes of an offi cer, and not always then, lie is responsible to no man. He is a free citizen going about his lawful business upon the "King's High way.** He is no school child to be directed on his way home, and in most instances he is answerable to no employer should his acts involve him in difficulty. In short we have not developed a set of good manners for our public streets and highways, controls of personal action with out which almost any other phase of social relations would be intolerably diflkult. Safe and sound community habits and customs develop naturally by trial and error processes over many generations. Many of ihcm become self-enforcing through social sanctions and others become embodied in the liasic law of the race as witness the body of common law of the English speaking peoples. Hut in a rapidly changing mechanical world \vc have no time to wait for such slow processes. We must act more Quickly. Where shall we turn for speedy adjustment? Hus not industry taught US the method? Wliai has made it possible for the highly efficient and comparatively safe manufactur ing processes of the present day to supplant older methods in scarcely more than a gen eration? Indeed, one may ask what has made it possible for an integral part of our problem, the automobile itself to be trans formed from a rickety, converted buggy into the highly refined and inherently safe vehicle of the present day. These changes iu prac tices and customs aud resulting products have been brought about by the applica tion of wliat may be called the scientific ap proach, that is, through research the appli cation of every ounce of available technical knowledge. This is the same type of approach that has brought aboot the degree of public health which wc enjoy at the present lime, which has entirely eliminated age-old scourges and promises to give humanity future surcease from such burdens as cancer and tuberculo sis. Without the laboratory and the resultant preventive and remedial practices small pox, yellow fever, bubonic plague and typhoid fever would still stalk the land. Are these human ills more mysterious or complex than our public accident problem? The answer is obviously no, and thus there is every rca- scat to believe that it may fall before a similar attack. Perhaps we have come to a turning point in our war on public accidenU. Perhaps the time for solemn conferences, organization and the preparation of war cries is over. It is time to spy out the enemy's forces and his strength and to go to work. The simple but astounding fact is that wc have very little factual knowledge about the causal elements iti puhlic safety. Some of the dements of our ignorance will illustrate the point. Many people still assume the steering gear failures are the principal me chanical fault contributing to fatal accidents, yet this element is practically inconsequen tial. Wc talk boldly about speed as a cause of accidents but not a single competent study has ever been made of this element. There is no adequate knowledge of the 80- callcd repeater class of drivers, yet much of the philosophy of safety activity has been predicated upon assumptions in this field. Present statistical information though giving a broad knowledge of the scope of the problem gives no clear evaluation of causal elements in such a manner as to per mit direct aud specific remedial action. Each of the forty-eight States and the District of Columbia afford perfect laboratories for al most limitless scientific research, yet little or tin use is made of the facilities. These statements should not he taken as criticisms of past or current practices. Al ready the program of the National Safety' Council is indicating the trend, and the ac tivities of the United States Bureau of Pub lic Roads show an enlarged recognition that broader and more accurate factual knowl edge is required. Education, Enforcement and Engineering must remain the principal channels of attack, but now' one asks more insistently than ever licforc, "What shall wc teach?" "How shall we enforce?" "What shall we build?" With the fullest possible tribute to those who liave labored so diligently in these fields they must be filled with a certain sense of futility and impotcncy. It is time to bring out the heavy artillery. But at hest the siege is going to be a long one. We shall not achieve the objective tomorrow nor even the next day. but man*s victory over his en vironment has always been a slow aud pa tience-trying struggle. .'Ittmtal Meeting of Members 27 Following Dr. McCJuttock's address Xichoson, Manager of Personnel, The Chairman Watsco introduced A. A. Texas Company. New York City. Industry Casts a New Safety Die By A. A. NICHOSON Manager of Personnel, The Texas Company, New York City The story of the National Safety Council is a fascinating story of hope, adventure, and romance in undertaking to bnikl up an empire of human happiness through the complete understanding and the intelligent application of ever-changing environs related to America^ life. In addition to coating here and sharing in the fellowship of its personnel and in the fruits of its labor, we cone to pay iiomage and tribute to this great international insti tution of safety service, which has been made possible largely through the whole-hearted and unselfish attitude of industrial and social leaders, and through their translation of the basic law of safety, which b the golden rule. Starting without background ur experience, and in a field beset by factors of resistance too numerous to mention, we find that the National Safety Council |bi grown into a service institution wfaoae separation from modern living would closely approach the impossible. This growth and development. *u great as to surpass the understanding of even many wlx> have been close to Council affairs, breed ing its many angles of operation and its mani fold complexities of administration, places It in the category of "Big Business," but its fundamental purpose and applied philosophy must catalogue it as the biggest business in the world, because of its importance to human life. This is the organization which gave to America and to the world the sound incentive for continuing life, unbroken and unmarred by accidents, and it has gone even further in that it has supplied, to a large extent, the necessary media through which this objective might be reached. It lias been my pleasure and privilege to observe the development of the National Safety Counci) during practically its entire career, and 1 believe it has effected as fine aud as far-flung a selling job as the modem world has ever produced. In every organiza tion. large or small, there is always projected a shadow by some one individual, and as the shadow moves so moves tlic organization. In the National Safety Council this shadow, iu my opiuion, lias been largely its managing director, William H. Cameron, who, I think, should be accredited with being otte of Amer ica's most successful salesmen. He has sold to America and to the world a philosophy of living that will not be equaled through the centuries to come. Imbued with a faith matched only by his courage, through years of painstaking effort, detailed explanation, primary education, and contagious persua sion, Mr. Cameron has brought into fruition the high ideals and lofty aspirations of managerial industry. It was quite natural, some two dccadc.s ago when industrial America began to get into it* longer stride, that the initial physical mani festations of the safety movement should have been reflected in the shadows of belching smokestacks. This, however, marked.the be ginning of a new concept of safety which occupied the 1440 minutes of every day around the face of the clock and which influenced every phase and angle of life. It was quite natural that the need for prac tical safety and its consistent application followed the products that came from the' factories and tiiat were concerned with light ening the efforts of men and women, offering and opening new vistas of opportunity and recreation in the annihilation of distance ami in the bringing of far places with the mere touch of a button. Today the mental happiness and the material well-being of human beings in our country are influenced by a safety which begins in die maternity ward of a hospital and remains ever with them until they have been lowered into the grave. Its import, therefore, is be yond the understanding and appreciation of the human mind, for the road of life is ob viously lined with peculiar contours of expe rience and a galaxy of colorful adventure. 28 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Because of the pre-eminent importance of industrial safety and the fact that in the future, as in the past, much of this type of safety in modified form wilt be adopted for home, high way, and other phases of human life, it be comes imperative that the die which will stamp industrial workers "safe" as well as "efficient" be recast. Despite the discourage ments of the last few years and the wails of many who have reached the end of the indus trial trail, l prophesy that industry will move o<i through fields of romance and adventure and to greater objectives than site has ever dreamed of attaining before. Let me take you back through the years to the crude manufacture of paint in southern France, and then on the magic carpet let me whisk you along the American highways and wlicre busy factories employing more than twenty-seven thousand workers compete with the colors of the rainbow, in order that Amer ican homes and American lives may be made more colorful. Is this the end of the road? Go with the archaeologists back to Egypt a thousand years ago. where the first crude images were cast in iron, and then step with me into the beautiful valleys of America* where countless stacks emit flames from including furnaces that are melting and mold ing steel to build the bridges that span our rivers and make possible the highway for the iron horse--myriad stacks in the shadows of which labor more than half a million men engaged in this ever-growing empire of steel; and behind the men are more than three mil lion women and children whose earthly happi ness and material well-being depend upon keeping those smoke-stacks hot. Is this the end of the road? Go back with me to a beautiful Chinese garden, four thousand years ago. when Si Ling Shi, the child bride of the third ruler of China, discovered the possibilities of creat ing beautiful fabrics from the silk-worm, and then span those forty centuries and follow the trail of textiles in America, from the coasts of New England to the cotton fields of the South, where millions of spindles never cease their whirring fabrication of commercial growth. Is this the end of the road? Go back to the primitive jungles of Central America and trace the childish pastime of the inhabitants to the great rubber industry that has become so important to our social and business life--then stand by the side of any road and watch motorized America whir past on its wheels of rubber, and ask yourself ii this is the end of the road. Go as far back as the building of Noah's ark, which was caulked with bituminous sub stances taken from the shores of the Red Sea. and Ucn take a perspective of the gigantic oil industry from the Appalachian Valley to the shores of California, pouring forth its count less products which arc so vital to the unin terrupted march of our industrial develop ment. Is this the end of the road ? Listen through the past centuries to the prophet Nahum decreeing that chariots shall be made of iron and wilt travel close to one another, as brilliant as the sun and with the speed of light, and then visit the great auto mobile centers of America turning out the millions of beautiful and useful vehicles for rapid and pleasurable transportation, and ever, get into one of those cars and see if, in the course of your life, you can ride over the beautiful highways of America which arc more than a million miles in length and which have been built at a cost of more Ilian $33,000 a mile--and see if you can find the end of the road. Let's go out in that shower with Ben Frankliii in 1752, when he drew lightning from the skies by means of a kite and confined it in a Leyden jar, and then close your eyes and think how many buttons you can push and Ik>w much can be accomplished through this hidden child in the universe which lias been so ably harnessed through tlie desire of men to contribute to better conditions of living. Is this the end of the road ? Go back with me to that autumn day in 1830 just outside of Baltimore, when Peter Cooper made an attempt to beat a horse with a tiny Tom Thumb locomotive, and lost; and then, wlien you leave the congress to return to your Iwmes, pause for a moment, as you are being whirred across the country at a terrific speed on wheeled luxury rivalled only by tl>c most magnificent hotels in the country, and determine if this Is the end of the road. These comparative pictures may hi a meas ure help to answer the question as to whether industry is stopping its march of development, or whether the accomplishments of the past are only an incentive to continue to greater things of tlie future. And so I reiterate that largely out of neces sity, and through the tremendous acceleration of mechanical life in America, coupled with a God-given desire to help others, safety was . tnnmal Meeting of Members 29 born in the realms of mechanics: and saiety will continue its primary dcvtlr.pwni and expansion in this industrial empire. TWwgh tlie munificent attitude of management, winch recognised its responsibility for the physical well-being of the work force and realised that greater production was a natural corollary *4 contented minds and proper attitudes, coupled with the legislative experts from the industrial centers, who designed compensation taws in favor of mure equitable relationships between industry and its workers, the safety movement has gradually assumed tremend*Ki propor tions. It lias been instrumental in bringing about harmonious relationships, representing today the most common ground in the whole realm of the industrial empire upon which men. regardless of their rank, vocation, or profes sion, may stand. And so it becomes quite natural that these forty-odd million workers, tost in the jungles of technocracy and bewil dered by the chants and waits of the dema gogues who sit in their high places, should be more impressed with the natural, inherent desire for security than ever before in the history of man. Safety is a vital and integral part of that thing \vc call "security." It contributes to tlie security of being able to carry on at the bench or the forge, which makes possible the deliv ery of the paycheck; it affords physical security, which always reflects itself in a greater sense of human happiness; it affords greater continuity of employment, by adding to the economic possibilities of the organiza tion of which the worker is a part; and assures him the opportunity of ever increasing his efficiency and productivity. Likewise, the modern safety program, which in truth is a translation of the ancient golden rule, lias opened up to management new vistas of fer tility' in creating a sound and helpful attitude on the part of employees, an attitude devoid of any dominating or salving, and which is com pletely free from a spirit of paternalism. Modem industrial safety present* to both men and management a sound economic plat form in the unending campaign for more effi cient production, and makes jiossible the estab lishment of a new kind of philosophy between thutfc who guide and those who perform. And so we shall find that industrial safety, emanating from the simple mold of a quarter of a century ago. will he cast into a new die which will stamp out better men who, in turn, will be able to build better business--men who are endowed with a strong sense of profes sional and vocational responsibility, coupled with a new sense of moral responsibility ; men who will come to appreciate more and more that cooperation in safety U to be taken out of tlie category of sentiment and placed on a sound, practical, economic basis; men win* will bring the smoke-stacks of the organiza tion closer to the kitchen door of those who dwell therein; men who will be accorded the opportunity of continuing, with affection, to take care of their mothers; men who will be able to restrain young and happy wives from crossing the threshold of premature widow hood ; and men whose children will be better fed, dotlied, educated, and accorded oppor tunities greater than their fatlicrs ever pos sessed in industry. All of these conditions will be brought about by a well-conceived, practical safety program that will sweep aside tlie seemingly impossible and, on the clearing which emerges, erect newer factories and newer industries manned by belter people. This twenty-sixth congress will tell another cliapter in simple yet forceful language with the hope of projecting dearly those primary principles and above all else of exposing its genuine human ideals and aspirations. Be cause of the intangible thing we call a soul, which in the final analysis makes us human, there will continue the consistent application of the common-sense fundamentals of safety, designed to conform to shifting conditions. Regarding the trophies to be presented later to individual winners in the various sectional safety contests conducted by the National Safety Council, Chairman Wat-; son said: *`I consider it in keeping with this auspi cious occasion to pay tribute publicly to the hundreds of member plants and millions of employees w)k> participated in the sec tional safety contests. "One hundred and twenty-five bronze plaques and 90 certificates of merit will be officially awarded this week during sec tional sessions to the group winners and 30 Txoenty-sixtk National Safety Congress rutmcrs-up in the Chemical, Fleet, IntcrCouncil, Marine, Metals. Paper and Pulp, Petroleum, Public Utilities, and Rubber Section Contests. "A display of the bronze plaques can be seen on the mezzanine floor of the Exhibi tion Hall. These trophies stand as mute evidence of the sincerity with which indus try as a whole endeavors to conserve hu man life and limb. "Even though each individual contestant cannot be mentioned specifically at this time, it is my pleasure and privilege, on behalf of the National Safety Council, and its Executive Committee, to extend con gratulation and appreciation not only to the winners but also to all other compet ing units who are helping to improve the injury experience in their respective clas sifications." ADJOURNMENT Annual Banquet WEDNESDAY EVENING SESSION October 13, 1937 The annual banquet for National Safety Council delegates and guests was held in the main arena of the Municipal Auditorium with Dr. C. H. Watson, President, National Safety Council, presiding. The results of the election of officers of the Council for 1937-1938 were announced. The list is as follows: National Safety Council Officers 1937-1938 President--D. D. Fennell, Consulting Engineer, Chicago, 111. Vice-President for Membership--Harry Guilbert, Director, Bureau of Safety and Com pensation, The Pullman Co., Chicago, III. Vice-President for Industrial Safety--Frank H. Harrison, Assistant Works Manager, International Harvester Co., Chicago. 111. Vice-President for Public Safety--Hon. Harold G. Hoffman, Governor of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J. Vice-President for EnyiWerwip--Walter S. Paine, Manager, Engineering and Inspection Dept., Aetna Life and Affiliated Companies, Hartford, Conn. Vice-President for Safety Councils--A. V. Rohweder, Superintendent of Safety and Wel fare, Duluth, Missabc and Iron Range Railway Co., Duluth, Minn. Vice-President for Education--A. W. Whitney, Consulting Director, National Conserva tion Bureau, New York City. Vice-President for Finance and Treasurer--C. W. Dlmpesy, Secretary aud Comptroller, The Liquid Carbonic Corp., Chicago, 111. Secretary aud Manaffiny Director--\\:. H. Cameron, National Safety Council, Inc., Chi cago, IK. Among congratulatory letters and tele grams received and read at the banquet were the following: "Please extend my hearty congratulations and warmest greetings to the National Safety Congress of the National Safety Council. "I heartily commend the fine purpose which is drawing so many thousands of out standing men and women to Kansas City-- the militant, relentless battle to save human lives from needless slaughter and reduce suffering. "Wc must not falter in our determination to end this unnecessary sacrifice of human life. My earnest wish is that your organiza tion will grow and prosper and become ever more successful in its fight for safety. "Franklin D. Roosevelt, "President of the United States." "Greetings and all good wishes to National Safety Congress of National Safety Council from almost 10,000 members included in our association. "R. B. Morley, General Manager, "Industrial Accident Prevention Associations of Canada" 31 32 'J'u'CHty-si.vlh N ational Safety Congress "Remembering with great pleasure your very interesting Congress in Atlantic City' and regretting the impossibility to attend this year, I send on behalf of the Safety Service of the International Labor Office and in my own name best wishes for full success of your Twenty-Sixth Congress. "David Vaagc, "International Labor Office, Geneva, Switzerland." Governor Harold G. Hoffman, of New Jersey, served as toastmaster. Dr. Miller McClmtock, chairman of the Motion Picture Traffic Safety Committee, announced that the committee's trophy for the best theatrical film of the year carrying a forceful message of traffic safety had been awarded to "The Devil Is Driving," pro* duced by Columbia Pictures, Inc. Carl Shalit, of Detroit, divisional manager for the film studio, accepted the David S. Beyer memorial trophy for the film company. The address of the evening was made by Dr. James S. Thomas, president, Chrysler Institute of Engineering, Detroit, Mich- , The concluding address was made by the Honorable Walter A. Huxman, governor. State of Kansas. Following the addresses a program of en tertainment was presented. ADJOURNMENT After Work Accidents THURSDAY MORNING SESSION October 14, 1937 The ?e>.'ion was called to order by Chair man John B. Gibson, Publicity Director, 1 huthomc Works. Western Electric Co., Chicago, and Vice-President for Community Safety Councils, National Safety Council, who introduced the speakers. Getting Facts and Keeping Records on After Work Accidents By A. G. BlINGENSTOCK Director of Health and Safety, Western Electric Co., Kearny, N. J. Production losses due to injuries outside the plant ran be divided into two classes: 1. Injuries occurring to individuals whose daily output can be definitely measured. Z. Where the daily output of an indi vidual cannot he definitely measured. There are two factors which enter into the question ot the effect of accidents out side the plant on production 1. Production is affected in direct pro portion to the number of days lost. 2. Tlie incapacity of the employee after returning to work, as follows: a. Loss of skill due directly to the injury sustained. b. Loss of skill and rhythm due to in activity during the period of incapacity. c. Additional costs due tn time spent by supervisors in making out reports, loss of time and production by fellow work ers, necessity for replacing the injured employee by one less skilled perhaps, with a corresponding decrease in out put. Obviously, if we could keep our people on the job every' day with a minimum of time off. due either to accidents or sickness, we would save money, but there are several things that hamper such a program. First, every employee grants the right of industry to insist that he work safely while on the job; but when we suggest that this safety be carried over after he leaves the plant, cries of paternalism result, and many of our employees think that wc are interfering with their civil rights and liberties. Until industry can dispel these delusions, success in a plan of this sort cannot be achieved. But. if ottr employees can he sold to the idea that mutual benefits will result from a program of this sort, the battle is half won. This selling job should be along the same lines as lliat employed in selling safety in the plant, stressing in particular, the mone tary loss and the privations to which the family is likely to be subjected due to such a reduction in income. If care is exercised this question of paternalism can be forever squelched. Having established this mutual confidence, industry's next job is to deter mine a plan of action and that plan should be similar in many respects to the one now in use for the employees while at work. Having determined that you are going to attack this problem of after work accidents the first thing to do Is to supply yourself with ammunition, which in this case t represented by facts. The following are some of tlie things that you have to know if you are going to determine how this particular problem can be solved. 34 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress First, individual case records must be kept on which the following information should be recorded: t. Name of Employee. 2. Country of Birth, or if American Born, Extraction. (Statistics have shown that cer tain racial types have more accidents than others.) 3. Department Number. (You will need this information to make a comparison be tween accidents at work and those occurring away from work. Is there a relationship between numbers of accidents and types?) 4. Home Address. (Is the geographical location in which the employee lives condu cive to accidents? The type of home also may have a direct bearing on the number of accidents.) 3. Sex. (The increase in the number of women entering the field of sports has re sulted in an increase in accidents.) 6. Occupation. (Docs the person who is employed on a highly repetitive job during the day seek an escape after work by in dulging in a greater number of outside activities than one who is glad to relax tvhen he reaches home?) 7. Date of Birth. (What part doers age play in accidents?) 8. Marital Status. (Insurance records in dicate that married people live longer than single ones.) 9. Length of Service. (Which group of people is haring the most outside accidents; the employees whose length of service is relatively short or the longer service em ployee ?) 10. Kate of Fay. (What ii the ratio of hourly rated to salary rated employees in your plant, and is there a relationship be tween this and the accidents which the two groups are having? The rate of pay of the employee will determine to a large extent the type of recreation in which he will in dulge.) 11. Place or Accident. (Where arc the majority of your accidents happening? If m the home, where in the home and what can you do about them? It on the street or on the highway, what sort of educational campaign can you conduct to reduce them?) 12. Time and Date of Acddcnt. (Of the two-thirds of the day which employees spend away from work, at what hours do most of the accidents occur? Is there a seasonal fluctuation, and if so, can you give any reason for it?) 13. Cause of the Accident. (Here we reach the crux of the whole situation. Arc you getting true causes and not quasi-true? How soon after the accidents occur do you liavc an opportunity to personally interview the employee, or do you depend upon a written report? Does the employee's super visor visit him to discuss the cause of the accident and the steps taken to avoid a repetition? Be sure to differentiate for the employee the difference between the cause and the responsibility for an accident. Have them analyze the situation and point out to you where the preventive measures should have been taken so that the chances of a recurring accident of the same type will be minimized.) 14. Was Employee Hospitalized? (This may not always be necessary, but certainly you want to see that proper medical atten tion if given so that the period of inactivity is reduced to a minimum.) 15. Nature of Injury. (What part of the body was affected by the injury? A study of (he injuries received may influence the type of work the individual will do when he returns to work, and may even result in a transfer to a different type of work, due to his inability to adequately perform his old job.) 16. Did Permanent Disability Result from Accident? (In the case of a skilled em ployee, the nature of the permanent disa bility' may influence his output for the rest of his life.) 17. Did Injured Report Accident Immedi ately? (If a successful campaign lias been waged in the plant against the late reporting of injuries, then you should experience little difficulty in having your outside injuries re ported at once. The dangers from nonreporting arc obvious, namely, a high percentage of infection thus prolonging the term of inactivity.) 18. Reason for Not Reporting Immedi ately. (Here is a chance to do a two-fold job. If the employee is sold on reporting after work accidents immediately then cer tainly this should have a carry over when he returns to work, and you should experi ence no difficulty in having him report hie at work accidents as soon as they occur.) 19. Dale Reluming to Work. (This is doubly important in the case of a prolonged After Work Accidents 35 absence. Psychologists tell us that when an individual returns to work after a pro longed absence, our first job is to make sure that the initial job which the injured employee is given is a success. If the first job is a failure, we are told that there is built up in the mind of the employee an inferiority complex and this will very defi nitely hinder his progress on future jobs.) 20. Plant Injury Record for Past Two Years. (Is there a relationship between the accidents which an individual incurs at home and the ones which happen at the plant? Reams of literature have been written on the subject "The Accident Prone Employee." There is usually an underlying cause, either mental or physical in italuie, which puls these individuals in this unfortunate cate gory.) You may think that all of the foregoing involves too much work, but if reliable re sults arc to be obtained these records are necessary. From this wealth of information you can easily determine the comparison be tween company and non-company accidents in the following terms: 1. The number of cases occurring during any fiscal year. 2. If you have a benefit plan, then you will want to know the amount of money paid out to these individuals while absent due to accidents. 3. The number of calendar days they were away from work. 4. The amount of benefits paid per mil lion hours of exposure. 5. Days lost per million hours of exposure. u The ratio of your non-company cases to company cases. 7. The ratio per thousand employees. Then witli these records you will be able to prove whether or not your rate is high enough to justify the expense involved in a campaign to reduce these after work ac cidents. Suppose that your statistics reveal that your non-company rate is from two to five times your company rate (this is the average for a number of firms which have been contacted and represents records dat ing back at least five years.) In assembling this data your records will not be for comparative purposes of u great deal of value, until two or three years of experience have been recorded, but from then on they will become increasingly valua ble and should be kept in as permanent a form as possible. From this valuable data which you have compiled your next step is to analyze all of your after work accidents in order to deter mine the primary cause. This is necessary so that all of your energy can be directed at the focal points so that maximum results wilt be attained for a minimum of effort expended. I can almost predict the three primary causes into which the majority of your accidents wilt fall. My prediction would be that the three main classifications will be; automobiles, falls, and athletic injuries, in that particular order. The gathering of all of these facts docs not require a trained investigator, nor docs the interpretation of them require that your staff include a statistician. But if you have in your organization an individual who is first of all really sold on this subject of safety and is by ^nature sympathetic he can be trusted to interview these people and with a little experience can soon gather and interpret all of the data that you will need. What a Plant Can Do to Prevent After Work Accidents By M. A. KOFFMAN Secretary-Treasurer, Southwestern Portland Cement Company, Los Angeles, Calif. Safety' problems, insofar as industry is concerned, by and large, have been solved. Only 16 per cent of the number killed last year resulted from occupational accidents. This record is a tribute to the combined efforts of employee and management, who hand in hand have successfully fought care lessness and who hand in hand have created better and safe working conditions. Yes, I know, you think that when a man is on the job. he is under the direct super vision of management, and because of this. 36 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress llie problem does not assume the complex nature as does the problem of preventing after work accidents. Then, again, you may be thinking, that a person trained in occu pational safety is Safety conscious before or after work. Well, if you do think so, you are. I believe, twice mistaken, because in the first place the large majority of all of us arc creatures of habit. This being true, it necessarily follows, some habits are good, some not so good, and some just plain bad. Chief among the good habits, is the Safety habit, and one of the worst among the bad, Unsafe habits. So when management went in to make a plant a better and safe place in which to work, by means of well guarded machinery, stairways with handrails in place of ladders, supplying safely goggles, and well equipped first-aid stations, they did something--one of the biggest things ever devised--making better and safer plants in which to work. 13ut they did not stop accidents until the bad unsafe habits were changed into good, safe ones. And how was this accomplished? Not by control, not by fhreals, not by innumerable rules, nor by regimentation It was accom plished through cooperation, salesmanship and understanding--understanding of right and wrong; discussion of problems, bulle tins, contests and whatnot. It became nec essary to invoke disciplinary measures, even to the point of dispensing with the services of a chronic unsafe actor now and then, the same as sufferers from infectious diseases are quarantined or isolated for the safety of others. Now it is strange that a most excellent safe worker when on the job loses sight of his job safety habit when he leaves the plant. I came to know a very excellent fel low*. whose life was wrapped up m making the plant a sate place for his fellow em ployees to work in, and he did a good job --but lo and behold--he bragged one day about driving a high speed car to cover a two and one-half hour trip in one hour and forty minutes, with a top speed of over eighty miles an hour! He risked his life, the lives of those in the car with him, and of unknown humans traveling the same highway. Why? Because he had not him self learned that Safety is a twenty-four hour job. I had the pleasure of hearing Judge LeRoy Dawson of Los Angeles present his well known, "Take your Time or 1 will." He hears traffic violation cases and has an op portunity to reflect upon this very important problem. He related the case of a school teacher who was stopped by a motor officer. She snapped, "What are you stopping me for?" "You drove through that stop signal," replied the officer. "There isn't any stop signal there/* she retorted. "I have driven this thoroughfare for 10 years and I know." "Well**--said the officer--"let's go back and look/' And there it was big as life, not ouly a signal with a Stop and Go flag, but lights and bells too. This same teacher, at work, was Safety conscious, but had not learned that Safety is a 24-hour job. The housewife cleans a pair of gloves with gasoline. Static ignites the receptacle of liquid, and she is badly burned, marked for life. And just before the accident, she had accompanied her child to school to sec that the kiddie safely reached her destina tion. -A victim of not having the 24-hour safety habit. The problems involved are not dissimilar to those industry meets and solves in plant accident prevention, except that these prob lems involve the employee and his family before and after work. Dubious are you ? Well, don't be. It can be done--it should be done--and this is how I believe it can be accomplished: Management should initiate the plan or program because employees look to man agement for leadership. Management, 1 take it, is interested in the welfare and success of their employees before work, when at work and after work. Why before work and after work, when not subject to super vision? Well, why Group Life, Accident and Health and Old Age pension plans ? Why Loan and Legal advice plans? Why vacations with pay. and other plans, all of which have to do with before or after work, at least to the extent of sixteen hours out of twenty-four or, putting it another way, for two-thirds of an employee's time, management has sought to be helpful in the success and happiness of their lives, before and after work. How should management initiate a plan? I am not going to give you a fixed method-- because conditions vary in practically every case, and in different plants in as many different locations. Methods must be adopted to suit the individual problems en countered. In the second place, the obser- After Work Accidents 37 various made, assume that a plant has a reasonably successful Safety program in operation to prevent during work, or occu pational accidents. So 1 shall not draft a "cut and dried" program, but will give you jome observations based on experience : Any plan roust not be overdone. It should be simple, bat effective. It must find its way into the employees' homes. Routine or rule of thumb conhods will fail because as time -or-, on. interest will lag. Some iew years ago I discussed Safe i >rivi^t with a group of interested men in uoe of or plant*. Today, a large majority of ibe employees are members of a well >rxaskucd "Safe Drivers' Club," in a city of a hundred tboosand. These men are *crioo* aboot this undertaking and their t'amahr* are abo much interested. Round table rfi rumkri of definite traffic problems, actisr rotere and participation in Motor Vehicle Laws and Regulations are a few of the inpetua cobfects, among many others, in which tbit fine organization is interesting itxlf. The assistant sales manager was re cently elected president of this dub, suc ceeding the very efficient past president, the t hief power plant engineer. Iu>t a< ! am preparing this paper, I am in receipt of a letter from the president of this Club, mho says : "At the present time, we are trying to extrod Safety to the family, as well as to the individual members of the club. "\V are sending you Traffic Problem No. 1. This is being answered, and the answers Mill he opened at our next meeting. The Idue print of the problem was taken to the rlnel of the comm highway patrol and he answered the problem and scaled the en velope. Ilis answer will not be opened until our meeting and we will then see how many members have answered this problem cor rectly." A liule over a year ago Jack Dempster talked to a group of some two hundred school children, ranging from fourteen to nineteen year* of age. He spoke lo them on a number of home and highway safety problems. Did he hold their interest? Were they impressed? You should have heard the thunderous applause at the conclusion of his remarks! The fire department in a community where an industrial plant is located was given au thority to inspect homes for fire hazards. Is this being effective in presenting ways to eliminate fire hazards, thereby prevent ing accidents causing fires, with attendant loss of life, injuries and property damage? Of course it is proving effective. The management of a middle western plant decided the monthly safety bulletin was becoming too much of a fixed routine printing press matter. He produced some thing new in the way of a smartly litho graphed pictorial bulletin showing the kid dies and a motor vehicle, together with the attendant hazards. Did it go over big? Did it find its way into the employees' homes? Did the employees' families discuss ami en joy it? I'll say so! Attractive safety calendars arc effective. Why? Well, ask The National Safety Council why they continue to produce them? Demand for them--that's why. Women's clubs afford a fine means to sell the after work safety idea. Payroll check* present an effective medium. Yes, you are right--men don't keep payroll checks; they deposit or cash them. But they should be provided with a stub showing deductions, particularly those representing unemployment and old age pension. The stubs can be inscribed with a different home or highway safety message each payday, or even a small safety pit line; a new one cadi payday--for example, n mother puttiug matches safely away out of the child's reach, and a simple title---"Protect children from fire." Anil so we can make Innumerable obser vations for discussion. Careful planning, diversified methods based on good adver tising psychology, will produce results for twenty-four hours a day. Sell the idea in the same way you try to sell your products, and follow through--and I am sure you will be pleased with the outcome. Don't expect marvelous returns immediately; it takes time, horse sense and patience; and don't forget the follow through. Yes, I know, management cannot force employees and families to observe afterwork safe practices. Who wants to? All of us, I think, would like to prevent accidents, and management, having done Its part in a fair, intelligent and sincere manner, cannot be expected to do more, so it naturally fol lows that the rest of the problem must be concluded by the employee and his family in co-operation with management. But why and how? In the first place. I 38 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress think you will agree with me, that there are iesv men and women who do not believe in the law of self-preservation or who will not fight for their loved ones. This being true, (hen the employee's part in the battle to prevent after woik accidents is to interest his wife and children in the work. His wife's job is to help him, and I am going to make this observation'. Once a woman is sold the Safety idea, she will prove as good as her mate; in fact a better saicty enthusiast Why? Well, a woman's under standing, growing out of intuition, as a rule is much keener than a man, plus the mother instinct of sheltering and protecting the off* spring, makes her an excellent subject to help carry out her part of the work. So the woman must discuss safety problems with her husband, and both help train the kiddies. They must observe home safety byfollowing, yes, even suggesting accident prevention by offering means of eliminating hazards. Well, mere words accompli.-h nothing-- so Mister Employee and family here arc some observations for you to think about in order that you may accomplish your part in the prevention of before and after work ac cidents : Subjects and suggestions presented by the management or included in their program, should be discussed once each week. If you think the idea a good one, act on it; if you don't think the idea a good one, tell the boss and tell him why. Teach your children that Safety is as im portant as play. Crippled or dead children C^il't play. Take an interest and when possible a part, in community effort to make the community a better and safe place in which to live. When you drive a car, remember there are others driving the same highway, and that your dear ones may be riding in the car you are driving. Observe moderation in all things. Make up your mind the job of preventing after work accidents can be done--then do it, and follow through. Highway Safety in Industry By RALPH L. LEE Public Relations, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich. Industrial accidents have been reduced o ;t point where it is said that workmen, as a group, are now safer at work than they arc in their own homes or on the streets. It is perfectly natural, therefore, that those who have been so successful in reducing the number of accidental deaths and injuries within our plants should be much concerned over the increasing number of workmen killed and injured outside our plants on the streets and highways. Recognizing this situation, the Detroit Industrial Safety Council, several years ago. apitointed a committee to study the prob lem. Our committee decided to confine our efforts to stimulate among the employees of our members a desire to improve their driving skill and care. In other words, wc decided to avoid finger pointing and blam ing the other fellow for our present high way accident situation, and to concentrate the attention of our employees upon the safety measures each employee could do something about, personally and immedi ately. We concluded that if we could get each individual employee to take pride in his record of accident-free driving and walk ing, and as a member of an industrial or ganization, take pride in the highway safetyrecord of that organization, we would do more for the safety movement in Detroit than we possibly could hy meddling in the affairs of our city officials charged with traffic control and accident prevention. In view of the fact that over 80 per cent of all industrial workmen in Detroit were employed by members of the Detroit In dustrial Safety Council, it dawned upon us that we not only had a splendid opportunity of serving the members of our safety coun cil and its employees, but we also had the most powerful means of tackling Detroit's growing highway accident problem. Looking back over our experience in in dustrial safety, wc knew the effectiveness After Work Accidents 39 ot safety contests, so we decided to organ ize a highway safety contest between the industrial plants of our membership. The coutet was to be based upon reported acci dents. At first we were inclined to include traffic violations with reported accidents, but the further we got into the matter the more impracticable it seemed to be, so we decided upon reported accidents only. The difficulty of getting accident records from the police department at first seemed insurmountable, but wc explained our ob jectives to the police and also the fact that wc did not aim to meddle in tlrcir affairs, but hoped to help them with their safety' educational problem. They were enthusi astic over our plans and went out of their way to cooperate--in fact, they changed thetr accident record cards in order to fa cilitate the work ot the council, and put on die necessary help to handle the additional work our program caused them. Wc knew from our experience with in dustrial safety contests, that the mere an nouncement of a contest, its rules, conditions and prizes, was not enough to gain the in terest and support of individual workmen --promotional activities had to be carried on if the contest was to succeed. Since employers have no legitimate right to control the activities of their employees after working hours, wc decided that our whole safety promotional program had to he free from even the slightest taint of paternalism. We felt that since Detroit is ihc home of the motor car its industrial workmen were likely to fee) that they un derstood automobiles and knew how to drive them, and would not receive the ele mentary safety precautions, cautions, ad monitions, and corrections which burden so much of our safety propaganda today. So we decided to approach our employees as though they knew how to drive, knew some thing ot the hazards of the road, intended to do right and were willing to adopt prac tical suggestions which would help them improve their driving skill and increase tltcir safety. We wanted the nature of our program to l>c positive instead of negative, to be con ducive of efforts to improve, and above all to stimulate pride in safe driving as a sjtorismantikc accomplishment. Recognizing that the average industrial workman had been driving quite skillfull.' and -atch for many vears, and as a result felt no great need for improvement, diivcrs such as these would not be inclined to spend much of their time and thought on the study of highway accident prevention. Sr* we chose several basic themes for our program and decided to concentrate upon them, one at a time, for periods of at least three months each. 1. The fallacy and the danger of attempt ing to save any appreciable amount of time through reckless and illegal driving. We understood from our police officers that most of the accidents occurring in the city were either directly or indirectly trace able to speeds out of keeping with condi tions. Therefore, if wc could prove to our contestants by facts and demonstrations that it was physically impossible to save enough time while driving through the congested traffic of our streets to justify taking even the slightest risk, we would be getting at the underlying cause of mohl of our acci dents and prove the need for most of our traffic ordinances. We staged what wc thought a spectacular demonstration of this principle. Through the cooperation of the fire department, a fire truck drove three miles down Wood ward Avenue from Grand Boulevard to the City Hall, through city traffic jusr as though going to a fire. The truck drove through nine red lights and disregarded most of the traffic ordinances. This racing trip took 7 minutes and 34 seconds, clocked un a stop watch by an official observer. Later a safety car without any right of way drove the same route, but the safety car took the.time to stop at all red lights, show others courtesy, give proper hand sig nals, and obey atl traffic laws. This safety run was also clocked on a slop watch, and was found to take 8 minutes and 23 seconds. The fire truck saved only 49 seconds and proved conclusively that it svas impossible to save enough time by reckless driving lo justify taking even the slightest chance. The lessons to be drawn from this test were many, and a project was started which will later develop into teat runs over the most popular routes connecting our indus trial plants with the residential section*. It is our hope that before we get through map-* will be provided for our industrial em ployees indicating the best routes for men to use from home to work and work to home, and the safe driving lime for each. 2. The second basic principle wc decided 40 Txuenty-sixtk National Safety Congress to advertise was the part inertia plays in starting, stopping, and turning a car, and the fact that this impersonal natural law is the foundation underlying all of our traffic ordinances. We felt that if we were able, through stopping, starting, and turning tests, to demonstratc the impersonal nature of the physi cal laws which control all driving, we would remove the feeling many drivers have that many of our traffic rules and regula tions were poorly conceived and designed by fanatics to interfere with personal liberty, and to prevent people from going where they want to go in a reasonable time. 3- The third and most difficult subject was pedestrian conduct. Difficult, because we knew that most pedestrians gee into trouble as a result of doing the things they already knew were wrong, taking dances they lad been taking for years without getting killed. We felt, however, that if we could bring out the relatively slow speed at which even the most agile person can walk or run as compared with that of the slowest speeds at which motor cars do run, we might vis ualize the helplessness of a pedestrian who carelessly places himself in the path of an oncoming car and the helplessness of a driver to avoid such a pedestrian. Here again we felt that if wc could refrain from the usual hackneyed preachments, we might cause our people to appreciate the chances they were taking. The committee's plans were accepted and approved by the Detroit Industrial Safety Council, and the members of the Council, with few exceptions, accepted these plans and put them into effect. The contest has run a year. A large por tion of this time was taken in setting up the machinery and getting it into operaion. In view of the fact that we have nothing in the past by which to judge the success <>( our efforts, and the short time the con test has been in operation, it is difficult for us to prove statistically the effectiveness of the activity. However, I am sure that the Council, its members, and the people of Detroit feci that the effort is well worth while, and will as time goes on help ma terially in. the reduction of highway acci dents in Detroit. I will not relate the details of the pro gram, as the National Safety Council has produced an attractive pamphlet on the sub ject including both the Detroit program and one similar now' being carried out in South Bend, Indiana. In addition to this data I am sure the Detroit Industrial Safety Council, and the South Bend Safety Coun cil, will be glad to furnish data and materials. .IDJOUHMM/iNT Agricultural Safety FRIDAY MORNING SESSION October 15. 1937 The session was called to order by Dr. David J. Price, Principal Engiueer in Charge, Chemical Engineering Research Div., Rurcau of Chemistry and Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Dr. Price spoke briery on the subject under discussion and introduced the speak ers. Urgent Need for Program on Agricultural Accident Prevention By DAVID J. PRICE Principal Engineer in Charge, Chemical Engineering Research Division, Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Large losses of life and property result from fires in the rural sections of the United States. The Farm Fire Protection Commit tee of the National Fire Protection Associa tion states that at least 3,500 lives are lost each year as the result of fires on American (arm*--about ten every day. The annual property loss from these farm fires lias been estimated at approximately $100,000,000. This means a so-called "fire tax" of about $16 on every' farm in the United States. When we add the annual loss of about $125,000,000 for fires in the rural towns (2,500 population and under, non-farm ter ritory) wc have the enormous total of ap proximately $225,000,000 as the annual bill tor our farm and rural community fire loss. This fire loss in the agricultural sections of the United States in 1V30 was over 70 per cent of the entire national fire loss. Agricultural Accident Deaths Although farm and home accidents out number all other accidents, they have not, up to the present time, received the atten tion given to construction, manufacturing, and similar lines of accident prevention. For instance, the American Ked Cross reports that more persons arc accidentally killed* while at work in agricultural pursuits than in any other occupation. During 1936, fatal work accidents in agriculture numbered 4,500, compared with only 2,300 in manufac turing and 2,800 in construction activities In general classification of all occupations by the U. S. Census Bureau, the relative number of persons engaged in farming is sec ond in numerical order. The annual accident death-rale per 100,000 workers for the total of all occupations, including agriculture, is 32.8; but for agriculture alone the accident death-rate is 42 per 100,000 workers. This exceeds by 9 accidental deaths the total ac cident death-rate for all occupations. Farm Accidents in Kansas The State of Kansas has been outstand ing in giving direct attention to the farm accident problem. A seven-year study (19301936) of fatal farm accidents in that State showed that 50 per cent of all the industrial deaths occurred in agriculture. The accident death rate was 50 out of every 100,000 en gaged in that occupation. Over 6 per cent of all accidental deaths in the State aixwe out of farm work. According to Kansas Health Department reports for the period 1930-1936, the causes A2 Tivcuty-sixth National Safely Congress of the fatal work accidents on die farm dur ing those years can he clarified as follows . Per Cent Hazard Machinery Animals Excessive Heat Deaths 20 20 12 Vehicular Falls Lightning 8 9 5 Ollier Causes 17 Total 100 There arc several ease* on record of loss of liie caused by suffocation of persons en tering farm silos. A recent accident of this type occurred on a Maryland farm in Sep tember, 1936, when a mother and nmctcenvcar ohl daughter lost their lives in attempt ing to rescue a nine-year old child who had Ikcii overcome by the gases present in a pit .'ilo. The loss of these three lives attracted wide attention to this type of farm accident. A study of silo gas accidents shows that m the gases present there is u depletion of oxygen and an increase of carbon dioxide due to the active fermentation of the corn ensilage. The oxygen content is usually very loiv with a very high percentage oi carbon dioxide. The greatest danger ctimes when Urge quantities of carbon dioxide gas are gen erated during the fermentation that always takes place during the storage of fresh ma terial for ensiling. Because of the presence of this suffocating gas, care should be ex ercised on entering silos during the storage period. Tins lermctitRiiort process, which begins immediately, may continue for sev eral days. The increase in carbon dioxide, together with the actual lowering of the oxygen content of the air, often results in a mixture of gases that will not support life, and persons entering the sifo are in danger of suffocation. The Chemical Engineering Research Division of the Bureau of Chem istry and Soils has available published rec ommendations and procedure for the prevention ol silo gas accidents which can bC secured upon request. Safety for Rural Schools The tragic disaster last March in which three hundred children and teachers were killed in the Texas schoolhouse explosion lias definitely emphasized the need for safety in the construction and operation of rural school buildings. The modern consolidated rural school is rapidly replacing the little red country schoolhouse. The New London tragedy has shown that provision must be made for compulsory building and fire in spection of schools in rural areas to aflord the same protection as in the urban centers. The Department of Agriculture, at the request of Governor James V. Allred, co operated with Texas State officials in the investigation oi this disaster, which created nation-wide interest. The final report of the investigation together with recommenda tions /or the prevention of explosions of this character in schoolhousts and public buildings has been published as U. S. Sen ate Document 56. Copies can be secured from the Chemical Engineering Research Division of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, Department of Agriculture, Washing ton, D. C., as long ns the present limiicd supply is available. What Are the Outstanding Causes of Agricultural Accidents? By J. C. MOHLER Secretary. Kensae State Board of Agriculture, Topeka Machinery and livestock arc the outstand ing causes of agricultural accidents, the two together accounting for approximately 60 per com oi all mishaps on the farm. Machin ery' is first by a wide margin, or more than 38 per cent of the total, and livestock next with K*y> per cent. Falls arc listed third. with close to 15 per cent, and the simple chore of getting in the winter's wood claims 7 per cent. The remaining 13}$ per cent of accidents have miscellaneous causes. Converting these percentages into numbers on the basis o the best and latest data, it would appear that the total of farm accidents .Agricultural Safely 13 m the United States, as a whole, amounts to 109,000 annually', oi which 4.580 result in death. Of these accidents, machinery is re sponsible lor 41.420; livestock for 28,885; falls for 16,350; wood-cutting for 7,630; and various other causes tor 14,715. These findings and estimates arc derived from a recent Kansas survey showing one accident to every 62p farms, a death rate of .144 and permanent disability rate of .271 per 1,000 of farm population as applied to the national census of farms and rural popu lation for the same year. Inasmuch as the number of farm deaths arrived at by (his method of calculation very closely approximates the report of the Na tional Safety Council, it would seem that the accuracy of the process was pretty well verified and the fact more firmly fixed than ever that agriculture is the country's most hazardous industry. The-latest nation-wide summary of acci dental deaths by industries, as reported in the 1937 edition of "Accident Facts." shows agriculture leading with 25 per cent; fol lowed by trade and service, 23 per cent; construction, 16 per cent; transportation and public utilities, 14 per cent; manufacturing, 13 per cent; and mining, quarryiqg, oil and gas wells, 9 per cent. But, a computation based on the Kansas census, which went into the farm end of the subject much more extensively, showed, tn addition to the terrific fatalities, a tremen dous annual national rural toll of 8,618 per manent cripples and a time loss, because of disabilities, aggregating the stupefying total of 5,368,000 days, or 14,707 years in a twelvemonth. to say nothing of the vast expendi tures for medical attention, doctors' fees and other services. If permanent cripples and time lost arc relatively higher in agriculture than in the other industries, as there is every reason to believe, then the farm accident problem is one of (he most acute facing this country, and undeniably it is one of the most difficult to solve. The same human element i& there as else where, but lacking is the influence of public sentiment and legislative enforcement, and absent is the 'penalizing force of rules that govern safety practices in other industries. With the farmer it Is purely an Individual problem, and greater safely within the* bounds of his own holdings can be at tained only by making him more accidentconscious. That there is ample room for improvement in the rural situation is indicated by the consensus of surviving victims themselves that a majority of farm accidents can be avoided because they are due lo Ihe princi pal cause of mishaps everywhere, careless ness. Improvements Create Problem It seems, too, that inventive genius is mak ing farm safety a moic complicated rather than a simpler problem. That is borne out by the analysis of the latest Kansas census, which shows that 23 per cent of all farm accidents were attributed to engine propelled machinery. Under this classification, injuries from autos come first, closely followed by tractors, to which the big majority of fatal accidents are ascribed, with trucks listed next. Many mishaps occur in the operation of combines, corn binders, listers, threshers, silage cutters and small grain binders. The auto, the tractor and the combine most com monly inflict their injuries when the would be operator attempts to crank the engine. . There is no doubt that the big opportunity for reducing agricultural accidents lies in better safeguarding farm machinery and in greater care and skill in its operation. The manfacturers of farm equipment and the users of it both have a heavy responsibility in making agriculture a safer industry. In our survey in Kansas, a number o( bitter complaints were encountered regard ing lack of adequate safe-guards on ma chinery'- Fault \v*< found particularly with unguarded gears, chains and belts, lack of safety clutches and disregard for comfort of operators. This question was brought to the attention of the Farm Equipment Insti tute and the National Federation of Imple ment Dealers. The latter, at its next annual meeting, took a sympathetic interest as ex pressed by resolutions adopted, as follows; "Realizing our responsibility and that of the manufacturer to our customer, the American Farmer, and that the use of more power-driven equipment has greatly increased the hazards of its operation, wc most strongly urge upon the manufacturer the need for providing proper safety de vices for the protection of the opetator of such equipment." The Farm Equipment Institute, the n;i- 44 Ttocnty-sirlh National Safely Congress tiona] organization ot the manufacturers, went on record by formal resolution, thus; "WHEREAS, Every manufacturer of farm operating equipment realizes fully his responsibility to safe guard adequately lus products and WHEREAS, Farm machines arc now so designed and built as to minimize the possibility of accident to the careful oper ator, therefore be it RESOLVED, That wc commend the ef forts which have been and are being made to safeguard all farm machines. We sug gest that all manufacturers and dealers use their best efforts to educate the users in the proper handling of farm equipment so that the farmer himself by exercisiug due action and diligence may avoid unneces sary and unfortunate accidents which are the direct result of carelessness or negli gence." In a serious matter such as this, neither side should pass the buck, but should care fully study the situation and mutually under take to devise methods for its improvement. Manufacturers and farmers would do well to have Uteir chosen representatives meet and go over this problem together. No doubt manufacturers are concerned about keeping costs down, but I have yet to encounter a farmer who would not willingly pay the additional price for safer machinery. Negligence Is Factor On the other liatid, many accidents are due to incompetent and negligent operators. Evervonc who presumes to operate power machinery should be thoroughly acquainted with it and know or be taught how to run it. The idea has been advanced that manu facturer* could greatly aid farm safety by sending their experts each year to selected points throughout the country to conduct schools of instruction for dealers in the operation of machinery; dealers in turn could conduct community schools for their customers. This scents an excellent practi cable plan. But farm luuards other than machinery amount to 62 per cent of all. These must be reckoned with. The kicking horse and mule seem the most dangerous of our farm ani mals; falls on the farm are moat frequent front loaded wagons; gasoline U the most potent explosive handled on the farm; so dium chlorate used in the form of a spray to kill noxious weeds when allowed to dry on clothes and materials is highly flam mable ; and there ar*i countless other things that must be guarded against to reduce mis haps to the minimum. One of the most shocking and tragic rev elations of the Kansas survey has been the accident mortality of farm children, which is charged almost wholly to carelessness superinduced by over-indulgence of pecu liarly fond parents. Children want to be grown-ups and do as grown-ups do. Wc cqddle their ambition and often gratify their desires to please them, even though we know that the act of doing so is foolhardy. This has led to many sad incidents on the farm. It should be everlastingly emphasized that in satisfying vanities of the little ones, the utmost care be used and extreme caution be exercised. Children have a way, too, of getting into the most unexpected places. On the farm a close bond exists between father and son, and not uncommonly from his first step the lad is at his father's heels --boon companions. But It can hardly be argued that this should lead so far as to permit the son to ride with feet extended forward over the fender of the drive wheel of the tractor. Such a ride was fatal to a Kansas boy of nine the past year, and an other lad of eight narrowly escaped a like fate. A loss of life is always deplorable, but nothing in uur Kansas surveys wrung out hearts as did the reports of accidental deaths of two baby girls, one killed by a tractor, the other killed by a truck. We volunteer here and now, and it cannot be urged too frequently nor too strongly, the admonition : never start an aulotnobile, tractor, truck, or even a horse-draxvn implement, while chil dren are about, until you have made sure that a life is not endangered. The prevention of accidents is not a mat ter of teaching safety to a limited number, but is something that must be drilled into everybody, for everyone is charged with a responsibility there is no escaping. It is a rather melancholy fact, however, that many farm accidents are unusual. Many Unusual Mishaps It must be admitted that much of the unpredictable does occur throughout the seasons on the farm--a horse at normal gait may, without warning, go off stride ami unseat his rider; a constantly used tractor may, for no good reason, become rebellious ; Agricultural Safely 45 a bolt or rivet may shear off without a mo ment's notice, thus throwing an otherwise normal machine into disorder and endanger ing the operator's life. Such simple things as a flapping coat tail, the presence or absence of a glove on the hand, the fraying of a belt, the rustling of a piece of paper or of some plant growth often arc the direct cause of accidents and injuries. But, it is clear that more than half of the farm accidents may be prevented by the exercise of vigilance and care. In Kansas, we have gone far enough in our farm accident work to embark on a long-time agricultural safety program. Wc have taken two state wide farm censuses, in a house-to-house canvass by township as sessors who annually gather data as required by the State Board of Agriculture and in compliance with law. It is believed that what these censuses show may be typical of the experience throughout the prairie states re gion and indeed may also quite faithfully reflect the situation wherever modern agri culture is practiced. The Kansas surveys were conducted with two principal objectives in view--first, to secure authentic information about farm ac cidents and their causes ; second, to provide, conceivably, a sound foundation for pre scribing and applying effective remedial measures. The first objective has been attained, to our satisfaction at least. The principal facts given in this paper are from the Kansas census, supplemented by data particularly relating to accidental deaths from the Na tional Safety Council and the Kansas State Board of Health. The second of our objectives, therefore, now becomes of primary importance, and it is our opinion that adequate data are avail able to intelligently chart a course of action. At any rate, Kansas has undertaken to de velop a systematic statewide program to promote farm safety and reduce agricul tural accidents. What is needed is to get the facts about accidents into the hands and heads and hearts of every farm family, an educational campaign that will reach every home. The question is, how can the individual best be educated and made accident-conscious and what are the most effective ways and means of accomplishing these ends? In Kansas we have laid out a plan that we believe will get results. The State Safety Council, some years ago, made farm acci dents a part of its program, and through Mr. Jesse Grcenleaf. who has ably served as its president from the beginning, a special state farm accident committee was recently appointed to work out and put inlo effect a comprehensive program that will carry the message of farm safety jo every rural fam ily in Kansas. This committee is composed of the State Superintendent of Public In struction, the State Leader of 4-H Clubs, the State Supervisor of Vocational Agricul ture, the Managing Editor of the state's leading farm journal, and the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. It is the intention to enroll the youths of the state in this undertaking, through the schools, the 4-H Clubs, Future Farmers and the Boy Scouts, believing in this that wc can emulate the success that has been achieved in many other directions through energetic youths who have so profoundly influenced their family circles in amazingly helpful ways. Farm organizations and other avail able agencies arc prominent in the plan. Thus the step has been taken to place in every farm home an ardent champion of farm safety who is thoroughly posted as to the principal causes of farm accidents and qualified to safeguard against them, and with the further aim of having safety taught in every rural school. From our experience, it I were called upon to make recommendations for an anti-farm accident plan. I would suggest; 1. A .full-time paid state director. 2. A farm accident survey. 3. Prevention program based on best available information. 4. Organize rural youths to carry pro gram to farm families. 5. Cooperation of farm organizations. 6. Teaching ot* safety in public schools. 7. Community schools of instruction in machinery operation. 8. Literature giving concisely farm ac cident' facts. 9. Publicity--press, radio, movies, meet ings, signs posted conspicuously. Tt is incumbent upon all states to perfect the best possible safety organizations, for the tremendous annual toll of life, suffering, disability and economic loss taken by farm accidents is unwarranted. The majority of these losses may be prevented. 4(> Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress Farm Fires and Their Prevention By W. D. JAMES President, James Manufacturing Co., Fort Atkinson, Wis. The United Slates Department of Agri culture estimates that in this land there are <14 million farms with 4B million buildings. With their contents of produce, livestock, and machinery, the insurable value is estimated at more than 23 billion dollars. The bam is the factory on the farm. This factory is to the farm what the manufacturing plant is to the city. AU farm buildings lend themselves to de struction by fire, wind, lightning, and deteri oration. Today 96 farm buildings will be destroyed by fire somewhere in the United States I Every 24 hours this devastating toll is exacted in this land. According to the National Board of Fire Underwriters, a farm structure suc cumbs to fire every 15 minutes. The annual loss is estimated at upwards of $100,000,000, or about onc-third of the total yearly national fire loss. This shattering of a farmer's hopes every 15 minutes destroys 2,880 buildings every month. 34.560 every year. Some 3.600 human lives are sacrificed in this funeral pyre. And that is not all. Tens of thousands of cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, and chickens are also destroyed each year. The blood line* repre sented in a lifetime of breeding and selection --whole herds of beautiful dairy cattle, and other animals--are wiped out. The farmer's livelihood, together with his hopes aiul ambi tious, are sacrificed. There is an estimated annual toll of fire mused by spontaneous combustion oi $30,- 000.000. In fires due to lightning, tlic annual toll is estimated at $12,000,000. Fires in which the cause is unknown bring the yearly total well above $100,000,000. Because these terrific losses are scattered over wide areas, often in isolated places, the true extent of the tragedy is seldom fully realized. Due to the isolation, fire-fighting facilities arc rarely available to farm people. There is an average of 7)4 highly combustible buildings per farm. A barn or other structure which catches fire is usually doomed to cotnr pJcte destruction. Insurance rates are natur ally high for ordinary farm buildings. Because of this fact, seldom is a farmer protected with full coverage. Even if com plete protection were carried, every buruedout farm structure represents its value in wealth definitely destroyed, never to be re placed. Insurance, though highly essential, replaces no lost wealth. It merely distributes the' loss among many policy holders. Water in sufficient volume is rarely avail able to fight farm fires. Even in case of an abundant water supply it has been proved futile to combat a raging hay fire. The doomed structure is usually a total loss, and alt that water can accomplish, in most cases, is to confine the fire to the burning hay barn. In addition to the above named farm haz ards, there are cyclones and windstorms, which take an estimated annual toll of $40,000,000. Deterioration--sun, snow, sleet, rain, and weather conditions of all kinds--take their estimated annual toll of $240,000,000. The National Farm Building Destruction Company has as its proprietors Messrs. Fire, Wind, and Lightning, challenging Agricul ture annually by cdllecting a toll of $400,000,000 from our farmers. What can be done to reduce this appalling 1011? The old hay loft over the stable is responsible for a large share of this loss. Leguminous hay crops, to be of real value, must be harvested with a reasonable moisture content, if the delicate protein-bearing leaves are uot shattered and left in the field. If placed into hay loft storage with too high ;i moisture content, there is always tlie danger of self-ignition due to overheating in the curing process. When a barn is thus spon taneously fired, the entire structure is doomed, often including valuable livestock, all crops, anrl equipment. Aeration of the Iiay mow to liberate excess heat, gases and vapors, was never feasible where bulk hay was stored. The cost of pro viding ventilation flues for such large masses was prohibitive. Tlie modern way is to store the craps in iron ventilated containers and house the live stock in no-storage, one-story stables. Agricultural Safety 47 Chopping iiay and blowing it into storage, a practice in use for many years, because it requires only about one-half the storage space needed for whole hay, offered new possibilities. Chopping hay does away with the hardest, most disagreeable farm usk, Dial of mowing hay in a hot, dusty loft. With distributing pipes, the placement of which is occasionally changed or re-directed, a loft may be easily filled. Because of the greater density of chopped hay, however, it is highly important that it be stored in small masses, to allow aeration. If the hay does not actually heat to the firing point, there Is danger of uutriment destruction in a browning process. Some years ago we were privileged in pioneering a new type of storage unit to handle forage crops. After diligent research our engineering organization used a cylin drical structure as the solution. This structure was built of iron, heavily ziuc coated for long service and to eliminate the burdensome ex pense. oft recurring, of painting. This unit was so designed with inner compartments and ventilating flues there would always be an outlet for excess heat, gases, and vapors. The possibility of spontaneous firing was very re mote in such a storage unit. If, however, due to careless operation or for any cause, fire should break out, it could be controlled and confined, thus offering an opportunity oi sav ing adjoining buildings. The Crop Keeper, as wc chose to call this revolutionary new crop storage unit, is usually connected by means of a short passageway to a no-storage, one-story stable for the live stock. Both the stable and the passageway arc iron clad for fire resistance. This stable, completely iron clad inside and out, has no exposed combustible material, although framed with wood for purposes of economy. There is a fundamental difference between iron and steel. Steel is iron, plus natural and added impurities--principally carbon--which causes a loss in ability to resist rust or cor rosion. Where light weight combined with highest strength is required, steel serves best. Where resistance to rust and corrosion is the important consideration, as in the case of structural coverings exposed to atmospheric conditions, iron is far superior to steel. It will be readily seen that a layout such as this offers a very reasonable protection against fire damage. Furthermore, when properly grounded, ie provides excellent pro* lection against lightning, the iron being a very effective conductor. This system, with the safer storing of for age and grain crops, is the ideal way of reducing tlie farm fire hazard. \ A Program for Farm Safety By a M. SEAGRAVES Director, Department of Safety, Illinois Agricultural Association, Chicago Agriculture is the largest, oldest, most fundamentally important of the nation's in dustries. Yet, this is the only major industry without a safety program of national scope. The National Safety Council figures for 1936 indicate farm fatalities of approxi mately 4,500. Illinois newspaper reports cov ering farm mishaps for this same period substantiate this figure. The need for safety in this field is obvious. The way is dear; the possible, yes, the probable, results of a well ordered program are attractive. We might well begin by pointing out some of the obstacles: Isolation .... the farmer is not subject to supervision; in fact, most of his work is carried on when he is alone. Physical problems .... the weather de termines to a large degree the working hours and conditions. Excessive hours arc the rule rather than the exception. The temperature and conditions under foot arc beyond regulation. The almost endless array oi tasks ranges from dc-horning a bull calf to shingling a roof. Personnel .... the too young and the too old are commonly put to work beyond their abilities. 48 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Lack oi iarmcr organization .... to those who evaluate relative needs for safely programs on the possible financial returns, this factor remains one of the outstanding objections. In spite of the fact that on the farm nearly everything seems to be contrary to the best dictates of a safety campaign, agriculture nevertheless has about the same accident severity rate as the average for all industries, and this without benefit of safety educational efforts. So. in spite of all the factors mili tating against the farmer's well-being, something is tending to balance the scales. Whether it is Ins native intelligence could Iw a moot question and one commanding attention; whether the conditions under which he works are natural and therefore conducive to mental physical health might also deserve consideration; a further thought is that a farmer grows up with Ins work, there is little or no "new man" problem. Whatever the causes for this very notable trend, it would appear plain that this field is already conditioned to some of the funda mental tenets of accident-prevention work and is now awaiting some new materia! and direction to achieve signal results. To date so little has been done in agri cultural safely that anyone presenting a sug gested program has little to guide his thoughts. It would, therefore, seem advis able that any contemplated campaign should undergo a somewhat slow, step by step process, pending the experience that will come only with the administration of a na tional agricultural safety project. Such an initial program could very well contemplate tlc cooperation of every agency, official and private, having rural interests. This should include the federal and state departments of agriculture, farm organiza tions, farm publications, private businesses dealing largely or wholly with farm people, farm youth movements such as the 4-H Club and Future Farmers of America. These several agencies would work through their own contacts with farm people. It is certain that nearly every farmer in the United States would at some time during each working season be exposed to the ef forts of one or another. Undoubtedly, there would be some overlapping. It would, there fore, be advisable to have all of the ma terial either issue from one source or be approved before release by some one clear ing house. It would seem advisable for the colleges of agriculture to encourage the teaching of farm safety to future county agents and vocational agriculture teachers. Rural Youth groups could to advantage have farm safety as one of the projects upon which they work. Farm machinery manufacturers could, by their use of farm equipment movies and institutional advertising, lay more stress on safety. Mail order houses, not only from the standpoint of good will but because of the interest of some of them in farmer insur ance, could utilize some of the pages of their catalogues in appropriate safety messages. Farm organizations such as the Farm Bureau, the Crange, the Farmer's Union, and others, could, through their official organs and through the personal contacts with farmers made by their field men, advance the cause of safety in a variety of ways. The material released by all of these groups should be in agreement and should stress in so far as possible both the sea sonal and the sectional nature of farm haz ards. To do this to advantage, it is felt that a coordinating unit is indicated. Many occasions could be utilized in the promotion of rural safety. State fairs are becoming, more and more, well attended by farm people. County fairs, and county pic nics, as well as husking bees and plowing meets, all furnish occasions when not only speakers, but exhibits on farm accidcnt-prcvention. could be presented with profit to everybody concerned. Rural radio stations, it supplied material, have shown in one state at least their eager- ness to cooperate by interspersing regular news ami entertainment programs with socalled "farm safety flashes." Farmers, espe cially during the early morning hours, give careful attention to t'ltese broadcasts, espe cially where weather and market reports are concerned. This is before the day'* work begins and is an ideal time to stress the hazards that will probably be encountered during the day's activities. Press Will Cooperate Most farmers have at least one county paper and one farm publication to which they turn for news and entertainment. These groups are largely sympathetic to the need for farm safety and would no doubt cooper ate to this end. To exhaust the list of all the hazards en countered on farms in all parts of the country would be a task of tremendous size. How- Igricultural Safety 49 ever, the principal hazards are more readily catalogued. The safe handling of horses and livestock has essentially the same problems no matter what the geographical location. Certain fundamental agricultural imple ments. such as tractors, plows, cultivators, discs, mowcr&, threshing equipment and axes, and a few others, are common to nearly all sections of the country. Treatment of these could receive original emphasis, with gradual expansion of topics and treatment as the sectional and seasonal need crystallizes. Because of the familiarity of the farmer with nearly alt of his tasks, theie is little necessity for pointing out each step in doing each task safely; but emphasis should be placed upon the important parts that fatigue, poor repair jobs, and the limita tions of human strength play in nearly all agricultural accidents. When considering how to finance an agri cultural safety program of the above type, it would seem clear that private and substantial support would be needed to get it started. However, there is some evidence to support the belief that ultimately a program of this nature could be made wholly, or largely, self-sustaining. The American farmer is be coming more and more organization con scious. On all sides he sees the benefits to be derived through unified effort. The farmer's intrests no longer stop at fits line fence. His youngsters arc being educated in great state universities rather than in the little brick school house. The radio, paved roads, automobiles, are giving him a breadth of vision heretofore denied. Tt all points to more and more organization Sufficient farm organizations could largely support an ade quate national farm safety program. ADJOURNMENT Community Safety Organization WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 13, 1937 The meeting was called to order by Chair man John B. Gibson, Publicity Director, Hawthorne Works, Western Electric Co., Chicago, and Vice-President for Community Safety Councils, National Safety Council. Mr. Gibson introduced the speakers. Why Have a Community Safety Council? By PAUL F. STRICKER Director of Field Service, National Safety Council I take live liberty oi recounting a personal experience which I believe explains in a con crete way the advantages and reasons for the need of a community safety council. A few years ago I was appointed director of safety of a large development which em bodied a great variety of industrial hazards and included the commerical and passenger vehicle accident problems as well. The devel opment was so organized that each project was conducted as a separate activity having its own distinct management. Although the central office exerted certain control and co ordinated the entire development, the ques tion of what was to be done about accidents, on each project, depended, practically, upon the attitude of the head of liiat project. The personnel had been gathered together from all parts of the country rather quickly, of necessity, ^id though entirely capable was highly individualistic. When I arrived on the job there was a general impression that the development had a good accident record. My first task, therefore, was that of com piling records of the various projects and comparing these with the accident records of similar projects, over the country, to de termine factually, what the aeddent record was. I found that the experience though not shockingly high was, generally, not as good as the average private concerns, engaged in similar activities, which had reported to the National Safety Council over a period of years. The job which confronted me, obviously, was that of selling each individual project head an organized program of accident pre vention, using the factual data, the accident records, as ammunition. Because this de velopment was so large I recognized, in the beginning, that my personal efforts would be of little value on any project, in reducing accidents and that the IQ or 12 hours a day which 1 could devote to this job should be spent on convincing the project heads that accident prevention, to be effective, musl con stitute a definite part of operation; must be carried out through the regular line organi zation of the project and that the larger projects, at least, required the full time services of .a safety engineer. All of this had to be done without any authority, and my role was as distinctly that of a salesman. Naturally, 1 had some inter esting experiences. I could not, over many months, get over the idea that safety had to begin at the top; that it required the backing of the top development executives and of each project It had to be considered just as seriously, and as importantly, as the pouring of concrete on a dam. 1 tried personal visits which were often received with an attitude of pained tolerance and sometimes impa tience ; I attempted the writing of memo randa, where I felt that 1 was not very welcome; and of course, tried to get greater backing through the calling of a meeting of the project heads but was unable to get this 51 52 Z'l^cnty-sijfih National Safety Congress meeting called. On uuc project where the through the efforts of an able man wito fol subject under discussion was the perfectly in lowed me. My part consisted mainly of nocuous suggestion that a competition be set "sitting light" and preventing the job from up between similar units--the project lent going wrong, until the time when under itself very easily to competition--the super standing of the organized method of ap intendent and about six of his assistant*, proach could be obtained. walked out of the room and literally left me Although \vc do not have, generally, the there talking to myself. attitude in a community, that it lias a good Many suggestions, of a detailed character, accident rate, as we did in the example were made by various people in the organiza cited, it is still true that the leading citizens, tion for the conduct of short lived educa the, officials and the citizenry generally are tional campaigns which would have taken the not convinced of the seriousness of the acci major part of my time and would have pro dent situation; do not understand its many duced little or nothing in the way of accident ramifications and arc not sufficiently im reduction. There existed even' opportunity pressed by the human and economic losses to go up blind alleys and keep myself ex from this source. To a still smaller extent tremely busy doing the unimportant things are the cities of this country convinced thai which would have surely proved ro manage the accident situation can be controlled by the ment that there was little value in safety application of tried and proved remedies. We activities. know that if these two points were thor When 1 had been on the job three months the frequency, standard definition, of acci dents on this entire development was over 100 and the severity, although not corre spondingly high, was higher than it should have been. One project, employing about 3,000 men had a frequency of over 200, and oughly established throughout the citizenry, that accidents take a terrific toll and that this situation need not continue, then each city would be entirely willing to spend what ever time is necessary learning what should be done and providing the facilities for doing the job. as you might expect, ihi was the very proj ect on which the management had walked out on me. This project then decided really to do something about accidents. From the superintendent down die supervisors went actively to work; a safety engineer was ap pointed; tux intensive first aid course for Again, as in the ctoc of the industrial ex ample, because a comprehensive view of all the remedies required and of the organized approach still does not exist in most cities, many time consuming, short lived, and un wise activities are conducted by various groups and organizations because each has all foremen, as an introduction to accident prevention, was conducted and the frequency rates, starling with about 210 were for the next four months, respectively, about 130, 60, 58, and 38 seen a small segment of the whole problem and attempts, without delving him the ex perience of others, to solve the problem in its own way. Much time and energy arc wasted, duplication of effort exists, jealous At this same time the central office became convinced that accident prevention began at the top and that it was primarily manage ment's job. Individual projects were being sold at the same time on the employment of a safety engineer and today with approxi mately the same employment as at that time ies and had feeling are generated between groups and organizations bccau.sc there is no one unit in that city guiding aggressively this organized approach. There ts no group, that is familiar with the remedies regarding each segment. No group that could do a co ordinated joh regarding the entire problem. they have 6 full time safety men. The fre quency rate has gone down for the entire development, from the figure of better than 100 to an average during the last year of about 28. which is a good record for that type of operations. Severity too has been held down to a very reasonable figure. A few weeks ago I was asked, through corresjiondence, by the president of a small town safety council in New York state what the functions of a community safety council were. This man, the president of a very large and nationally known industry* said their safety council bad conducted various educa I feel that I can recount this experience, without being accused of conceit, because the actual job of reducing accidents was done, for the most part, after I had left, and tional activities in an attempt to get people to drive safely; they had distributed much material and had conducted a number of public meetings which had for the most part Community Safety Organization. 53 been poorly attended. He had come to the not unusual conclusion that, unless adequate enforcement were provided by the city offi cials. he could not get very far in actual accident reduction, on the traffic problem. This meant, also, that the citizens had to be convinced that adequate enforcement must be applied. I explained to this gentleman that many, many things must be done in any com munity to effect reductions in the traffic sit uation alone, and went farther to state that a community safety council should be inter ested in accident prevention in all its ele ments, traffic, industrial, other public, and home accidents. I recounted the fundamen tals of education engineering and enforce ment and stated that, in my opinion, the re sponsibility of a community safety council lies in seeing that effective work is done in all of these fundamentals. In some cases, certainly, community safety councils have re lied too much, or confined themselves loo much, to educational measures and have not been sufficiently active in building public opinion and In exerting aggressive leader ship in obtaining adequate engineering and enforcement measures. The obtaining of adequate enforcement and engineering facilities and remedies re quires, particularly from the staff, and from the voluntary leadership of the safely coun cil, considerably more than shotgun and gen eral promotional efforts. The best way to ob tain real cooperation from city officials, for example, lies in rendering specific service and thereby convincing these people that the safety council leadership knows more about the general approach to accident reduction than anyone else in the city. This does not mean that police officials, should be told how to run their jobs and certainly that attitude should not be assumed. By pointing out, however, the methods which have produced results and establishing a relation of confi dence with these people an educational job can be done which will, though sometimes slowly, step up more quickly the activities of these officials toward an effective job of ac cident prevention. In providing this type of service the safety council should, in tarn, avail itself of the expert services of the var ious organizations which specialize in the dif ferent elements of this comprehensive job. In the same manner that accident preven tion, in industry, begins at the top; requires an organized and well coordinated program ami must be made an essential part of the regular operating procedure so, in the com munity safety job the ueccssiiy for this ap proach must be gotten over to the commu nity at large. In the same way also sound technical methods must be made available to those who arc responsible for its accom plishment. This difficult task can be accomplished only by an organization which is thoroughly rep resentative of the whole community. It should be interested solely in the saving of human life and the elimination of the eco nomic waste resulting from accidents. It cannot, if it is to be successful, be controlled by any political group, be guided by selfish interests or exist for the aggrandizement of certain individuals. When properly organized and founded on just principles a community safetj council cannot, even then, accomplish its task quickly. Again citing the industrial example, if it required six months to convince this organization, one of unquestionable integrity and also of more than usual intelligence, that it had an accident rate which could be reduced, and that the organized approach was needed, how much longer will it take, necessarily, to accomplish this on a commu nity scale. Cities like Rochester, Milwaukee, Syracuse, Cleveland, and Kansas City, which have shown splendid results have been at this job in an organized way, from 14 to 20 years. And there still remains much to be done in all of them. The community safety council, if it is to discharge its proper function in the com munity, must be the source of information and the concentration of aggressive leader ship in all matters which pertain to accident prevention'. It is the sales promotion agency for community accident prevention activi ties. It must do the continuous job of inform ing people of the extent and implications of the accident problem. It must convince them that this situation can he brought under con trol. It must then take advantage of this will to prevent accidents, by providing through its organization and through the help of national organizations, the detailed effective plans which will prevent accidents. It should follow through continuously in ef fecting some way, or some how, the applica tion of these remedies. Wc know, that, because this whole move ment is relatively new, few cities have at tained this ideal. We know also, however, that some cities are approaching it and that 54 Tu'enty-sixth National Safety Congress where this ideal is approached outstanding; results have been achieved and accidents have been brought under control to a con siderable extent. Without a community safety council, called by whatever the name may be, providing this sales promotion, developing public opinion, supplying proved methods and practices and exerting aggressive leadership toward their application no city can hope to reduce its accident experience with maximum effec tiveness. The Officials' Part in an Organized Community Program By WILLIAM C. KNOELK Chairman, Milwaukee Safety Commission, and Assistant Superintendent of Schools Milwaukee's traffic death rate was the high est in the United States in 1919. With 85 fatalities, the rate was 12 per 100,000 persons in Milwaukee County that year, the safety and sanitation division of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce reported, although only 33,000 automobiles were registered. Chicago's traffic death rate in 1919 was 9.1 ami New York's, 5.4 per 100,000. Altogether, 337 persons were killed by acci dents of all kiuds; In traffic, homes, and indus trial plants in Milwaukee that year, or one out of every 1,500 residents. That was the situation wind) the Milwau kee Safety Commission was organized to remedy. Many croups were attempting sep arately to solve the problem, but were not getting far. The mayor asked 15 citizens to form a commission to correlate the discon nected safety activities of all groups, to try to discover the causes of Milwaukee's tragic record, and to seek ways to improve it Mem bers were sought from all groups concerned with safety. The safety commission today contains rep resentatives of the police department, fire department, traffic-engineering branch of the department of public works, of the.schools, public utilities, operators of truck fleets, news papers. lawyers and doctors, merchants and manufacturers, and just plain pedestrians and individual drivers. The set-up is sufficiently unique to warrant a more definite description. There is no intent to convey that the same methods employed elsewhere will work out equally satisfactorily. The profaalnlhy is that they may not Even in Milwaukee certain imperfections in the administration of the work are beginning to be felt and are hrvng uodied. The Milwaukee Safety Commission is diarged with the responsibility of maintaining the safety consciousness of the city. This phrase, in Milwaukee, means that each and every individual must not only be aware of the problem and the facts, but must also sense his personal responsibility and act in the light of all these factors. There can be no feeling of "letting George do it," if satisfactory re sults are to follow. Composed of 15 men appointed by the mayor, as has been stated, this group, without remuneration, lias dedicated itself to tlie task of stimulating safety thinking. A modest appropriation out of the tax-raised funds makes its work possible. Meeting monthly, with an advisory group, most of the work is carried on in committees. An executive secre tary with his clerical liclp constitutes die commission's personnel at the city liall. Were it not for the loyal support given to (lie traffic safety movement by our newspapers, Milwaukee could not have reached the eminent position it now occupies. The enthusiastic and effective enforcement by our police, the energetic engineering of our traffic heads, as also the eager educational efforts in our schools, were kept before the public constantly. Maintaining public opinion on these matters is the essence of the job. Most of the city departments concerned with safety arc represented tn the Commission. The police department through the captain of the traffic squad, the public works department through the director of the bureau of illumina tion, the fire department through the assistant chief in charge of fire prevention, the schools, the medical department, the legal department have memliership. Additionally, the tay mem bership comes from the various fines of busi- Community Safety Organization 55 ness and professional life. Problems of safety are thus handled by a good cross-section of our city's population. Safety is, then, no longer the exclusive job of the police, of the engineer, of the teacher, or of the councilman; it is the joint task of the whole community. When the common council, for instance, wishes to secure the reaction of the public on items of safety, the commission is consulted. This commission furnishes the safety post ers, the school bulletins, the safety-teaching magazines, the films, the speakers to tlie schools. Home safety is stressed in monthly bulletins to tlie parent-teacher associations. Luncheon groups, civic organizations, and women's clubs are given every possible help in their safety programs. Motor drivers schools are organized and meet a great popu lar demand. Women drivers' schools, broad casts, legislative meetings, brake and headtight testing campaigns, safety award conferences are additional activities that are sponsored to bring about the complete cov erage in safety previously mentioned. Through his activity in the field of the social subjects curriculum, one of the assistant superintendents of the Milwaukee Public Scliools was appointed to the commission and was elected chairman. Through this channel tlie sclxiols have been aided greatly in insti tuting adequate courses with proper mate rials, and the commission w&9 given an oppor tunity to send its stimulating messages to the children and through them to the parents. For over a decade this relationship lias existed and has prospered. Some of the important standing committees of tlie Commission deal with traffic, the home, schools, legislation, and research and awards. Tlie work of all of these groups is given space in tlie various bulletins and thus a stream of living, authoritative, well graded material is made available to the schools and teachers. To indicate the type of information that is deemed essential for people to have In the field of safety, a brief glance at the high school course is interesting. Many of the available courses in the United States confine them selves, or give most space, to traffic safety; this, too, in the face of preliminary statistics which show that more fatalities occurred in the home accident field in 1936 in the United States than in traffic. Many perpetuate the idea that the presentation of a body of fact and information is sufficient. Some assume a total time allotment to be devoted to the sub ject, evidently on a par with history and civics. Without any gesture of finality, the trend of the course in safety in the high schools of Milwaukee was built up and is being pre sented as follows. A year ago last September, a committee of the Milwaukee High School Principals' Association drew up a plan of safety instruction that was presented to the School board and adopted. After a number of consultations with lire high school prin cipals, it was decided to use these unit*, in connection with the work in English, since all pupils are compelled to take that subject. Teachers who were to instruct in the safety work met with the assistant superintendent concerned and learned the method and pro cedure. A point that has been stressed con sistently is that the units are not to prepare only for driving an automobile but are als*o to make tlie pedestrian aware of his rcsi*>n- sibility. The purpose of the course is to develop in pupils: A knowledge of tlie causes of accidents and a disposition to want to avoid loss of life, limb and property, whether in the lionie, in the shop, or on the street; A knowledge of (lie established law* and ordinances governing traffic, and an attitude of willing cooperation; A recognition of society's right to demand cooperation and an earnest yielding of self for the group good; A full realization of society's loss through fires and a keen appreciation of the need for instituting proper conservation principles; And a 'willingness to help create and sway a wholesome public opinion. The aim of our wider program of safety education in Milwaukee (the program tliat carries the work beyond the elementary and high schools) is one`that the insurance man might, call a plan of complete coverage. The whole field of safety is considered and all ages and groups are made aware of the general problems. Home safety, traffic safety, occu pational safety, public safety other than traf fic, fire prevention, recreational safety, sea sonal hazards, first aid, and conservation are some of the topics that are covered. If some of these items are overlapping, tlie public is not disturbed about it for little of life is so logically ordered that there is no overlapping. The safety division of our Association of Commerce accepts responsibility for promot* 56 Tseenty-sixth National Safety Congress ing industrial safely in the factories and shops. Through its excellent schools, attended by thousands of tradesmen and foremen, the message of industrial safety is sponsored and managed. Fire prevention work also comes within the jurisdiction of this division. The public and parochial schools, every year, join in the observance of fire prevention week. In conclusion, there must be no misunder standing on one essential point. The essence of the effectiveness of Milwaukee's work is cooperation. Were it not for the excellent work of enforcement and protection of our police department, the alert service of our fire department, and the splendid engineering work done by our outstanding department of public works and the bureau of illumination, no "commission," alone, could have done the work. The commission b merely the coordi nator ; the effective work is done by our teachers, our policemen, our engineers, our drivers--by the citizens of Milwaukee. Community Safety Organizations and the Public By JUDGE LEE E. SKEEL President, Cleveland Safety Council, Cleveland, Ohio The safety movement is for the most part concerned with influencing human behavior. Its purpose is to develop in the individual the habit of thinking and acting safely. Human behavior does not respond naturally to re strictions ; restrictions that become more and more necessary because of our intricate civilization which becomes increasingly complicated year by year. To accomplish results in our effort to prevent and avoid accidents, therefore, we must teach the individual not only to understand the need for conducting himself safely under all circumstances hue also to develop sufficient self-restraint to act safely. For this reason we arc concerned with influencing human behavior. Without a true knowledge of the facts which justify the imposition of restrictive rules of civil conduct in the interest of safety it is difficult to procure voluntary submis sion to them on the part of the average individual. Organized self-control is the foundation of all democratic institutions. Self-government is possible only when the individual is willing to sacrifice some part of his own apparent individual interests, for the purpose of preserving the social order. (n other words, we must develop social cliaracter. The mere enforcement of the law is quite inadequate to accomplish the de sired results. The voluntary desire to do justice and the development of the capacity to be loyal to fundamental obligations is necessary to preserve the social order. Public education wlh all other agencies, both public and private, engaged in accident prevention work, is the only sure means of accomplish ing such a result. We must therefore organ ize our activities to acquaint all with the true facts about accidents and the means by which they* may be avoided. It lias often been said that safety i* an individual matter. But the results of unsafe conduct of die individual have become so dev astating not only to himself but also to those about him that the effort to prevent accidents it an activity in which the whole community has a very definite interest. Whether or not one will conduct himself safely under alt cir cumstances, therefore, should not be a mat ter of his own choke. The individual must accept the responsibility of acting safely as a fundamental obligation of citizenship. The safely of die community is a community problem in which all must take an active part. The proper kind of leadership, necessary in developing a broad community safety pro gram, is more effectively developed by die organization of a community safety council. Progress in any civic undertaking will fail unless it be directed by competent leaders. A community safety council can call together everybody in the community whose vocation or avocation deals directly and indirectly with safety. When gathered together in an aggressive group, public officials, industrial safety leaders, school officials and civic lead ers. all coordinating their efforts, can do a real safety job, and effective leadership will be developed. The first benefit that comes from such a Community Safety Organization 57 safety organization is that it wilt provide a continuous and well-balanced program, build ing up and becoming more effective each succeeding year. Sporadic campaigns arc never helpful, par ticularly in safety education. What little gain is achieved from a temporary drive, no matter how intensive it may be, is soon for gotten. A campaign when discontinued leaves the impression that safety work is unnecessary or ineffective, otherwise the campaign would have been continued. Pair dealing with those who become in volved because of a safety drive is funda mental. In the stress of a sudden, intensive and temporary campaign this important point is very frequently lost sight of, and many acts of injustice result. Favorable public sentiment, so necessary to the success of any civic enterprise i alienated to some extent. One other bad result of sporadic cam paigns is that usually one phase of the problem is stressed to the neglect and detri ment of all other safety activities. No safety effort will be permanently effective unless and until every avenue of approach is used in a correlated program; which in an orderly and logical fashion creates a solid faundaiion upon which to build a permanent safety structure. The community safety council, when or ganized and directed hy a competent director, is the best method by which such a program can be made effective. Unaffected by petty jealousies and selfish altitudes, sometimes to be found in industrial institutions, uninflu enced by political considerations, the safety council goes forward to achieve safety for the benefit of all mankind. The great triumvirate of the safety move ment, safety engineering enforcement of the law, and public education, outline the scope of the safety movement. The community safety organization in its relationship with the public is more directly concerned with the last two. Without an effective, certain and equitable policy of law enforcement no community safety program can achieve outstanding suc cess. Two elements arc to be found in this field which are of vital importance--first, the determination of what the rates of civil con duct shall be, and second, the proper enforce ment of the Tides of law when they have been so established. This field of the safety movement is al most entirely a governmental function. The fact that lawn, as such, only become laws when enacted by the legislature, anil that the enforcement of law is delegated to the ju dicial branch of the government, docs not mean that the individual citizen is relieved from all responsibility with respect to tlic^c important governmental functions. It is the duty of every citizen to take an active part in the affairs of state. Men must either govern themselves or be governed. They must do their part in the interests of good government or lead subjective live*. This duly of the citizen to support good government becomes mbie apparent year by year as our social structure become* more and more complicated. Because of our everincreasing interdependency, legislative bodies are called upon to formulate llte rules of civil conduct with respect to a great variety of intricate social problems which require continuous research and profound and in telligent study. How can a legislator act wisely upon so many diversified social ques tions without the advice and counsel of his constituents, as well as well {mentioned and unprejudiced specialists? Certainly this- is true with respect to matters concerning the physical safety of our people. In the early days of the horseless carriage an almost universal prejudice developed against it which resulted in restrictions upon its use imposed by legislators who thought they would meet with public acclaim. Sub sequent attempts to regulate traffic were al most universally approached without a sufficient understanding of the traffic prob lem as it developed. These are the primary reason* why *<j much legislation has been written ujion our statute books retarding sincere attempts to accomplish safety and resulting in much of the disregard for law by both motorist and pedestrian. It has been aptly said that "facts arc the least developed of all of our national resources." To deal justly with any problem every available fact must be considered to make possible its proper solution. The local safety council should, because of its con tinued study of all safety problems, he in a position to render valuable assistance in legislative matters which afTect the physical safety of the community. While it is true that the enactment ol law is a governmental function, better results m legislation will be obtained when public sentiment is crystallized through the help of 58 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress impartial civic associations. The safety council should be prepared to take a leading part on safety matters. Law enforcement i always difficult All agree with the statement that society is better protected when the law is impartially enforced. Our difficulty comes when the individual finds himself in the net of en forcement. It has been said that there is no one who is not forced at some lime to compromise with his conscience in directing his personal conduct. The instinct for self-preservation is stronger than the passion for perfection. There are three public offices engaged in the business of law enforcement. The police officer, the prosecuting attorney and the judge. To be effective in their duties the officers must have the lovai support of the public. Law enforcement is something more than the simple making of arrests, trying cases and imposing penalties. The weight of public opinion must go with the work of the public officials, adding to the weight of such pen alties as are imposed. Here the community safety council is greatly needed to lead public sentiment in the interests of public safety, uphotdiug the hand of conscientious public officials. The greatest evil which menaces traffic law enforcement Is ticket fixing. This prac tice in many of our cities has been permitted to grow to such an extent as to result in an almost complete breakdown of law- enforce ment. The law enforcing officials are public servants, paid and maintained out of public funds because their work has hecn found necessary to protect society. To interfere with the orderly processes of law enforce ment can be aptly compared with the cir cumstances of a man hiring an employee to do a particular job and then doing all he can to prevent his employee from accomplishing the desired results. The most injurious thing about this abom inable practice is not so much that it breaks down the law enforcing agencies, hut rather that many people, knowing that they can avoid the consequences of their misconduct, acquire an artificial feeling of being above the law. No social order can long endure under such circumstances. It is the duty of the local safety council to lend every effort to stop tliis practice. A safety program under the direction of the local safety council finds its greatest field of endeavor in sponsoring and promul gating public safety education. The greatest force available to those who seek to motivate human.behavior is to cre ate interest in the thing to be done. This may be accomplished by extending informa tion about it The local safety council, in its relationship with the public, must be vigilant in developing and broadcasting facts of in terest about safety. Among the effective methods are ` the preparation of school lessons for teaching of safety in class, and the arranging of statistics and other safety information to be used by the press or in radio speeches or public addresses. One other method when dealing with par ticular groups is effective---conducting con tests to attain the best safety record. Here the individual is given the opportunity of taking an active part in accident prevention work. Let me point to the department store fleet contest in Cleveland. This contest has been in progress for more than 10 yean, and today the interest of the driver is just as keen as it was at the start. The greatness of a nation is measured by the character of its citizenship. If we can instill in the minds of all the responsibility of citizenship, the giving up of the apparent in alienable rights of the individual in the interest of the safety of all we wQl have accomplished the result wliich it has been the purpose of the safety movement to accom plish. ADJOURNMENT Fire Prevention FRIDAY MORNING SESSION October 15, 1937 The meeting was called to order by J. 1. past president of the National Safety Coun Banash, Consulting Engineer, Chicago, and cil, who introduced the speakers. Static Electricity as a Fire Hazard and Its Control By E. E. TURKINGTON Engineer, Inspection Department, Associated Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies Static electricity is the cause of many fires and explosions. The fires may be the result of actual ignition of combustible material by static sparks, or static electric charges, too small to be a fire hazard in themselves, may indirectly result in fire by causing finely divided stock to adhere to parts of a ma chine to such an extent that excessive me chanical friction results. Static electricity may also be the indirect cause of injury due to reflex muscular ac tion of persons working near fast-moving machinery. Static electricity is generated in a number of industrial operations, but in many cases it is dissipated or neutralized without be coming a fire or accident hazard. However, static charges may also cause inconvenience, slow up production, or result in an inferior product, and its elimination is of great im portance. It is not possible to prevent this generation, but it is possible to prevent ac cumulations of such quantity and potential that sparks may result. This can be accom plished hy humidification, bonding and grounding, ionization, or a combination of these methods. 1. Humidification Fires caused by static electricity are much more frequent in winter when artificial heat ing is required and the indoor humidity is low. If out-door air at a temperature of 32 deg F. and relative humidity of 50 per cent is taken into a building and heated to 70 deg- F. without the addition of any mois ture, the relative humidity will be about 13 per cent. In order to maintain a relative humidity of 50 per cent at the higher tem perature in a room 100 feet square and 12 feet high, for example, it would be necessary to add a little more than six gallons of water. It has been shown that many substances, ordinarily considered non-conductors, will conduct electricity to some extent in an at mosphere in which the humidity is relatively high. This is undoubtedly due to a thin film of moisture on the surfaces of the socalled non-conductors. The surface conduc tivity of many materials changes through wide limits when the humidity is varied. For example, the surface conductivity of plate glass at 50 per cent relative humidity is about 1000 times that at 20 per cent humidity. It would thus appear that dangerous accumu lations of static electricity could be prevented in alt cases by maintaining a relatively high humidity. Unfortunately it is not feasible to humidify all rooms because many substances are in jured by moisture. Moreover, the minimum amount of humidification required under va rious conditions is not definitely known. A relative humidity of 40 per cent to 50 per cent in the rubber spreading room of a cer tain rubber factory, however, practically eliminated fires where previously 122 fires had occurred in a three year period. It is 59 60 Ttocnty-sixth National Safety Congress believed that a relative humidity of SO per cent to 60 per cent will prevent dangerous accumulations of static electricity in practi cally all cases. It should be remembered, how ever, that if parts of machines arc operated at high temperatures the relative humidity near the lieated parts may be dangerously low, even though the remainder of the room may be maintained at SO per cent humidity. Relatively high humidity has another ef fect in preventing fires in the textile indus try in addition to that of preventing charges of static electricity. It has been shown ex perimentally that when the amount of mois ture in cotton or other fibres is relatively high, the danger of ignition by static sparks is slight. Humidification may be obtained by means of steam jets, unit humidifiers, or air-con-' dilioning and ventilating systems, and un less it is automatically controlled it should be checked periodically with an accurate hy grometer. 2. Ionization Ionization of the air is another method vhich has been employed to remove static rharges from materials, such as paper, tex ile fibres and fabrics. Air is ordinarily a >on-conductor of electricity, but when ionzed it will conduct static charges to grounded parts of the machine. Static neu tralizers are available which ionize the air by neans of high voltage brush discharges from \ series of points connected through small rondensers with the high voltage winding of x small transformer delivering several thou sand volts. The electric neutralizer is ap proved for use in woolen, silk, cotton and paper mills, printing shops, etc. Ionization by gas flames is another method which has been employed in printing shops. The sheets of paper are passed rapidly through gas flames as they leave the presses and all static charges are conducted to ground. Obviously this method is limited in application and cannot be used where inks having volatile flammable thinners arc employed, or in any hazardous location. 2. Bonding and Grounding (a) Metal Objects. Grounding the metal parts of a machine to a water pipe or other low resistance ground is often the cheapest and most effective method of static elimina tion. However, a single ground wire con nected to an all-metal machine at one point may not be sufficient to ground all of its parts. Paint, rust, or corrosion may insulate one part from another and a film of lubri cating oil may insulate a Totaling shaft or roll so that dangerous accumulations of static electricity will occur. Metal parts which are isolated ur insulated should be bonded to gether or separately grounded. Graphite mixed with the lubricating oil will some times serve a* a satisfactory grounding method for revolving parts, but it is usu ally-safer to provide a grounding brush or wiper, which nukes contact with the surface of the moving parts. Although small bare wires or solid metal strips may make satisfactory electrical con nections, a copper wire as large ;*s Xo. 6 or Ho. 4 B. & S. gage is advised for the ground connection, owing to its mechanical strength, and >n insulated wire is less likely to be tampered with. The ground wire should be carefully maintained and tests should be made periodically to insure its continued ef fectiveness. A broken or improperly main tained ground wire may be a fire hazard. Where exposed to injury it should be run in rigid metal conduit and if protection from induced lightning effects is also desired the ground wire should be electrically connected to the conduit at both ends, or a pipe of non magnetic material such as brass or aluminum should be employed. Grounding connections may be made to wet sprinkler or other water pipes where available, but pipes which are liable to be disconnected or taken out of seryice and drypipe sprinkler system should be avoided. Metal plates or metal pipes buried in moist earth, may be used as ground electrodes, if water pipes are not available. Approved ter* minal lugs should be provided on the ground wire and connection to pipes should be made with approved ground clamps. In 1915 the United States Department of Agriculture investigated a number of fires and explosions in threshing machines in the northwest section of the United Stales and it was found that static electricity ignited dust clouds formed during the operation of the machines. The relative humidity was low dur ing most of the threshing season and high static charges were generated. They recom mended that various isolated metal parts, including several revolving shafts, be bonded to a common wire and grounded to a rod driven into the earth. This measure effec- Pire Prevention 61 tuallv prevented static electric fires and ex plosions in threshing machines. The Department of Agriculture also in vestigated a large number of fires in cotton gins in the south and it was found that fires which were originally thought to have been caused by matches or incendiarism were in reality caused by static electricity. When the various metal parts of the machine were bonded together and grounded, the static electricity was effectually dissipated and the fires prevented. Dust explosions in grain elevators, flour mills, starcli mills and similar places may be caused by static electricity unless all metal objects which may become charged with static are effectively grounded. The ground ing should include, machinery, shafting, met al bins, metal lining of wooden bins, as well as tie rods, metal ladders, gates, spouts, etc., of wooden or concrete bins, metal screens, driers, conveyor and elevator parts. (b) Non-Conducting Materials. We will now consider the more difficult problem of grounding or discharging non-conducting slock, power belts, conveyor, belts, etc. Belts. Bower belts and conveyor belts generate static electricity freely, potentials of 20,000 to 75,000 volts having been observed. In very hazardous places it is preferable to eliminate belts entirely by using direct drive, metal chain or metal gear drive. If belt drives must be used, the static hazard can be re duced by operating the belts at low speed, but in all hazardous places one of the fol lowing methods should be employed to dis charge the static electricity which may he generated even on low speed belts: (I) ap ply a dressing which makes the surface of the belt a conductor, or (2) provide a grounded metal comb or collector rubbing on the bell or nearly in contact with it at the points where it leaves the pulleys. Formulas for dressings have low elec trical resistance lor both leather and rubber belts have been prepared by the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agricul ture, but the effect of the belt dressing is not permanent and repeated applications are necessary at various intervals depending on local conditions. In view of this uncertainty, the use of grounded collectors is frequently preferred. Collectors of various kinds have been em ployed to eliminate static electricity from belts. Some are of thin metals and quickly get out of order, especially those which are placed in contact with the belt. One of the best designs, and one which requires very lit tle attention, consists of a row of sharp steel points mounted on I-inch centers in a length of angle-iron which is grounded and rigidly supported close to the belt near the point where it leaves each pulley. The pulleys, which should be of metal, should be grounded, also metal guards and other isolated bodies ot metal near the belt. Stockt Fabrics, etc. Dangerous charges of static electricity arc generated on various non-conducting materials, which arc passed more or less continuously through processing machines. This includes rotogravure print ing presses, coating and spreading machines, etc. All metal parts of the machines should be thoroughly grounded, but this will not re move the static from the non-conducting ma terial passing through it. One method of accomplishing this is by means of brass or copper chains attached to a grounded metal bar extending across the machine above the material and near flic points where the static is generated. The chains should be spaced on about I-inch center and should be long enough to touch the surface of the material. The links should be kept clean and free from corro sion to keep the electrical resistance tow. If the character of the work makes it dif ficult to keep the chains clean, thin bronze or aluminum strips, screen wire, or tinsel may be employed ; or if contact between the col lectors and the material passing through rite machine is objectionable, fine bronze wires formed * into a long "brush," which is grounded and suspended so that the ends of the wires arc near but not actually In con tact with the material, will effectually re move the static charges. Workmen Hazards. Charges of static elcc' tricity are frequently found on the workman ; especially at times of low humidity. The charges may be generated by the clothes, by rubbing the soles of shoes on non-conduct ing floor coverings, or by various industrial operations. The human body is a good con ductor and in most cases the charges arc ^conducted to ground through the shoes and clothing which are ordinarily moist enough to transmit them as fast as generated. Some ^people, however, have an especially dry skin and accumulate high static charges more rapidly than others, because there is little or 62 Tzucnty-sixth National Safety Congress no leakage to ground through the Nothing. Such workmen should not be employed where volatile flammable liquids are handled or where there is danger of dust explosions. In especially dry weather, or in rooms where the relative humidity is low, static charges may accumulate on the bodies of workmen to a potential of several thousand volts. Some method of grounding them has thus been found necessary in many locations. Workmen should not be allowed to wear rubbers, rubber boots or rubber soled shoes in hazardous areas, and under some condi tions it may be advisable for them to wear Specially made shoes having copper nails or copper wire stitching through the soles. It may also be necessary to have them stand on grounded non-ferrous metal plates. Care must be taken,' however, not to allow the soles of the metal floor plates to become covered with any insulating substance. Increasing the relative humidity, as pre viously described, is helpful where conditions are not particularly severe. (c) Storage and Handling of Flammable Liquid*. Static electricity is generated wlten liquids flow through pipes, when they are poured or discharged from one container to another, when they are filtered or when solid streams flow through the air and are broken up into drops. The charges are neutralized or conducted to earth as fast as they are generated unless the liquids have a high elec trical resistance. The resistance of some liquids, such as water, alcohol, and glycerine, even though considered high in the ordinary sense, is low enough to prevent dangerous or objectionable charges. On the other hand, gasoline, benzol, and carbon bisulphide have very high electrical resistances and* cause dangerous charges on their containers and on conducting objects which may be in con tact with them. Wherever flammable liquids of high elec trical resistance and low flash point are used, handled, or stored, thorough bonding and grounding should be employed. It should include storage tanks, stills, pipe lines, churns, mixers, auto-claves, etc. Pipe lines handling such liquids should also be elec trically bonded together and to tanks and other receptacles to which they arc con nected. Bonds should be connected around all joints which may be insulated by pack ing materials or gaskets. Special methods are required lor ground ing and bonding portable containers. At loading and unloading stations for tank cars, the track should be grounded and bonded to the filling or discharge pipe. There should also be a temporary bonding conductor be tween the filling or discharge pipe and the car. This conductor should be connected be fore any filling or discharge connections are made and should not be disconnected until after these pipe or hose connections are re moved. Similar temporary bonding conduc tors should also be provided for tank ships and for tank trucks as well as for small metal cans and containers which are filled from larger ones. Tests Altliough ample ventilation should be pro vided in rooms where flammable gases, va pors, or dusts are present, it is advisable to make tests for static electricity in these haz ardous places. Tests made during periods of relatively high humidity are not conclu sive and should be repeated when the rela tive humidity is low. Tests should be made with great care in dangerous locations since the person making the test, or the instru ment used, may become charged and cause a fire or explosion. The person, as well as the instrument, should be brought to ground potential frequently during the process of testing by making connection with a good ground. This grounding, however, should be done in a non-hazardous area where a static spark will do no harm. Tests for static electricity can be made with an electro-static voltmeter, neon tube tester, or gold leaf electroscope. The elec trostatic voltmeter can be calibrated to indi cate the potential of the charge but it is not well adapted for portable use in a manufac turing plant. The neon tube tester, originally designed for testing automobile spark plugs and more recently used in modified form as a circuit tester, makes a very satisfactory, inexpensive, and portable instrument for de tecting the presence of static electricity in manufacturing plants. However, it does not show the amount of potcntial^of the charge. The gold leaf electroscope is very sensi tive and in its ordinary form is too delicate for general use in a manufacturing plant. However, its electrostatic capacity is so small tliat there is little danger of a spark when it is charged and discharged. Fire Prevention 63 The following discussion took place after Mr. Turkington's address: In grounding to prevent the accumulation of heavy static charges, docs the ground re sistance have to be low ? No. What is meant by "electrically bonded" type lines? A common pipe joint ordinarily offers sufficient electrical bonding, but gaskets and flanges that may insulate one section from another should be guarded against. The liquid passing through the pipe line cannot be depended upon to maintain a ground. Is there great danger from static in spraying operations ? Theoretically such operations would gen erate static electricity, but actually no trouble has been experienced from this source. It i$ quite probable that (he object heing sprayed carries off the static charge. Should not a differentiation be made be tween an intermittent static discharge and static flow ? Yes. An intermittent discharge, or one which occurs only occasionally, will nnt ordinarily ignite fibrous or dusty materials But in static flow, where the discharges arc continuous, the first few charges will dry out the material sufficiently so that a sub sequent discharge might ignite it. What is the best way to test a ground? Check it with an ohm meter or a ground tester. Spontaneous Ignition and Its Prevention By A. H. NUCKOLLS Chemical Engineer, Underwriter,' Laboratories, Inc., Chicago The source of heist causing ignition may be a flame, spark, radiation, a hot surface, friction, or chemical action. When the pri mary source of heat is chemical aettofi due to the combustible itself (exothermic de composition), or between the combustible and supporter of combustion, the process is known as "spontaneous heating," and if the ignition temperature Is reached, as "spon taneous ignition." It is of interest in this connection to note that recently experiments have been re corded* indicating that the ignition tempera ture In the vapor or gas phase may be ma terially lowered under certain conditions by injection of drops of water, and also by other small particles, which appear to act as re action centers. This phenomenon has been termed "nuclear ignition." Accordingly, a substance may be said to have two ignition temperature curves, first the "self*' or "autog enous ignition temperature," also known uk the "apparent ignition temperature," and second, the "nuclear ignition temperature," which is lower, and may be found later to have an important bearing on spontaneous ignition. The primary reactions causing spontane ous ignition may be preceded by other sources of heat such as microbial action, as in the fermentation of hay. Further, prod ucts of many reactions leading to spontane ous ignition may be autocatalytic. The presence of a catalytic accelerates the re action. No sharply defined or scientific classifica tion of substances subject to spontaneous ignition has been worked out, but for con venience those substances which have been found to cause or undergo spontaneous ig nition may be divided into four groups: Grout* I -- Substances not themselves combustible, but which may cause ignition, such as lime. Group 2--Substances having ignition points below ordinary temperatures, as for example the hydrides of phosphorus and silicon in the presence of air, sodium and potassium in the presence of water, turpen tine and ammonia in the presence of chlo rine, and hydrogen and chlorine in the presence of light. Included in this group also are substances which when alone are not acted upon by oxygen but which may simultaneously undergo oxidation with an other compound which is capable of oxida tion at ordinary temperatures.* 64 Twenty-sixlh Xational Safely Congress Group 3--Combustible substances which may undergo sufficient oxidation at ordinary temperatures to reach their ignition point, including easily oxidized vegetable oils, fats, certain metals in finely-divided state, metal lic sulphides, charcoal, and coal. GronP 4--Organic combustible substances subject to microbial thermogenesis, includ ing agricultural products such as hay and grain. Noncombuatible Substances This group represents spontaneous heat ing in its simplest aspect- Calcium oxide (unslacked lime) is the outstanding mem ber of this group. Many fires caused by the wetting of lime in the presence of com bustibles arc on record. H is of interest to note that tlic reaction of I pound of lime with water evolves 124,000 calorics (493 Utu). Included also in this group are barium oxide, sodium peroxide, and other chemi cals which in contact with water may evolve -uflicicnt heat to cause ignition of common combustible*. Investigation of a fire of unknown origin indicated that barium oxide was (he source of ignition. It appeared that when a wooden keg containing the barium oxide was opened, enough moisture was present to cause a re action. which resulted in ignition of sur rounding combustibles. It is evident that as a measure of safety chemicals of this group sltould be kept away from combustibles. Substances of Low Ignition Temperature A well-known member of the second group is often called "spontaneously inflam mable phosphine," which, however, is not pure phosphine. It is stated in the litera ture1 that tire pure gas does not ignite be low 100 C (212 K) but is highly flammable and is easily ignited by friction^ It appears that the spontaneous ignition of phosphine at ordinary ambient temperatures is due to tire presence of the vapor of hydride of phosphorus (P.H) which is very likely to lie produced in reactions yielding phosphine. It ha* been claimed1 that the hydride of phospiiorus may be produced by the putre faction of damp sawdust, resulting in igni tion, hut available data on this arc meager. Silicon hydride as ordinarily prepared is a bo spontaneously flammable in air at ordi nary temperature*. It if stated in the litera ture3 that the pure gas does not take fire at ordinary temperatures but ignites if slightly warmed. The hydrides of silicon and phos phorus are met with in chemical laboratories but arc not likely to be encountered in the field. Of more practical interest are the reac tions of sodium and potassium with water, the latter being decomposed with the evo lution of hydrogen. In the case of potas sium, the evolved hydrogen is ignited in the presence of air by the heat of the reaction even at ordinary ambient temperatures- The reaction of sodium with water is less violent than that of potassium, and ignition of the evolved hydrogen does not occur as readily The reaction of rubidium with water is similar to that of potassium. Although the combustion of cellulose com pound* such as paper is extinguished by chlorine--turpentine, ammonia, brass, and a number of other substances ignite spon taneously in atmospheres of chlorine even at ordinary ambient temperatures. As to the prevention of spontaneous igni tion of this group, it is dear that chemical training is necessary for the safe use of such substances. In general it is necessary to store them m cylinders or hermeticallyscaled container*. Oils The best known members of the third group are linseed, soya beau, and olive oils, which in the presence of air at ordinary room temperatures undergo oxidation with the evolution of heat. Although their igni tion temperatures arc comparatively high, the heat generated by the oxidation is suffi cient to cause ignition under favorable conditions. The reaction is promoted by exposure of a relatively Urge surface area of the oil to the oxygen of the air. This is readily ac complished by the impregnation of a fibrous material such as cotton with the oil. The form in which the oily fibrous ma terial is exposed to the air also influences the reaction, and affects the rate of dissi pation of heat. Jf the oily mass is compact, the oxygen supply from the atmosphere is necessarily restricted, and if in thin layers or exposed to air currents, the heat loss may prevent a rise in temperature. Further, it is clear that the ambient tem perature also influences the reaction. There is some experimental evidence indicating Fire Prevention 65 (hat the ambient temperature within certain limits may be a critical factor. Finely-divided Metals. It was previously mentioned that exposure of a relatively larger surface area of an oil (in the liquid phase) promoted its reaction with the oxy gen of the air. This principle is even more strilrimtly illustrated in the case of a number ot solid substances, including iron which in very* finely-divided or porous form ignites spontaneously on exposure to air. Metal* in this condition are said to be "pyrophoric." Metallic Sulphides. It appears that the cause of the spontaneous heating of metallic >ulphide> is primarily oxidation, but the exact conditions under which their ignition occurs in the air are not well known. As a measure of precaution, they should be pro tected from moisture and acids. Charcoal. If the carbonization or destruc tive distillation of wood, cellulose, and cer tain other organic materials is carried far enough, charcoal is formed. Like many porous substances, charcoal has the prop erty* of absorbing comparatively large vol umes of gases, a process attended hy the generation of heat. It has also been found that tle absorbed oxygen in charcoal is ca pable of oxidizing certain other absorbed gases, and it seems probable that oxidation, particularly in later stages of the process, is also a factor in the spontaneous ignition of charcoal. It seems probable that fine particles of carbon remaining from the carbonization of wood and other organic matter under cer tain conditions may be pyrophoric, but avail able data on this do not appear to be conclusive and further investigation is de sirable. The first practical step in prevention of the spontaneous ignition of newly-made charcoal is to cool and thoroughly air it before bagging or storage. Definite require ments for air exposure and other factors relating to the prevention of the spontaneous ignition of charcoal arc given in Regulations by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Wood. Available evidence indicates that wood when subjected to prolonged exposure to temperatures of a low order (steam pipes) may ignite spontaneously. The formation of porous carbon or charcoal on the surface of the wood exposed to the heat may be the underlying cause of ignition. As a measure of prevention, fire under writers require that steam pipes should be 2 in. clear of wood, or I in. when metal sleeves are used. Coal. With the possible exception of an thracite, all grades, particularly bituminous and lignitic coal, are subject to spontaneous heating and ignition under certain condi tions. It appears that the underlying cause of the spontaneous heating and Ignition of coal is oxidation.4 There is much difference of opinion as to die effect of moisture and sulphur. Avail able data indicate that the presence of sul phur compounds is not essential to tlic* reaction although pyrites when present max be a contributing factor. Increase in the fineness of the lumps,* awould be expected, appears to promote the reaction. Further, the degree of ventilation is a factor. Currents of air retard the re action by conducting away the heat. It is significant that spontaneous ignition occurs usually in comparatively large masses of coal containing a large amount of slack. This is in accord with the oxidation theory. Probably the safest method of storing coal is under water, but this has its practical disadvantages. Limiting Urge piles so that points in the interior are not over about 10 ft. from the surface, appears in general to be effective. The bulk of coal in a car load is not usually large enough to result in ignition. It appears to be especially dan gerous to pile coal on or around timbers as the open spaces permit access of oxygen and thus promote the reaction. Airing finely pulverized or ground material several days before shipment or storage appears to be of advantage. A new method of protecting coat from spontaneous ignition has recently been de veloped. It consists in spraying the coal with a high flashing point mineral oil, which reduces the tendency to spontaneous igni tion by protection of the surface from oxi dation.* It has the added advantage of reducing the dustiness of the coal. The proc ess is apparently meeting with success but experience with it in the field is limited. Owing to the fire hazard of the procc, precautions against ignition of the oil arc necessary. Agricultural Products There is a wide divergence of opinion as to the underlying causes of the spontaneous ignition of hay and other plant products. 66 Ttvcnty-sixth National Safety Congress There are theories that ignition is caused by bacterial hut, enzymic heat, oxidases, pyro phoric carbon, and even pyrophoric iron. It is clear that the subject is complex, and further experimental data are needed. It appears that the spontaneous ignition ot these products is a two or more stage process. The first stage of the spontaneous heating (up to about 70 to 60 C, 158 to 176 F) is caused primarily by fermentation or other microbiological action, it being well known that M/ch processes generate heat. When the temperature, however, exceeds about 80 C, the life or activity of micro organisms and enzymes is supposed to cease. The rise in temperature in later stages of the process is considered to be due to chemical oxidation. It is thought that un>a(urated and intermediate products may be formed in the first or microbial stage, the subsequent oxidation of which is a factor in causing ignition. Data compiled by the Bureau of Chem istry and Soils* (V. S. Department of Agri culture) indicate that spontaneous ignition f hay i< more lilcefy to occur from 2 to 6 weeks after storage. It appears that conclusive data arc not available as to practical metliods of safe guarding hay with certainty against spon taneous ignition. The U. S. Department of Agriculture has conducted many laboratory and large scale experiments, the results of which indicate* that as a safety measure the moisture content should not exceed about .V) per cent In weight of the hay. Further, the hay should be cured before being placed in storage. The mows should not exceed about 10 tons. The division of large mows into >mall comiartments by means of alleyways or open-work partitions would facili tate drying and aid in dissipation of heat. Salt (sodium chloride) may retard fer mentation but evidence available indicates that salting of hay cannot be relied upon to prevent its spontaneous ignition* . Despite efforts made to safeguard against -ponlancous ignition, fire losses bn farms caused by the spontaneous ignition of hay amount to millions of dollars annually. The loss would be greatly reduced if hay was stored in isolated structures separated a safe distance from farm buildings. Hemp, Jute, and Sisal, It has been re ported from time to time that hemp, jute, and sisal ignite spontaneously. While losses occur from spontaneous heating when the fibers are wet, there appears to be no data available showing that spontaneous ignition occurs." If impregnated, however, with oxidizing oil, there is danger unless the oily fibers have been subjected to an effective drying treatment. Sugar. It has been claimed that sugar in storage is subject to spontaneous ignition, but available data are not conclusive and further research on this is needed. Other Organic Compaundr. There arc a number of products met with in practice, as for instance fertilizers, that are mixtures of a wide variety of ingredients, some of which are organic compounds similar in hazard to substances of Croup 4, while others have oxidizing properties like sub stances in Group 3. References 1 Kin* ami BJa (1933) --J. lost. Petroleum Tech. 2j. * Roecoc sad Schortetnmer---"Treatise on ChenUirj" Too Schwartz--MFb and Explosion Risks" 4 Report of Committee on Spontaneous Hearing and Ignition of National Fire Protection Associa tion * U. S. Bureau of Mines' Tocbnical Paper 409 * U. S. Bureau of Stines' Information Circular No. 69J2 ' Harry E. Roetbe -- Agricultural Engineering. April, 1931 1 Harry E. Roethe--"Result* of Recent lnvetii- Eation of Spontaneous Heating and Ignition of lay" pamphlet--American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1937. U S. Spirt and L. K. James--Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. 42, No. 10, 1931 "Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc.--"Report on Si>al" Following Mr. Nuckolls' address the lot- spontaneous ignition has been mentioned, lowing question was asked: - What should be the flash point of such oil? The spraying of coal with oil lo prevent Jl should be 300 degrees F. or higher. Fire Prevention 67 Explosion Hazards of Common Flammable Liquids By CHARLES R. MILLER Consulting Engineer, White Star Ohio Division, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., Detroit It is a universal rule that safety is best promoted by acquiring a thorough knowl edge of the problems involved. Ignorance and carelessness are usually the basis of ail accidents. Practically all of us are carrying on some activity in every-day life which carries with it the clement of danger; the more hazard ous the activity the more care should be exercised. The most common flammable liquid known is gasoline. Approximately 23 billion gallons of gasoline are made and consumed yearly in this country*. Gasoline is handled at least seven times from the point at which it is manufactured until it reaches the tank of the customer's automobile. Every time this occurs, it presents new and additional safety problems, and one must admit that the relatively few accidents which do occur arc a tribute to the skill with which this ma terial is handled. Before going deeply into this subject, let us understand what is meant when we speak of liquids being flammable. Strictly speak ing, liquids as we think of them, are not flammable. This statement may be surpris ing but, nevertheless, it is true. Before the material composing a liquid, such as gaso line, can become flammable, it must be con verted into a gas or vapor. This is usually accomplished by the application of heat, the amount depending on the relative vaporizing point of the constituents of the fuel. Gasoline is easily vaporized; it produces vapors at normal room temperatures. On the other hand, kerosene, even though it is manufactured from the same crude oil and contains the same basic chemical constitu ents, requires the application of considerably more heat to cause it to vaporize in corre sponding quantities. Even after vapors have been produced, there is still another condi tion which must be accomplished before actual burning is possible. Tlic vapors must be mixed with air in rather definite proportions; and after this mixture of vapor and air has been produced, a means of ignition is required to raise its temperature to a point where the chemical reaction involved in combustion ukes place. These fundamental facts can be demon strated if we place a small quantity of gaso line in a glass beaker, allow it to stand exposed to the air and apply a burning /natch above the surface; then, flammability is ac complished. Liquid Doesn't Burn It will be noted, however, that burning is taking place above (he surface of the liquid and the liquid, itself, is not burning. It is only the vapors emanating from the surface of the liquid and becoming mixed with air iu the beaker that are flammable. If \\v shut off the source of air by placing a cover on the beaker, the fire is extinguished. Another illustration of these facts is the common process by means of which gasoline is produced. In distilling gasoline from crude oil, the oil circulates through a series of tubes or a pipe still, where it is luatcd to very high temperatures. The gasoline content of the crude is converted to vapor*, and even though they exjst at a very high temperature, there is no burning bccau*c all air is excluded from the still. In the laboratory we test gasoline by plac ing a quantity in a glass flask, and apply a gas flame to the bottom of the flask, causing the gasoline to vaporize and pass off through a condenser. Even though the bottom of the glass flask becomes red from the heat, sllll the gasoline directly in contact does not burn because air is excluded from the flask and. therefore, combustiou is impossible. Let us try an experiment with kerosene instead of gasoline in the beaker. It is possible to introduce a match directly into the kerosene and instead of the kerosene igniting and burning, the match is actually extinguished. This, again, is due to the fact that kerosene at ordinary room temperature gives off no flammable vapors and, under the circumstances, combustion cannot take place. These demonstrations bring out the fact that the formation of vapor is necessary be 68 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress fore wc can have combustion. Understand* ing these simple fundamentals, we are able to apply the laws involved to the handling of liquids. When we do this, the chances of dangerous explosions will be greatly mini mized. The term "flammable" involves the more or less continuous and orderly combustion of the material being used. This type of reaction is usually described as die process of combustion. A chemical reaction is taking place in which there is a union of certain elements resulting in the formation of new and different compounds. Gasoline is made up of the elements of carbon and hydrogen. When it bums, the carbon unites with the oxygen In the air to form carbon dioxide and the hydrogen unites with oxygen in the air to form water. The chemical action involved results in the evolution of heat, and heat, we know, ia a form of energy. The complete combustion of various sub stances of known chemical nature results in the formation of certain definite quantities of energy or heat units. The number of energy units can be measured and the re sults of the combustion of definite quantities of material can be calculated. These units of heat are usually expressed in terms of Brit* i&h Thermal Units or calorics and have certain definite values. For instance, a British Thermal Unit is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water through one degree Fahren heit. There is a very definite relation be tween these units of energy and the amount of useful work that can be performed when burning a given fuel. We introduce into an automobile cylinder a definite mixture of Raroline, vapor and air: we ignite it; we control the combustion of it; we can speed it up or slow' it down simply by the pressure of our foot ou the accelerator and we can obtain speeds rang ing from five to one hundred miles an hour from the average automobile. In this case, the rate of combustion is very much under control. Fuel burning under a boiler will generate steam which, in turn, will run machinery which transports us from one part of the country to another, across the ocean, lights our homes and provides us with many of the comforts which are so essential in modern life. These things can only be accomplished, however, by the orderly control of the proc ess of burning and this process, under these conditions, is generally relatively slow. On the other hand, uncontrolled combus tion may result in a tremendous dislocation of surrounding media. It is this situation with which we are most interested in deal ing in this paper. It is only proper that we understand thor oughly the conditions which are more or less ideal for an explosion when considering the copimon liquid -- gasoline. First, we must have the same conditions Involved in com bustion because, after alb the only difference between combustion and explosion is the element of control. Liquid Must Be Vaporized To begin with, the fuel must be in vapor form; it then must be mixed with the proper amount of air to form a combustible mixture; the mixture so formed must be ignited. Vaporisation is usually related to the temperature at which the gasoline is being handled and the mixture of the vapors forming with air is accomplished by the movement of the turbulent vapors in the presence of air. An interesting illustration of this nature occurred a number of years ago in one of the southern states. A tank car of casing head gasoline was placed on a siding and exposed to the head of the sun for a con siderable time. Some workmen then pro ceeded to unload the car and their first step was to remove the dome cover without gradually reducing internal pressure through the safety valve. When the cover was loosened, the contents of the car acluajly boiled over and huge quantities of vapor escaped in the air. There was a slight wind blowing from the car toward a group of negro shacks some one hundred yards away. The vapors were rolled along by the wind, picking up and becoming mixed with air as they moved along. When this cloud of vapors struck the shacks, it was ignited by fire in a stove and a terrific explosion took place--not at the tank car but actually at the row of shacks. Eventually the fire flashed bade to the tank car and ignited it, but there was no explosion there, simply a violent combustion off the top of the dome, which was finally extin guished. The explosion actually took place fully 100 yards away from the tank car, and most of the damage resulted at this point. Some years ago, a tank car of gasoline Fire Prevention 69 was spotted on a siding in Detroit, and the operators attempted to unload it by attach ing a Hne to the leg or outlet on the bottom of the tank. When the cap was removed from the leg, it developed that the inside valve was not seated, and the contents of the car began to pour out on the ground and, eventually, down a sewer. This sewer led into a main which entered into the Detroit River a few miles distant. Something ignited the vapors in the sewer and a series of explosions took place which blew all the manhole covers into the air all along the line of the sewer to the river. More recently, two serious accidents oc curred in Michigan which resulted in fatal ities. A large gasoline and tire station in the City of Flint was completely demolished by an explosion and several persons were killed and injured. Investigation showed that in checking some pumps, gasoline was poured down a pipe which the operator thought led back to the storage tank but which actually led back to a basement in which was located the heating plant. About twenty gallons of gasoline were emptied down this pipe and spilled Into the basement where it became vaporized and formed a highly explosive mixture, which eventually was ignited, caus ing the explosion. On another occasion a delivery of gasoline was made to a building in Detroit and be cause of a leaking line tome it escaped into an elevator shaft in the building. Here, again, an explosive mixture was formed and ignition took place. Precautions Are Simple The simplest way to prevent explosions and insure safety in the handling of such liquids is to minimize as much as possible-- 1. Vaporization of the liquid. 2. Inclusion of air with the vapors, as formed. 3. Possibility of some form of ignition. In the intelligent handling of gasoline on the part of refiners and distributors of this liquid, every precaution is taken to guard against such conditions. Under all normal operating conditions where a container is only partly filled with gasoline, the space above the liquid level will contain gasoline vapor. In many such cases air will also be present in the so-called" "vapor-space" of such containers. However, it Is only in rare cases that the air and vapor will be in such proportions that the mixture could be ignited. The so-called "explosive range" of mix tures of air and gasoline vapor is very nar row and its limits are well illustrated by the difficulty of starting an automobile engine on a cold morning when the operator first has to choke off the air supply in order to get a mixture rich enough to bum and then almost immediately after the engine starts he has to open up the air supply in order to prevent the mixture from becoming so rich that it will not bum. This narrow explosive range, covering us it docs less than 5% of all possible mixtures of gasoline vapor and air, provides an in herent factor of safety m the case of a partially filled container; in other words, an air space of 100 cubic feet containing less than 1 'A cubic feet or more than 6 cubic feet of gasoline vapor cannot be Ignited. With the volatile gasolines in use through out the country today, the air space in par tially filled tanks will usually contain from 15% to 50% of gasoline vapor; therefore it is impossible to have an explosive mixture in a partially empty tank except under two conditions, namely--First, where the lank is so nearly empty that the volatile constit uents of the gasoline constitute less than 6% of the volume of the tank; usually this would mean a tank containing less than 1% of gasoline. Second, where gasoline is dis charged from a tank in such quantity and at such rate that the vapor-air mixture will be diluted by indrawn air to a point within the explosive range. Such a condition occurs infrequently .and then only persists for a short time unless the tank is practically empty. The gasoline tank which is "practically" empty represents a distinct explosion hazard regardless of Us sice or location because of the probability of a combustible air-vapor mixture. The only remaining element needed to produce an explosion is a source of ignition. I know of at least two cases where small children were injured or killed because of their curiosity to determine what was in "empty" steel drums which previ ously had contained gasoline. Empty tank cars used in hauling gasoline and empty tank wagons used for the same purpose may be correspondingly hazard ous. "Empty" gasoline containers are always more dangerous than full ones, and the first law of safety demands a thorough under- 70 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress standing of the principles Involved if we arc to avoid destruction of property and loss of life in haudling such equipment. mpty gasoline drums should never be allowed to Teach a place where they arc ac cessible to the public. Tank cars, tank wagons and storage tanks should be thor oughly steamed out before repairs or clean ing are attempted. A gallon of gasoline introduced into a motor of an automobile weighing two tons will drive that vehicle IS to 20 miles along the highway. Even on this basis, less than 10 per-cent of the available energy in a gallon of gasoline is utilized for propelling the vehicle. Relatively small quantities of re lated liquids, such as fuel oil, burning under the boilers of great ships, drive these huge masses across the ocean. Because of the tremendous energy stored in these liquids, intelligence and care should be exercised in their use. And we, who make them available to the great masses of people, should yli care and intelligence that art essentia) in the prevention of serious ac cidents and fatalities. ADJOURNMENT Health Service in Industry TUESDAY MORNING SESSION October 12, 1937 The meeting was called to order by Dr. Rapid Transit Co., Chicago, and Vice-PrcsiHart E. Fisher, Chief Surgeon, Chicago dent for Health, National Safety Council. Industrial Dermatitis and Its Prevention By LOUIS SCHWARTZ Medical Director, Dermatoses Investigations, U. S. Public Health Service, New York City Of prime importance in the control of industrial skin diseases is the knowledge of their incidence. Various English writers estimate that from 50 to 84 per cent of all occupational diseases in England are skin diseases, and R. Prosser White states that at least 18,000 to 19,000 cases of industrial skin diseases occur in England each year. In Germany, in 1930, there were 7,000 cases of occupational dermatoses recorded. In the United States, statistics gathered from California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin, show tliat about 65 per cent of all occupa tional diseases are dermatoses, and from these records it is estimated that there are at least 20.000 cases of occupational skin diseases, of sufficient severity to lose time from work, occurring in the United States yearly. Actual studies made by the United States Public Health Service in various basic in dustries show that more than one per cent of the workers engaged in these industries suffer some time during the year with an occupational dermatitis. If we take into ac count the fact that there arc about 25,000.000 workers engaged in industry, this gives us a conservative estimate of about 250.000 cases of occupational dermatitis of various degrees of severity occurring yearly in the United States. From available records of compensation hoards of the various states, it is estimated that the average case of industrial dermatitis coming before them receives a compensation of about $100 and that the average cost of medical care per case is also about $100. Multiplying this by the estimated number of cases losing time from work each year, gives us a total estimated cost of $4,000,000 for occupational dermatitis in the United States. Causes All individuals arc not susceptible in I lie same degree to skin irritants. Individual differences in the anatomical structure and the physiologic secretions of the skin arc factors in susceptibility to external irritants. The comified cells of the outermost layer of the skin and the secretions of the glands of the skin constitute a defense against ex ternal irritants. Abnormalities in these structures and in the secretions may predispose the skin to the action of external irritants. Normally the cornified cells are tough and withstand the action of many cliemicals--even fairly strong acids, but they are attacked by alkalis. The perspiration acts as a diluent of irritant* which are water soluble and the sebaceous secretions consisting of liquid waxes and cholesterol form a protective coating against water soluble irritants. The pigment of the skin also acts as a protective factor against certain skin irri tants, especially against light. The perspira tion, however, if excessive, may so macerate the skin as to render it vulnerable and the sebaceous matter, if excessive, may act as a 71 72 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress solvent for certain chemicals which, if they are not in solution, can not injure the skin. The vulnerable portions of the skin are the openings of the ducts and hair follicles through which chemicals may enter. Of course, thinning or breaks in the akin act as portals of entry for external irritants. Blondes and thin skinned individuate are said to be more susceptible to certain irri tants than those with thicker, darker and more oily skins. For this reason many chemical factories will employ only negro labor for certain jobs In which irritants are handled as, for instance, the Alter presses, driers and grinders In synthetic dye manu facture. Individuals with oUy, thick skins withstand the action of solvents, such as turpentine, naphtha, etc., better than those with dry skins. Individuals having much hair on the arms and legs and those who have excessive sebaceous secretions are more likely than other to develop folUculids and trade acne when working in oils and greases. For the same reasons the various por tions of the skin of the same liuliyidual differ in susceptibility to external irritants. Those portions of the body which are ex posed and have the thinnest skin, such as the inner surface of the forearm and the anterior surfaces of the body are more apt to be irritated than are other ports of the body. The diet also seems to have an influence on susceptibility to external irritants. Ex periments have often proved that the diet influences the secretions of the slcxn and in this way renders it more or less susceptible. Age too seems to exert an influence on susceptibility. Most of the workers affected with acute rodostrial dermatitis are new workers and young, whereas the chronic, ccaematoid type of industrial dermatitis usually occurs in workers of middle age or beyond. The presence of other skin diseases, espe cially of the itching type where scratching tends to nib in any irritant which may tie deposited on the slda also predisposes to industrial dermatitis. It has been noted also that those workers suffering with seborrhea and mycotic infections arc more prone to de velop industrial dermatitis than are others. The most important predisposing cause nf jndaurial dermatitis k to my mind the tack of rimrimu. Koc odjr the lade of per mot I'lsanlmM . hut the lark of cteanli- ness in the work rooms, the machines and the air. Hypersensitivity in the sense of allergy, that is, the production in the system of an antibody in response to a contact with an external substance which acts as an antigen, plays but a small part in the causation of industrial dermatoses. Most of the cases can be explained by changes in the defense mechanism of the skin or by increase in the vulnerability of the skin, or by an excessive amount or concentration of the external ir ritant. However, the fact that there is a specific hypersensitivity present in certain individuals cannot be denied. I have seen cases where the mere presence in the same room with certain nitro compounds has pro duced itching in 'the hypersensitive indi vidual. Allergy can be acquired by exposure to certain substances. This exposure may be through the skin, the respiratory or through' the gastro intestinal tracts. Classification of Causes The actual causes of industrial dermatitis in the United States are chiefly alkalis, oils and greases, solvents, ' acids, corrosive chemicals and plants. A simple classification of the actual causes is as follows: 1. Physical Agents--such as bums, scalds, extreme cold, radiation friction and trauma. 2. General Irritants -- that Is, substances which will irritate any sldn. These can be subdivided into Organic and Inorganic. The Inorganic General Irritants can be subdi vided Into Acids, Strong Alkalis and Corro sives. The Organic General Irritants can be divided into Acids and Solvents. 3. Specific Irritants--These do not affect every individual, but cause dermatitis on a considerable percentage of hypersensitive persons. The Specific Irritants can be di vided into groups: (a) Oils and Grease*--such as lubricating oils, vegetable mis and essential oils. (b) Dyes and Dye Intermediates--Certain of the aniline dyes, such as paraphenyIencdiamine, Malachite Green, Crystal Violet, Bismarck Brown, Anramine, Anudo-azo-bcaxene and Amido AzoToluene and their intermediates and decomposition products. Some of the irritating intermediates are dmitrochtorbenzol, phenyl hydrazine, phenyl glycine, anthradoe and benzidine. Health Service in Industry 73 (c) Certain explosives are Skin Irritants-- such as Tetryl, T.N.T., Lead Azide, Lead Styphnatc, Fulminate of Mer cury. (d) Rubber Compounds and S. A. Para and Smokes Sheet, Batceta, Gutta Siaz are impure rubbers and may cause dermatitis. Rubber accelerators and Antioxidants often irritate the skin of workers. Some of the irritating ac celerators are hexamethylenetetra mine, trimenc, tetramethylthiuramdisulphide. etc. (e) Plants--'Many plants are irritating to the skins of certain individuals and gardeners and florists may suffer from dermatitis from them. Among the most common plant irritants are Poison Ivy, Sumac, Poison Oalc, Pyrelhrnm, Cocobola, Brazilian Walnut and Primrose. (f) Biologic Agents--These are often the cause of industrial dermatitis and may be divided into three classes: (1) Parasitic Insects--such as may cause grain itch, straw itch and linseed itch. (2) Bacterial Infections--Such as ery sipeloid caused by the bacillus of swine erysipelas and occurring among butchers and carcass handlers; anthrax among hide and ool handlers and pyogenic infection. (3) Fungus Infections--such as monilia infections, occurring on the hands of fruit packers. (4) Ringworm Infections --occurring among barbers, wool sorters, fur handlers, animal handlers and bath attendants. The actions on the skin of these various irritants may be classified as follows: Some act as 1. Keratin and Fat Solvents, sack as mild alkalis and soaps. 2. 'Desiccators, or Hygroscopic Agents, which take the water out of the skin, such as sulphuric arid and powerful alkalis. 3l Some are Protein Precipihmts, such as heavy metal sates, which form albuminates in combmntg with the skin. 4 Some are oxidizers, and by their stroog affinity for the hydrogen in water, liberate oxygen. Such are chlorine gas, peroxide of hydrogen, chromic arid and its salts. 5. Then there are substances which tend to hydroltze when coming in contact with the moisture of the skin and form irritating compounds. Hexamethylenetetramine, which on hydrolizing, first forms formaldehyde and then later goes on to formic arid, is an ex ample of this class. 6. There are certain substances which act as stimulants to the keratin forming cells of the skin and are apt to cause new growths. Arsenic, petroleum products and anilute compounds are examples of this class. 7. There is still another group which is known as Settsiiisers. After exposure to them for varying lengths of time, the skin becomes sensitized to their action. These substances may be called anaphylactoid in their action. The nitro and the nitroso compounds and certain vegetables and fungi be long to this class. Hypersensitive workers may not, upon coming in contact with an irritant, immedi ately develop a dermatitis. A period of time usually elapses. This period may vary from a few hours to a few days. Some workers develop only a mild dermatitis and arc ahle to continue working and finally become im mune. Others develop so severe a dermatitis that it necessitates their discontinuing work. These usually do not develop an immunity. The immunity, if developed, usually lasts only a short time--from a week to a month after stopping work. There is one class of worker, and fortunately this type is rare, who after working without any trouble for many years, suddenly becomes sensitized to the materials which he formerly handled with safety and develops a severe dermatitis. These workers never become immune. They may even develop a polysensitivity to many of the ordinary things of life and as a result suffer from chronic, incurable eczemas. Symptom* The usual symptoms of an acute industrial dermatitis are itching, followed by erythema, oedema, papules and vesicles. The clinical appearance docs not, except in a few in stances, suck as oil acne* and keratoses due to paraffin and arsenic, offer a clue to the irritant Only the exposed parts are as a rule affected, but the covered parts of the body may also be affected by the action of penetrating (lasts, fumes and liquids. 74 7 u*vmty^Mjrtk Vfimfif Smfety Congress pow) to tW * to d) that it : The Wot |Mit u~htch > * fit* oonpotMt a thil 0 i goe* to wwfc. wall * ha *** W m4 reappear* W hi Thii of owte, * a not aturvy* : alternating while ai work W ihwr two fMf W potsible that thr pro tfiiwur u*4er ahrt Ary work are ae* always the same, or the dermatitis hacH aajr wMa a periodicity due to -rariaboos is the waiduty of the ]rsoo. Infectious on top of an industrial derma* titis can complicate the picture of the dis ease. so that it may be difficult to prove whether the infection or the occupational dermatitis is the original condition. Diagnosis The greatest difficulty in differential diag noses of industrial dermatoses is offered by dermatitis caused by substances not en countered at the place of occupation and by fungus infections and their allergic mani festations--the so-called "lids." The ap pearance of an acute contact dermatitis is the same whether it is caused by substances met with outside of industry or whether it is caused by substances met with at work. Fungus infections and their allergic reac tions may occur on portions of the body which are exposed to external irritants and may resemble acute contact dematitis, that is, they may show erythema and vesicles on the hands and fingers and as a great many people have fungus infections and as these fungus infections often open avenues of attack for external irritants, the differential diagnosis from a contact dermatitis is often difficult. To differentiate an occupational dermatitis from one due to contact with substances en countered outside of industry* patch tests with the materials which the worker handles during his work are of great value. In doing patch tests, it is necessary to know the dilu tion* of chemicals which can be placed on the normal skin for a period of time without enuring a reaction. You can readily see that a paPcfc test with a general irritant, such as "Mag aod or alkali, is of no value because it adUbamt any skin. TW reaction to a patch test depends on W degree of sensitivity of a patient, the Muntratioa of a chemical with which the tat is made, the actual amount of the I applied to a given area of the skin be length of time it is allowed to re po the skin, and also whether the sub wets the skin, that is, whether it is ` even to a small degree in the secreI of the skin, la performing patch tests in industrial (ww, it is best to have controls, usually fefiour workers who are doing the same kind of work as the patient but who do not show skin eruptions. One must also be on the lookout for delved reactions, that is, re actions which manifest themselves some time after the removal of the patches. . Patch tests must not be the sole criterion for a diagnosis of industrial dermatitis. A positive reaction shows that the person is sensitive to the material at that time. A negative reaction does not show that the person was not sensitive at the time he de veloped his dermatitis, nor does it show that the person would not become irritated by the substance under actual working condi tions, because friction, trauma and heat are not present in the patch test. If patch tests are performed after the dermatitis has dis appeared, the reactions may be negative be cause the person may have developed an immunity to the irritant. Patch tests are only links in the chain of evidence which determines the diagnosis of industrial dermatitis. The history, the ap pearance and location of the lesions, must also be considered. Cancer in Industry Cancerous changes in tfie skin may occur in wounds or scars caused by industrial ac cidents, such as burns and wounds. Cancer ous degeneration also occurs in so-called sailors* and farmers' skins, supposedly due. to over exposure to the ultra violet rays of the sun. Radium and X-ray cancers among technicians and physicians you are familiar with. Certain chemicals are also said to cause cancers of the skin. The soot cancer of chimney sweeps described in England has not been described in America. Certain oils and petroleum products predispose to the development of cancer. Hexdtk Service in industry 75 U uwr fu4n m ml rrluuu . we have verified Ai ffiO. Warben m tr--amc also tcod dirwdmg bfiffififiOfi town * toe ex posed )WV Smk kattmm to*w hw eeprwtwd b> Eiarnf-- .knarwwi but to *mt .Mtoet at taesvriev wham amutinato and in srtiride>. arc maMBfivaared * tow owner?. kvc railed unde tfcwr memremet. toe have. however. M tufi toun* ecwrrmg a* a rctufe of ifiw ittrail atonitoi imrimi of ar- ^xbc omtr long period* oi Me. Ve Mpuifiul aamker of papillomata and carriunwti of to* Madder ha been found to occur awning ijaktic dye workers both in Europe and in Aatha Workers exposed to dye banes a* Anthracene. Bcnzidtn and Alpha-Nxpfethyfamine, are said to have cancer* of the bladder occurring amongst them thirty tunes more frequently than the average population. Aniline and its derivatives arc also said lo cause the occurrence of cancer. Cancers o( t he liver have been experimentally produced in rats by feeding them certain aniline dyes (amido azo toluene) and also by rubbing certain of these aniline dyes into wounds of I he skin. Other substances said to cause cancer are Toluidin, Xylol, Sylodin, Cumidin, Anisidin, Dyphcnylamin, Naphthol, KongoRed, Safrmnin, Benzoepurpurin and BlucRosanilin. Treatment of Industrial Dermatoses A person who is so sensitive to the ma terial with which he works that he rannot develop an immunity, should seek some oilier occupation. Most of the cases of in dustrial dermatitis develop on new employees and arc usually mild in character. Such workers should be given a protective oint ment to put over the parts, proper protective clothing, such as rubber gloves, aprons, etc., and be allowed to continue on the job. Most of them will develop an immunity. Those who do not, should be given other work to do where they will not come in contact with the irritant. This usually effects a cure. In applying medication to lesions, only the mildest form of ointments or lotions should l*c used, such as boric acid or calamine. Deseroitization has not met with any en couraging results. Prevention The ideal prevention is to so safeguard the operations that injurious chemicals do not come in contact with the skin. This can l*c done by installing totally enclosed proc esses. Modern factories arc being built so that the worker need not come in contact with any of the chemicals used from the fttart of the manufacturing process to the very cod. Raw chemical* arc brought to the fartoriti in enclosed railroad cars, emptied by suction hose into enclosed storage contamers from hkh they arc sent by turning valves to the various retorts and kettles through a closed system. From these kettles the finished product is processed in totally enclosed machinery, such as filter* and grinders, and placed into closed shipping containers by means of hose or pipes. In some industrial processes, where this is not possible, or where there is old equip ment, the worker must be protected by being compelled to wear suitable protective cloth ing, such as rubber gloves, aprons, masks and goggles. This protective clothing should be frequently cleaned and laundered. Over processes from which are given off irritating dusts or fumes, a special suction ventilating apparatus should be installed so that these irritants cannot come in contact with the worker. The work rooms themselves should have proper and adequate ventilating equip ment so that dusts and fumes have no chance to accumulate in any concentration. Rules for the use of protective clothing should be enforced. When respirators or gas masks are furnished, the men should be compelled to wear them. Cleanliness is of prime importance. The Boors and walls of the work rooms should be kept scrupulously clean as should all ma chinery. Convenient shower baths should be installed and the workers should he com pelled to take baths after work. In factories where there are special skin hazards, a double set of locker rooms should be pro vided, that is, one for street clothes and one for depositing the soiled work clothes. In this way, the worker coming to work will enter the first locker room where he will strip and leave his clothes in the locker. From there he proceeds through a hall to the second locker room where clean work clothes arc wailing for him. From this locker room he proceeds to his work. At the end of the work shift he enters the locke* room in which he hud put cm his clean work clothes. Here he deposits his soiled work clothes and goes to the shower baths. From the shower baths he proceeds to the locker room where he had left hs street clothes and then goes home. 76 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress There are many protective ointments on (he market designed for the prevention of industrial dermatoses. These ointments are supposed to act by forming a protective him over the skin and thus to prevent the irritant from coming in contact with the skin. Many of them imperfectly perform their function. They may he easily rubbed off during work or may be washed off by the perspiration. Some may offer protection against a par ticular chemical. There are very few of them, however, which can protect against strong alkalis. In some instances a protective ointment may be of value, especially if used during the time pending installation of the more permanent protective measures which I have described. They should never be re lied upon as preventive measures, but only as temporary expedients pending the installa tion of proper safety appliances. New* applicants for work should be care fully examined and those having such pre disposing skin conditions as previously stated should not be employed in occupations where there is a skin hazard. In occupations which present serious skin hazards, all ap plicants for jobs should be stripped during the medical examination and should be patch tested with the materials with which they are to work and if found to be hypersensi tive, they should be rejected. The workers should be encouraged to re port to the medical department all Irritations of the skin, no matter how trivial. There should be frequent medical examinations of the workers to discover the presence of skin diseases which have not been reported. The physician in charge should have a working knowledge of dermatology and give proper treatment for these cases, or if he does not have such knowledge, dermatological cases should be sent to a consulting dermatologist. It is not always necessary to remove the worker from his job in order that he may get .well. Indeed, it is sometimes better to aljow him to work, if he has a mild derma titis, and treat him while working in the hope that be will develop an immunity or become 'hardened^'' as the workers them selves call it. A great many workers will' become "hardened** and the immunity thus acquired usually lasts while working and sometimes will continue for a considerable period after contact with the chemical has ceased so that the worker may stay away from his job for two or three weeks and come* back and still be immune. If, how ever, lie stays away for a few mouths, he will in most cases lose his immunity and will again have to go through the process of becoming "hardened.** Those workers who develop such a severe, dermatitis that they cannot get well while working, should be removed from the job and when they have become well, they should be placed in some other portion of the plant where they will not come in con tact with that irritant. Facts Revealed from Studying the Causes of Absenteeism By A. J. K. CURTIS Assistant to General Manager, Portland Cement Association, Chicago Most of us recognize potential danger in Ue present wave of almost hysterical con cern for the health of our workers. No industry, however free from real haz ard it may be, can successfully defend itself from uninformed public opinion without having at its command unassailable facts. This is particularly true of industries pro ducing . appreciable quantities of fumes, vapors or dust which, although actually harmless, may work on the imagination of uninformed observers. The portland cement industry provides a good illustration of this kind. On the other hand, no industry possessing a real hazard can hope to survive the flood of legislation and officially sponsored investi gation by an ostrich-like attitude of refus ing to recognize the existence of trouble. So, I say, the situation requires unassail able facts. Many techniques are available for gathering the facts which so many in dustries should have. On the engineering side, dust counts and analyses of the air in Health Service in Industry 77 (he working environment are valuable. Clini cally, physical examinations with necessary laboratory tests and X-rav views will help establish the existence or absence of a health hazard. Another valuable index of the general health of a group of workmen is frequently overlooked, namely; studies of the amount and severity disabling illness. Compari sons with absentee and mortality rates of other industrial groups, and of the com munity, often can be made. Insurance com panies and the U. S. Public Health Service are generous in providing available com parative statistics. Some of the state health departments are in a position to help. By making these comparisons, and taking into account possible variations due to dif ferent known factors, a practical picture of the effect of working environment on em ployees' health can be secured. Even if a hazard is not specific enough to produce occupational disease, most employers will want to be aware of, and to remove, any possible hindrance to the health of their employees. It will be of interest to point out general factors which may affect the interpretation of morbidity and mortality statistics. Dean K. Brundage, Senior Statistician of the United States Public Health Service, lists the following as the more important factors; A. Marital status (particularly of female industrial employee*). B. Extent of addiction to alcoholic stimu lants. C. Length of working day or week, includ ing extent of part-time employment. D. The type of workers from the physical standpoint who live in the community and from which labor draws its supply; ic., whether a preponderance of sturdy, robust workers such as are found in steel manu facturing colters or the more frail, anemic type which tends to concentrate in com munities which afford a multitude of light employments. E. Finally, the self-selection of workers for particular jobs for which they are physically fitted. Mr. Brundage explains tlie omission of '`climate" from this list, by the fact tltat climate does not affect mortality rates. How ever, he specifically points out that it does affect morbidity, or absentee, rates. Note that three of the five factors listed Rrc industrial. Even climate, interpreted as atmospheric working conditions, might be considered as an industrial factor, especially as it relates to indoor workers or to work ers who are alternately in cold and warm temperatures. A recent decision of the New York Appellate Court allowed an occupa tional disease claim of a meat market clerk for tuberculosis on the grounds that there was a direct causal connection between the employment which required him in enter a cold storage room ten to thirty times a day aixl the activation of tuberculosis. The court further ruled that under the New York law a disease docs not have to be peculiar to, or characteristic of, the employ ment in order to be classified as an occupa tional disease. It needs only to have been shown to be a disease suffered because of the nature of employment. Is it not evident that industry ought to be ou the alert to avoid all possible health hazards of any type, whether or not they arc obviously oc cupational ? Adequate absentee records imply adequate attendance records. These are usually availaide. Few companies today will tolerate a casual attitude toward attendance at work, and, of course, enforcement of discipline in this regard demands that employees explain the reasons for their absence. If records of the explanation are kept, all necessary data for an absenteeism analysis are at hand. The first step in the analysts of absentee ism, if the results are to be properly inter preted, is the separation of illness into minor and major types, based on length of absence. Where only two classifications arc used, the division *is usually made between illnesses of less than 8 days' duration and illnesses of 8 days' or :uore duration. This is the natural dividing point, since most sickbenefit associations begin payment for ab sence on the eighth day. By far the greater number of illnesses will be in the first class, but the most significant index of trends will be the eight day or over illnesses because (1) they represent the really serious disabling illnesses and (2) more comparative data are available in this group. Incidentally, an extremely high absentee rate in the one and two day illnesses may indicate, among other things, laxity of dis cipline in attendance. Each of the above classifications should again be divided according to the nature of 78 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress ilic disease. The United States Public Health Service's classifications are (J) Res piratory Illnesses, (2) Digestive illnesses and (3) Non-Respiratory, Non-Digestive Illnesses. These should then be analyzed further into the specific illnesses of each classification. Analysis both by number of employees affected and number of days lost is important. I want to emphasize the importance of using a standard method. If each organiza tion devises its own system, the results will not be comparable, and much of the value will be lost. Our first study of the cement industry was handicapped in this way. Mem ber companies reported only man-days worked as a base. We calculated our ab sentee rates on this base, only to find that other statisticians were using the average number of employees as a base. We also, in some instances, placed certain illnesses in a different classification from that usually followed. There arc endless ways in which absen teeism information can l>c used by an alert interpreter. Just how any individual plant or industry would use its own statistics must be determined by the peculiar conditions present in each case. [ am going to illustrate a few of the outstanding facts brought out by our study. Many of you have seen cement plants, and all of you have seen cement handled on construction. You know it is a finely ground, dusty material. To some casual observers this dustiness is synonymous with health liaxard. But many clinical and roentgeno logical studies in the last two years have demonstrated that this is not the ease. Such proof is very important, but by itself it is not sufficiently convincing to the- average person. It is fine to be able to point out that the lungs of workers have not been permanently affected; it if still better from the non technical viewpoint to be able to prove that the amount of acute illness is no greater ilian the average for all industrial workers, after adjustments for variable factors (Sec tion of the country, age, etc.,) have been made. Here is what our absenteeism study dem onstrated about the relation of disabling respiratory* illness to cement workers: If cement dust were in any sense harmful to the respiratory system we should expect that the normal reduction of respiratory illnesses in die summer months would be inhibited by the increase in exposure to the dust. Actually the descending curve is not affected as cement production increases. Pneumonia is usually a good index of the trend of respiratory illness, although authorities agree that this disease has noth ing to do with the breathing of dust. In 1936 the death rate from pneumonia in the cement industry was 0.89 per 1,000, or ap proximately one death in every 1,125 em ployees. 1 mentioned earlier that the evaluation oi these statistics must take into consideration local conditions. At first glance the pneu monia rate for the cement industry seems rather high. However, at least 75 per cent of cement mill workers are in the unskilled labor class. Since this is true, it is apparent that the pneumonia death rate in the cement industry is not greater than would be ex pected for the type of labor preponderant in thesfe plants. In ten selected states, in a survey made by Jessamine D. Whitney, statistician of the National Tuberculosis Association, the death rate for all gainfully occupied males was 9.07. In the cement industry, the rate was 8.42. A curious phenomenon, which has been verified in several clinical studies, is the very low tuberculosis rate of the industry. There were less than one-sixth as many deaths from tuberculosis m the cement in dustry ** Miss Whitney found among gain fully occupied males, generally. Wc have a rough check of the comparability of these figures in the suicide rate, which could hardly be influenced by occupation. It is essentially the same in the cement industry and in Miss Whitney's studies. The foregoing shows dearly that respira tory illnesses as such are not sufficiently exaggerated in the cement industry to war rant the conclusion that the process of cement manufacture affects their incidence. In the interest of the employees most em ployers will want to go farther than this. Regardless of occupational causation, they want to know what illnesses are causing serious loss of time. Such knowledge will point the way to the type of preventive service which will be most helpful. In this phase of the problem the absentee study will give much better information than a clinical study. The clinical study shows health conditions at a specific time; Health Service in tndvstrx \ 7y the absentee study shows trends and makes possible effective preventive measures. We do not yet have sufficient compara tive material to know whether our experi ence is different from other industries. Nevertheless, some illnesses do loom rather high, and we feel that in the interest of the employees specific educational work should he undertaken to help them avoid these illnesses. There is nothing unusual about the fact that respiratory illnesses affected the largest group of employees- TbU is natural. The common cold causes a large amount of dis ability not only in industry but m all nib of life. Nevertheless, the incidence of res piratory* illness in the specific industry being -tudied is worthwhile knowledge. It <fam onstrates the need for applying every ap proved educational or scientific preventive method. More significant to us is the frequency-- and even more especially-- the severity of rheumatism. Again comparative figures are lacking, but whether or not the incidence of rheumatism is above or below average, it is high enough to deserve attention. On the other side of the picture, we see that tuberculosis is a relatively unimportant cause of absence in the cement industry*, as also are high blood pressure, nervous dis eases, eye trouble and acute sinus infection. Tuberculosis ranks high in number of days lost, but that is to be expected since re covery is always relatively slow from this disease. So far, we have considered illness ab senteeism alone. The question will occur to many: "How important is illness ab senteeism in relation to other reasons for absence?" The answer to this question will, of course, vary somewhat with the rates for other reasons for absence, but I think that any study of this sort will show conclusively that, entirely aside from consideration of occupational disease, illness absence is the most important class of absenteeism in in dustry. In the cement industry occupational injury, on which we have concentrated so strongly, has become the least important cause of absence. Illness, in which we are only beginning to be concerned, has replaced injury as the outstanding absence cause. I am certain that wc are not unusual in this respect One large manufacturing concern. with an exceptional reputation for kecident prevention, was found to have a sickness absence rate twice as high as the cement industry'*, although the exposure to weather conditions is not nearly as great in that com pany. Obviously there is a large and profit able field for improvement in control of absence due to illness. There arc. then, two important reasons for ihr development of adequate absentee ism and mortality records: First, these records will reveal any trend toward an occupational hazard, or, if no hazard exists, will furnish conclusive proof of that fact- 1 cannot emphasize too strongly thc importance of thjs reason. The trend of all industrial thought today is toward more protection for the worker. It is certainly a very backward industry that does not wish to give its employees the advantage of all possible protection. Even the backward industries are being poshed into the van of progress by legislative action. The second and more direct reason for absentee studies is that they reveal so well the general health of employees outside of the strictly occupational hazards. Thus they afford a means of determining accurately how important It is to both employees and management to introduce a health service. Absentee studies also demonstrate clearly the indirect effect of environment on the workers* licalth. I do not think that very detailed reports need be dune each year for an indefinite period. After three or four years the trends will be pretty well established, and less frequent surveys, taken to demonstrate the effectiveness nf preventive measures, will be adequate. The success of any efforts along these lines is directly proportional to the care with which the work is dpne. The knowl edge gained will in itself he worth the effort expended. Even more valuable will be the results of careful application of that knowl edge. Mr. Brundage states the case most effectively: "The relatively high sickness and death rates found among the skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers in industry indicate a need for the extension of industrial hy giene measures. Tentative estimates indi cate that savings obtainable through the elimination of occupational health hazards would to a large extent offset tlte cost of 80 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress providing more adequate health protection for industrial workers. Industrial medical `service, for example, even if financed by ' employees, could reduce the amount of time lost on account of illness so that the net cost to the workers would be no more than they now spend on the average for medical care.** Classification of Diaeaaes at Used by U. 8. Public Health Service in Morbidity and - Mortality Studies. Numbers Refer to Classification in the International List of Causes of Death Respiratory diseases Bronchitis---acute and chronic (106) chest colds included Diseases of the pharynx and tonsils (115a) sore throat included Other diseases of upper respiratory tract (104, 105) head colds included Influenza, grippe (II) Pneumonia--all forms (107-109) Tuberculosis of respiratory system (23) Other respiratory diseases (U0-U4) hay fever, pleurisy, asthma, etc. Digestive diaeaaes Diseases of the stomach except cancer (117. 118) indigestion, etc. Diarrhea and enteritis (120) calitis included Appendicitis (121) Hernia (122a) Other digotive diitare* (115b. 116, 122b-129) intestinal disorder, gall Madder, dental dis order, jaundice, clc. Nonrespiratory, nondigestive diseases Infectious and parasitic diseases (1-10, 12-22, 24-33, 36-44) contagious, infections, malaria, etc. Cancer and other malignant tumors (45-53) Acute rheumatic fever (56) Chronic rheumatism, osteoarthritis (57) Diseases of the blood and blood-making organs (70-74) anemia, etc. Chronic poisonings and intoxication* (75-77) Neuralgia and neuritis (B7a) Neurasthenia and the like (part of 87b) Other diseases of the nervous system (7R-85), part of 87b. paralysis and apoplexy, included Diseases of the organs of vision (88) Diseases of the ear and of the mastoid process (89) Diseases of the heart (90-95) Diseases of the arteries (96-99) Diseases of (he veins (100) hemorrhoids, etc. High blood pressure (102) Other diseases of the circulatory system (101, 103) low blood pressure, gland disturbances. Acute iiepuritis (130) Chronic nephritis and nephritis unspecified (131, 132) Diseases of the genital organs--uonvenereal (138, 139) menorrhagia, etc. Other diseases of the genito-urinary system (133-137) prostalitis, uninary inf., bladder, ureteral 'Diseases of the $kin and cellular tissue (151-153) boils, carbuncle, abscesses Diseases of organs of locomotion except of the joints (156b) Ill-defined diseases and unknown causes (200) fainting, headache, etc. AU other <tieases (54, 55, 58-69, 140-150, l$4-156a. 157, 162) diabetes, tumor, etc. Health Sendee iw industry 81 Industrial Burns and Their Treatment By DR. R. D. MUDD Medical Director, Chevrolet-Grey Iron Foundry Division, General Motors Corp., ^ Saginaw, Mich. A brief resume of the types and causes of burns and -what happens when a burn occurs will be helpful in understanding the treatment. The classification of bums into first, second and third degrees is not really important because the pathology and treat ment are quite similar for all types. This classification is important however Inasmuch as it materially affects the length of disa bility and the dieath rate. First degree bums are characterized by redness of the skin; second degree by blistering and third degree by charring. The main feature of third degree hums Is the destruction of all epithelium making skin grafting usually advisable and often a ne cessity. The general principles of treatment make it unimportant to distinguish bums by fire or thermal, by hot liquids or scalds by chemicals, by sunlight or by friction. X-ray burns need not be discussed here. Bums of more than of the body are said to be usually fatal, but a bum of A of the body is always serious. The sequence of events in a burned pa tient occur in the following order. Primary shock occurs immediately due to pain, loss of heat and an upset of the vasomotor mech anism by nervous impulses from the injured area. It is uncommon, tend* to pass off spontaneously and is rarely serious.1 Sec ondary shock follows the primary shock. A number of writers subdivide secondary shock into a stage due to blood concentra tion and another due to absorption of toxin but there appears to be little excuse for this as it has been shown that toxin formation and absorption begin almost immediately after a bum occurs* and it may reach fatal proportions in 8 to 12 hours though it prac tically ceases by the 24th hour. There ap pears to be no doubt that blood concentra tion begins immediately. The damaged blood vessels in the burned area release in increasing amounts the plasma of the blood which goes to form blisters, edema of the part burned and adjacent parts. As the plasma of the blood continues to poor out into the burned and adjacent areas, the blood absorbs the fluids from other organs and tissues and they become dehydrated bu the fluid absorbed continues to pour into il< burned area with the result the blood becomeV enormously concentrated - - thick. Thir. amount of plasma lost may be 70 per cent 4 of the total. Coincident with this concen tration of the blood, the blood chlorides are reduced, blood glucose percentage is in^ creased, the plasma fibrin and globulin are increased and the albumin shows a fall in concentration.* If the patient escapes death due to initial shock, blood concentration or toxemia due to bum toxin, he still lias to cope with the infection that almost always followed the older methods of treatment and occurs also quite frequently with modern treatment. In fection may overwhelm the patient especially following third degree burnt and any of the complications which can result from infection can occur. After infection is con trolled and only then docs healing really get under way. If the patient survives the first three phases of his burn he may suffer a long disability during the healing stage and end up with large contracting scars, ad hesions of one part of the body to another, sluggish ulcers, and be fo.ced to undergo an extensive ordeal of skin grafting. Even after all this his entire future may be dulled by an ugly appearance or a functionlc** member. The symptoms and signs of a bum which 1 have related are remarkably and surpris ingly less conspicuous with the tannic acid treatment Drs. R. D. McClure* and G I. Allen found on studying the figures of five groups that the tannic acid treatment re duced the mortality in severe bums from 30.8 per cent to 12.6 and that the mortality at the Royal Hospital for sick children in Edinburgh was reduced from 35.4 per cent to 4.8 per cent. While these results arc important, almost equally important are the large number of other advantages which will be enumerated after the tannic treat ment is described. 1 will not describe Davidson's original method as in my opinion there are a num ber of more or less recent modifications 82 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress which I found to he more useful. I refer QUo the Fantus and Dyniewiez* modification 4 of the Bettman* tannic add-silver nitrate 9 treatment of bums. This treatment is as simple as any of the old lard, oil or oint ment therapy. i Outstanding disadvantages of Davidson's method were that the tannic acid solution had to be prepared at the time of the bum, the solution was not antiseptic, tanning was slow and the patient's skin was kept moist for many hours during the tanning process. These disadvantages are overcome by using I^Fantus and Dyniewiez tannic acid solution w which is 10 per cent tannic acid with potas sium, calcium and sodium chloride and salicylic acid. This solution keeps indefi nitely and does not clog the atomizer that should be used. Any bum that needs treat ment, with the exception of bum* near tire eyes, can and should be treated in the fol lowing manner. If there is much pain give morphine sulphate in doses of gr. to Vt in adults and codeine in children. Keep the patient warm with blankets, hot water bot tles or other available means. The burned area and surrounding skin is washed with soap and warm water 2nd grease and oil removed with benzine. The patient will be fortunate if no oil or greasy dressing has been applied prior to the time you sec the patient for if so this oil or grease will have to be removed. All blisters and devitalized skin should be removed with sterile instru ments. The sooner the tannic acid is sprayed on to the bum the more chance the patient has to live, the less shock, toxemia and blood concentration there will be. A delay of one hour may mean the loss of Ufe. It is an emergency measure almost as much as is artificial respiration when it is needed. An atomizer is the handiest method of spraying the tannic acid.1 Spray once and generously and then tue an electric dryer to dry and drive in the tannic acid. Being 10 per cent instead of Davidson's 2.5 to 5 her cent the tanning is faster and deeper. In a few minutes the surface is dry and then 10 per cent silver nitrate which should be on hand is swabbed on to the tanned -surface and again dried. The local treatment is then complete except tiiat as small unsuspected areas of bum occur on the next or succeed ing days, the spraying of these areas should be done. Pay particular attention to what this tan ning' does. It coagulates the burned tissue holding in place the toxins it might release, the bacteria that might be present and seals oil the damaged blood vessels preventing loss of fluid, but the most amazing thing is that pain stops almost completely, thus lessening shock and saving the patient'* strength. Patients shocked into unconscious ness by pain, toss of heat, regain conscious ness sooner and are able to take life saving fluids, without which most patients with severe bums would die, and making it un necessary to give fluids by vein through the ,skin and elsewhere- The after treatment is just as important as the application of tannic acid. The more serious cases should be hospitalized. The burned areas are left uncovered. A canopy sometimes called the "Covered Wagon" is placed over the patient and electric light bulbs placed inside to keep the patient warm and the skin dry- Fluids are forced, the patient being given a quart (1,000 cc.) of fluid in any possible way per 25 lbs. per day. The need for salt is so great that some normal saline solution should be given by vein. In the severest cases early blood trans fusion should be resorted to and special nursing is a necessity. Urinary examination and blood hemoglobin determinations should be done at least daily for several days. After several days the coagulum should be watched carefully for areas of infection and if found it should be incised freely to allow the escape of pus. The use of the method I have outlined will reduce tremendously the indigence of these infections prior to Davidson's method. The profuse discharge and the dressings heavily soaked with pus, odorous and often green leave a picture not to be forgotten.* If the bum is first or- second degree there is even less likelihood of infection occur ring. We usually find that when the coagulum is ready to come off the skin is often healed underneath. The reason is that in bums not exceeding the second degree groups of epithelial cells are present cither hn the surface or within the glands and hair follicles of the skin and infection not interfering, these cells grow rapidly and form new skin. But in burns of third de gree, while the tannic add method carric* the patient past the dangerous primary and secondary shock stages, infection usually occurs to more or less extent and since tan nic acid does not stimulate epithelialization wo arc faced with the necessity oi clearing Health Service in Industry 83 up the infection, and if the burn is of any >izc even as little as 2 inches square, tlie area should be prepared for skin grafting. I like antiseptic wet dressings such as 1 to 5,000 metaphen solution, but normal saline solution does very well in most cases. Each one has his own method of preparing the area to be grafted. Because we have men tioned Bettman's method local treatment I should add that he prepares the area for skin grafting by use of what he calls oxyquinoline sulphate scarlet red ointment" which is applied to gauze in such a way as to keep the intcrcises only. This gauze is applied over the wound and stimulates cpithclializ&tion if any epithelial cells remain and rapidly clears up infection in those areas which are to be prepared for skin grafting. For a thorough understanding of his method you are referred to his excellent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, December 19, 1931. If skiu grafting must be done it should be done early. The type of skin grafting to use would require a talk in itself and I will not attempt to go into it. I like pinch grafts the best but they are not satisfactory for the exposed parts of the body because of their appearance. The above is more nr less typical of the care of a burn due to hot liquids or fire but is just as useful for chemical and even sun burns. Burns of the face should be treated with tannic acid jelly, in order to avoid getting tannic acid solution in the eye. The lips and eye lids should be treated with small amounts of sterile vaseline. Acid and alkali burns should be neutralized with water. Doctors' offices, roadside and industrial aid stations and fire department first aid sta tions should be stocked with tannic arid and the solution be made up when needed. They should have a suitable spray with the tannic acid in it and ready to receive sufficient water. It would be better if such a solution as Fantus and Dyniewiez suggest were on hand. The use of any grease or oil for the first aid treatment of a burn is as obso lete as a horse and buggy on Fifth Avenue. NTo bum is too small to warrant the use of the tannic acid method or one of its modifications. On the smallest type of bums, tannic acid jelly is acceptable either alone or with some form of antiseptic. It would be well if every home had tannic acid powder or jelly on hand and a solution of proper strength made up whenever needed ami applied with gauze or small towels wrung out in the solution. I do not wish you to think that this i* the only treatment. Many other types have strong advocates. I will but mention the other types: 1 per cent aqueous solution of gentian violet (Firor), gentian violet jelly treatment, the cod liver oil crude or refined alone or in combination with allanloin, the immersion treatment either in tannic acid solution or water, the ferric chloride coagulatiop method. All of these arc reputed to have advantage* of various sorts. I am particularly interested in the use of cod liver oil in the laic infected stages ot burns and believe the last has not been said about it. The use of gentian violet and ferric chloride is based on the same principles as tite tannic arid treatment. Any of the modern methods of treating burns mentioned above will give good results if thoroughly understood and if the principles of general treatment are adhered to. In conclusion my plea is to discard the outlawed out of date methods of treatment of burns and learn to use one of the coagu lation methods, the simplest of which I feel is:the one I have outlined. The savings in dressings, hospitalization, human suffermg, deformities and life itsfelf will amply repay you for your efforts to learn and use proper modem treatment of bums. . BIBLIOGRAPHY W'ilfcon. W. C.: Modern Method* in the Treat ment ot Burnt. Practitioner April 1936. *Vout. E.: Versuche Uber die Vebortra* Barkeit das Verbrennunga Gift**- 7-fchf. I-. *0r|attl. U. therap. 11:191, 1912. Davidson. E. C. ami Matthew, C. \V\: Plawna Proteins In Cutaneous Burns. * McClure, R. D. and Allen, C. I.: Davidson Tannic Acid Treatment of Burns. American J. ot Surg. 28:370-386. Mar 1935. Fantus, Bernard amt Dyniewic*, H. A.: Com pound Solution of Tannic Acia, J.A.M.A. 109:200203. July 17, 1937. Bettman. A. C.: The Rationale ot the Tannc Acid-Silver Nitrate Treatment of Burns. J.A.M.A. 108:1490*1494. May 1, 1937. T New Tannic Acid Atomiser. Ind- Med. Juna 193S. Bettman. A. C.: A Minnlcr Technic for Pronwtinjr EpitheUalixalion and Protecting Skin Grafts. J.A.M.A. 97:1879-1881. Dec. 19, 1931. ADJOURNMENT Industrial Dusts WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 13, 1937 The meeting was called to order by Chairman A. S. Regula, Executive Secretary, Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., New York Cily, and Vice-President for Engutccring. National Safety Council, who introduced the speakers. What Industrial Dusts Arc Harmful? Why? By SENIOR SURGEON R. R. SAYERS Chief, Division of Industrial Hygiene, U. S. Public Health Service While dusts exist everywhere in the at mosphere, it has been recognized for cen turies that workers in certain dusty occupations are less healthy than those not so exposed. The number of persons ex posed in dusty occupations comprises one' of the largest industrial groups. The occu pational diseases of workers In dusty at mospheres have been found to be due to entrance of dust into the system by inhala tion, by ingestion, by direct absorption through the skin, by irritation of the skin, or by a combination of the foregoing. The suspensions of particulate matter in air have been broadly termed dusts, fumes, and smokes. Such a classification is neces sarily arbitrary, since the tine of demarca tion between them is not very sharp, and the chief differentiation is based on the size of the particles. Investigations by the Pub lic Health Service in dusty industries1 re vealed that about 70 per cent of the dust particles examined were between 1 and 3 microns in size, only about 20 per cent were less than 1 micron, and the median size was 13 microns. Industrial dusts are mainly less than 10 microns in size. However, fibrous dusts in the air, such as asbestos, liavc been found to contain particles as large as 200- 400 mircons in the greatest diameter. While, generally speaking, according to Collts, dusts are more injurious as their chemical composition differs from that of the human body, or from the elements of which the body is normally composed,* it ts difficult to establish a comprelicnsivc definition for toxic dusts, tollmann,' after analysis of various definitions for poison, felt that it is very difficult to give a definition which will not be ambiguous in some cases, but believed that the following covers most of the points which must be considered in classing a substance as such; "A poison is.any substance which, act ing directly through its inherent chemic properties, and by Us ordinary action, is capable of destroying life, or of seriously endangering health, when it is applied to the body, externally, or in moderate doses (to SO Gm.) internally." Some dusts are known to be poisonous, while others, in the concentrations usually encountered, are comparatively harmless. However, it may be stated that breathing dust in high concentration is not desirable. According to Fairhall, the damage arising from the inhalation of toxic dust may be either local or remote, and depends upon whether the material is a protoplasmic poi son, whether it is caustic in reaction, or whether It is absorbed into the blood stream and carried to other centers which are in turn affected.4 It is now well established that exposure to certain kinds of dusts, such as those con taining considerable quantities of free silica, has increased the morbidity and mortality rate from respiratory diseases; while me tallic dusts, such as lead and Its compounds. 85 86 Tucnly-sijrth National Safety Congress have been associated with general systemic poisoning.1 Dusts may be swallowed with saliva, water, or food, and direct poisoning has been traced to absorption by this method; other dusts may act as irritants and produce affections of the skin, irritate mu cous membranes of nose, eyes and throat, often causing inflammatory diseases of these organs.4 Some inorganic dusts are able to pene trate the deep lung tissues and arc sufficiently insoluble to be retained there. Some of these may he active in the human tissues, causing definite and permanent in jury. while others are inert and may be retained for years, apparently without seri ous damage; some are gradually absorbed without causing pathological changes.* AU inhaled particles are soluble, at least to a small extent. If harmless, cell activity is stimulated so that phagocytes remove the dust. If the solute is toxic, the viability of the phagocyte is affected and an ineffective accumulation results. At the same time, further solute may diffuse into neighboring tissues, setting up an irritation and subse quent fibrosis. The nature as well as the solubility of the solute is an important fac tor, hut of two substances of approximately equal toxicity, the more soluble form causes the greater damage. However, sub stances of such low solubility as silica may nltimately produce extensive injury.* Kettle has stated that harmful dusts, if inhaled into the lungs, may activate a latent tuberculous infection; they may exaggerate an active tuberculous lesion or a coincident infection. If sufficient quantities of a harm less dust arc inhaled, some of it remains in the lungs and causes a mild decree of fibro sis merely through mechanical irritation, hut such fibrosis is never sufficient to inter fere with the function of the lung.' Some writers state that while the influ ence of nonpoisonous dusts on health is a debatable subject, abnormally high death rates from bronchitis and pneumonia are sometimes attributed to chronic exposure to nontoxic dusls. Large amounts of dust are occasionally found in supposedly norma) lungs, at autopsy* According to Drinker, there arc four dif ferent types of reaction produced in man by the inhalation of dust. The first and most important are the pneumoconioses, such as silicosis and asbestosis, which cause specific lung pathology and often arc followed by pulmonary tuberculosis. The second type of reaction is caused by toxic dusts like lead, cadmium, and radium. A third type of mal ady follows the inhalation of finely divided metallic fume particles such as zinc oxide, and is known as metal fume fever. The fourth reaction, allergic in character, is caused by breathing organic dusts such as pollen and certain types of pulverised wood and flour. In all four cases the sole cause of the disability may be dust inhalation, but llie reactions from toxic dusts result from swallowing as well as from inhalation.** For various reasons it is difficult to set up an absolute classification for dusts. Opinion is rapidly changing regarding socalled inert or harmless dusts and further investigation may prove some of them to be injurious. Some dusts may have both a toxic and an irritant action; while on the other hand, the poisoning resulting from ex posure to a dust may be the combined effect of more than one mode of entrance into the body. However, the following classification of dusts, according to physical character istics and physiological effect, is used for convenience. I. Organic Dusts Organic dusts are those which contain carbon, and were originally supposed to come from organized substances derived from animal or plant life. Living dusts come under this classification, and arc thought to be of the same order of size as industrial dusts, with which they are fre quently associated. Bacteria are usually be tween 0-5 and 3 microns, except in a few cases, such as the anthrax bacillus, which ranges from 1 to 1.25 micron in breadth and 45 to 10 microns in length and 10 or 12 microns in diameter. However, it is possi ble that the larger and heavier varieties, like the larger and heavier dust particles, settle due to gravity, and do not remain suspended in the air. Many thousands of organic substances, carbon-containing, are made synthetically by chemical processes, such as dyestuffs, explosives, etc. I. NONLtVtNG ORCmANIC DUSTS. As the name implies, these arc comprised of nonviabk particles, which may or may not lie inherently toxic or irritant, but which nevertheless produce untoward effects in the human organism. "Allergic" dusts, or those to which only certain persons arc or may Industrial Dusts 87 become hypersensitive, with resulting asthma, rhinitis, or other disturbances, are included in this classification. a. Toxic and/or Irritant. Toxic or irritant dusts are all organic dusts which produce untoward symptoms, either systemic or local. Those producing local symptoms are usually described as irritant; those produc ing general or systemic symptoms are termed toxic. A dust may be both toxic and irritant. In reported cases of injury or death fol lowing inhalation of dust from organic com pounds, among the chief offenders are paramtraniUnc, the dinitrobenzenes, chlorodimirobenzcnes, trinitrophcnol, and nitronaphthalcne. Eye damage due to inflamma tion of the cornea has occurred among workers exposed to methyl violet dust. The dust from paraphcnylcne diamine derivatives is particularly irritating and dangerous, causing not only a severe form of derma titis where the dust comes in contact with the skin, but also producing acute inflamma tion of the mucous membrane of the respiratory passages.* Toxic dusts may be generated during the handling of powdered dyes and in preliminary dyeing operations, particularly the hydro-extractor process, where panicles are disseminated in all di rections." Coal tar and indigo dyes are substances most frequently used. Cases of amblyopia have been reported front exposure to inhalation of tobacco dust." It has been forod that inhaled to bacco dust exerts a nicotine action on the organism fifteen times greater than that produced by the same quantity of smoked tobacco with an equal nicotine content." Severe dermatitis is experienced by mamworker* Handling powder containing T.N.T., which is used in making high explosives. Picric acid, which is also used for this pur|K)>c, requires drying, and in this latter state has been found to produce a dermatitis. Picric arid is also the oldest synthetic or ganic dyestuff.** Dermatitis occurs among handlers of silk with varying frequency. Sails determined that a rash occurring among workers in a silk factory was doe to ilut from silk cocoons imported from Africa* Persons engaged in the manufacture of quinine and preparations suffer from *kut phenomena, which occur for the most part on exposed parts of the body, and may be caused by ingestion or by quinine dust, or powder form of the preparation, ex erting a direct irritating effect on the skin.1* Dermatitis due to other vegetable dusts such as vanilla, powdered arnica, pyrethrum, etc., have been reported." Dental lesions, of occupational origin, have been reported among workers in sugar. The gingivitis caused by sugar dust is clas sified as purely mechanical, with laterdeveloping caries. Digestive disorders, respiratory conditions, and cutaneous con ditions (especially of the face) were also found." Dock workers, transporters of gram, workers in grain and flour mills, etc. are exposed to dusts during their work. Dusts from cereals may contain many impurities, which may cause an irritating action on the respiratory passages, as well as inflamma tion of the skin. Digestive disturbances, dental defects, diminution in hearing, and conjunctivitis have been observed among millers, and have been attributed to the dusts to which such workers are exposed." b. Allergic. Many apparently innocuous substances may produce reactions in per sons of peculiar personal susceptibility. The term "allergy" is used to describe this con dition of hypersensitiveness or susceptibility, and allergic phenomena most frequently manifest themselves In skin reactions. How ever, they may cause acute reactions else where in the body. When the respiratory tract is involved we have such well known diseases as hay fever or asthma. These diseases may develop as a result of liyper- sensitiveness to such substances as pollens from plants, horsehair, rabbit's fur, furs, feathers, etc. For instance, furriers, workers in clothing industries who are exposed to wool dust, etc., may suffer from hay fever or asthma." It is unnecessary for the offending dust to reach the depths'of the lungs--giant pollens for example are reported to produce their effect after being caught in the upper res piratory passages. Should such an offending substance be finely ground it could reach the alveoli and as a result probably all physiologic reactions would be accelerated." In a survey of a plant where resin is mixed, ground, and molded, it was found that 80 per cent of the occupational derma titis there was due to hypersensitivity to hexamethylenetetramine and formaldehyde contained in the dust to which the -workers were exposed." During the first processes 8S Tzccnty-sixlh National Safety Congress of cotton spinning, cotton-strippers are ex posed to dust arising from cotton husks and debris, which produces a typical form o' asthma.* Ordinary wood du&l has been of interest due to its purely mechanical action, but still greater care is required in handling certain kinds, especially woods coming from abroad, because of the essential oils impreg nating them, which when freed in the dust may affect the health of the workers con cerned Some of the woods capable of causing skin lesions are Brazil wood, satinwood. icakwood, cumaru or tonka wood, black ebony wood. West Indian mahogany. Japanese tagayasan, coccoloba, chestnutwood, olivewood, California sequoia, etc. All per sons who handle these woods arc not in jured. only those particularly susceptible to the substances they contain becoming affected.** 2, Uinxc ORGANIC DUSTS. These contain particles capable of exhibiting the phenomena of life* (especially the property of reproduction or multiplication), such as bacteria and fungi. They are usually found in low concentrations and arc associated with nonliving dusts in the air. a. Bacteria. One of. the most important among these is the anthrax bacillus, which is contained in the dust from skins, furs, woof, and animal hair, horns, hoofs, bones, etc. This disease may occur in two forms: cutaneous (in which the organism affects the skin), and pulmonary (when it is inhaled, as in the form of anthrax known as wool- sorters' disease). ** Cases of tetanus, reported in connection with jotc manufacture, were traced to the raw* material, the bacillus having been found in the factory* dust.** Diphtheria, tubercu losis, smallpox, typhoid, or other bacillusproduced diseases, may result from exposure to infected dusts. Bacteria) sensitization can be the cause of any of the allergic diseases, namely, asthma, perennial, hay fever, urticaria, angioneurotic edema, eczema, or migraine headaches.*4 b. Fungi. Dusts containing the mycelia and spores of parasitic fungi give rise to annoyance and discomfort. "Maltster's" itch from the dust alone has been reported. In Provence, reeds used for ceilings are stacked while still wet and undergo fermentation; they become covered with a white powder (a dry fungus of the Miicor family: Sporo- trichum dc; matodes), which is scattered when the bark is stripped off. This powder is irritating to the skin and mucous mem branes. Mycelia and spores of moulds are commonly found to cause rashes: for in stance, the black powder coming from maceiated sugarcane stalks. Among basketmakers, the mycelium and spores, in the form of a white mould (hyphomyccte) from the rhattan canes used, get shaken out when the canes are split, hammered, and cut, caiising painful fissures to develop on the skin where they alight.** A form of asthma or spasmodic cuu&h, suffered by cotton weavers and known as aspergillosis, has been considered due to in halation of spores of a mildew which some times occurs on the threads * In a study of silicosis among miners, made by the Public Health Service, a number of cases of typical miliary calcification were en countered. Unstained smears of those cases examined were positive for fungus, two types of Aspergillus fungi being identified. All of the subjects but one were farmers, teamsters, feedmili workers, or residents of small agricultural towns where grain is marketed. Farmers are exposed to fungi in threshing wheat, baling hay, or handling various small grains.** Some other fungus diseases such as actino mycosis and blastomycosis are associated with occupational exposure to dust The former occurs among workers handling straw, hay, grass, vegetable debris contami nated with mould, etc. Actinomycosis Is likely to affect people engaged in commercial handling, storing, and cleansing of grain (grain distilleries, flour mills, grain crush ing, breweries, and malting houses, etc.).*1 II. Inorganic Dusts Inorganic compounds arc of mineral origin, not requiring a living organism to produce them.*1 A number of dusts not usually classed as toxic may, under some conditions, produce untoward effects on the human organism. Classified under inorganic arc toxic and/or irritant, fibroais-produciug, and nonfibrosis-producing deists. a. Toxic and/or Irritant. Toxic dusts arc those which arc inherently toxic when in haled. ingested, or otherwise absorbed. Among those which produce systemic poi soning, some of which are also irritant, arc the dusts from heavy metals and their salts, such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium. Industrial Dusts S9 zinc, etc. Irritant dusts are injurious by reason of their strong irritative or corro sive properties. As a rule, inhaled irritant substances im mediately cause a reaction in the upper respiratory tract of such severity that they are prevented from reaching the lungs, al though they may cause lung damage by extension of inflammation if the mucous membrane is corroded.* Lime, calcium oxide, and the di-chromates are examples of irri tant dusts. An inorganic dust may possess both toxic and irritant properties, and the poisoning produced may be the combined effect of more than one mode of entrance into the body. Of the directly poisonous dusts, the most widely prevalent are those of certain lead compounds, particularly the oxide, carbon ate and the chromate. The dust is readily absorbed by the mucous membrane,* some dust passes into the stomach and is dissolved by the gastric juice.* According to Fairball, perforated nasal septum is a common occurrence among workers with bi-chromate dusts.* In a study made by the U. S. Public Health Service it was found that continuous daily exposure to concentrations of chromic acid mist greater than I milligram in 10 cubic meters is likely to cause definite injury to ibe nasal tissues." It is believed that a similar concentration of the dust would be equally toxic. la the case oi poisoning from some heavy exposure may be to both dust and vapor. For instance, investigations have ibow (be safe limit of total exposure to lead oxide dust and fumes to be less than 1.5 ag per 10 cubic meters of air, except for prolonged exposure." In exposure to uxiuuj dust and vapor, it was shown that the ioddeuce of chronic mercurialism in creases rapidly with increasing mercury concentration, after such concentration ex ceeds 2.0 mg. per 10 cubic meters." AQaHs and metallic oxides are common causes of dermatoses. Lye, potash and lime are known to cause irritation to plas terers, cement-makers, bricklayers, masons, stonecutters, modellers, and metal platers." Ulceration and perforation o the nasal sep tum occur among workers exposed to the dust of soda ash; systemic poisoning also occurs from inhalation of calcium Qanimtde dust" Cases of dermatitis, scleroderma and can cer arc reported to have been caused by exposure to dust of arsenic compounds. Certain aluminum salts are skin irritants and aluminum dusts may contribute to the infection of skin and mucous membranes, through mechanical action." b. Fibrosis-Producing Dusts. The most important of these arc the inorganic, slightly soluble dusts which cause fibrous changes in the lung tissues, some of which are seri ous, and some of which cause little or no disability.1 So far as is known, no inorganic substances other than silicon derivatives cause more than a very moderate -degree of fibrosis of the lung. Moreover, there seems to be no evidence that any other constituent of ordinary dusts can influence so unfavora bly a pulmonary infection.* Although otltcr dusts, when inhaled in sufficient concentrations over a long period of time, have been shown capable of pro ducing a pulmonary fibrosis, nevertheless, the pneumoconiosis characterized by nodu lar fibrosis has to date been shown clini cally and experimentally to be associated only with the inhalation of dusts containing free silica. Since this dust, to exert its harmful action, must enter the finer divisions of the lung, the particle size of the atmospheric dust may bear a definite relationship to the in jurious effect produced. The silica must be present in the air in particles small enough to enter the finer air .spaces and of such dimensions that (he phagocytic cells may engulf them. The greater majority of par ticles found upon microscopic examination of the lung fall within the limits of from 1 to 3 microns." Examples of siliceous dusts are granite, quartz, sand, pumice, slate, etc. In a recent study among anthracite miners, the correlations Irctween exposure to dust (which contained silica) and the evidence of constitutional changes left little doubt as to the etiological significance of the dust in the air breathed. Like correlations were found between the silica exposure and the extent of pulmonary' changes." When the inhaled dust consists of silica combined will) bases, silicates, some degree of change in the pulmonary tissue may result. In this respect asbestos dust seems to be unique among silicates In the prevalence and se verity of the disease it causes." The chief distinction between silicosis and conditions due to simple reactions caused hy other dusts is the active proliferative 90 Iteeniy-siMh .Aational Safely Congress reaction in the tissue** which results in progressive nodulation. Silicosis, when once established, strongly predisposes the lungs to infection, especially with the tubercle bacillus. Chronic interstitial pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema arc fre quent complications of advanced degrees of silicosis. The relation of the acute respiratory in fections to the reaction due to dusts other than free silica Has never been established, though a heightened incidence has often been $to\vn statistically in workers in dusty trades. It is fairly certain that a dust dam aged lung, whatever the cause, fares much worse if an acute infection does supervene upon it.r In a study conducted by the U. $. Public Health Service among marble finishers in Vermont, it was found that marble dust when inhaled in the concentrations found in the examined plants produced a mild, bi lateral, linear fibrosis in some cases, but no serious lung changes were noted and there was no disability due to the dust, even after years of exposure.** c. Nonfibrosis-Producing Dusts. These are inert, that is, they do not cause fibrous tissue to be produced, but may become encapsulated or lie free in ihe tissues: or they are absorbed without production of fibrous tissue. Included among them are nlimdum, coal, corundum, emery, limestone, magnesite, marble, plaster of pari? (gypstun), and polisher's rouge. Dust Control Kiiuinccring and uicdU'jl control arc the tuo nm>i important factors in comlating the industrial dust hazard, and arc to a large extent complementary. litiflinecring Control As Lanza*1 has slated in a recent paper, "It i.s n baste principle in dealing with a dust hazard that the dust should be attacked at its point of origin and thus prevented from being dis seminated into the atmosphere.*' After the dust has Ihtcii spread throughout the air it is difficult to deal with it, and reliance must le placed on individual protection, which is never wholly satisfactory. ,, Lanza further cites various methods used in controlling dust. These will he reviewed hut briefly, since a paper dealing with the subject of dust control in detail, will follow* on this program. Dust may be entrapped at its source by suction devices and thus removed and col lected. Familiar examples are exhaust hoods in grinding operations, and the devices used in rock drilling. Generally speaking, the cxliaust ventila tion method, where applicable, is to be pre ferred in controlling a dust hazard. Water may be used to entrap dust and prevent its dispersal, and under certain circumstances it may be of advantage to combine the use of water and the use of suction. Sometimes a' dusty process can be completely enclosed in a scaled room or compartment. It must be remembered, however, that any mechani cal device of this kind offers adequate pro tection only if it is properly designed, installed, and maintained. A great deal of attention has been given the subject of individual protection from dust, and there are many types of respira tory protective devices now available. These are `generally of two types: those which provide fresh air from an uncontaminated source and those which rely upon a filtering medium for removing dust from the air breathed. Where the use of such a device is indicated, only one of the types approved by the U. S. Bureau of Mines should be used. As a rule, it may be said that masks, respirators, or other such protective device should be used only where exposure to the dust is intermittent and brief, or where some unusual condition makes a more ade quate dust control impracticable.** Where bacteria or other living dusts in the air arc associated with a process steri lization methods such as increased tempera ture, ultraviolet radiation, and chemicals like chlorine or other bactericidal substances, may be of use. Pasteurization temperature (about 140* F.) will kill most organisms except those bearing spores. Steam disin fection is used for horsehair, and proves to he practicable if the temperature does not exceed 230* F. Wool fibres, however, lose their elasticity by steam disinfection, and the "Dudceriiig" process now used in Eng land includes soaking of the wool in a form aldehyde solution, and drying in a current of air at a temperature of 160* F." There are few occupations in which there would be a sufficient concentration of dead bac teria to cause untoward effects in man. In the case of dusts producing external irritation, auxiliary protective measures may include the use of protective clothing, Industrial Dusts 91 gloves, goggles and aprons; as well as pro tective salves, ointments, or other com|H>unds to delay or diminish the irritant action. General rules for hygiene and good housekeeping should also be observed. Medical Control. Equally important, and closely interrelated with the engineering phase, is medical control of occupational hazards. In addition to directing the proper placement of new workers, and guarding the health of all employees, medical control is a check on the efficacy of the engineering control methods already instituted, or a measure of the need for new protective de vices. it lias been stated that "Industry lias found that the best way to treat industrial injuries and illness is to prevent them/'** and medical control, through prcemployincnt and periodic physical examinations, is one of the most important factors in such prevention. The preemployment examination is made to determine the employee's physical and menial fitness for work. It serves to dis close the presence of any contagious dis ease, reveals any minor physical defects which might later become serious, or whether the examinee's condition precludes his em ployment in certain or in nil types of work, ll sttould be remembered that such preempioymeat examinations art not to be made tor the purpose of eliminating an employee, but rather for allocating him to the type of work for which be is physically suited. A worker should be given employment unless totally unfit. Or unless his disability, even though slight, would cause him to he a haz ard to himself or his associates. Further more, the practice of preemployment examinations should he extended to include executives and officials of industrial organi zations. "The purpose of periodic physical examinations is to secure and maintain physical fitness and thereby lengthen work spans."1* Reexamination of employees some times results in the discovery of defects and (Usabilities which were not observed at the time of employment. In such cases, an oc cupational adjustment should be made to provide continued employment, but remove Ihe risk of permanent injury. Reexamination of employees is required by law in certain occupations in which the handling of poisonous or otherwise deleteri ous substances may result in the contraction of disease.*' Since some occupational dis eases tend to dear up and recur, records of previous occupations should be included in the physical examinations. The frequency of examinations should be determined by the medical director, unless otherwise speci fied by law. Those exposed to known occu pational disease hazards may have weekly or monthly examinations.** "It should always be kept in mind that the basic principle of physical examinations in industry* is to keep men on the job and not allow the physical examination to be merely a weeding out process."** References ' Bloomfield. J. J. 2nd DaHaVaUc, J. M. "Tho Determination and Control of lndukiri.il Dhm." U. S. Public Health Bulletin No. 217, April, 1925. * Collia, Edg.tr L. "Industrial Pneumocomo.xrv with special reference to Dust Phthisis.'1 Mllroy lectures, 1915. II. N.S.O-, London. * StlliDBnn, Torald. "A Manual of Pliarm.i- cology." W, B, Saunders it Co., Philadelphia, 1952. * rairbaJI, Lawrence T. "Toxic Dut and Fumes." Journal of Industrial Iiygicnc and Toxi cology, November, 1936 * Bloomfield, J. J. "The Sampling and Analysis of Industrial Duets." American Public Health Asso ciation, Yearbook. 1935-36. 'Gibbs, W. E. "Dust Hazard in Industry." Ernest Benn. Lid. London, 1925. I Air Hygiene Foundation of America, Inc. "Sili cosis and Allied Disorders." Medical Series. Bulle tin No. t. Pittsburgh, Pj. April 15,1936. * Kettle. K. H. ''The Action of Harmful Dusts." Inst, of Alining and Metallurgy, London, }um 14, 1931. * "Ouill, Fumes, and Smokes.** Occupation and Health Series, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1930. 1 ** Drinker, Philip. "Causation of Pneumoconi osis." journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxi- cwlocy, October, 1936. `Dyeing." Occupation and Health Scries, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1930. " Leans, Sir Thomas. "industrial Maladies." Oxforn University Press, London, 193d. Bursletn, A- "Nicotine Action from Inhaled Tobacco Dart." Journal of Industrial Hygiene, De cember. 1927. ** White, ft. Prosser. "The Dermatergose*. or Occupational Affections of the Skin." If. K. Lewis A Co. Ltd., London, 1934. ScInrAdt. Louis. "Skin Hazard* iit American Industry." U. S Public Health Bulletin No. 215, October, 1934. N Downing. J. G. "Industrial Dermatoses: Treat ment and Legal Aspects: Review of Recent Liters tre." Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, July. 193S. II "Occupational Lesions in Workers in Sugar." Belgium Letter. Journal of American Medical Asso ciation, Sept. 10. 1927. Abet. Journal of Industrial Hygiene. February, 1929. " "Flour Mills. Occupation and Health Series, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1930. w Mayers, May R. "Susceptibility to Dermatitis." The Industrial Bulletin, Albany, \. 3'. Feb. 19.(7. vol. 15. no. 3, * Drinker. Philip, and Hatch, Theodore. "Indus trial Dust." McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1936. 31 Schwirtr. Louis. "Skin llaiards in American Industry. Part II." U. S. Public Health Bulletin No. 229, Sept. 1936. "Poisonous Woods." Occupation and Health Series, International Labour Office. Geneva, 1930. 92 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress Hope. L W., Haau, VV\, end StaJlybrtu, C. O. nIi>diutnal Medicine and Hygiene." BsUliere, Tindall and Cox. London. 1923. *M Brown. G. T. '^TThbe'e Diagnosis of Bacterial Allkejrwgy.'"* Sooluthern Medical Journal. Vol. 27. No. *"JS7st.. 1r9*3*4. *33TaCeTr., R. R. s. od Merew_c_t_li_e_r. -F. V. "Miliary Lug Disease Doe to Unknown Cauoc..U. 8. Public Heahk Reports, Dec- 5. 1930. " "AttiMovuM." Occupation and Health Series. Internationa] labour Oflce. Genera. 1930. Holland. J. W. "Textbook of Nodical Cbemiatry and Tosfenlogy." W. B. Saunders Company, Pbila- fetphia, 1920. SiooaficJd. J. J. and Blum. Wm. "Health Haz ards in ChrtUMn Flaring." U. S. Public Health So ilia lUfdat No. 1245. Washington. 1930. * RniadL Jones. Bloomneld. Britten and Thomp- MU "Lead Poison!off in a Storage Battery Plant." Be Health Bulletin No. 205. June. 1933. wa-nIt.s'.-_v"_AJoSnteusd.y B;onfield. of Chrome DallaValle and Afcrcurialiam m Ed* the Hatters* Fur Cutting lndnatry." tj. S. Public H"cah*b "Vu-llrtlnAS: V 234, May. 1937, n Sayera. R. R. and Jones. R.*R. "Siticoais and Similar Dust Diseaaaa. Nauoosl Sillcodi Con ference, Washington, D. C., April 14. 1936. * Sayen, Bloomfield, DallaValle, Jones. Dtnuen, Brundago and Britten. "Amhraeo-Sillcoiis among Hard Coal Miners." 17. S. Public Health Bulletin No. 221. December, 193S. m Middleton, E. L "Industrial Pulmonary Dis ease due to the Inhalation of Dust." The Lancet. July 4 and 11, 1936. "Drcmcn, Waldcmar C. "Effect of Inhaled Marble Putt aa Observed in Vermont Marble Finishers." U. S. Public Health Service Reprint No. 1630. * Lanra, A. J. "Control and Praventlop of Sili cosis." Symposium on Silicosis. California Tuber culosis Association, San rrandaco, 1937. ' Newgnist, II. N. "Medical Service In Industry and Workmen's Compensation Laws." American College of Surgeons, Chicago, 1934. " "Medical Care of Industrial Workers." iTmtionai Industrial Conference Board, Inc. New York, 1926. The Engineer's Part in Eliminating Dust Hazards By ARTHUR S. JOHNSON Assistant to Manager, Engineering Department, American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Boston, Mast. When one realizes that control of the dust hazard depends upon the combined contribu tions of the physician and the engineer, he ap preciates that the solution requires scientific treatment. By scientific treatment I mean the technical analysis of the hazard to discover the causes which contribute to injury or ill health, and the development of control meth ods which obey physical law and physiology, and which will be directed at causes that admit of most immediate and economical treatment. That goes for handling the dust hazard in a given plant It goes double for acquiring knowledge to the end that the whole problem may reach ultimate solution. Right now our knowledge of the problem is in big chunks, loosely put together and largely empirical. There arc estimates only to judge the mag nitude of the dust health problem, and it is so closely associated with other health problems that a clean-cut estimate of it alone is iint>os&iblt. We do know that it is great in the aggregate, and for the individual plant it may be very bothersome and expensive. What actually makes quartz dust cause silicosis is not known. It does, so the air breathed by workmen must not contain harm ful quantities of respirable quartz dust. Inex pensive methods for making the air clean arc still in the realm of dreams. Much work must be done to know more about silicosis and more how to make atmospheres safe inexpensivciy. As an accident prevention job, dust control lies almost entirely within the admin istrative responsibility. The control measures are capital expenditures of considerable size. A plant with a dust hazard is sick, it needs an expert diagnosis and scientific treatment, which may include expensive major opera tions. Home remedies arc seldom much good, and supervision and employee safety con sciousness alone cannot accomplish anything. There may be observed in countless shops installations for exhausting dust which arc derisively called "tin knocker" jobs in which the horsepower dissipated is out of all pro portion to the air-borne dust moved. Tonnage efficiency of material moved may be the proper yardstick for pneumatic conveyors but if the material to be moved is air, contaminated with nearly weightless particles of dust, the entire health hazard can lie in the half of one per cent of material not moved. I do not mean that unless a dust supression job was engineered it can be no good. There are many good installations that were never figured at all hut grew like Topsy. The re- Industrial Dust3 93 suiting freedom from dustiness was so satis factory that efficiency held little interest to the owner. This is exceptional, however, and I offer the opinion that dust suppression jobs should be engineered. A dust-suppression installation is a safety device, designed and operated to provide pro tection against possible disease and provide a sense of security which must be absolute. Its safety' Is not rushing air and rattling chips but a minimal residual dustiness. There is no more pathetic defeat for a dust control jph titan to find faith in its effectiveness so low that workers must wear respirators to find the reasonable safety that was expected from tise hoods, ducts and fans. Diagnosis and Control Let us examine some of the features by which we recognize this dust hazard problem, leaving out the socio-lega! aspects. In order to develop more fully the engi neer's place in this dust control program, it seems desirable to separate as sharply as \\e can the diagnostic considerations from those which deal with control. In the first com partment we can place all the analytical com ponents which describe the hazard and its exposure, the probability of its producing ill health and all the rest of the medical and industrial hygiene facts which make out a case against the existing dust. Iu tlie second compartment place die knowledge of physics and engineering necessary to plan the dust curarul program and so design it that when rootled its performance follows prediction that the probability of Industrial disease is restored to insignificance. TW Industrial Hygienist Our fin* feature of interest would naturally be the iperific and relative toxicity of silica, lira toiler and otha dusts which make up the dene ^>m> hazard. Much might be said to 14i i--|Ti aboot the quality and quantity oi hand a* anr dusts. The acquiring of this ksueiiht has beat, and must remain a ocbtal probfcm. It involves gross and mlcroxspsc jsdohcj and x-rays, and experimental in- ~ih r^iastn do not talk that language. Inbmiid bygfenitu do; they are a happy half doctor and half engineer. Many si feu are quite capable of handling the fee kkk hazard in all Us phases of inTiuknri u and control. For the purpose of dun fcnwiri I throw their interest in with 1 want to go so tar in my opinion as to state that the engineer should not attempt to define the quality of health hazard-in a given plant or industry, nor should he establish threshold limits of safe or permissible dusti ness. This may be debatable, but I shall con tend that the engineer who writes the speci fications of hazard and dust tolerance is really ail industrial hygienist, and is using a very much broader knowledge thau engineering alone. In the first case the quality of the health Itazard is an opinion arrived at after studying alt the environmental conditions including the general sanitation, occupational analysis and a scientific analysis of the- dust exposures. In the exploration of dust exposures, the nature of dusty operations must be viewed from physical, chemical and mechanical aspects, the determinations of dustiness must be not only counted and classified by particu late sizes, but chemically and mineralogically analyzed. The plant layout must be studied with respect to dust production and distribu tion, and the housekeeping and existing dusl control equipment evaluated. The presence of specific hazards, such as toxic gases, abnor mal temperature and humidity conditions, etc., must be explored for their complicating effect upon the whole picture. This is distinctly an industrial hygiene job, and some of the most critical data requires only medical viewpoint. This is absolute in the case of tuberculosis study and the qualifying of men for employ ment. So far, not one atom of engineering to suppress dust is involved. It is entirely anal ysis of hazard. Tlte diagnosis must be that the dustiness is hazardous to health or that it is safe. If it is liazardous, it must be brought down to a specified residue. If it isn't, leave it alone. On the second point, if the hygienists can not specify threshold limits graduated upward for relatively less hazardous dusts, let tlie engineer not worry about it. The diagnosis is dust which is harmful and too much of it. The remedy is control of the dust. The engineer designs controls which will produce the lowest practical residual dusti ness. He should not attempt to write his own specifications of threshold limits or permis sible dustiness. This may be an important goal in the study of dust health hazards. Safe Limits At the present time the medical men and hygienists believe that quartz dust is safe 94 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress below five million particles. They seem will ing to graduate upward to 20 million for medium silica and 50 million for low silica liercentages. Five million particles is virtually dust free, ami is very difficult and expensive to achieve and maintain. The declaration of >afety of the installations must remain in the hands of the medical and hygiene groups in whose hands now lies the responsibility (or determining the hazard. Wc now enter the chapter of our discussion intended to demonstrate that dust control is an engineering job, that it must be given sccntific treatment, not guess work, applying engineering methods which are based upon a knowledge of physical law, (he behavior of dust, the performance of air-moving machin ery, etc. Prerequisite Knowledge Let me recite briefly, a few of the things which, in my opinion, the engineer should know to do this job correctly. He must know )k*\v to make a survey. Surveys depend upon ampling, and sampling is not a catch-ascatch-cai) proposition. It involves the place, the lime, the frequency, the amount in a sam ple. and the number of samples so that maxi mum. minimum and average data mean some thing. so that credibility can be given them. For the type of sample involved he must know how to weigh or count respirable dust, as distinguished from large masses of nourespirablc dust which complicate the picture. He must know how to observe the sources oi dust floods as distinguished from conditions oi normal dustiness. He must know the sources of dust and the principles involved in the dispersion of dust. He must determine how much dust enters the problem because it is part of tlie material, and what dust is created in the process by the fracturing of the material. Any less survey cannot tell the engineer what his task of dust control is. To visualize that task intelligently he should know the physics of Brownian motion, laws of resist ance to (he motion of iwrtH'Ics moving in air, both when the air is in turbulence and for stream-line motion. He should know terminal velocities, movements due to centrifugal mo tion ; flocculation and the effects of air motion and the effects of humidification on it. He must know all about the difficulties of wetting and what U known about overcoming these difficulties. He should know the several elec trical phenomena which bear upon dust be havior. Those are all principles of physics which explain the beliavior of dust and upon which engineering practice must be based. They must be understood and be taken into account. Dust control is not a matter only of general ventilation; the engineer must study the pro duction as well as the dispersion. Tlie problem should be analyzed to determine the applica bility of segregation, enclosure, wetting, local exhaust and general ventilation. In some instances, substitution of non-hazardous material, or non-dust-producing oper ations may have specific application, and they should be explored first. This implies plain engineering. I am convinced that many bad installations are bad because plant engineering was not used. In the designing of exhaust systems installed to capture the dust at the points of generation, the physical behavior oi air ptoving toward hoods and in ducts must be known, and that knowledge used. Each system must consist of collection hoods, pip ing, air-cleaning plant and a source of suction. Before selecting a hood for a job the engineer must know dust dispersion by dynamic pro jection as well as dust dispersion by air cur rents, and design the hood accordingly. Knowledge Heeded Tlie acro-dynamic characteristics of suction hood* appear to be little known because little tliought was given to them in designing tliousands of hoods which can be found every where in industry* All the possibility for entrapping dust and much of the efficiency ot the system lies in this factor. Air velocity, static suction, and rate of air flow are all related, and they must be known. It is essen tial to use high velocity of air in certain types of exhaust systems to entrap dust projected at high velocities as in the case of a granite surfacing machine, and low velocities must be used in others, as in the case of cleaning asbestos fibre of dust to prevent wasting material. Quantity of air and its velocity must be determined, then the piping should be de signed to take into account the behavior ot air-flow through pipes at low and high veloc ities. Where the problem is complicated by the large sized particles which go along with tltc fine dust, how these behave must be taken into account. Pressure losses are very impor tant elements in the design of an exhaust I ndustriai /Justs 95 system, l.o* at the hoods, loss at the bends, and loss in the ducts must not be guessed at. Pipe design must take into account the gage of the octal and reinforcing to withstand pressures and erosion. The selection of a fan and its motive power a matter of calculation, not guess work. Power consumption in the system is calcula ble, farts follow certain laws, so the engineer must know the behavior of axial flow, pro peller type, radial flow*, paddle wheel and other fan pufonuancr. More physics and engineering calculation goes into the *ir-cleaning apparatus. The selection'of gravitation, inertial or filtration method depends upon what the dust is, the calculation for any methods requires knowl edge of discharge through stacks, the deter mination of sizes of settling chambers; the behavior of cyclones. The use or non-use oi a filter, and if so. what type, how it should perform, how big it should be, what kind of resistance and how much each kind offers, to say nothing of ibeir proper location with relation to cleaning, accessibility, etc., are all items for accurate engineering determination. Apparatus to check the behavior of installa tions must be known and used. Performance carmot be left to guess work. Supplying suffi cient air to be exhausted is part of the prob lem. The same may be said of heating. Do 1 give the problem too severe a build up I think not. Remember these two things: 1. You are dealing with hazardous mate ria) so small in size and so little of it by weight that it in as invisible as tlie air that bears it. 2. Physical laws involved in the bclunior of dust and air do not permit inexpensive methods of control. I am acquainted with budgets set up (or this purpose which amount to more titan a quarter of a million dollars, and l know of many where 60 to 80 thousand dollars is involved. The need for this much engineering is rec ognized by men who know. Already much lias been done toward getting the knowledge into handbook shape. Perhaps the best job of this sort to date is "Fundamentals Relating to the Design and Operation of Exhaust Systems" developed under American Stand ards Association procedure. The Doctor's Fart in Controlling Dust Hazards By A. D. LAZENBY, M.D., F.A.C.S. Chief Surgeon. Maryland Casualty Co., Baltimore, Maryland Considerable confusion has existed in the past as to just what is the physician's func tion in the prevention of dust diseases, and just whpt is the engineer's. It is very ob vious upon even casual thought that the two sciences must work hand in hand in their efforts to solve the problem. The physician through his special training must be able to tell the engineer what dusts are dangerous and what are not. He must know how those dusts enter the body and the manner in which they do their harm. He must be (rained in the examination of per sons who are to be employed to work in dust, and to discover those who are already diseased, or are peculiarly susceptible to dust disease. He must be able to detect the first signs of disease in workers who are exposed to dust, and must be prepared to recognize the disease when it is fully de veloped. It is not necessarily the physician's func tion to analyze dust. That is a task for the chemist and the petrographer. It is not the physician's function to count the particles of dust in a given industrial atmosphere. That, in reality, is the function of the engineer. It is not tlie physician's function to devise ventilating equipment for the removal of dust, nor even, to be more than an adviser as to the means that must be adopted to render the atmosphere safe. The physician nevertheless must correlate with his medical knowledge and with his studies of the industrial worker the findings of the engineer. A diagnosis of silicosis, for example, requires not merely characteristic occupational history and characteristic physi- % Twenty-sixth National Safely Conyress cal findings, but the knowledge as well that the patient has been exposed to hazardous dusts in dangerous concentrations. AH du&l* when inhaled in excessive quantities may be considered as liarmful, but only a tew ran be regarded as dangerous. From the standpoint of tlteir dangerous properties, they may lie divided into three general groups. 1. Those which arc dangerous because of their poisonous action, such as lead, arsenic, mercury, and similar substances. 2. Those which cause only irritation in the respiratory tract, resulting in such condi tions as bronchitis or local inflammation; such substances as vegetable fibre, cork dust, flour, starch, and other relatively innocuous organic or inorganic materials. 3. Those which tend to produce fibrosis of the lungs, thereby predisposing to respira tory infections, especially tuberculosis, such duits as asbestos, silica dioxide or mag nesium silicate. 2 shall confine my remarks chiefly to dusts occurring in the latter category. It has been generally believed that the harmful effects of dusts inhaled into the lungs depended more upon their physical structure than upon their chemical. It was believed, for example, that silica dioxide, or quart*, was particularly harmful because of its crystalline structure, and the hardness and sharpness of its particles. This concep tion is now known to be faulty. The dusts which cause their damage by mechanical in terference with function are the dusts which arc relatively innocuous, whose symptoms are transitory, and which subside upon re moval from exposure to the dust. Chemical Effect la Harmful The disease of particular interest to us today, silicosis, owes its harmful effects very largely to a harmful chemical reaction oc curring between silica dioxide and the body tissues. It so happens that silica dioxide is decidedly a (issue irritant to the body, re gardless of the part of the body it invades, it causes local irritation, local destruction of tissue, and the replacement of that tissue by scars. Thus, given a dust containing silica diox ide in sufficient concentration, in sizes small enough to permit its entrance to the ultimate air spaces in the lungs, we have a situation which offers danger to the worker. We have no real knowledge as to true figures, but as a simple rule, we can adopt Cor practical purposes the thought that the human body can withstand successfully a concentration of dust containing 100 per cent silica dioxide in a particulate size less than 10 microns, in a concentration not in excess of 5,000,000 particles per cubic foot. If we decrease the percentage of silica dioxide present in the dual, we can correspondingly increase the concentration with comparative safety. We must, of course, take into ac count the portion of the worker's lime spent in the dusty atmosphere. To arrive at a rough conception of a safe atmosphere, we multiply the percentage of free silica in a given dust by the total num ber of particles per cubic foot. If the result is under 5,000,000 the condition may be con sidered relatively safe. If the result is over 5,000.000 the condition must be regarded as unsafe. Bear in mind too that silicosis is essentially a disease of great chronicity. Except in a few exceptional instances it will require from seven to thirty years for a worker to develop advanced silicosis. It is evident too that coincident dusts may either retard the development of silicosis or hasten it. Recent research seems to indicate that the admix ture of aluminum dust to a silicious dust will greatly inhibit the reaction of the latter; whereas a silicious dust combined with some alkaline coincident dusts may hasten the de velopment of silicosis. Much research is now* under way in prob lems such as this. We have never learned how to cure silicosis, but we arc learning rapidly how to prevent it. Our knowledge b> this respect seems to be limited to the removal of dust from the breathing zone of the worker. Later discoveries may show us how to modify existing dusts with contaminant dusts that will render silica dioxide innocu ous. Owing to its very great chronicity, it is only the rare case who actually develops disabling silicosis during his industrial life time. It is realized, of course, that excep tional instances take place, but the coincident ravages of age usually keep pace with the effects of dust, so that much the dis ability usually attributed to silicosis is often, in fact, actually attributable to other dis eases or incapacities which advancing years bring in their wake. To me the great peril of silicosis, the peril not only to the industrial Jmitt#trial Dusts 97 worker himself, but his family, co-workers and the public generally, is Uic accompany ing susceptibility to tuberculosis. Complicated by Tuberculosis Silicosis per sc does not kill. Tuberculosis as a complicating factor of silicosis rarely recovers despite treatment, and tlic indi vidual so alfiicted is not only totally dis abled himself, but a definite menace to all with whom he comes in contact, particularly tlic fellow worker who may have silicosis. So perhaps the most important places in which the services of the physician in a dusty trade are necessary are--first, along lines of discovering and barring from exposure to a silicious dust those persons who may al ready liavc arrested tuberculosis; and sec ondly. discovering those persons already ex posed to dust, possibly already silicotic, In whom tuberculous infections may have de veloped. It is well recognized that no individual should be exposed to dust containing silica dioxide until he has undergone a thorough physical examination, including carefully made and interpreted x-ray films of his chest. It is likewise obvious to anyone fa miliar with silicosis that no person who is exposed to silicious dust should be denied the privilege of frequent physical examina tions and x-rays of the chest, not entirely to discover the existence of possible silicosis, but to discover a coincident tuberculosis if such exists. A man so diseased should, in protection (u himself and to all with whom he comes in contact, be removed from industry. Let me emphasize the uselessness of a physical examination, unless it be accompanied by properly taken x-ray films, except in cases of gro> tuberculosis. It is the function of the physician, there fore, to conduct in a thorough and an intelli gent mamier the pre-employment examina tion of all persons who are to be engaged in a dusty trade. The purpose of this ex amination should be threefold. First, to discover and bar from employment in dust, any person who is suffering from tuber culosis in an active, a quiescent or an ar rested slate. A possible exception might be made In individuals suffering from a so called healed primary complex, or a healed childhood in fection. It is well known that exposure to silica dioxide is very likely to excite into activity a turbcrculous lesion which may be quiescent or arrested, and once >m li a lesion is reactivated, the chance:- oi recovery are remote. The second problem which confronts I he physician at the pre-employment physical ex amination is whether a given individual is, by reason of secondary physical defects, more susceptible to (he development of sili cosis than a normal. Is he suffering from diseases of the nose or upper respiratory tract, such as chronic sinusitis, disease of the lungs or air passages, or obstructions which produce mouth breathing? We must remember that silica dioxide is not dangerous until it reaches the lungs, ami that the normal individual retains In the nose and (lie upper air passages a large quantity of the dust inhaled from the atmos phere. In instances where this nasal reten tion is disturbed, exposure to silica dioxide dust may be dangerous to that individual, where it would not be to another. It is believed that certain diseases of the heart and circulation, of the kidneys, possi bly syphilis, chronic coincident diseases of the lungs, all may render a man more sus ceptible to silicosis than normal. The physi cian at his pre-employment examination must follow certain established criteria in this respect, and bar from exposure to dangerous dusts those persons who through existing disease may be more ready prey to silicosis or tuberculosis. Re-Examination Needed After the applicant for employment has successfully passed his physical examination and is engaged in a dusty trade, the duty of the physician is not yet ended. This work man must be periodically re-examined, first to discover the early- appearances of pul monary fibrosis, but what is even more im portant, to detect the early evidences of complicating tuberculous infection. A man should not be dismissed from em ployment in a dusty trade merely because he has evidences of non-disabling silicosis. Workers in dusty trades, especially stone cutters, moulders, pottery workers, and similar craftsmen, are usually highly skilled, and it seems unfortunate from a social and economic point of view to deny them em ployment so long as they are physically able to carry on, especially since the actual dis abling qualities of silicosis arc in doubt. 98 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress They should be denied employment in a dust)' trade if that condition is found at preemployment examination, but they should not be barred from continuing an employment in which they are already en gaged. Of course, in such instances you. as engineers, must realize that yon have failed, because if you had kept the breathing zone of the worker free from dangerous dusts, silicosis would not be present on physical examination. in this work of preventing dust diseases in industry, it should be evident that the closest and most intelligent cooperation between the physician and the engineer is necessary. The physician must, through his knowledge and research, tell the engineer what dusts, or. for that matter, what other substances used in industry arc harmful. He must tell the engineer how such dusts or other materials enter the body, how they leave the body and what they do in their passages through or their residence in the body. Must Make Analyses The engineer must in turn tell the physi cian of the harmful dusts and other sub stances surrounding his .workers. He must make chemical and petrographic analyses of the dusts, and other indicated analyses of the atmosphere in the workshop. He must make dust counts and check his counts at regular intervals, conferring with the physician in an effort to discover whether, in the tight of their joint knowledge, working conditions are dangerous. He must develop and install carefully designed ventilating equipment. He must arrange for modification of chemical and other industrial processes, where such modification is possible, and must bend his efforts toward removing* from the danger zone of the worker the offending substance, whatever it may be. 'Too many engineers construe this function loosely. They pass on to the physician as his responsibility certain functions which es sentially are theirs; such functions as dust analyses, dust counts, and similar technical duties. All too often it is considered ade quate merely to install a fan. Ventilating devices in dusty work rooms must be constructed only after careful en gineering study has given a knowledge ot the physical properties of the air and of substances polluting it. It is possible to calculate to a very fine point the volume of uir that must be removed from a given spot to remove the dust originating at that place, and the engineer must approach his task from just as scientific an angle as the physi cian approaches his. There is no room in industry* for hap liazard methods on the part of cither the physician Or the engineer. ADJOURNMENT Industrial Fumes, Gases and V apors THURSDAY MORNING SESSION October 14, 1937 The meeting was called to order by Voyta of Wisconsin, Madison, who presided ami Wrabetz, Chairman, Industrial Commission introduced the speakers. Injurious Effects of Metal Fumes and How to Prevent Them By ROY R. JONES, M.D. Division of Labor Standards, U. S. Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. The inhalation of metal fumes is a com mon cause of illness among certain occupa tional groups. Two very different systemic reactions may result from breathing air containing particulate metal or metal coini*oun<ls: (a) metal fume fever, an acute, transitory, nonTatal disease causing slight or temporary disability; (b) systemic metal poisoning, mild, severe, or even fatal in its effect. The same occupational exposure may produce both reactions, metal fume fever developing following the worker's early ex posure, chronic systemic poisoning develop ing later as a result of prolonged exposure. We may consider metal fumes as solid particles generated hy condensation froir metal in a gaseous stale. Condensation . usually accompanied by oxidation. There are two chief physical character istics of metal fumes which bear a direct relationship to the case with which they may be absorbed: (a) The solid particles arc much finer than atmospheric dust, probably averaging less than .5 micron in diameter; (b) they tend to flocculate and settle out of the air as dust. The finer the solid particles suspended in the air. the longer the time required for them to settle out. Many of the coarser dust particles in the air are trapped in the upper respirator)- tract and by the ciliated cells lining the trachea and bronchi, while the finer particles may be carried to the terminal air spaces of the lungs. Here they are taken up by the phago cytic cells anil arc eliminated chiefly by way of the blood and lymph. Sayers and his associates1 found that only about 15 per cent of inhaled particulate matter, such as lead dust from automobile exhaust gas, was retained in the lungs, the remainder passing out with the exhaled air Drinker and his associates* and Brown* made quantitative measurements of fumes retained in the lungs. They found a direct relation ship between the percentage of fumes re tained and the size of.the particle and the density of the fumes breathed. They also showed that slow deep breathing tncrrasctl the reaction resulting from inhaling zinc fumes. Such breathing should increase tin* percentage*of particulate matter retained. Hazardoua Processes For convenience we may place the more common occupational environments whirl) are likely to afford a harmful exposure to metal fumes in three large groups: 1. Smelling of ores and refining ot mclals. 2. Employment at processes handling mol ten metal such as molding, cutting, and welding operations. 5. Salvage and cleaning operations, includ ing the burning of metal.* or metal covered objects, especially by means of acetylene torch or electric arc. In the first class, the ores or metals prof essed provide the source fot the generation 99 100 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress of fume*. Such operations are usually per* mancnt and exposures tend to be more conslant. although as a rule the greatest amount of fumes is generated during tapping opera tions. Likewise, in iiie molding processes the mol ten metal is the source of metal fumes. In welding, cutting, and salvage operations, the metal fume* may originate from metal prod ucts processed, coated surfaces of the metals, fluxes used, or from the coating or core of the electrode used. These latter operations may provide ex posure to a greater variety of toxic metals, Imt as a rule such exposures arc to lesser concentrations. Exposure usually is less regular >incc the operation* vary from time to time Noth'as to extent and raw materials used. Atmospheric Concentrations Dnta relative 10 the minimum concentra tions of metal fumes which will produce metal fume fever are limited. It is believed hv some that, except in case of the supersensitive individual, metal fume fevers can be avoided by keeping atmospheric concen trations below' 10 milligrams per cubic meter of air. Drinker and his associates4 suggest 15 milligrams per cubic meter as a safe limit where workers are exposed to the fumes of zinc oxide, provided the fumes of such im purities as lead, cadmium, and arsenic are not also present in harmful amounts. Our knowledge of safe limits from the vicw|K>inl of chronic metal poisoning is like wise meager. Prolonged exposure to lead concentrations in the air breathed should be kept below 13 milligrams per 10 cubic meters of air/ In the stody of chronic mercorialism among fur cutters4 it was found, that cases developed after prolonged exposure to at mospheric concentrations varying from .6 to 7.2 milligrams oi mercury per 10 cubic meters of air. Less tlian 5 per cent of those exposed lo concentrations which did not exceed 2 milli grams per 111 cubic meters of air developed symptoms of chronic mercuriallsm, and all cases that developed under such exposure were mild. Canavan and his associates' re ported upon a case of chronic manganese poisoning which developed following expo sure to manganese dust, where the concentra tion in the atmosphere was from 10 to 20 milligrams per cubic meter of air, 9 to 12 per cent ot which was manganese. Metal Fume Fever A strict interpretation of the term "metal fume fever" does not place it in the class of conditions termed "metal poisoning." The reaction set up in the body is not directly attributable to the toxic nietal, or dependent upon the inherent toxicity of the metal par ticles inhaled. The superficial action of the finely divided metal destroys the tissues, and the absorption of these altered body proteins affects the individual much the same as typhoid inoculation or the injection of other foreign proteins. Metal fume fever has long been recognized as an industrial disease. Other terms com monly applied to the condition are: "Brass founders' ague," "brass chills," "zinc fever," or "zinc chills," "spelter shakes," etc. For mer!)' it was thought due to the poisonous effects of zinc and zinc alloys. Various workers in. the past quarter century have shown, however, that it may be produced by the fumes of metals other than zinc; notably, copper, magnesium, manganese, and probably lead. KoeUch* in 1923 reported upon the occurrence of metal fume fever among em ployees in a copper rolling mil). Investigation showed the men to be work ing under conditions which caused them to breathe air containing heavy concentrations of copper dust. The symptoms resembled "brass founders* ague." In his report he quotes Kissalt* as showing that mercury, nickel, and probably other heavy metals when inhaled in vaporized form caused symptoms similar to those of "brass found ers' ague." Drinker and his associates1* in 1927 re ported that men experimentally exposed to fumes of magnesium developed the classical symptoms of metal fume fever. Clinical Picture of Metal Fume Fever The clinical manifestations of metal fume fever are as follows: At the end of the day, or 2 to 12 hours following exposure to metal fumes, the individual notices a dryness of the throat in addition to the metallic taste which most workers commonly experience during exposure. A feeling of tightness of the chest, varying with the exposure, usually indicates the severity of chills and fever which are to follow. In mild cases the indi vidual may not be aware ol any fever and may complain only of a chilly sensation, fol lowed by sweating and general weakness. Industrial Fumes, Gases and Vapors 101 Exposure to extreme cold may hasten the ousel of fever and chills, but as a rule the worker awakens front sleep with a high temperature and chills, which are quite simi lar to the chills and fever experienced in attacks of malaria. After they have devel oped. nothing in the way Of extra covers or hot baths appears to affect these chills. Toward the end of the attack the individual sweats profusely and is left with a feeling of marked weakness, in the majority of cases some weakness is still felt the next day. It is commonly believed that hot baths and hot drinks of tea or lemonade may suc ceed in partially aborting (lie attacks, if taken at the first sign of respirator)' difficulty such as a dry throat or tight sensation in the chest. Drinker and his co-worker*4 by their experimental work were unable to show that even excessive "sweating" of an individual 2 to 4 hours after exposure al tered the reactions in any manner. Examination of the blood of workers suffering from metal fume fever shows a gradual increase in the polymorphonuclear leukocytes which begins toward the end of the attack and persists for some time after the fever has disappeared. This increase in white blood cells appears to have a direct bearing upon the degree of temporary im munity established. This probably accounts for another char acteristic clinical observation. The workers arc most likely to be affected after a vacation period. More cases develop after a holiday or on the first day of the week, after an absence of one or two days from exposure. The condition is found more frequently affecting new employees or old employees returning to work after a prolonged absence from exposure. As a rule, gastrointestinal disturbances are seldom complained of except in cases where exposure has been to fumes of substances affecting the digestive system. For instance, it is well known that zinc coated metals con tain other toxic metals as impurities. The welding and cutting of these release the toxic substances together with the fumes from the zinc, as well as fumes from certain fluxes which are used. We have no conclusive evidence regarding chronic effects produced by repeated expo sure to zinc fumes. A study of workers in brass foundries1* showed that the group ex periencing attacks of nietal fume fever were in somewhat poorer physical condition tlian were those who did not develop fever ami chills. Theoretically, those experiencing ir regular exposures and complaining of re peated attacks of fever and chills which leave them iti a generally weakened condi tion would, in a measure, develop lessened resistance to acute and chronic infection. Detailed information regarding the pa thology of metal fume fever is not available. A search of the literature at hand fails to show any record of death from met,'ll fume fever, uncomplicated. The illness is of such a transitory nature that most of our knowl edge regarding blood changes is the result of experimental work and isolated case re ports. In view' of the fact that zinc is relatively nontoxic, and of the conclusions expressed by Drinker and Fairhair* regarding the hy gienic position of zinc, it is difficult to show why chronic illness should result from ex posures producing simple metal fume fever. It would seem, however, that in considera tion of the recent work showing the role played by zinc in the treatment of diabetes with insulin, possibly some investigation should be made to. determine if exposure to metal fumes capable of producing metal fume fever may not affect the endocrine system, especially in persons with some metabolic disturbances, such as i*oiutiiial diabetes or thyroid dysfunction. Differential Diagnosis Metal fume fever may sometimes be over looked, unless the physician considers occu pational environment. The condition may simulate attacks of grippe or bronchitis; or, if in a malarial region it may be mistaken for a fresh attack or a relapse from a former attack of malaria. Careful study of the blood will aid in diagnosis; those suffering with grippe or bronchitis seldom show the increase in white cells usually found present in persons suffering from metal fume fever, while those with malaria usually show the organisms present in their blood. The dura tion of symptoms is usually less in the case of metal fume fever. However, it is not uncommon to find per sistent rales upon examination of the chest several days after an attack. However, in persons with grippe or bronchitis, these rale* arc usually associated with a slight elevation in temperature, which is not found persisting in metal fume fever, uncompli cated. Massive exposure producing inctal 102 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress iutnc fever may be followed by attacks of bronchial pneumonia, as a result of pul monary irritation and infective organisms commonly present in the respiratory tract. Metal particles are not the only injurious substance present in fumes generated by some industrial processes. The tisc of an acetylene torch in a space with poor ventila tion has resulted in incomplete combustion of the gas and the liberation of carbon monoxide gas. Doig and McLaughlin" reported upon an illness affecting welders of galvanized metal, using an electric arc. The men complained of lung irritation so severe that their spu tum was often blood-tinged. Investigation showed this to be caused by excessive con centrations of nitrous fumes generated by the processes. X-ray examination of the chests of several in this group, who had been cmpio3'ed for many years, showed changes thought due either to the prolonged irrita tion caused by nitrous fumes, or possibly to the fumes of silica inhaled. The electrodes iHcd were silica-coated. Chronic Poisoning by Metal Fumes It is generally recognized that the most serkms exposures to toxic metals in industry occur in occupations where the worker breathes air contaminated with these poison ous substances. It is true systemic poisoning by metals may develop in an acute or sub acute form, as a result of massive exposure. However, the vast majority of such cases arc chronic, caused by frequent and pro longed exposure which leads to an accumu lation of the toxic metal in the body. Poisons rmcring the body by way of the lungs, to he eliminated must be taken up by the blood and lymph. When present in the blood, they arc carried to all parts of the body. Poisons taken in by way of the mouth may not be absorbed but be passed out with the icce*. If absorbed, it may be trapped in the liver and returned to the intestinal tract in the bile, and eliminated with the feces- Some, it is true, may be transferred by the blood to distant organs. Most heavy metals and tlwir salts are true protoplasmic poisons. Some, such as iron and zinc, are more com mon constituents of body tissue. The action or these toxic metals is generally cumulative and no immunity, temporary or permanent, ma> he * established if exposure is to .-nIUcic;il concentrations. IWcatisc of the fact that metal- are usually toxic, the possibility of poisoning from in haling fumes generated in the processing of any metal should always be given considera tion. While zinc itself may be relatively nontoxic, it is seldom used in industry in a form free from toxic substances such as lead, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, and many others. Following the initial attack of metal fume fever, because of the temporary immunity which they develop, workers may continue under conditions which caused the attack and not suffer a recurrence. It must be borne in mind that these very conditions may afford exposure to other toxic metals which have cumulative effects and later lead to a chronic poisoning. If atmospheric concentra tions of the fumes are kept below those capable of producing metal fume fever in the new worker, the chances of chronic poison- ing by the toxic metals present as impurities are definitely reduced. On the other hand, however, these im purities may be present in amounts sufficient to lead to chronic illnesses later, although the concentration of fumes has never pro duced metal fume fever. Clinical Picture of Chronic Poisoning by Metal Fumes The symptoms produced by poisoning from metal fumes will vary. Some metals affect chiefly the nervous system, others the lining of the blood capillaries, while others exert most characteristic injury upon the blood-forming organs. Generally speaking, the clinical picture of metal fume fever, regardless of the metal responsible, varies only in severity, while that of metal poisoning per se varies with the particular metal fume inhaled and with the degree of exposure. For example, massive doses of lead fumes inhaled may produce such acute conditions as lead enceph alitis and severe gastrointestinal compli cations; while continued exposure ro smaller concentrations will cause such chronic changes as anemia, lead palsy, and chronic nephritis. Exposure to heavy concentrations oi mer cury vapor leads to acute nephritis, saliva tion, and diarrhea, while the more common industrial exposures to hut slight concentra tions will eventually produce the typical mercury tremor and psychic changes char acteristic of chronic mercurialisni. Strictly Industrial Fumes, Gases and Sapors 103 speaking, there are no signs or symptoms of poisoning from metals which can not be due to other causes. For this reason diagnosis is always a matter of differential diagnosis and metal poisoning can only be established by careful consideration of all factors, including occupational history, medical history, clinical and laboratory findings. While laboratory findings are a very im portant factor m diagnosis, they can not be relied upon as the sole evidence necessary*. Prevention of Metal Fume Poiaoning While the responsibility of controlling health hazards associated with exposure to fumes of toxic metals rests primarily upon the employer, effective elimination of such hazards can only be secured by the whole hearted cooperation of employers, employees, the State, and other regulatory inspection agencies. Three fundamentals contribute most to actual prevention. They are: Good housekeeping, supported by engineering con trol of hazardous processes, and intelligent medical supervision. Good Housekeeping \Vc think of good housekeeping as ap plying to clean floors and work benches; materials, tools, and processes arranged and maintained in good order; adequate lighting, and no overcrowding of work places by men and materials. All these will do much to les sen the concentration of toxic fumes in the atmosphere, but seldom is the control of processes so effective that some fumes do not escape into the general air of the work room. From here they may be inhaled, or may contaminate the bodies and clothes of the workers. So general workroom ventila tion is a factor in good housekeeping. The provision of adequate washing facili ties is a prerequisite. Under certain condi tions lockers and showers for workers are accessary tor the safe operation of many processes. As a rule sweeping and cleaning should be done after regular working hours. Not only can a more thorough job be accomplished, but what is more important, other workers will not be subjected to any increase in at mospheric contaminants occasioned by clean ing methods. If vacuum or wet methods are used, accumulated dust is more effectively and safely removed. Engineering Control It has been found practical to exhaust, locally, most processes generating metal fumes so that the toxic fume is trapped at its source and does not gain entrance to the workroom atmosphere. This is done by means of hoods or enclosed processes. Spe cial hazardous processes can usually be iso lated in the plant, thereby making potential exposure of all employees unnecessary. Both local exhaust and enclosed method* are more effective if special attention is given to general workroom ventilation. Dis posal of fumes trapped hy enclosed proc esses and local exhaust or isolation methods requires that attention be given that such wastes do not contaminate the air drawn into the work places by general ventilation. Medical Control Adequate medical supervision entails spe cial care in the placement of workers, and should not be aimed at the selection of or'v super-men, since it is practical to make work places safe for the average man. Individuals with serious kidney, respiratory, or other systemic diseases shook! not be placed where they may be exposed even to minimum con centrations of toxic fumes. Where processes are known to be poten tially hazardous, an important check on the efficiency of engineering control is gained through regular periodic .examination of workers. By this practice, in many instances, not only will evidence of absorption be de tected before serious injury has resulted, but an opportunity is afforded to correct control measures so effectively that the workers showing early signs of absorption may safely continue at their regular jobs. Routine rec ords of illness should be kept. Any abnormal rate of absenteeism due to illness among an occupational group, regard less of the diagnosis reported, should call for special investigation to determine if there are any environmental conditions aggravat ing the primary illness. Personal Protective Equipment It' proper attention is given to the three fundamentals mentioned--'good housekeep ing, medical and engineering control--only specific and unusual emergency exposure will call for the provision of personal pro tective equipment. The masks or respirators provided work- 104 Ttocnty-sixth National Safety Congress ers who must necessarily be exposed to metal fumes should be of special construc tion and adapted to the processes and ma terials used. The United State Bureau of Mines'* has, after testing, approved certain types of mask* /or workers exposed to spe cific vticlal fumes. No filter type of respirator capable of pro tection against toxic metal fumes has been submitted for approval. While two or three filter type respirators have been approved for protection against lead dust, the use of which may in a small way reduce the hazard of fumes, they cannot be relied upon for full protection. Filter type respirators approved for protection against nuisance and pneu moconiosis-producing dusts will not protect ihc user from toxic fumes. Several of the hose-line or positive pres sure type masks have been approved, but there are certain limitations to their applica tion which make them impractical for use in same kinds of work. Substitution In a vast majority of cases, resort to substitution is an impractical method of eliminating health hazards due to metal fumes. The raw materials used usually have special application. Furthermore, substitu tion is often a dangerous practice, even though it is practical. Instances may be cited where the substituted product lias proven equally as dangerous as the one it replaced, the only difference being that less was known at the time concerning its toxic properties. Bibliography 1 Experimental Studies on the Effect* W Eiayt Gasoline and Its Combustion l*w<iittv R. K. Sayers A. C. Ficldner. \V. P. Vast, and 1 tl k Thomas. I1. S. Bureau oi Mines, gssipuft N*. 1. 1927- * Quantitative Measurements of the tnboiirni Retention and Exhalation of Pun and Ftmn by Man. I. Concentrations of SO to 450 Mfe Kf mbs* meter. P. Drinker. K. Jl. Thoms*a, sad Fria, J. L Jour. Ind. Hy*., Vol. 10, No. 1, Jul 1928. * Same as 2. II. Concentrations kloo M me. sr cubic meter. Brown. C. . Joor. lad. me. li. 1J, No. 8, Oct. I9it. Studies in Dual fmattoo. 111. Factors involved iu the RcleMka M l*fca!*4 Dusts aod Fumes by Men. Jew. lad. nji. VW. 13, x. 9, Nov. 1931. * Metal Fume Fever. IV. ThmMI bwv* *1 7.inc Oxide, Prcwativo Measure* aad Clfiat Effects of Repeated Exp stare*, f. DrisTri. IL M. Tbotmon, I. L. Fiaa. Joar. lad. Hr*l VL 9. No. I. 1917. * Lead Poisonine in a Stann Kanerr Rant. Public Heallb KnlLtia -So. 205. June. 1933. 'A study of Cbrttuc Mertariallm la tbo Hat. fers Fur-Cuttine Indastrr. Public Health Bulletin No. 234. 1 Chronic Minffinesc Pdisoioi. Report of a Case with Autopsy Findings. Canovan, M. 31.. Cobb, S.. Drinker, C K.: Arch. Neurol, and Piychiat.. 9:270* 1934. . * Ucber das Gicufiebvr uud verwandlc zewerbliebe Mctslldampfinhal*t<MS*kranklieiten. Kiiult, K. Zisckr. f. Hyt, 1912. 71. 472. w Metal Fume Fever. III. Tbe Effect* ef Inhal* inf Magnesium Oxide Fume. P. Drinker, Tbooxtan. R. kf.. Fin*., J. L. Jour. Ind. Hyjj., Vl. 9. X*. 9. 1927. 11 Health Hazards in a Brass Foundry. Public Health Bulletin No. 1S7. Zinc in Relation to General and fudotri*l Hygiene. C. JC. Drinker. L T. Fiirkdl. Public Hc.ltb Rcpom, Vol. Ao. 12. in. 1911. " X-Ray Appearances of the Luqn of Electric Arc Welders. A. T. Doir and A. I. G, UclaillSIb. Lancet, April 4, 1936, p. 771. ** List of Devices for Respiratory Protection Ap- Sroved by the U. S. Bureau of Mine*. W. P. Yant. ureau of Mines Information Circular No. 4918. Electroplating Fumes and Vapors and Their Elimination By P. B. KASTEX.LO, M.D. Ternstedt Manufacturing Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Michigan The industrial physician is responsible for the health of all employees in his plant, in so far as their health may be affected by their occupations and their environment. Consequently he must be familiar with the various jobs and conditions under which the men work to know definitely the associated health hazards. He must work closely with the safety, maintenance, chemical and pur chasing departments to keep himself in formed on changes in methods and materials that may influence those hazards. Thus fortified, the physician occupies a strategic position in the hospital, as the em ployee invariably comes to him first with complaints which he may associate with his work or which are of a nature that would warrant an investigation which may lead to the discovery of an unhealthy condition. One of the processes which may be sus- Indnslrial Fumes, Gases and Vapors 105 ot involving a health liazard is |he electro of metal. In preparing metal toe plating as well as during the plat an ujM i sfWiu and in the treatment of sal- nuerial after plating, a number of i/hrmrfV* are used, such as solvents, acids, and salts, and many toxic and offensive fumes and vapors are liberated. While it is true our prime interest concerns the injurious fumes and vapors, we must also interest ourselves in the non-injurious offensive types, since they may affect the worker's mental attitude, giving rise to dis satisfaction which in tum may result in in efficient work. Poison is commonly introduced into the body by three routes, ingestion through the mouth, absorption through the skin or inha lation through the lungs. In electroplating our greatest hazard lies in the respiratory route; the ingestion and absorption routes arc of lesser importance. Fumes and vapors, such as heavy acids, may enter the respiratory tract as fine spray ard produce local reactions in the nose, throat and lungs, while others such as hydro cyanic acid pass through the lungs without producing any local symptoms and enter the blood stream. Skin absorption is important in connection with the coal tar derivatives, benzene, tolu ene and xylene and the petroleum derivatives as carbon tetrachloride and trichlorethylenc. Since these are all volatile, poisoning may occur by inhalation as well as by absorption. Ingestion la Rare Ingestion of poison by mouth occurs rarely and is usually the result of a definite acci dent. However, in flic lead electroplating industry, rigid precautions must be taken to prevent the ingestion of lead salts that may have been deposited on the clothing and Ixjdy of men while working around the plat ing tanks. In general in all electrolytic processes ir respective of the constituents of the bath only two gases are liberated, oxygen at the anode ana hydrogen at the cathode. Since the anode efficiency is always high and the cathode efficiency relatively'lower, and tbe further fact that tbe gases are liberated in the relation of two hydrogen to one oxygen, the gas from the anode is negligible com pared with that at the catJiode. The amount of oxygen and hydrogen lib erated, as such, is of no consequence as a hazard, but out of their properties as gases arises one of our greatest problems in the control of electroplating fumes and vapors. As the gas is liberated, it forms tiny bubbles in (he solution which rise above the surface and break, throwing a fine spray or mist of bath solution into the air above the tanks which may be inhaled by the workers. Con sequently to understand and evaluate our hazards we must know the bath constituents in all electrolytic processes. The materials coming to tbe plating room usually have a film of oil or grease on them which must be removed and the surface treated before they are placed in the plating solutions. This is accomplished by dipping the parts in a degreasing solution such as xylene or placing them in a vapor bath as trichtorcthylcne. Usually this operation is carried out in open tanks, and as bath sol vents arc highly volatile, some of their fumes escape and contaminate the room air. Xylene though less toxic than benzene am) toluene has some narcotic action on the cen tral nervous system. Trichlorethylenc is the most commonly used degreaser, and Is ca pable of producing general narcosis. Workers at the tanks complain of giddiness ami oc casionally lose consciousness, but few deaths have been reported. Trichlorethylenc also has an important characteristic that must be borne in mind--workers have been known to become addicted to its use. Because of the highly volatile nature of these solvents It is impractical to attempt exhausting the tanks. We found we could eliminate the xylene with its liazards by in stalling closed tank systems of trichlorethy lenc washing and vaporizing, passing the parts through the spray and vapor chambers on conveyors. This also eliminated our trichlorethylenc hazard and the penetrating, sweet smelling, sickening odor iu the plating rooms which had been a source of complaint and concern to the workmen. Carbon tetrachloride Is used in some operations, but its use should be discouraged because of its extreme toxicity. Following the degreasing process the parts are washed in a strong hot caustic solution to remove organic particles of dirt. This washing is more effective if an electric cur rent is passed through the solution, which by the bombardment of hydrogen gas on the part at the cathode produces a scrubbing effect. Since the aim of the electrolysis in 106 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress this process is to produce gas, and none of the current is used to deposit metal, a large amount of gas as hydrogen and oxygen is liberated and considerable bath solution is atomized into the air. The solution being composed of strong alkalis is very irritating to the respiratory tract, and the tanks should be exhausted. In some cases other operations arc re quired before plating, such as pickling and bright dipping. The pickling bath contains weak solutions of hydro-chloric or sulphuric acid and some nascent hydrogen i$ generated. Since iron, steel, sine, copper and lead may contain arsenic as an impurity there is al ways danger of hydrogen arsenide gas being formed from time to time. This is a power ful hemolytic poison and early symptoms of poison appear soon after the gas is inhaled. All pickling tanks should be exhausted. In the bright dipping of brass a concen trated solution of sulphuric and nitric acid is used, and large amounts of nitrous oxide or nitrogen dioxide fumes are liberated when the parts are placed in the solution. The oxide of nitrogeu has a strong local action on the respiratory tract ami may produce .-crious lung damage. It is unfortunate that that gas is not very asphyxiating; the worker may continue to inhale it without ex periencing anything more serious than a choking sensation until some hours later. Poisonous Salts Used In the actual plating solutions we deal with poisonous salts of sodium, copper, zinc, nickel, cadmium, gold etc. The cyanide com pounds are our greatest concern because of their high'toxicity. Plating room workers should be instructed as to the dangers in volved in the handling of the various cotnfHiunds and solutions, and the possibilities ot` the formation of hydrocyanic acid gas in accidentally mixing acid and cyanide so lutions or promiscuously slopping these so lutions on the floors or spilling them into stagnant drain pipes. In the electrolytic process the hydrogen bubbling out of the solution will atomize these compounds in the air, and the tanks must be adequately exhausted. It is probable that some cyanogen gas is mechanically thrown out of the solution by the hydrogen Mas and undoubtedly minute amounts of hydrocyanic acid arc formed. However, the tendency of the cyanogen is to return to the solution. <so that the hydrocyanic acid formed is negligible and does not represent a hazard compared with the copper sodium cyanide that is sprayed into the air. Small amounts of hydrocyanic acid are readily assimilated in the body as sulphocyanides and excreted in the urine. Chrome is usually the finishing plate in automobile hardware, and in its deposition we use a concentrated solution of chromic acid and a very weak solution of sulphuric acid. Since the efficiency of the chrome both at the cathode is only about IS per cent, 85 per cent of the current is used in the genera tion of hydrogen gas, with a resultant active spraying of the solution. Exhaustion of these tanks must be efficient to prevent air pollu tion. Chromic acid is relatively non-toxic. Its effects on the body are readily recog nized, and probably for that reason it has held too important a part in the literature on toxicology. It may produce ulcers on the skin where concentrated solutions have con tacted,. but outside of their slow healing properties these are of little consequence. If not exhausted properly* it produces in workers erosions of the nasal septum which frequently go on to produce permanent per forations which are annoying but do not predispose to any disfiguration or health problem. Like nickel in susceptible individ uals, it produces dermatosis which invari ably clears up on removal of the person from work in the sensitizing materials. In the process of stripping salvage parts for re-working, concentrated alkalis are used to remove chrome, and concentrated sul phuric acid to remove nickel, copper and zinc; or an electrolytic bath of sodium ni trate can be used to remove all the deposited metals. The tanks in all these operations must be exhausted. The elimination of fumes and vapors in the plating rooms is for the most part the concern of the maintenance engineer. However, the chemist may eliminate litem by changes in methods or solutions, designed to stop their production, and the safety en gineer may eliminate them from contact with the workmen by the introduction of hoods, masks, gloves, etc. Probably in the future factories will be air conditioned, and our problems of air pollution will be minimized. When we analyze the problem of ventilat ing the plating rooms, we are confronted with many difficulties. Exhaust systems of individual tanks designed by rule of thumb to operate with one hundred per cent effi- fndustrial /'limes. Gases and Vapors 107 cinicy. it other things arc equal, may fall tar below the expected figure because of air movements produced by surrounding ex hausts. This is especially true of an induced iystem operating near a direct system. 1 have seen an induced system actually functioning as an intake air shaft in an air hound room, and the substance it was supposedly ex hausting was being drawn into the room air as a contaminant. Other conditions tend to unbalance a well constructed system, such as open windows, doors, skylights, all of which produce air currents that may divert fumes and vapors from the tanks as they pass to the various exhaust hoods in the room. While room temperature, humidity, barometric prcssuie, and outside air velocities, likewise influence the exhaust system efficiency. Remove Fumes at Source The cardinal rule, of course, is to design the system to remove the fumes and vapors at their point of origin. In electroplating tanks the American Standards Association hat recommended that this point be from six to eight inches above the solution level, so that the spray from the breaking gas hubbies may be collected. It further recom mends that the point be not more than three feet in height from the level at which the operator is standing, to draw off the fumes Itclore they reach his breathing zone. Over head hoods and exhausts may prevent fumes irnm entering the room air, but they are of little value to the worker standing at the tank. Tanks should be as narrow as possible and should be vented on both of the long sides, to aid in efficient exhaust of the solu tion area. Too frequently we satisfy ourselves that our plating rooms are safe for employees to work in, because we have complied with all state rules and regulations relating to the removal of fumes and vapors, and because state inspectors pass favorably on our sys tems after their casual survey. Wc walk through the plating room using our noses to detect the presence of fumes and place our hands against the exhaust hood to determine the efficiency of the systems. While it is true our five senses are valuable in the detection of hazards, it is folly to rely on them to the exclusion of the more scientific means at our disposal. Pitot tubes, anemometers, manom eters, and swinging vane velocity meters arc availahlc to test air velocities and determine the air volume the various ducts arc carry ing, and regular periodic checks should be made with these several limes a year or as often as indicated. In the final analysis we arc not interested merely in exhausting a lank or a room but rather in the air pollution. Our chief con cern is what is in the air we arc breathing, and if the contaminant is injurious to health, how much of it is present. A quantitative chemical analysis of the air is the only way to determine this. We have introduced in our plating rooms several machines for collecting air samples, as designed by the Bureau of Mines and the United States Public Health Service. This method essentially consists of drawing air through a solution in a collecting bottle at a fixed rate, the air passing through an impinger tube so designed that its velocity ic increased to about- 200 miles an hour. As it strikes the bottom of the hottle or baffle, the air is broken up into minute bubbles, which facilitates absorption in the collecting solu tions. By using different solutions or a series of solutions, the suspected solid, liquid or gaseous pollutant is extracted from the tested air, and a chemist makes his analysis. A complete air analysis is not necessary, as this would entail a very lengthy and difficult problem. Knowing what fumes and vapors are formed from the known constitu ents of the bath, our interest lies in the harmful ones that may be present in the air and not in the small immeasurable amounts of harmless chemical combinations that may be formed. To obtain as representative a test as possi ble, the collecting bottle is placed at face level near the operator, and air is drawn through the solution during the entire period be is working. The total air volume that has passed through the collecting solution is roughly equivalent to the amount of air that would pass through the lungs of an average man during the same period. Long-Time Studies Made At some key points in the plating room we are installing air analysis equipment which is to be run continuously, and deter minations are to be made on 24-hour collec tions or more frequently if indicated. By this procedure we are able to make more de tailed studies of our hazards at fixed points over a long period of time and attempt to find and control conditions in the room that produce fluctuations in our air pollution. 108 V'tCcHly-sixlli jValionul Safely Conyress Along the name line of health research we have formed a health hazard committee, composed of representatives of the safety, chemical, medical and maintenance depart ments, whose duties are to discover, discuss and correct unhealthy working conditions. The safety man observes, ihc chemist de termines, the physician interprets, and the maintenance engineer eliminates the hazard. This method of approach has worked out well, the general discussion invariably con tributing to a better understanding of prob lems and a more rapid solution. This is especially true in regard to our plating rooms, where we arc dealing with highly technical processes, the intricacies of which arc thoroughly understood only by fhc chemist. There arc uo reputable industries whose management, even in the absence of state compensation laws, would ask their em ployees to engage in work that we as physi cians find injurious to health; and there arc no dusts, fumes, or vapor hazards in in dustry that cannot be controlled by a com petent engineer, if he knows what results he is to obtain. 'I'he use of masks, hoods and respirators in the plating rooms is an admission of de feat by the chemist and engineer. Workers invariably cheat at intervals, if forced to wear a cumbersome hot hood or respirator throughout tha day, and during these periods they are subjected to the hazards the appa ratus was designed to control. We should consider these only ns emergency measures. L'ntil such a time a* the industrial hyyieni-t and toxicologist determines for us definite safe limits of various poisons in the air in which an unprotected man 'may w ork, we mut follow an uncharted course with cau tion, ever being on the alert for signs and symptoms that may lead to the discovery of new health hazards and the establishment of safe standards. The scientific study of proc esses in our plant by the chemical, ventilating and safety engineers co-ordinating with the physician may assist materially in determin ing standards of safety in handling of toxic substances; for the toxicologist sets his standard on the lasis of the symptoms or pathology produced by a known quantity of substance administered. Any standard we set up as safe will not necessarily mean that no man will exhibit .symptoms while working within it. As long us any toxic material is in the air, certain susceptible or sensitized persons will mani fest symptoms, just as individuals in other walks of life are sensitized to pollens m the air, foodstuffs, drugs and local irritants to the skin. We cannot hope to correct this condition, but we can control it by removing the suscep tible person to work in other departments. By analyzing our air, establishing reasonable standards amt keeping our polluting sub stances within these standards we can at least ttc assured that our workers arc not being exposed to quantities of toxic sub stance that may produce serious damage to their health. ADJOUKSUliST Industrial Safety Lectures hour industrial safety lectures were pre sented before Congress delegates on Tues day, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. The speaker was Irving J. Lee, M.A., The School of Speech, Northwestern University, Evanston, 1)1. He spoke on the techniques and method' for the preparation and delivery of effective safety speeches. The subject was divided into four jha>v>; (I) liow to Prepare the Speech; (2) How to Give the Speech; (3) The Content of the Speech; (4) Plans and Blueprints lor the Organization of the Speech; and (5) Bad Habits and Their Re moval. The speaker was introduced by W. H. Cameron. Managing Director, National Safety Council. HOW TO MAKE THE SAFETY SPEECH IRVING J. LEE, M. A. The School of Speech, Northwestern University Evanston. Illinois CHAPTER I HOW TO PREPARE THE SPEECH W hy Give Speeches on Safety? It has long been realized that of the great trilogy in safety work, Engi neering, Education, and Enforcement, Education plays a significant role. And it is with a technique by means of which Safety Education can proceed, that we are interested. In order to "get across" the principles and practices of Safety it is ncci>snry to employ either or nil of the following methods; there arc no others. i. Presentation of the message by means of the printed word in edi torials, pamphlets, articles, etc. (Copyright. 1937. Irving / L**. A// rights reserved.) 109 no Tu'cnly-sixlh National Safely Congress 2. Presentation by means of visual stimulation using pictures, still and moving, posters, charts, graphs, etc 3. Presentation by means of the spoken word in speeches and lectures, that is, by auditory stimulation. 4. Combinations of visual and auditory stimulation as in the use of a talking movie. The following pages of this handbook were prepared because we are convinced of the value of the speech as a device, which gets across ideas, and changes attitudes with some effectiveness. We might begin by telling you of an experiment earned out in a public speaking class at Northwestern University in Evanston, III. At one of the early sessions in the course a student gave a speech on the evils of drunken driving. He was followed by another student who displayed a series of strik ing posters depicting the hazards of driving on icv streets. Finally, an editorial taken from a newspaper discussing the necessity of a state driver** license law was passed out to each member of the class to read. It should be mentioned that the procedure was undertaken as a phase oi the regular consideration of problems of social significance as part of the class work. The students did not know that an experiment was Intended. Seven weeks later the class was given a written rest in which they were asked to write as specifically as possible what they remembered from the session on Safety. There is no need here to discuss the method of scoring and the tabulation of results. It is enough to indicate that they recalled least what they had read in the editorial, that they did fairly well on the posters, but that best scores were recorded on the material presented in the speech. Thus it should be recognized even on the basis of chb very inadequate experiment, that the efficiency of the speech as an agency of communication must not be overlooked. Wc might also cite a recent investigation at Indi ana University which concludes thus: "There is a demonstrated superiority of auditory over visual presentation not only in the present experiments but also in those of others . . . since 1933 the studies of visual vs. auditory' mode have quite uniformly demon strated auditory superiority." The experimenter suggests, that "it is possible that the enormous increase of auditor)' stimulation from radio sets for 78 million Americans three to five hours a day, from public-address systems everywhere, and from sound 'ins claiming 88 million attendances weekly is developing auditor/ habits." Kt. R. Elliott, "Eye vs. Ear in Moulding Opinion," The Public Opinion Quarterly, July 1937, page 86.) It should be clear that if. we are interested "in moulding opinion," that we must take advantage of the newly developed and long-lived "auditory habits" of people--in short that we must pay some attention to the business of speech-making in the work of safety education. How to Learn to Speak Even (hough the value of speech-making be granted there is still the problem of how wc shall go about learning the process. A rapid glance at the history of speech-teaching indicates but four approaches to the problem. Let us review them. t. One seemingly practical school preaches a doctrine something like this: "If you want to team how to speak before an audience, get out and Industrial Safety Lectures 111 speak. The more experience you have in public speaking the better speaker you will become.'* But the adherents of this "practical" school arc unable to explain why it is that many people, even after years of experience, still do not do a good job of speech-making. We should explain such a situation this way. Instead of practice and experience making perfect, they simply make permanent a host of bad habits. If you play golf, you know how eajy it is to develop mannerisms and ways of doing things that cost you strokes. Much of our experience with adults, who are eager to improve their speaking ability, makes clear this one fact--that before we can do anything constructive wc must first do something about their bad habits. There Is thus some reason to believe that practice atone is not enough. a. Then there is the "Magic Key" approach. The essence of this method is its search for s6me secret, some magic formula, which will manufacture eloquence overnight. But no one has as yet found that formula, though there are those who advertise to the contrary. Euclid long ago insisted that there is no royal road to learning. The same thing must be said about the business of speech-making. 3. Widely employed is the "Courage and Personality" approach. It has recently been stated as follows: "Before you can become an effective public speaker, you must be the absolute master of yourself. You must not yield to any fear. You must feel in your heart that you are a leader, that it is your mission in life to mould public opinion. This cannot be done by a man who is timid, afraid or vacillating. Therefore Nature has provided the gifted public speaker with a courage that is almost divine. You too, can be a powerful public speaker, but you must gird yourself with courage and be art apostle of strength." You will notice, however, that this "shot-in-the-arm" school fails to tell us how "we may feel in our hearts that we arc leaders," or even how "wc may gird ourselves with courage." They are quick with advice and exhor tation, but short on specific instruction. 4. The point of view taken in these pages insists that public speaking is an art or technique, just as b walking, swimming, writing or driving an automobile. You have to team how to do all the$e things. In exactly the same way you have to learn what to do and how to do ail of the factors in volved in the speech process. In short, we should call this the "Technique" approach, since all the effort is directed to describing and demonstrating the ways by which a speech can be put together and delivered. If we can make clear the specific elements that go into the speech process, and if the individual will diligently endeavor to put them into practice, it is possible to predict increased facility in the art of public speaking. Stagefright and Ignorance Everyone who has ever faced an audience knows about that "sinking feeling," that combination of heaviness, tightness, and emptiness that make up what u called "stagefright." An analog)' will help to make the explanation clear. Suppose you were put into an automobile at the top of a hill. All the doors and windows are locked, so you cannot possibly get out. Now there is an Interesting thing about this particular car; its levers have all been changed. Where the brake Tu'cnty-sixth National Safety Congress pedal should be, there is the accelerator; where the steering gear should be, there is the gear shift, and so on. You know nothing about the change in levers. If we give that car a push so that it starts to roll down the hill, what would your reactions be there at the wheel? How would you feel? Quite probably if you arc a normal human being, you would be scared, con fused, panicky and emotionally disorganized. But let us suppose that by some miracle you found a way to stop the car, and came out of the situation safely. And then two days later you were placed in the same position. Would your physical and mental reac tions be the same as they' were on the first day? Probably not, because you have learned what to do. If you are not a seasoned performer, is not the picture of the driver in the first instance, a fair picture of what happens to you as you stand in front of an audience? In short, we are insisting that you experience an intense emotional disorganization for the same reason' that the driver did-- you do not know what to do. Our experience has demonstrated quite clearly that stagefright tends to disappear as soon as the individual learns what speaking is all about When you know what to do and what you are to say, in brief, when you have acquired some of the fundamental techniques of putting a speech to gether and delivering it--then and then only will ease and confidence re place the terror and disintegration that is the bane of the amateur speaker*} existence. Stagefright is banished, when ignorance turned to knowledge. Preparation of the Speech The first attack on stagefright is the knowledge of how to put your speech together. We must insist here that though seemingly unimportant, the business of preparation really Is something that must be learned thor oughly and immediately. Our experience with business and professional men makes quite clear that bad preparation is the reason why between 75 and 85 per cent of their speeches lack effectiveness. Bad Ways of Preparing the Speech 1. Writing it out word for word and reading it. Tins is a necessary method for the technical paper, or where matters of policy must be dealt with, or where the speech is likely to he quoted. Such a speech may be polished and dressed up until it says exactly what is intended, carefully and diplomatically. Bui note the disadvantages. When it is written out word for word it is likely to become stiff and formal. It will read like an essay, unnatural and learned--characteristics a speech should never have. Further, very few people arc good readers. It is too easy to attend only to the manuscript, thus losing contact with the audience. And above all, a speech that is read loses the sparkle and enthusiasm that should accompany real speak ing. This method the safety speaker should avoid. a. Writing it out and memorising it. Obviously here we have all the advantages of the carefully prepared speech. But we have also the faults of stiffness and formal structure. If the words are painstakingly memorized there is always the danger that they trill be given in rote, mechanical fashion, with an air of routine and hurried effort to get the task over as soon as possible. industrial Safety Lectures Furthermore, note that the memorizing process is sheer drudgery, that it takes hours and hours, and even when you think you know the speech, you can not be certain that at some point you will not forget it. Memory is one of the most unpredictable things wc know. We never know when we will forget names, dates, and many other things with which we arc quite familiar. Thus, because the memorized method is both difficult and un certain, we advise safety speakers to avoid it. 3. The Impromptu method, involves speaking from one's background without specific preparation. Suppose you have to give a speech on some aspect of safety observance. You read and think about the subject. You do not take notes, you write nothing out, you attempt simply to absorb as much information as possible. Then when the time for the speech arrives, you face your audience and in general hope (hat words will come. This is the lazy man's method. If word; do come, the ideas they express will tend to lack coherence and power. In general such a speech is bound to fumble around saying very little. Too much reliance is placed with the gods, and those of you who have on occasion tried this method know that sometimes the gods do not come through. Far better to depend on the perspiration that goes with good preparation, than oa the moment of inspiration. The Natural Method The method of putting a speech together that will be presented here has been tried and tested by some hundreds of people with uniform success. It works better than any method we know. Have you ever watched a good cook at work on a cake? The speaker can learn much from observing his technique. First, he sets out his pots, pans and mixing spoons. Then he places in easy reach all the ingredients. Finally he mixes them carefully in the proper proportions. Then the oven gets in its good work and the people around the table do the rest. The natural method of speech-preparation follows an analogous pro cedure. First, the speaker music assemble his material, gather his ideas, example*, facts, figures. Well in advance of the occasion of the speech, it is a good idea to carry a card or sheet of paper in your pocket on which you can list one after another ideas that come to you, or that you pick up from your reading. Pay no attention now to ordering the Ideas, simply set them down to a list. There will probably be too many. Even though some may have to be discarded, the assembly process is the first step. The second step Is to get these collected ideas into some plan which will show the direction your speech will take. Every type of activity has its plans and guideposta. The. sailor has his map, the architect his blue print, the football coach his diagrams--and the speaker, an outline. The outline is the plan of the speech. In it are words, phrases and sen tences, which contain the ideas which will grow into the final speech. The outline is the guidepost that directs the course of your ideas. Use it badly and you are certain to get lost- Use it, follow it, and you are sure to know where you arc going. But it may be asked: Why have an outline? Because this method of preparation involves merely the memorization of the ideas that you are to talk about, not the words. Here, the speaker knows exactly the order 0/ fits ideas, while the words he is to use are those that come at the moment of 113 114 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress utterance. Doer this sound difficult? Actually, it isn't, because the great problem in normal communication is not inability to find words, but the failure to find the idea that comes next. Given the idea and information about the idea, the words will come. But first, the ideas must be known. The outline is the means by which the order of your ideas is determined. There are two kinds of outlines, the Skeleton and the Full. The Skeleton Outline contains only the bare bones of the speech. There is very little in it. It contains only direction signs. It is very short, easy to memorize, and clear only to the man who made it. It gives merely a clue to what is to be said. In it are put words and phrases which, when seen, hint at more. It is useful for the man who has done a fair amount of speaking. Example of Skeleton Outline Industry's Part In Saving Traffic Lives 1. Cost to Industry a. 3,300 killed in work b. 17,000 killed outside c. Expense of replacing them 2. What should industrial management do? a. Help cut 35% of traffic fatalities by 1940. 3. How to do it. a. Organize Safe Driver's Club b. Send letters to employees c. Inspection of employee's automobiles d. Vision tests and physical examinations for workers The Full Outline is made up of complete thoughts instead of clues. It is really a summary of the main and minor points written out in sentences. It takes a bit longer to make this kind of outline, but it is very useful be cause it contains more of what you arc to say. A full outline can be given to a stranger and he will know what you are to talk about. It can be put away, reread years later still making sense to the one who prepared it. Indeed, at could very likely be given again almost as it was the first time with but a little preparation. Example of Full Outline (Same Subject) 1. The cost of motor car accidents and fatalities which industrial man agement must bear is a striking amount. a. 3,300 in 1936 lost their lives in course of their work b. 17,000, however, in addition were killed by automobiles in no way connected with their work c. Notice the cost of replacing their experience and skill, and the hiring and training of new workers. 7. These losses should challenge the fighting spirit of Industrial Man agement. 0. Latter should cooperate with the National Safety Council to reduce bv 35% the traffic fatalities by 1940 b. The employer has an influence over his men "after the whistle blows" so that he can imbue them with a safety consciousness. 3. Some plans that may be uicd to stimulate an awareness of Safety a. Organization of a Safe Driver's Club whose objects are: 1. to cooperate with the local authorities Industrial Safety Lectures 115 2. to keep up a continuous educational campaign 3. to teach personal responsibility b. Letters from Management to employees 1. These should be sent at frequent intervals, and signed by a ranking company official r. Inspection of employee's autos in company garages 1. Check tires, brakes, steering mechanism, etc. d. Vision tests and physical examinations of workers 1, These supply evidence of the employer's sincerity in combat ting all the factors. The final speech outline will, then, be represented by a group of words, phrases, and sentences set down in order, numbered, and so arranged that they represent the speech in miniature. With the plan before you, it is only necessary to tell in your own words the complete story summarized in each item of the plan. The third step in preparation is to memorize ihe outiine. It should be known forward and backward. AH the various words and phrases should stand out in one's memory with perfect clearness. In short, you must know the outline. Knowing it, words will come easily. The last step involves rehearsal of the speech as it is to be given. In this connection two methods of practice have been most productive. 1. Sit in an easy chair in a quiet room, removed from listeners. Get as comfortable as possible, then say the speech out loud quietly as though talking to yourself. Don't look in a mirror or bother to gesture. Just attend to the development of the ideas. Merely hear yourself talk. 2. Give the speech on your feet, preferably while walking. Students have found that walking up a quiet street after dark a useful procedure. During each method of rehearsal it is possible to check the time of the speech, to give you an exact idea of the length of each of the parts. In summary then, the Natural Method of putting the speech together has four main steps: 1. Getting and listing the ideas 2. Making an outline 3. Learning the outline perfectly 4. Rehearsing of the speech out loud The Six-Day Plan Experience has shown that men do their best job of speaking when they have at least a week in which to prepare the speech. Indeed, it is almost possible to say that no one ought to give a speech if he has not had that much time. In experimenting on time-plans the following has given the best and most consistent results. It is based on a six day schedule with the speech due on the seventh. First and Second Days: Begin to collect and list the topics and ideas to be used. Do whatever reading is necessary. No time limit can here be specified. Third and Fourth Days: Keep adding to the list of topics. Begin thinking about their order. Mull the ideas over. Make the outline. 110 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress Fifth Day: Read the outline over half a dozen times. Begin to memorize it- Re hearse it out loud--the "sitting-down" method. Twenty minutes to half hour is enough to put in on this day. Sixth Day: Read the outline over half a dozen times. You should know it by now. Then say it out loud on your feet, the second rehearsal method. This practice session very often goes roughly. Do not be alarmed if you do not seem to be doing so well. It simply means that the speech has not taken final form in your mind. But it will if the suggested procedure has been followed faithfully. 20 minutes is enough time on this day. Speech Day: Read the outline over a couple of times silently. Above all, do not give the speech out load on this day until you face the audience. It is too easy to put too much into a practice delivery, leaving little energy re maining for the real event. Then when you face the audience, with full confidence that you know what you arc to say, give it lo them with all you have. If there is more than a week's time, two* weeks perhaps, the program should be followed proportionally. Take twice as many days for each step. The above program is a schedule that works, but it may be modified as occasion demands. Regardless of the time available, however, the four steps in the process must be followed. If we were to give the best possible advice, it would be something like this: Never give a speech without sufficient preparation. You will only come to grief, if you do. Hurried outlining and memorization of the ideas is certain to make for worry and uncertainty. Give yourself plenty of time for each step. Get the outline firmly in mind. Rehearse conscientiously. Any safety speaker who will do these things will begio to speak with con fidence because he will know what to say. Mary Heaton Vorsc once said that "the art of writing was the art of keeping the scat of the pants to the seat of the chair." The art of speech preparation involves the same effort. With some practice this method of speech-making provides an oppor tunity for growth. After a time you will find that while speaking you trill be adding things that had not been prepared. In the enthusiasm of the moment new ideas will shape themselves for utterance. In short, you will begin to "think on your feet." This follows logically, because you have a clearly defined plan to begin with. There can be no original thinking unless a line of thinking is already under way. Industrial Safety Lectures 117 CHAPTER II HOW TO GIVE THE SPEECH If you have prepared your speech so that you know it, you are ready to devote all your energies to its delivery. Before you get up to speak, if you arc human, you will very* likely feel a keen inner excitement that you may not understand. It should nor worry you, because it is a purely normal response. Why does it occur? That Inner Excitement When you arc sleeping or sitting quietly, you arc using little energy. But as you awaken and move about the various activities of the day, the energy used increases. Now it is a significant fact that speech-making is a high-level activity. It is hard work and consumes one's strength. Ask any politician who has given a scries of campaign talks on any day! Your body is wonderfully made. Because speaking requires additional energy, automatically as the time approaches for the delivery of the s|K*cch certain glands, particularly the adrenals, release fluids into the bloodstream which stimulate and tunc you up for the tusk at hand. The result is that stirred-up feeling. Without it you would be emotionally dead. With it you are alive and ready to go. Thu*, this heightened feeling should be welcomed. It Is one guarantee against dullness. But as the stir-up continues it means that more and more energy is being generated. And just as a steam boiler needs a safety valve, so too docs the speaker need some way of releasing the tension and pent-up steam inside him. The best way we know of draining that inner-tautness is to move a bit. Have you ever wondered why the substitute before going into the football game runs up and down the sideline, swinging his arms, lifting his legs high? Sitting on the bench he becomes tense, eager. The movement loosens him up, uses some of the excess energy. However, the speaker has no running space. Is there anything hr can do to work off the tension? Here are some suggestions: 1. Take long, slow, deep breaths. You will be surprised at the calm that results from the movement of the chest and stomach muscles. a. When you get up to speak, get up slowly or wulk up slowly. The more time you take the more movements ynu can make. 3. Find something to do either before you begin speaking, or in the first few minutes. For example, if U is an after-dinner talk, move your chair out of the way; or if you have notes, lay them out carefully in front of you; or If you have pictures or charts to be used arrange them in good order. One man who heard of this principle devised a method of forcing activity in this way. He would carry his notes and some papers, then just as he prepared to face the audience, he always managed to let some of them fall to the floor. Then slowly, he would pick up the papers and methodically arrange them before beginning to speak. Though this particular procedure should probably not be recommended, that man has stoutly insisted that it always made him feet better. We can summarize the argument in this way. Movement of the arms, hands, body makes for a discharge of energy' which results in ease. Try to move a bit early in the speech. 118 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Facing the Audience You are standing in front of the audience and the speech is under way. Should you stand in one place or move around? Our experience Indicates that you should not stand rooted to one spot. First, because It is difficult for people to look at a stationary object for any period of time. Try right now to focus your attention on anything in your room. It is almost impossible to concentrate on it steadily without other ideas coming into the mind. The hypnotist puts his subject to sleep by making him look straight ahead, while listening only to the hypnotist's words. Unless you are interested in putting your listeners to sleep you will move about on the platform. Second, because movement to various positions in front of the audience enables you to gain contact, to talk directly to different areas and groups of people. Standing in one place prevents you from pointing your talk to all your listeners. Third, because movement helps to give you case and composure. It is an aid in becoming natural and in giving you a "fed of the floor." We have seen movies of a student who had difficulty in attaining ease while speaking. His knees would wobble, and his feet seemed to be rooted in place. In the particular speech filmed it was necessary for him to walk Across to a window, lift a flower-pot and bring it back to the center of the platform, while talking about the flower in it. Tbe movies clearly reveal the difference in his feeling of naturalness after the movement had loosened him up. An important point must be made here. People often ask whether a speaker must stand up straight during his speech. '1'he answer is, No. If he has the urge to lean against a table or rostrum, he should lean. The only caution is this; Anything one does to achieve a sense ol freedom and the elimination of discomfort is good. But in so doing care must be taken not to do anything that will offend the good taste of die audience or make them notice the act to the exclusion of the material of the speech. Later we shall have something to say about bad habits which tend to do this very thing. Very often a speaker will find it difficult to move about. He just finds it uncomfortable to take several consecutive steps in any direction while talking. If this is your trouble, here is a simple exercise which has had good results, and which can be' practiced in a private room. Simply take two steps to your right or left. Then stop and plant yourself. After some mo ments take two more steps and stop again. Taking but two steps at a time is not only easy, but it is surprising how much ground can be covered. Be sides, these steps make an excellent way of punctuating a change in the thought-development of your speech. After one idea has been discussed, move, stop and go on with the next idea. The Use of the Hands Whai should the speaker do with his hands while speaking? Observe a group of people in earnest conversation. Where arc theii hands, la their pockets, behind their backs, at their sides? Not if the con versation is in earnest. Rather they are likely to be waving, pointing, lifting and falling, circling about, measuring off imaginary spaces in the air-- constantly being used. Industrial Safety Lectures 119 Have you ever tried 10 clamp a baby's arms at its sides? Then you know how he squirms to get free of the abnormal position. Why is being put in a strait-jacket such torture? Because it means that the body and amu are being kept from functioning naturally, moving freely. In brief, we are trying to say that to use one's hands and arms, that is to gesture, is a perfectly normal function whether in a group or before a group. Then too, gesturing makes the meaning of what you say clearer to the audience. Whenever you have to talk about dimensions, boundaries, direc tions, or the size and shape of anything, you will find it easier to make the description with the use of your hands. To sec this point clearly, stop and try to describe in words only a spiral staircase. It is a difficult task. But how easy it is with a wave of the hand! Furthermore gesturing is almost a necessary factor in our daily com munication. Suppose we eliminated the following situations in which gestures are used, how difficult would be our methods of communication: a boy "thumbing" a ride, waving to a passer-by, shaking hands, shrug of the shoulders, taking and giving objects, the length of that fish, giving directions, etc. The Safety speaker has usually abundant opportunity to use his hands for purposes of description. Note just a few situations: highway obstruc tions, passing on the wrong side, the right and wrong way of doing some* thing, a collision or any accident, a. skidding or careening car, etc. Indeed, no Safety speaker can afford not to use his hands if he is to get across graphically vast numbers of factors in safety observance. From what has been said about movement as an aid to the speaker, it should be obvious that gesturing is but another means of helping him to assume easily and smoothly his natural tone and manner in talking to an audience. We have seen this happen: a man may have been talking dully, woodenly, failing to interest his listeners, when suddenly he hats an op* portunity to describe am incident graphically. Almost immediately apparent is the effect of the gestures in turning the slow tide of the speech into something lively and interesting. At this point we should put an end to some misconceptions. 1. There is no such thing as a correct gesture. What is right for you may be all wrong for someone else, and vice versa. 2. There is no such thing as a bad gesture. The only bad gesture is the one you didn't make when there was an opportunity to make your mean ing clearer. 3. The average speaker cannot gesture too much. It is only the rare individual who must be restrained. 4. Gesturing Is not a means of decoration, a device to make the speaker look pretty* It is rather a most useful technique of achieving ease and emphasis, which is also helpful to the audience. Learning to Use Your Hands Freely There is a rather simple system by which almost anyone can learn to gesture without self-consciousness. But like any other art, to achieve this ease takes practice. However, if you will follow the suggested method for 120 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress a few minutes a day, you should begin to use your hands with some free dom after a week or two. The method has been tried with some success with a wide variety of people. You can follow the procedure alooe or in a group. i. Raise both arms outstretched in front of you with palms up to the height of your shoulders. Then drop them swinging back and forth freely until they come to rest at your sides. Repeat half a dozen times. a. Raise both arms outstretched sidewise until they reach the height of your shoulders. Drop them until they fall against your thighs at each side. Repeat half a dozen times. 3. With palms upward, and with the upper arms held fairly close to the body, raise your forearms so that they extend in front of you parallel to the floor. Keep the fingers relaxed and loosely extended, not closed up and tense. We call this the HOME POSITION. Then drop the forearms 10 the side, and repeat the whole movement about a dozen times. 4. From HOME POSITION move both arms forward about four inches away from the body in the same plane, so that the bend in the elbow is about 150 degrees instead of about 90 degrees. This may be called the NORMAL POSITION. Repeat a dozen times. 5. Practice bringing both arms up to each of these two positions. Then practice bringing alternately the right and then the left arm singly to each position. You will see that each arm makes a normal gesture in either of the two- positions. From the two basic positions, Normal and Home, can be made every possible gesture. No matter whether a speaker is emphasizing a point, or -twinging his arms, or pointing or waving his fist, his arm and hand must Industrial Safety Lectures 121 go through either or both of the basic positions. So that if you Icam to bring your arms up to Home and Normal positions easily* you should be able to make any arm movement without restraint. Delivery and the Audience Up to this point wc have been concerned with those purely mechanical aspects of delivery, having to do with one's hands and feet. But the de* livery of the speech involves other matters. More especially it is con cerned with the problem of a right relationship with the audience. We are thinking here of the speaker's attitude and manner In connection with the speech as it goes out to the audience. Let us begin by noting that phenomenon called "Audience Blindness.'' In its simplest form we see it as a shifting of one's gaze away from those to whom onc is speaking. On the platform you face an audience. Being blind to it makes it deaf to you. If you will not look at them, they are not likely to listen to you. By your failure to get "contact" you seem to say that you are not interested whether they get what you have to say or not. You seem to display aloofness. If you want them to follow you, to understand what you are saying a full-fledged stare is an asset. Look at them all the time, even when you move around. Get contact early and keep it throughout Reality in the Speech There was a time in the history of public speaking when artificial tech niques were taught and used. The good speaker was supposed to use high-flown .language, big words, rousing climaxes, and studied gestures. He was taught "oratory" instead of straight-forward talking. But that time is gone. In the business of Safety there is no place for "oratory." There is place for honest, clear-cut, real speaking which gets ideas across to listeners. We now know that the speech is beft which is most real. The effective speaker today must be himself. His manner must be simple and direct. He must seem to talk to the audience just as though he were talking to them around the supper table. He works hard to be simple and forthright. He avoids trimmings and the things that are unnaturaL He is himself. It b no difficult task to tdl you to b< natural. Nor, contrary to what some think, is it easy to be naturaL But it b possible. Here is a suggestion: Use many uyouV and "1'v" Refer directly to the audience. Talk about "us" and "we." Make clear that Safety education "affects us," that "we are involved in everything that we do." Booker T. Washington once said, MI take my audience into my confidence much as I do a person.** You can approach that intimacy by sprinkling the little words, I, you, wet as, throughout your speech. Docs the Speaker Need a Big Vocabulary? Abraham Lincoln once said thb: "Among my earliest recollections I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way that 1 could not understand. I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing die neighbors talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of the night trying to make out what was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. 122 Tzvotty-sixth National Safety Congress "I could not sleep, although 1 tried to, when I got on such a hunt for an idea, until I had caught it; and when I thought I bad got it, 1 was not satisfied until 1 had put it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy to understand.'* William Jennings Bryan believed the same thing. These arc his words; "The purpose of speaking is to convince. To convince, you must make the people undentaod. ... A certain man is said to have sawed two holes in a door, one for the big cat and one for the kitten. It was unnec essary, for a hole big enough to let the big cat in would let in the kitten also. It is the same in speaking. If you speak in simple language both the Jearned and the unlearned trill understand,** Lincoln and Bryan knew that big words and high-flown language never made an idea clear. If young boys and girls, and adult men and women are to get the point of your Safety Talk, then you too must `speak in simple language . . plain enough for any boy to understand.** Sameness vs. Variety There is a legend of an old method of torture used in the Orient whereby a man was staked to the ground on hit back. About three feet above his forehead was suspended a container from which about every thirty secoods fell * drop of water. The legend irtiiui that few men remained JUM after (wo days of the steady dripping. The eternal sameness drove them mad. .Sameness in a speaker's voice, in the loudness or softness, in the slowness or rapidity with which he speaks--this will not drive an audience mad but it will put them to sleep. If a speaker is not aware of what is happening he soon falls into a ruL He speaks at an unchanging rate of speed. Or he goes along in the same key without letting his voice rise and fall naturally as in conversation. Suppose a baseball pitcher were to pitch nothing but fast ones. Or nothing but slow ones. How long would he last? Any time a speaker maintains a steady pace for long or a steady loudness you may be sure he won't last long either. The audience ceases to bother, they let their minds go off in other directions. A good pitcher however, won't pitch only fast ones. He mixes them up. He changes his pace. That is exactly what the speaker must do. He too must change his pace. He must speak rapidly for a time, then slow up. Or he speaks a while at a moderate loudness and then quiets down or gets louder. What he docs makes no difference. The important thing is that he get variety. Variety exists in ordinary conversation. It is only when the man stands before an audience that he mistakenly thinks that he mustn't be natural. These two go together. Get variety and you have naturalness. Get natural ness and you have variety. Make sure you have them both. The Attitude of the Speaker We have pointed out the necessity for Reality in delivery. But the effective speaker must go one step farther. He must be enthusiastic as well. He must be sold on what he says. He must "break down" the stiffness and speak as he would when telling about "that fish he caught after a bitter battle." He must "come alive" because it is alertness not deadness that Industrial Safety Lectures 123 keeps listeners awake. Someone has rightly said, "Dead men tell no tales," but dead speakers communicate no ideas. The effective speaker is always friendly. No one has a right to appear before an audience with a grouch. He must be cordial and genial. If the speaker is cold and unfriendly the audience will be just as cold in following what he says, and in carrying it away with them. No speaker in the history of public speaking got across an idea who wasn't utterly and completely sincere about it. There have been some shallow men who "put on" earnestness whenever they felt it was needed. But they probably did not do it for long. Both earnestness and its absence can be felt by listeners. You have heard salesmen who were smooth and suave. But if you think back you probably didn't buy what they had to sell. The same holds true in speech-making. If you have something to sell, your one hope in getting it sold is to be utterly honest about it The man who will break down and talk with absolute honesty can make mistakes galore. He can mispronounce words, mix his tenses, split infinitives and they will go unnoticed. But not so dishonesty. Honesty in a speaker is more important than all the elocu tionary tricks known. And the knowledge that reality, enthusiasm, friendliness and honesty are important should do much to add confidence to the speaker. He should realize that if he has something to say, if he can make a contribution to his audience, a contribution that he believes in, then nothing else counts. And once the speaker recognizes the power inherent in these fundamental quali ties, it will take more than an audience to frighten him. CHAPTER III THE CONTENT OF THE SPEECH Up to this point consideration has been given to the techniques of prepa ration and delivery. It was assumed that safety speakers either know or should know the subjects about which they have to talk, or at least, know where that subject matter may be found. However, it is quite possible that a man will have at his command facts and figures, arguments and examples, and still not know what to do with them in a speech. This chapter will attempt to answer the question: What should go into a speech? And our concern is to point out the techniques of handling the stuff of safety effectively. Suppose a speaker gathers a wealth of material and presents it alt to an audience. And suppose further that at the end of the speech they have only a haxy memory of what it was all about. What would be the point of giving such a speech? Just as long as the audience retain little or nothing definite, the effort is a mere dumb show. Interesting while it lasts but of no importance. By any test of success that kind of speech Is a failure for the man interested in preaching Safety. For the Safety Speaker there can be but one test---NOT HOW MUCH 12-1 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress HE GETS OUT, BUT HOW MUCH THEY GET AND REMEMBER Always he must think in terms of the residue he will leave, and not in terms of how much he can pack into his speaking time. The Principle of Limitation As soon as you realize that "audience retention" alone is important in the speech process, you will understand a corollary fact: That if an audience is to get what you say, THEN YOU MUST LIMIT THE NUMBER AND SCOPE OF THE THINGS YOU TALK ABOUT. You must concentrate on a few ideas, or even better on but one Idea and develop it adequately. The necessity for this should be clear if you recognize how difficult it is to break through the average listener's body of interests. Just think of the elements clamoring for his attention already, his home, family, job, friends, sports, politics and a host of others. The result is to make him insensitive to new stimulation. If you would break through that protective armor you must concentrate your fire on one idea, not scatter it over a dezeo. More and more wc come to the conclusion that if a speech gets across one idea, one big point, that is all that can be expected. Have you noticed the show-window of some great store? Just a few items displayed, so that if you stop to look, you really will see something. Then notice the windows of a shop on some side street, crowded, every available inch of space filled, so that if you do stop to look, you are likely to be obsessed with confusion, and actually see nothing. Too many safety speeches are like those crowded windows. Remember the rule: One point gotten across is far better than a dozen gotten out. Getting Direction A friend drops in on another. "Let's go for a ride," he says. "To where?" asks the second. "Oh, I don't know," is the answer, "let's just ride." Then what happens? They' ride aimlessly. They cover a lot of ground, use a lot gas, and return having gotten nowhere. Some speeches are like (hat too. They start, use a lot of words and usually end nowhere. How much better if those two friends had decided on a specific direction and set out for it The man who prepares a speech must be economical. There must be no waste motion. Before starting he should know his di rection. He should have a purpose. He should ask himself this question: What do I want to happen as a result of my having given this speech? For the Safety Speaker there can be three possible purposes. 1. To give information to his listeners. To tell them about the new stop-signs, that driving on icy pavement* is dangerous, how to avoid holi day traffic, etc. 2. To make his listeners think. Quite often if a man does nothing but recognize the things he does badly, that is enough to make him change his habit. Awareness is the first step in the development of new behavior. 3. To get his listeners to do something. The speaker may want boys and girls to cross streets at intersections, to pedal their bicycles carefully, or he may want workmen to quit their horseplay, etc. It makes no difference the purpose decided upon, but that there is Industrial Safety Lectures 125 direction is important. It is difficult enough to hit a target when aiming at it, but how much more difficult is it to score a hit without even pointing in the direction. Achieving Visibility ; Every man who has ever faced an audience knows that their attention shifts. Sometimes they sit and listen quietly, straining to get every word. And sometimes they sit phlegmatically, or restlessly and inattentively. Why does this waning of attention occur? Can anything be done 10 maintain an audience's steady interest? Before these questions can be answered, we must understand a funda mental fact. People listen when they understand. They undrnnnrf when they see. Their mention declines and wavers whenever the subject matter ceases to be visible. They become interested when the sutnui of the speech is concrete. The key words then, are and concreteness- When these qualities are achieved people will listen. The important question for the speaker is this: What kimdh ot material are visible, easily understandable? In an effort to find an answer, a series of experiments were oundurted in which listeners were presented with a dozen (fitfmas kinds of giuch matcriaL The audience in each case reported as to the visibility of each of the kinds, them in rank order, from that which was immediately understandable to that which was not From the results which were Istrfy uniform, it was possible to construct a "visibility scale** hi which each type of material was rated. The Visibility Scale 1. In every situation where explanation was necessary* it was found that highest visibility was achieved when the listeners were shown a working model, or an actual demonstration of the idea. They were able actually to see what was meant. Thus, if one were to point out that a workman was using a cool badly, far better than telling him how he should use it would be an actual demonstration of the correct method by the speaker. 2. Moving and still pictures were uniformly reported in second place. However, the pictures must show clearly the point to be made, and they must be handled so that those in the back of the room can see them. We found that the speakers had a tendency to hold posters off to one side, rather than In front of them and high in the air. 3. Charts, graphs and diagrams when they were good ones got across the ideas intended. Sometimes, however, they needed so much clarification themselves that the point was lost in the process. Further, it was found that there should be no more than one idea on each. More tended to wards confusion. 4. Up to this point in the scale objects played an important role. But it often happens that they are not available. The next best for purposes of visibility is the use of the hands and body for description. Go back to the section on gestures for a discussion of how* they help to communicate meanings. In one of the experiments, the graphic description using the hands alone to describe an automobile collision was given first place. 5. But opportunities for manual depiction do not occur too frequently 126 Tiventy-sixth National Safety Congress so we arc forced to achieve visibility through the use of words. Our find* ings indicate that a humorous story which makes the point you arc after, has high visibility rating. Note that we are not saying that humorous stories should be dragged in to divert the audience, but rather that a well- chosen one can get them to see your argument. 6. Examples, incidents and illustrations were rated high in almost every instance. Besides making for quick understanding, they tend to be inter esting because of their narrative form. One of the most famous of Amer ican lectures, "Acres of Diamonds,'' by Russell Conwell was given over 6,000 times. Some audiences were said to have heard it a half dozen times. Read it through sometime and you will see why. Every point in the whole speech is made visible by means of an example or illustration. 7. The use of comparisons is just below the use of examples in the scale. These involve the attempt to explain how the thing you are talking about is like or similar to something else. Often if your idea is a new one, or one with which they are not too familiar, we have found that connecting it with an idea with which they are familiar helps considerably in achieving visibility. In making comparisons this formula may be useful: "The thing I am talking about is just like. . . 6. We are getting down the scale. The further we go the less clearly understood is the material. At this point comes the slogan or battlc-cry which packs much meaning in a few words. Writers on safety have evolved a number of good ones. "Stop, Look and Listen," "Save a Life," "D<> a day's work, but don't burst a blood vessel doing It," "There's no armistice on Old Man Accident--Let's keep him out of our plant." 9. The use of quotations cither from the Bible, poetry, well-known say ings, the great writers or from popular literature. In this connection we must mention the use of the testimony of authori ties. In the field of safety there are individuals whose names and achievcmeats arc respected. Their writings usually represent the best thought on the subject. You should have access to their writings. And even though testimony was ranked rather far down the scale, yet we found that it had high persuasive value. People believed what trained thinkers had said. It was used effectively often as a final bit of ammunition to clinch rather than make clear your point. We conclude that it should be used whenever there may he doubt as to the soundness of your argument. 10. Almost at the bottom of the scale in terms of their visibility value are figures and statistics. Only on rare occasions did listeners get and re member them. More about them in the next section. 11. The bottom rank in the scale might be called "wind." We are think ing here of straight talking,* of long-windccf abstractions, of direct explana tions, of the listing of details, of a general outpouring of words. "Wind'' is something which goes out to an audience, but affects it very little. Thc> do not see "wind," they just hear it. In a general way the scale includes almost every type of subject matter known. How it should be used is now the problem. Experience demonstrates that a speech with fifty per cent of its time in between items 1 and 7 wilt be a speech with little waning of attention. And if the visibility score can be raised to seventy-five per cent, that is, il 3 out of every 4 minutes of speaking time is taken with the use of concrete objects, examples, comparisons, etc., the audience is certain to give close attention. But if the content tends to be localized around 9, to and 11, with Industrial Safety L*fnr\f 127 liulc besides some figures and a goodly quantity of assertions and simple statements, iiuuenuvene&s and restlessness will not be an unusual result. Indeed, we should expect it. How to Use Statistics Very few Safety speeches are given which do not at some point involve either directly or Indirectly the use of facts and figures. And unless speak ers are careful, listeners are apt CO leave without getting or remembering them. Numbers arc peculiar things. Words have meanings and definitions. Numbers have neither. If someone says a word you do not understand, you can go to a dictionary to find out. But suppose someone says "36,000 people were killed by automobiles in 1935," can you describe how many that is? Try il. How many is 36/100? A number as such is an abstraction, merely standing for something else. All of which should explain why statistics have such a low rating in the visibility scale. As an abstraction, it is almost impossible to see what one means. Nevertheless, it is possible to use figures effectively. We have found a useful formula. Whenever it is necessary to use figures, the significance of which you want an audience to get, make them equal to something else. Describe the number in terms of other things. Notice that the moment you describe something in terms of something else, you move up the scale to item 7, whidi ia terms of visibility is a long distance from item 10. For example, 361,000 is equal to the number that often see a World Scries or a Football game. Or it may equal the population of a city or half a dozen tovta. Or to show it in terms of other numbers; if you were to start t, 3. 3. 4* . . . one count each second, twelve hours from now you would be nUl counting. Or if the bodies of the dead were stretched out, they should cover some 40 miles. With the aid of the "equal to" formula, t begin to see how many the number represents. With some ingenuity the presentation of figures can become an interesting phase of the speech. But always you will find that the effort expended on translating them from the abstract to the concrete.pays in terms of in creased audience attention. Secondly, wc have observed that it is easier to listen to a round number than to one which gives every digit. For example, $1,000,000 is more under standable than "$i,006,235" lo the third place, It is wise to state the figures in percentages. Instead of saying that the accident rate was up by 99 ns over against 6a last year, simply indicate that the rate was up by 50 per cent. There Is immediately an economy in the total use of numbers. 'litis last observation leads to the final caution in the use of statistics-- USE THEM SPARINGLY. Front what has been said it should be clear that statistics are an instrument, a means of making a point. They should not be used as ends in themselves. How often have Safety speakers fatigued their listeners with long accounts and intricate figuring little of which was remembered for an instant! Mention should be made here of a significant contribution to the busi ness of statistical presentation in the use of pictures and symbols. Rudolph Modley Is the author of a book called How to Use Pictorial Statistics, twenty-sixth National Safety Congress published by Harper and Brothers, which shows how figures can be pre sented by means of symbolic representations of men, ships, automobiles, etc. He describes the rules that must be followed in the use of "picture statistics*' and in addition shows the kinds of facts that cannot be made clear by this method. For the individual whose work forces him to speak frequently, this book or the publications of Pictorial Statistics, Inc. (of which Modiey is execu tive director) should suggest an invaluable technique of stating facts which will be intelligible to the "man on the street." How to Get the Humorous Story Over Do you remember the time you heard a man tell what you thought was a good story? And you went home and repeated the story, and nobody thought it was funny? And you could not figure it out. What was the trouble? You told the same story, but you didn't tell it the same way. Humor is the result not of what you say, half as much as how you say it. Your story didn't get over because something was wrong with your delivery. The psychologists have a dozen theories as to why we laugh at certain things rather than at others. But the public speaker has to know only one set of facts. If a story is to be funny then the manner of the speaker must be in fun. He must cell the story in a spirit of fun. There can be no humor uales the speaker feels and acts in that spirit. See the funny situation in the back of your mind. Think about the thing that made you laugh when you first heard the story. Chuckle at it in wardly. And in this mood tell the story. All fun involves playfulness. The moment the speaker forgets to be playful he becomes serious. And when he becomes serious humor disap pears and his stories fall flat. Thus when you tell a story, tell it as though you really were in fun, and not as though the fate of the nation depended on your getting it over. For most people the business of living is a serious matter. There isn't much time to practice lightness and playfulness during working hours. But if you want to make people laugh, you have to practice playfulness. To be funny you have to learn to be in fun. Beginning the Speech The introduction of a speech is very much like powder and lipstick to a woman--not absolutely necessary, but helpful. The first words set the tone of the speech. Begin well and you can coast along. Begin weakly and you must overcome an obstacle built of bad impressions. In general we should agree with Aristotle that "an introduction is a beginning that paves the way for what follows." Actually, the introduction is not an integral part of the speech. Rather it is a kind of appendage by means of which one can move smoothly into his main ideas. However, if an introduction makes possible this movement it will be found to do something else, namely, capture the attention of the audience. Even though the introduction be recognized as something "lacked on" to the body of the speech, the speaker is advised to think about it carefully. Ituiustrial Safety I.CCtures We all know that oocc we arc starred things are all right. The problem is how to avoid those empty, harrowing moments when so little is ically said, and to get started with force and purpose. The following methods of t cginning a speech should be found helpful. t. The story opening. Hetc the speaker nukes use of an example or narrative which illustrate the point to be developed in the speech. This opening story* should not be K kmc, and above all it must be relevant, must lead to the argument. 2. The personal experience. An ou-cllent way of getting started because it often breaks down restraints. Simply describe a situation in which you were involved or which yon visusaed, which of course has something to do with the ideas to be disc-wed, Start off unhesitatingly by saying, "I want to tell you of an incident that happened to me. ..." 3. Bringing it home immediately. Begin the speech by showing your audience how the subject you are to talk about affects them. In short, tell them why you arc giving the speech to them. Be as specific as you can In demonstrating how each man is involved personally. Thus, if you are to talk of certain kinds of accidents in the plant, bring the audience into the picture right off, by explaining how they- may be affected. 4. Use of a quotation. Plan to read or quote from memory something said by someone in the field that you are to talk about. Often a piece of poetry, or well-known saying allows you to move easily into the speech by pointing our the meaning of the quotation and its application to the present situation. If you read the quotk, hold the paper or book up almost to the level of your chin, so that when you read from it you can look out at the audience, thus achieving contact at the same time. 5. The question opening. Let your first words frame a question or a series of questions, which mil be answered by you in the course of the speech. This is one of the easiest methods because it permits of simple development from question to answer. Ask your questions directly as though expecting an answer from the audience. A brief pause should follow each. After experimenting with tins type of beginning you will sec that it tends to get the audience thinking along with you. 6. Believe-it-or-nol-techniquc. This method involves the statement of a fact or series of Tacts which at the moment sound unbelievable. Notice how well this opening is designed to catch the attention. It will lake a bit of research to find the material for this type, but the effect > well worth the effort. It is relatively simple to deliver, because you have merely to state your facts in declarative fashion. It is well to pause for a moment after their statement to let the force of their uniqueness sink in. 7. A brief arresting sentence. Here we have an opening that is short but effective. An interesting essay on "The Safe Worker" begins thus: "John Henry* was a showoff and it killed him." And another on the same topic, "A woodpecker uses his head when he works, but you can't say as much for some of the rest of us." 8. Graphic physical description. Essentially this amounts to a narrative which is given with gestures. Accidents, collisions, etc. can almost always be described thus. Or you may begin by an actual demonstration of something you are to talk about. A talk about Safety in the Home might well begin by a concrete actual description of the right and wrong ways to reach for objects on the top shelf. 9. Physical activity on the part of the audience. Recently a speaker 120 Tuviily-sixth Nut'umul Safely Congress before a high school audience began thus: "How many of you here ride bicycles? Will you please raise your hands?" The moment they put their hands up he had both their attention and interest in the development of the speech. Very often, especially if the group is not too large, it is possible to open by asking for information, or by asking certain individuals questions. Obviously here you achieve cooperation while paving the way for your own discussion. The speaker should be aware that this method requires response from the audience. The situation may be faintly embarossing if you ask them to co something without their doing it. However, if you are direct and porilive in your request, without making it too difficult there need be no fears. jo. Statement of purpose. This method while not as spectacular as some of the above will be found useful where time is limited. It allows you to "plunge right in" to ibe speech. Thus, you begin by saying, ``My purpose in talking to you today is to tell you why our accident curve is rising, and what wc can do about it." The method will also be found useful, where the purpose of the speech is primarily informative. Avoid plunging in when you are interested in getting them to think about or do something about a specific problem. We close this section by repeating that thought should be given to the choice of openings. After some practice in devising them you will rec ognize tlje possibility of using two or three in combination. For example, the "bclicve-ii-or-not" opening merges well with the "personal experience** and "bringing it home1' types. A tittle experimenting will prove both the possibilities and (he productiveness of the above list. Caution: 1. Do not highlight the introduction at the expense of the body of the speech. Remember it is only an appendage. 2. Never begin speaking by apologizing cither for your lack of prepara tion or for your inadequacy. Too often such apologies smack of Insincerity, or else they arc downright lies. Besides if it is absolutely necessary for you to apologize, you should not be up there speaking: your place is in the audience. And even if you do know your speech, so that you do a good job, the initial impression is likely to linger.* Ending the Speech Our experience with Safety Speaking makes clear certain defects with respect to the conclusion of the speech. i. Often speakers just run down, having things dangling in the air. _*. Too often they close on a note of weakness, without punch. 3. Worst of all, many do not stop when they should. Having come to what is a logical stopping-place, they go on to repeat their Anal ideas in slightly different language. The good speech ends by rounding out the idea and in one last effort attempting to make the point of the argument. In other words the conclu sion has a significant function. It provides a last opportunity to drive your idea home. This opportunity should never be lost, because there is some reason to believe that what an audience hears last It remembers longest. Safety speakers must icam to take advantage of this fact. For llte heu treatment in the whole Of tpecch literature of Icchnkjuej and meUu>A of to..inning and endinng the uMKclt. the reader!* urged to. study chapter* 16 and ty of Dane nriplrs p/ Speech .by Uw Saretl aud W. T. Forter, (Houghton Mtffltn, industrial Safety Lectures m Our major concern then, is to describe ways and means by which this may be accomplished. The method* follow. i. Summary. Merely restate, if possible, in different language the main points covered in the speech. Enumerate them in roughly the order that they were given in tbc development of the speech. Do not do this mechani cally as a kind of necessary chore. But realize that an enumeration of the points will briefly refresh for them what they had already heard, thus making for emphasis. 9. Suggestion of specific action. Frequently the safety speech suggests new kinds of behavior, new ways of doing things. Take advantage of this fact by leaving for the end of the speech your concrete proposals. Your last words should urge them to do what you have said they should. 3. Quotation. Just as in the beginning, it is possible to use the statement of an authority to give weight to your own argument. The quote provides an effective doting especially because it rounds out the development of the idea. When you read a quote, emphasize it, otherwise its force will be lost. 4. An offer of service. Certain speeches arc liberal with advice and instruction, which often suggests that they may be followed up by further demonstration or discussion. Do not hesitate to mention that you arc available for this additional help. Welcome their visits. 5. The slogan. This was described as item 8 in the visibility scale. It is frequently used as an effective closing device, because it usually has in it the heart of your discussion. The great difficulty, of course, is to And slogans which haven't been worn thin by overuse. But even if you can't find them, a sharply worded sentence will do as well. 6. The story that "echoes" the speech. This is one of the best ways of closing known, because it performs all of the functions in one. It consists of a story or example which in and of itself suggests the gist of the whole speech. A good "echo" story retells in the closing moments all that has gone before. Suppose you had to give a speech to a group of workmen on "The ShowofT* which you had to end with this method. Here is a rather good example. "John Henry was a showoff and it killed him. Workers all over the country tell tales about him that make your eyes bug out John could pick up a length of rail, turn around, and put It back in place--alone. He'd swing a 10-pound sledge in each hand and play a tattoo on a steel drill that would sink it faster than any machine. He swore no machine would ever take his place. Once they arranged a drilling contest between John and a steam drill ing machine. At the end of thirty-live minutes John had sunk two holes, each seven feet deep while the steam drill had put down only one hole, nine feet deep. John proudly took the $100 prize and went Itome. But after supper he complained of a pain in the head. The next morning they found him dead. The exertion had caused a blood vessel in his brain to burst. Had John been sensible as well as strong, he'd still be drawing pay. A mere man can do no more than a mar's work, and when you try to do more, you are just asking for strained muscles, sore backs, ruptures, tom ligaments."1 7. Bringing the point home. Just as it is possible to begin by showing 1. National Safety Council, "The Safe Worker," Vol. 10, No. 11, pi>. 7-8. 132 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress how your ideas affect them as individuals, so can one close by making explicit how each of them is involved in what you have said. Show specifically how the health, income and morale of the audience is either endangered or disturbed. This, as no other kind of ending, can drive the point home. Hut beware of overshooting the mark. Keep this one brief. 8. Visualization. At the close of many talks it is possible to palm a picture of what tilings would be like if only they would do or think as you want (hem to. The only difficulty of this conclusion is that it lends itself to fantasy and exaggeration. But. that is not to say that when done simply and hocs*)y it is not effective. Good visualization sets up a goal toward which an audience can strive. y. Ending on a question* "Isn't it about time we did something about this problem?" "How much longer must this state of affairs continue?" "Isn't it possible to do something right now?" 10. The Challenge. Here the speaker dares them to take the new line of action, by setting up a goal which they seem hesitant about reaching. He distinctly challenges them as individuals to leave the situation as it is. He raises (he question of their adequacy in meeting the problem. There is dynamite in this ending. And it can't be done by weaklings. The speaker himself must demonstrate the courage which he is indirectly asking for. Testing Your Speech This chapter suggests several tests which should be applied to every finished speech to test its effectiveness. If you can answer each of the following questions in the affirmative your speech should be a good one, that is, on paper. U the speech limited to one big point? Does it have a definite purpose? Is at least fifty per cent of (he materia! within items one and seven on the Visibility Scale? Are statistics used sparingly and translated into something concrete as frequently as possible? Docs tbe speech have an introduction which leads into the body of the argument? Have you rounded off the speech with at least one of the methods of concluding? CHAPTER IV PLANS AND BLUEPRINTS FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SPEECH About 400 B.C. a teacher named Corax recognized that in the courts some speeches were better than others because they were more skillfully organized. So that in his book, the first on public speaking known to have /ndnstrial Safety Lectures been written, he devotes considerable attention to the problem of develop* mg a plan by means of which the speech might be clearly ordered. That is our concern in this chapter. There is a fundamental rule in organizing the material of the speech which might be stated in this way: Instead of thinking about the material of Che speech as a whole, block out the materia) in units. The pattern of these units will then make up the speech. To explain the rule we shall present a number of plans in which we indicate the content of each of the units. Each plan suggest* in miniature the organization of the speech. Think of the plans as the framework into which your content goes. 1. The One-Point Plan. Note that tiffs pattern makes possible the dem onstration of the Principle of Limitation. Though the simplest plan we know, it is by no means the least effective. Unit 1. State the point you want to get over to the audience. Analyze it as simply and dearly as possible. Unit a. Explain or prove the point by means of facts, figures, examples or testimony. This is the meat of the speech. Keep the visibility high. Unit 3. Restate the original point that you were to make. 2. The Constructive Criticism Plan. It lias been suggested that this formula grew out of the method used by the old Medicine Show Man. His plan of attack was to describe a host of aches and pains, after -which he drew out the magic, bottle whose praises he sang long and loudly. His next step was to urge you not to crowd but to move up and buy one of the few bottles left. Unit 1. Open the argument by pointing out an evil, or set of abuses, or some badly working situation which you are interested in cor* reeling. Be sure that your listeners understand the thing you arc arguing against Unit 9. Suggest a remedy or solution which will correct or cure the evil. Be as detailed at this stage as you choose. Unit 3. End the speech by appealing to them to join you in action on your proposal. This pattern of development provides an excellent opportunity for the demonstration of variety in delivery. The first unit being explanatory and descriptive can be given in a direct, conversational manner. The second unit should permit you to step-up the energy level of your talking. The end suggests in its appeal the possibility of power and drive with abundant bodily action. 3. The Simple Motivation Plan. In this pattern we arc interested in getting action on some proposal. The effort is to get more than assent to what we say by means of a direct argumentative plan. Unit 1. Explain clearly to your listeners what you want them to do. There should be no doubt at all in their minds -when this unit is complete. Unit 3. This is the motivational step. Tell them why you want them* to pursue some line of action. If possible indicate where and how they are involved, and how they will be affected by the proposal. In short, here is the opportunity to bring the subject home, by tying it up with their interests. Unit 3. Tell them how to do what you suggest. Incidentally, this is where many teachers and foremen fail to do a good job of instruct* 133 131 Twenty'Sixth National Safety Congress ing. They are not sufficiently definite in their instructions. If shop men, or students arc at all confused or uncertain of the directions given them, the results will show in the job they do. The speaker must realize that there is an important difference between this and the first unit. Knowing what to do does nor ar all imply that an individual will know how to do it. Therefore this unit should receive careful attention. Unit 4. Urge (hem to go out and do what you have told them. This is clearly an appeal for action cm your original suggestion. 4. The Logical Ptan. The name of this plan is most apt because the order is that which most closely parallels the argumentative form. This plan will be found to be especially helpful if the speech is to be given to a critical audience. Unit 1. Start out by showing that there is a need for some specific line of action, or that some proposal must be acted upon because of the necessities of the situation. Unit a. Show how desirable and valuable the action or proposal will be for them. Or the desirability may be reckoned in terms of social usefulness. Unit 3. Make clear that the idea is practical, that it has worked elsewhere. Give examples of that workability. Indicate that the idea can be put into effect, conditions being what they are. This is the step which should appeal to their common-sense. Unit 4. Appeal to them to take action, or give consideration to the merits of the idea. 5. The Plan that grows out of an Example. Safety speakers should find this formula one of the most useful because of its high persuasive value. In addition it contains almost all of the necessary factors to induce limitation and visibility. Unit 1. Open the speech by telling a story or citing an example which has in it the basic idea or situation you are to talk about. Care should be taken to see tliat the example does contain the nub-idea of the speech. Unit 0. Explain that the situation represented in the example is a typical one, which occurs frequently. Thus, if the talk dealt with drunken driving, after telling of the accident caused by John Jones because he did not see a car coming around the comer, it is an easy task to indicate that drunkenness in general leads to results just such as you have described. Unit 3. State the problem that must be faced, and show very briefy how the audience is affected by the situation. Unit 4. Suggest a solution or corrective of the situation. Unit 5. End the talk with a reference back to the example of the opening. Then appeal to them to take note of the situation, or to take steps to adopt your suggested solution to the problem. 6. The Short Speech. Quite frequently a speaker is asked to say Ma few words" about Safety. Or he may be called upon unexpectedly with little time for preparation. In such a situation there is little opportunity for cither thinking or research. What is needed is a serviceable formula which can be quickly put together. After some searching and testing the follow ing has been found of help in this particular speech situation. Industrial Safety Lectures 135 First, decide on a single idea that you will talk about. It makes no difference for practical .purposes what the idea is, but it must be specifically stated in your mind and limited in scope. Secondly, develop the speech by opening with a single example of the point you are to make. Third, talk about the idea which has grown out of the example. Here you make the point of the speech. Fourth, end the speech with a single sentence forcefully stated, or with n slogan in which the main idea stands out clearly. Such a speech can be given in most effective fashion in from three to five minutes. A fair example of this plan of attack can be seen in the following, taken from the National Safety Council publication called "The Safe Worker." "A man in South Dakota owns a horse, or at least he was pretty sure he did. The mare disappeared when she was about a year old. The other day the owner thought he saw it in another fellow's pasture. There was a little disagreement between the two about ownership and the original owner took the matter to court. "Your honor," he told the judge, "tliat marc belongs to me and I can prove it . . . there's a dime a little south and to one side of her tail.'* So a veterinarian performed an operation on the right hind thigh of Ihr horse and extracted a 1930 dime, placed there by the plaintiff, who led his marc back home. (One point discussion) There's no need to argue why the owner put the dime in his mare's hind leg, but the story proves the value of identifying things properly. For instance, all exits should be marked. All power switches and elec trical equipment should bear warning signs. Wherever a sign or some distinctive marking will help to point to danger spots around machinery or call attention to other hazards, one should he erected. (One sentence ending) Help your foreman and safety supervisors by calling attention to any hazardous conditions you believe should be labeled." Only general advice can be given on the use to which these plans may be put. In a rough way >vc have found the following suggestive. Plan 1 should be used when your purpose is to have your listeners understand-why a particular rule exists, or why certain things should be done in certain ways. Essentially you arc interested In having them agree with you. Plan 3 finds its best use whenever you arc concerned with the correction of some situation which has not been functioning properly. When some thing has gone wrong, this is the best formula. Plan 3 lends itself to those occasions when action is needed. Whenever a foreman finds it necessary to get something done, this is the appropriate formula. Careful attention must be paid to Units 2 and 3 for best results. Plan 4 as suggested in the description of its organization lends itself especially well in the conference room or around a conference table where matters of policy are being treated. Whenever the problem is one whose influence may be widespread, intensive consideration to the problem can be given by means of the first three units, 136 Twenlv-sixih A ationa! Safety Congress Plan 5 can be used in general educational work more effectively than any of the above plans. The device of the example followed by a generali zation makes for visibility almost from the start. Such a speech can be given to practically any kind of audience from high school to luncheon club, on practically any phase of safety education. A Word About Material It is one thing to device plans and blueprints for the organization of the speech, it is quite another thing, however, to have material to go into the plans readily at hand when needed. As we have suggested ever)- speech should be the development of at least one idea. So far as we know ideas can only be developed through the use of facts, figures, stories, examples, testimony of authorities and argu ments in the form of statements. Where are these materials coming from? There can only be two sources, your personal experiences and your reading. You can draw on youv experi ences for only limited information and only for a short time. The fund of personal observations soon gives out. But on the writings of others you can draw forever. It is easy to read articles on your subject. But that isn't enough, there must be a wav to keep those facts and illustrations so that when needed they can be obtained immediately. If you have a "photographic memory'** the material will stay with you. If vou haven't you need a method of taking down and filing or keeping in order the items you may want to use. The "Scrapbook Method** is one of the very best. Visit the dime-store and buy a scrapbook. Then, whenever you see material that seems useful in a magazine, newspaper, or a book, clip it out (if you're the owner) or copy it Paste either the clipping or the copy in the scrapbook. It is advisable to divide the book Into sections which may be marked Accidents, Figures, Stories, New Methods, Enforcement, etc. The scrapbook kept trim and up-to-date can be one of the best sources of ready information the speaker can have. Too many men rehash the same old stuff time and again. They put to gether one speech and call it quits. Every time they arc heard out come the same figures and the same arguments. These men fail to keep up with what is happening. They cease growing. No man who would keep audiences listening can afford to stop growing. Read and keep on reading if your speeches are to be full of interesting and valuable material. Don*t let your background get thin and empty. Keep filling It. There U another habit the speaker can well afford to acquire. You have probably noticed that ideas and hints for speeches come at odd moments during the day, while walking about, while talking with others. You are likely to hear stories, incidents which at the time seem useful. Then later when the material might be fitted into your speech, you find that it has slipped from memory. There is one way to be sure that you can have the story ready at com mand. Get the notebook habitl Buy yourself a small notebook, one that can be easily caj-ried in a vest pocket. It should be no more than three inches long and two inches wide, otherwise it becomes cumbersome. Then, whenever you come across fmlnstnol Safety Lectures 137 likely-looking material, jot it down. Every now and then glance through the book. You will be surprised at the amount of data that can be gathered in this casual way. CHAPTER V BAD HABITS AND THEIR REMOVAL You have undoubtedly listened to a speaker whose speech was spoiled because you were more interested in certain mannerisms and reactions of his that distracted your attenu'on away from the speech. Sometimes the speaker knows of his habits, but more often he is entirely unaware of what hr is doing. Absorbed in his speech-making he becomes utterly oblivious dot be may be disturbing his audience by something that in itself is trivial. However, any study of listeners* reactions will reveal quite clearly that they notice the extraneous behavior of the speaker. Of course, the evil is worthy of our attention, became if listeners notice other things, they tend not to get what is being said. Perhaps seventy-five per cent of the amateur speakers have two general ciawer of bad habits. They are, First, what wc may call "sounds without words," a peculiar meoningtess noise which can become most irritating. They include "cr, ah, eh, aw, and yh wwnnw CtC.** Second, certain random physical movements which arc clearly purposetao and which detract rather than add to the effectiveness of the speaking. Some of the commonest include, twisting or playing with the fingers, smooching the hair, pulling the ear, rubbing the nose or forehead, buttoning and unbuttoning the coat, drumming on the table, jingling coins in the pockets, playing with a watchchain, rising and falling on the toes, shifting the weight from side to side, or forward and back, nervous prowling back and forth. It should be clear that If you have either of these kinds of bad habits, steps should be taken to eliminate them. A rather simple program has been found for the removal of die "sounds without words." It is equally appli cable to the random movements. First, note yourself that you make (he "sounds" during normal conversa tion. Second, make the decision to stop them. Simply determine that you will be rid of the things. Third, whenever you feel one of them coming on--stop. Say nothing. Allow no sound to escape from your lips. Omit the sound enurely. Fourth, enlist the cooperation of those around you in the effort to notice when you commit the fault For example, have someone you know raise a hand whenever he hears a "sound." Persistent notice of the error can bring about its elimination in ? week or two, 18 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Some Final Advice i. Avoid stimulants before you get up to speak. Speakers are usually sufficiently excited anyway. Besides the secondary effect of most stimulants is to induce a depressant condition. . Do not drink too much ice-water. Perspiration tends to be increased as a result. 3. Wear comfortable clothing. If you can speak without a vest, so much the better. You must be free and relaxed. 4. Fatigue is one of the speaker's worst enemies. If you are tired, you will be unable to pack the punch necessary. You should be physically fresh for each speech occasion. 5. Eat sparingly before the speech. However, do not get up without having had anything. After all one does need nourishment. . Remember to take that deep breath before you start speaking. Also get up slowly, they'll wait, 7. Never make the mistake of talking "down" to an audience, whether it is composed of high school students or workmen. Talk simply and honestly on all occasions. Indeed, it is better to talk "up," assuming that they are informed and capable of understanding. 8. Avoid by all means the "god complex," that Insufferable tone of superiority, ns though only you counted in die world. Dignity has its place, but it is not on the platform. "Be yourself." 9. Remember that audiences are composed of normal human beings. And normal people arc pretty much kind and sympathetic. Watch some times how people react in times of difficulty. Audiences know that speak ing is not an easy task, that it requires wqrk and energy, and instead of being out "to get" the speaker, they arc more likely to be pulling for him, congratulatory when the job was a good one, sympathetic when it has been flubbed. 10. If you arc to talk about Safety, you have to. feel that giving speeches that may save lives is important. And above all, no matter how important the subject, you have to know it. You will have had to do some work in putting the outline together and learning it. Speeches are always the product of perspiration, not of inspiration. A LIST OF BOOKS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING ii.u ctr, Lcv, and Poster, W, T., Basic Principles nf Speech. Boston: Hough ton Mifflin Co., 1936. By all odds the besi book in the field. The Safety man is advised to read this book carefully. Chapter 3 gives the best advice for the control of stagefright in the literature. Monroe, Alan II., Principles and. Types of Speech. New York: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1935. Industrial Safety Lectures 139 Very readable. Chapters 3 and 4 are concerned with the analysis nf the occasion and the audience. Good material on the various types of speeches. See especially eh. 14. Brigance, W. N., Speech Composition. New York: F. S. Crofts and Co., '937Good treatment of the problem of style and the content of the speech. The chapter on "The Psychology of Coining Acceptance" will be useful for the Safety man. Sandford, W. P., and Yaegcr, W. H., Principles of Elective Speaking. Third Edition. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1934. Interesting material on "The Elements of Intcrcstingncss." The discussion of the "vital'' and the "familiar" is good. Gislason, H. B., The Art nf Effective Speaking. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1934. A good book. The treatment of the Content of the speech and of the various purposes as they may be developed will be found produc tive. Dolman, John, Jr., A Handbook of Public Speaking, Revised Edition. New York: Hareourt Brace and Co., 1934. A small, readable bo6k which covers a lot of ground. There is a chapter on Persuasion and another on Humor. Borden, R. C., Public Speaking, As Listeners Like It. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1933. Written in a breezy style, this small book has a good deal of very practical advice, including an interesting "plan" for the short speech. Winans, James A., Public Speaking. Revised Edition. New York: D Applcton-Century Co., 1917. This is one of the "classics" in the field. The Safety man should go to this book for further information on the techniques of persuasion and audience analysis. Phillips, Arthur Edward, Effective Speaking. Chicago: The Newton Co., 1908. Another "classic" whose emphasis is on the content of the speech. Woolbert, Charles Henry, Fundamentals of Speech. Third Edition, Re vised by Smith, Joseph, F. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1934. The best statement of bodily action and its value in chapters 3 and 4, in the "classic" tradition. This list is organized in the order in which they will be most useful for the man interested in Safety. The books at the top of the list arc in general "all-round" books good on a number of the elements of speech. The books at the bottom of the list tend to have only restricted usefulness, though this is not to say that they should not be read by men who are interested in learning the best that is thought and written chi the business of public speaking. Maintaining Interest in Safety WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 13, 1937 Methods ot propagating and sustaining interest in a safety program were discussed in a session ort "Maintaining Interest in Safety," held Wednesday morning. C. B. Boulet, Personal Director, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, Milwaukee, Wis., presided. Panel participants included Ernest W. Beck, Superintendent of Safety, U. S. Rubber Product*, Inc., New York City; Gordon C. Huth, Assistant Manager Industrial Relations, Universal Atlas Cement Company, Chicago; K. C. Loomis, Manager, Running Board Division, Ohio Rubber Co., Willoughby, Ohio; F. R. McLean, Safety and Insurance Department, White Star Division, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Detroit, Mich.; C. N. Rakestraw. Secretary, General Safety Committee, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Cleveland, Ohio; and William Weir, Director of Safety, Carnegie'Illinois Steel Co,, Gary, Ind. Chairman Boulet: If you have been in safety work very long, you know that the frequency curve is dependent about ninety per cent on the interest curve. That is why I think this Maintaining Interest in Safety session is important. If we can find the answers to the questions of why interest is likely to drop and what to do about it when it does drop, we are going to really get something out of this meeting. We are going to tackle this problem very much as a doctor handles a patient. First he diagnoses the case, takes the patient's temper ature, takes his pulse, looks at his tongue, and docs all of the other things that a good doctor should do. After that he tries to find the cure for what ever the patient has; but before he can find the cure he has to know what is wrong, and after he has done that and the patient gets over the disease, he trie* to give him a tonic to build him up. to put him back where he formerly was. That is exactly wliat we are going to try to do here. First we are going to try to find why this safety work slumps every so often. We ask: Wliat are the symptoms--not the causes. How do you know that safety or in terest in safety is falling away, that it isn't up 100 per cent? What arc the symptoms of lack of interest on the part of management, on tlie part of the safety department, on the part of supervisors, on the part of men? How can you tell, if you are the safety man, whether management.is losing interest? How can you tell, if you are the manager, whether the safety man isn't just drifting along? How do you know, if you are the accident super visor, whether the operating or production supervisors are or are not interested in safety? How can you tell? That is important, because if you can tell early enough you are going to keep that frequency curve down. If you wait until the frequency curve goes up, then you have let the disease get a start, and your problem is a lot worse. How do you know whether the president of the company or the vice president of the company is slid as interested as he was when he said, "Yes, we will spend $25,000 for safety"? Is there any sign by which you know? Member: I believe when llicy put off a meeting for a month. Chairman Boulet: All right, when they postpone meetings. It may be the fault o( the president or the fault of the supervisor, but that is one answer, wlien they start to postpone meetings. Is ilwre any other ? Member: The first time they turn yw down on an appropriation for doing the work. 141 M2 Tu'cnly-sixih National Safely Congress Chairman* Roclet: When tliey sav, "We can't Spend any mure." Aitollicr one is when they start to pinch tlie old money-bag and >ay, "Xo. we are not going to spend it." Thai tn ituvii is lack u( interest or falling off of interest. Mkmhfj: When the officials fail to attend tlie meeting. Chairman Boulft: l am glad to get Uut one. When die officials fail to attend tltc meetings: when they sav, "Let somebody else do it." Member; When they don't follow through on safety suggestions. Member: When you mention something to tltc higher officials and they say. "We will see about that a little while later." Chairman Houlet: A passive attitude toward safety. We have lad five or six good indications of Itow you can tell whether there is a dropping off of interest in accident pre vention. Do all of those causes apply equally to the safety man, the supervisor, the men and the management ? Let's think a minute. What about the safety man? How do von know*, when you analyze yourself, that you arc still interested in safety ? What arc some of the indications.* Member: Working at the job. Chairman Boulkt: You mean the fellow just doesn't work any more? That tn a goad answer, wtien lie starts playing too much golf or starts to give his interest to other things. Any other indication on the |>art of the safety men? Mkmkk; When Iw become* complacent in his job. thinks his record is o. k., and stands on that record. Ciiairman Bol'i.kt: When lie thinks he ha> made a record, he has won a National Safety trophy. and 9ays, "Boy, we are good 1" Ami lie sits lack and thinks lie is the best safety man in die country. Member: just the reverse at 0m(, when he says. "What's the use?" Chairman Boulf.t: 1 like that because T have had that experience, frankly. When a fatal accident report come* in. you say, "Oh, lidl, wliat*> the use?" Mumper: When the work becomes a drudgery. Member: When lie fails to develop new ideas. Ch airm an IfcHi.rr : When he coasts along on live old ones, in other words. That is a good one. Mf..muek : When he starts tu be an errand buy for the superintendent. Cii airman Boi/cjet : What a Itout the men? Hus can you tell when the men arc losing interest ? M k.mijkk : When your accident record goes up. Chairman Booxtr: 1 am not so sure that is right, because I want to find out an unsafe attitude or a lack of interest before the rec ord goes up. Member: The munlier of items on your safety list. Chairman Boci.f.t: The number oi items on tlie safety minutes; in other words, the cooperation the men are giving. If tiicy sit back ami say nothing, you can say, "I am slipping somewhere." Meouikr: When he fails to report injuries at the time they occur, after being instructed to do so. Member; By your attendance record, by tlie men not attending safety meetings. Chairman Boulf.t : I will take that, hut I wouldn't make it voluntary on the part of tlie men. How many people here make attendance at safety meetings compulsory? Let's see the hands. (Majority.) I am going to ask anollier one. How many do not make it compulsory ? Quite a number. How many who make it compulsory pay the men for the lime tliey send in the meeting? Let's sec (Ik hands. (Majority.) f am glad to see that. I think that is part of the answer. You can't make it compulsory unless you pay for the time. If you don't want to pay for the lime, there is a lack of interest on the part of the management. I wilt take that one, the lack of attendance is a sign, hut my guess is attendance ought to be made compulsory and you ought to pay for it Memoek: What kind of meetings--mass meetings or safety committee meetings? Chairman Boui.kt: Let someone else an swer that. Member: Safety committee meetings. Member : Mas* meetings. Member: Any meeting with safety as pects. Chairman Bovlet: I will take all of Maintaining interest in Safety U3 those. 1 think meetings on safety ought to be paid for. There is some argument on that. In our own company we pay every man's time for every meeting he attends, and we have every nan in at least one meeting every month. Member: That is within the plant? Chairman Bouts?: That is within tlie entire company. The meeting is held in the plant. 1 happen to work for a public utility. We lave men on the line, digging mains, gas plants, and what-not. No matter where the meeting is held or when, we pay for the time. I am not saying you lave to. Member: Are they held during working hours or at night. Chairman Boceet: Generally during working Itours, although on some of the shift crews it is necessary to hold tlie meeting alter the shift because to hold it during the shift would shut the plant down. In some places where one or two men can supervise the plant during the safety meeting, we excuse those men one month Init not two months. I keep a record on my desk. If a man misses two meetings in succession, re gardless of tlie excuse, I want to know why. I write a letter to the superintendent of tliat plant and I give a copy to his big boss, and I ask why the nan las been away. Un less it is sickness, there is another letter coming along dial says, "If this man is not going to attend safety meetings, he had bet ter get a job somewhere else. If you can't ujivrate your plant to give these men a chance to attend safety meetings, you had better get some more men." There is only one answer. If yon aren't willing to spend the money, tliere is no use trying to carry on your safely program. I don't mean to squander tlie money. I am just Kig to tell you something that was said in this room yesterday, from this platform, by an old-timer in safety--Mr. C. B. Scott, former President of the National Safety Council. He said this; "If I can bring any one thing to you. if I can give you any advice at all as to the one thing that is most helpful in a safety program, it is this: 'Personal contact'." That is the answer of your safety meeting. We have covered this thing "hit and miss." But I think we have part of the diagnosis. 1 am going to ask one of the experts on the platform here to clinch the mailer. F. R. McLean : I would just like to make one comment on tlie question of manage ment's interest. We had five very excellent suggestions, such as jkoslpoiung meetings, failing personally to show interest by at tending those meetings, refusing appropria tions, and so forth. I think there is one that even goes deeper tlian that to which we might giye consideration. Does your management let it go entirely in your own hands a* safety men, or do they give you tlie benefit of their opinions am) ideas? In other words, when you ask for an appropriation or for a meeting or lor their participation in a meeting, do they say, "O. K." and give you just exactly what you want and no mure, or can you count on that man agement to go over that program with you, took at tliat appropriation in detail and really give you the benefit of ivhat they realize in their deep personal interest in it? 1 think perhaps you can detect something from tliat; in other words, cooperation that is passive or cooperation that is deeply and jicrsonally interested. Chairman Boulkt: Now I am going to ask otic of the experts to tackle one of tlie other pluses--either the men or the super visory force? C.Gordon Hutu: Management, in my opinion, is the whole thing. If the manage ment doe.sn't come through properly, the scheme nf accident prevention will very quickly collapse. Let's jump to the safety department.* That is one of the other items on the list. It seems to me when the safety department becomes satisfied with the rec ords and starts alibiing for the accidents that lave occurred, and is discouraged by tlie management's attitude, if it is not correct, that is probably one of tlie bad symptoms of the disease in that department. Member; May I make one suggestion which I think a lot of us arc interested in. I believe a lot of the <lclcgates here look at safety from the standpoint of the small plant. We have heard the experts who are directors of a series of plants, and so on. But since the fundamentals of safety come right down to the man and the foreman, it. would be well if we could have speakers talk from tlie smaller plant angle a* well as that of tlie large corporation. Understand, I think it is Ttonity-sixth National Safety Congress very nice to be able to have a large safety meeting and have a foreman spending so much time investigating a certain accident and certain minor injuries. Hut we know in our plants that the foreman has a certain duty to perform and cannot spend all of his time on tliat one duty to the detriment of others. Would it he |M*siblc, in our discussion, to consider the man who has a smalt organiza tion and who has to do the best he can with the facilities at his disposal? Chairman Boulet: 1 think it is. First of all, if we are going to tackle the small plant, wliat do you mean by a small plant? MeMDEk: Anything from 500 down. Member: I work in a power plant where we have from 75 to 200 men, a large gen erating plant. I would like to know what the attitude of this group is toward general safety meetings, what they do at them. We hold general safety meetings of the wliolc group, including operating and main tenance men--or we are supposed to hold them--six times a year. At our last meeting, which has been put off for about three months on account of construction of a new unit nf 150,000 kw,, wc tried something new to us, questions and answers. The superintendent, who was chairman of the meeting, had a number of questions. Here are two or three of them. "What would you do in case of fire? What docs the siren in tlic cold null room mean?" We have a number nf new men who arc breaking in and we want to get these ideas of safety across to them. "What would you do hi ease of severe bunt? Severe injury?*' These are some samples. We had some twelve or fifteen. Wc would point out men in different parts of the room and say, "John" or "Pete" or 'Bill, what would you do in case of this?" Wc held over from fifteen minutes to lialf an hour beyond the meeting because they wen* interested. That happened to be one of our most interesting meetings. I would like to know what some of you other fellows are doing to maintain interest. We pay onr men, hut it is voluntary on their part. AVc pay them overtime or time off. Chairman Boulet: I am going to hold up that query of yours, because, after all, you are curing the patient before you have found out what was the matter with him. You are getting to the next part of the program. It is alt right to come in there, but I am going to hold up discussion of that a little bit longer. Member: I come from a different angle <>n this, as a representative of the state in dustrial department of the State of Minne sota. We have an educational program. Wc have taken it up with the larger plants. We have had very good success in arranging safety meetings from the broad standpointeven more broadly Uuui you. We take in the industrial end and the traffic end and the home accidents. We do not get very much support from the smaller plants. 1 believe that our expe rience and our record should give us a chance to go in there and show how accidents hap pen. I would like your expression of opinion as to cooperation from that angle. Chairman Boulet: I wonder If wc are getting to the bottom of this thing on small plants. I want some fellow from a small plant to tell how he carries on in accident prevention work. Member: I have one plant of approxi mately 351) men, two blast furnaces. Those men are working twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, so wc never have many men in the plant at one time. Some are operators, some are maintenance men. We hold every week a group meeting of all the foremen in that plant, with the superintendent as chairman, and a talk is made by a man who has been notified one week before that he will be tlte speaker. He chooses his own subject and prepares his talk, which must be written, so that that talk goes out to every foreman itt that plant. During the coming week, from Wednesday to Wednesday, a meeting is held mi every shift in every department by the. assistant foreman or the man in charge at that time. That safety meeting is held. Wc check up on the entire roster of men to see that some time during the two weeks that man attends a safety meeting. In that way we reach every man in the plant some time during the week at a safety meeting. A report is made on any questions or any suggestions presented at the meeting, and they are followed through by the superin tendent. Member: Docs a safe!) man attend those group meetings? ATember: Not the group meetings out iu MQintaininy Interest in Safety 145 the plant, except upon request. Many of those meetings occur at night, as you can readily see. The night shift, the second shift, lias to be taken care of also. The safety man attends, those meetings without request if that division hapi>ens to have an excessive number of nou-lost-timc accidents. Chairman Houlet : Do you have a full time safety man ? Member: Yea, for the two plants. Chairman Boulet: Does he have any other job besides safety? Member: He docs all the employing and looks after the welfare. Member : I think we are drawing the line. Having had experience in the small plant and the large plant, 1 challenge any of these people to pick out a program and treat it as if their production were stepped up. It will work. It has been tried. Chairman Boulet: Arc you a small plant operator ? Member: I have been both. Chairman Boulet: That brings up this question: Are the problems in the small plant fundamentally different from the prob lems in the large plant, or isn't it just a matter of adapting the same methods to a smaller group? William Weir: I don't care whether you are from a large plant or a small plant, there is only one acid test you can apply to any accident prevention program, and that is does your accident prevention program prevent accidents? If it does, it is adequate. If it does not, then you had better tear your self and your program tu piece* and see wliat is wrong. Chairman Uoulkt; Somebody here said, "Did yuu forget the supervisor?" Frankly, 1 did. I am going to ask tlte fellow who said that to take the supervisor. C. N. Rakrstraw : The part of our In dustrial body that is more necessary to diag nose is the supervisor, and by tliat I mean the director, supervisor or the foreman. You talk about the diagnosis or the symp toms of the men. They arc almost directly reflected in a good many ways from your foreman. I heard of an incident in a meeting yesterday that I thought was one of the best I have ever heard The speaker told about the analysis of an accident, in which a man had been painting a lamp bracket, working from a ladder. The ladder collapsed, and lie fell. The foreman said he had told that man time and time again he shouldn't use a ladder that way hy putting the stepladdcr up againt the wall instead of opening it up. He said, "I told hint that time and again." "Well," said this suiicrintcndcnt, "what color did you tell him to paint the lamp bracket ?" "Black." "Suppose he had painted that lamp bracket green after you had told him to paint it black, and the next lamp bracket, after you told him to paint it black, he palmed red, aitd the next one yellow. What would you do?" "Oh, liell, I would fire him." Tliere is your answer. There is your diagnosis. There is the man to watch. You should watch your foreman, it seems to me. Is your foreman having the proper interest toward safely and, if not, can you tell from such instances as that where he is telling the mail and then not following it up? :Chairman Boiti-et We can probably emphasize that a little more from this angle: Is the foreman putting accident prevention work on the same basis as production? Tliat is important. I think he emphasized tliat with his illustration. I.et's go on to the next question: How can the causes of lack of jntercst be found? You will say that is a funny question? We liave just been discussing the things that are evident in this lack of interest. Now you say how can they be found? How arc you going to tell from your own persoual obser vation, or from reports or some other way, whether the supervisory force is letting down a little? Wc had one illustration here. I want some more. How arc you going to tell whether the men lack interest? What is your ap proach going to be, your method of exami nation or investigation, to discover these causes before they become glaringly apparent on the surface? Member: When your reports on unsafe acts start to reduce. :Chairman Boulet He is going to be on the alert watching the reports on unsafe act* or unsafe conditions, 1 presume both. It tliere >s a reduction so there aren't wrv many, he is going to say tliere is one tom. There is something definite he is 146 Tiacnty-sixlh National Safely Congress u> watch lor. He isn't going to wait until it becomes apparent. He is going to check and watch for it. Is there any other? Member : Reports on your minor acci dents. Chairman Boui.kt; I think probably we get twenty-five or fifty or maybe a hundred minor accident reports to every major. I know every once in a while someone says, ".My gosh, look at this guy here, he has had five minor accidents." I say if we don't get the.se reports. I am getting worried. So long ns we get them, everything is fine, because it stows an interest. It is usually tto safest man ivto has all these scratches and barked knuckles. Mk.mmkh: What <lo you <lo with them when you get them? C it mum ax Doulkt: Not a dam thing. I will tell you why. If you start to pick on a man tor minor injuries, you are going to get in tronhh'. I say "not a dam thing." Occa sionally the description of the minor accident will very definitely indicate a potential con dition tor a major accident. We go after those. We don't jump all over the man. but we do make an investigation and cheek up to find out why that condition existed. We never ride a man for a minor accident. Mkmhkk: You are overlooking a good bet. Chairman Uuli.kt: I will argue tliat with you. .Mkmhkk: In this respect: We have found that we arc getting splendid results hv the superintendent of the particular works con ducting the departmental safety meeting, the foremen's safety meeting. At the meetings lie discusses all these trivial injuries reported Inring the month, with his men, and they letvc to come prepared--that is the foremen lutvc to--a* to hmv these occurred and what they are doing to prevent them. Chairman Uoulkt: Is that a good plan? Will if work in your plant? Mkmucr: Some of us overlook one of the things relating to minor accidents. Most everything we do ns human beings is done liccnusc we have formed the habit, and it is done in a Jtnbftual manner. Therefore, if our employees get to the point where they urc in tltc habit of disregarding minor acciiUnitii, it isn't very long until some serious accident comes along, and tlicy fail to make a report on that. Chairman* Boci.f.t: When I heard you I thought you were an attorney for the de fense, and you areu't. Can't I get somebody to defend me? Member; Will someone tell me what you mean by a trivial and a major accident? Member: One gives you a bad lost-time record, and the other doesn't. Chairman Boulkt: Elaborate on it. What are we talking about? Are you talking about serious injuries or serious accidents? Member: I am trying to help you on the argument you had with this gentleman down here as to whether his plan would work or not. We have bad a plan which lias been very successful, of reviewing all minor and major injuries within our organization at our departmental meetings each month. We have found it very successful. Chairman Boui.et: We haven't gotten to the bottom of this other question. What is the difference between minor and major acci dents? We are talking about accidents, I presume, and not injuries. Member; Perhaps 1 can answer tlut question. In coming here to Kansas City the engine ran off the track. There was one man who tiad had a number of drinks, and lie had a long nose. When the train stopped, lie fell forward. He said when he got up, "I don't see how I failed to hit my nose." That was a trivial accident, if he had hit his nose, it would tiavc been a major acci dent." Member: What is the difference between a near-accidcnt and an accident? Member: Wlial are we talking about, ac cidents or personal injuries? Chairman Boulkt: Accidents. Memikk: An accident involving serious property damage probably can be considered a major accident, hut an accident is an acci dent to a safety supervisor, and almost all accidents carry in their analysis certain fac tors that he is interested in, whether there is property damage or injury Involved, or any thing else. An accident may be a major accident to a safety supervisor, and a minor accident to, we will say, a plant super intendent or foreman, because their view points are different, and each is studying the accident probably from a different stand point. So 1 think alt accidents can be classified as major accidents if they involve accident prevention problems. Maintaining Interest in Safety M7 Chairman Boulrt: I think you are right. Member: Mr. Chairman, this roundabout conversation started from the reporting, as 1 understood it, of minor injuries. In the reporting of minor injuries, as I see it, the Chairman was asked what he did about the, man who had too many of them. To get men to report minor injuries and tell you the truth about what happened, they would have to be like the little child that you asked, "Why did you do this?" If tto child tells you the truth and you whip him for it, he won't tell you the truth any more. The same thing applies to the reporting oi minor injuries. If we penalize men who report minor injuries, then they will neglect to report them. I think the answer to the success of that, where there is no penalty attached, is that very few ot those concerns suffer lost time due to infection resulting from minor injuries. Chairman Bouket: We are talking, ap parently, now about minor injury reports. I think I can go back to my original statement and say if the minor injury report shows a potential major hazard, something is done; tlvat is a major accident. E. \V. BECK: Gentlemen, what pleased me most this morning was the little handshake you gave that question of what do you do about your minor accidents, and C. B. said 'nothing." That seems to Ik: a strange atti tude for experts to take, but I have for eighteen years been accumulating figures in a large corporation. Last week was the first time 1 ever said anything about minor in juries in die aggregate, compared with others. I have a report here on die subpect. It is the first time I have ever drawn up the figures. I only drew it up because one of our plant managers had made a statement over and over again that all accidents were unnecessary; there was absolutely no need of having accidents in the plant, and he rode the plant so bard, tlicy were working with him on the question of the number of acci dents reported. The result was that the personnel manager or the safety supervisor was selling himself on the idea that they were actually reducing the number of minor injuries, so they must have been doing a good safety job. When he said that to me, I knew it was not n correct and a true statement, because, you know, 1 was interested in the cost factor. I took a very complete set of figures, stow ing all of our plants, all of uur minor acci dents, the average i>er million man-tours for minor injuries. 1 got my answer. The average in the company is 650 injuries, all iicndcnts, including lost-time and minor. Of course, you know the large percentages are the minor. There were 659 |er million man hours and the factory I was just talking about had two-thirds of that number. But, mind you, when we went over to the next column and checked their frequency rate of IimM/jiii? accidents, they were about sixty per cent hiyhcr than the average for the same group. Isn't that your, answer ? So, I agree with C. B. Put the soft pedal on this question of what are you going to do atom these minor accidents. Get ttom rcjiortcd. Your nurse wants them, you want them, and it is going to help sell management. I presented those figures at a meeting of personnel managers in New York last week, and it is going back home to the manage ment. When he looks at it and compares his own experience with the average for tltc company, lie is going to answer his own question. Chairman Boulet: This started with looking for causes or how to find these indications of lack of interest. Somclxxly got us off on a tangent. Mr. Weir: I think most of us have missed the point. If we arc to take (to attitude that accidents just happen, and one man has ten and the other man lias one, and do nothing about it, I think the safety director lias failed miserably ; because every minor accident or injury has a cause. There is either something wrong with the man, the method in which lie is doing his work, or the material he is working with. Tl^crc has been an unsafe act or an unsafe practice. I think it is the duty of the safety man to analyze those reports as we do in our plant, call a man in, not reprimand him but show him the error of his ways. If neces sary, correct the unsafe practice that has caused that minor injury. If we do tlut, then we have accomplished something. Jf we throw them in the wastebasket and say we can do nothing about it, it just had to happen, I think we have failed. Dr. Dobbins: I gather that these experts go into action after the accident occurs. They get .a pile of statistics, set them up on the 148 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress table, and they sec they have quite a fre quency in a certain department. Now, if they are on the job and will go out and get acquainted with the foreman or superin tendent and his problems and work with him, they will eliminate accidents that they will never do otherwise. You can pick the best [icrsoimcl men and the best engineers and the best doctors, and go into a plant and work, or you can sit in a mahogany office and pile up a beautiful hunch of statistics that will never keep your workmen from getting hurt. If you are on the job and out there with the superintendent and will go to the man agement and back to the foreman, you are going to get some place. Over in my place we have spent over three million dollars on safety in the last eighteen montiis, and it has bceu effective. Chairman* Boulet: We have to go on to tlie next question. Arc there any other ways in which the safety man can be on the alert, things lie should be watching for. to discover a lack of interest before it becomes apparent on the surface ? Member: A good director of safety, in making his talks and holding his meetings, is going to ask from his men constructive criticisms and good suggestions for carrying on a safety program, ami he is going to tell the men lliat, while lie may not be able to use all of their suggestions and criticisms, he is going to appreciate them. If he ceases to get them at the meeting, the men arc losing interest. Chairman Bhi*i>;t: Has somebody else a suggestion? Mkmukk: When new work is started, the safely man discusses it with the 'foreman. The foreman will tell him alx>ut the safely fi-lturc in discussing the new work. If he does not, watch out. CfJAiuMAN Hoci.kt: Or, if the- drafting room fails to incorporate sale features of engineering in their plans, the safety man iiifiit to )>c on the alert. Member: One thing that is important is the lack of good housekeeping. Chairman Buclct: I will take that one. 'Member: hack of interest when the man is first hired by the foreman not properly instructing him. Chairman Boui.f.t: We arc going to accuse the foreman of falling down on in terest. MrAfhF.it: Lack oi personal contact with the men on the safely program. Mummer: Condition of safety equipment. Chairman Boulet; That means guards and protective equipment. If it is not kept in shape and nobody gives a damn about it, you know there is a lack of interest. You have to be on the alert for it. CriAiRMan Boulet: Mr. Loomis, I won der if you would take a shot at this. K. C. Loomis: Laxity on the part of the safety department to carry out rules that they lay down for the supervisors and men to follow. It they put out a ruling and there is an attitude of, "Well, that is just another rule that the safety committee lias put down; we have too many of tlicm- already," the foreman has a tough job of putting it across to the men. I don't believe a safety ruling should' be put out to the men that cannot be carried out and followed by anyone in the division, or any ruling that the safety engi neer would fail to carry out himself. Chairman Boulet: I would like to add one or two items, and then we are going to the main part of this program--vvliat to do about it. Let's add this: Planned con ferences with supervisor)* groups, to ask their opinions, to find out from tlicm if there is a decrease in interest and. again, personal contact with employees. ] think that was mentioned, but it is very, very important. Section 2 of this question is this: "The Cure--What is it?" Let's try to attack that problem in a logi cal sequence by talking first about manage ment. Suppose we liavc found that the in terest of management is slipping. Now the question is, what to do about it? Mkmiikk: I wonder if you aren't starting from a fallacious premise there, to l>egin with. Any fellow in this room, whose man agement isn't interested in safety, wouldn't lie here. What do we know about "manage ment that isn't interested in safety"? I cer tainly don't know a thing about tliat kind of management. If I have some idea that my management is losing interest in safety, I think I am wrong. Maybe I am falling down on my job, and I liaven't sold him on some idea that I tlunk is nil right, and I interpret that as losing interest in safety, failing to keep in mind, myself, tliat if management Maintaining Interest in Safety 149 lorgcts this item of costs tliat we safety men do a lot of crabbing about, pretty soon there will be no management, no industry ami no safety supervisor. I think we are wrong when we assume that any modern manage ment that remains management is losing interest in safety. Chairman Boulet: Do you believe as a group that the high plane of interest that management reached, when it established the safety program, is going to continue at that level forever? (No) Neither do I. That is exactly tlie question we are posing now. It would be foolish to say tliat management has lost its interest altogether. I say there has Iiccii a decrease of interest. What are we going to do to maintain the interest of man agement? I am going to tell you an experi ence iu our own company. After six or seven years of an excellent accident record, in which our particular com pany had won three national trophies, we found that accidents were increasing, and I began to wonder why. 1 happen to be with a public utility. We have a number of divi sions. When I speuk of management, I speak of the president of the company and the managers of these divisions, not supervisors. Same of them are directors of the company, vice presidents of the company. Management had become so concerned with other oper ating problems, such as new construction, other types of operation, retirement of prop erty, financing, that they liad lost interest, unintentionally, in the safety program. I will tell you what we did. We developed a ' impnign that would not reach the man. We didn't give a darn about the man down <m tlie job, fiecausc we knew if the managers got on their toes, the man would respond. Our publicity man developed a plan called the White Elephant Campaign. We passed the white elephant around to every mail who had an accident in his division, with a letter from the president of tlie company. Not only that. The elephant had a bale of hay with it and a pitchfork and a lot of other things. We had a white elephant ent out of pressed wood about three feet high. Following the institution of that campaign, after one of the worst accident records we had, we went 1,800,000 hours without an accident. Doesn't that prove--it did to me-- that management had lost interest and as soon as you restored the interest, the prob lem was licked? The men were just as en thusiastic, I mean they were following the lead of management just as much as they ever did. That is the thing I am getting at. These managers had lost all of their interest. They wanted a safety program, but they hadn't put on the pressure to keep that safety pitch up. What can we do about these natural slumps in interest? I have given yon our answer. Now give me yours. Memdeu : Keeping management informed about what the safety program is doing; keeping them stirred up and giving them new ideas. Member: The managers of our different organizations arc naturally concerned with costs. They are more interested in costs aixl profits than anything else because they are responsible. Therefore, the safety man of any organization has a potent means of keeping the manager's interest up in safety if, when his interest lags and costs rise, he shows hini the cause. Chairman Boulet: Arc there any others? Msmaku; 1 am working with a number of different organizations. I give the man agement a copy of a letter that goes to every foreman every week, concerning the working conditions, either iti the plant or on a con struction job. The result is, they know tlie specific hazards on that job. If lliere are any unsafe ladders or tools, not only does every foreman in the organization know it but also the management. By giving them specific information and getting out bulletins that fit their conditions, their interest 'can lx: maintained and accidents can Ik prevented. Member: I think tlie most potent way of getting the manager's interest and keeping him interested is to let the owner of the company know that the manager, through his disinterest, is causing men to be injured and causing tlie company to lose money. Chairman Boulet: What about getting the management .into your safety meetings? Ever try it? That is another way. Member : How do you do it? Chairman Boulet: If Ik isn't coming, you may as well fold up. Member: Remember, accidents, whether they cause injury or not, cost money. Go to your president, when you have problems, and ask him to come in and give his opinion. 150 ctify-si.tth National Safety Congress CiituuAN Boi'i.kt: I think they will omte in. in utir own property, next week, the president </ our cnmjiam'. not the nian*K<*r. will travel al*ut 75tl miles in two days to attend two safely meeting*. Member: I am a little confused u man agement. We seem In l*c confining our man* ngemeut to a manager of a branch factory or office or plant. What about tltc president, the general manager, the executives and board of directors? Chairman ltm.-i.KT: I am talking about presidents and fioard of directors. I don't know wJietber tl*e rest of yo ore; I am. Those arc tbc t>ys you have to get on the job. Has anyone else an idea as 10 how to stop this dropping off of interest? Member: SIhjw how much money they arc losing. Chairman JUh'i.et: Show how much money has l>ccn saved each year. Hit the liockctbook. Mkmpkk: Get him to take an active part aixl get him elected president of the Safety Council. I*. Is. Mi l.kan ; One man said it was evident that nuinaKCimiit was interested be cause they hirctl us to do a j rdj. That is wrung. I think fifty j>cr cent of the men in this room may have initially mark a job for themselves he doing the very thing we arc talking about, originally getting management interested. I knmv that tint has happened in concern after concern, where somctmdy, Ixvaust* of human interest in safety, lias develnpetl the question aixl made a jot) for him-elt. We Fiavc to keep on doing that con tinually. [ think the <|iicstiou ol submitting details i all tlie unsafe practices and so on, that cxi't throughout (lie plant, to management 'anunt Ik* followed. You arc going to get >>ur management rather tired of your safety <lc|kariiueiit. Tliey liave a job to do, aixl I think they arc interested in results. Our keeping management interested depends upon the results we can show them. Tlurr are lvo kind? of results, imforlillUitely. Wltcrc you have had a l>ad accident experience, you can present it to them, somelimes. with a lot of human pathos, to arouse their interest. Tlie other appeal is the finan cial. Tliey. arc responsible for tlie earning ca|*acit> * the company. Jf you can bring h**nie to iIhiji that it is a factor of cost, you arc doing it mighty effectively. I think there are two excellent ways of getting that over. Management is interested . in costs in tlie iiKgregate. You can make some interesting reports which management sliould be abk to get very quickly, by putting them in graphic form dial will show them the costs in the aggregate over a period of years. Some of the most effective ones arc showing them what it was before they had safety' and what it is now. The other one is to bring it down to unit costs. I happen to work tor an oil company. I don't think we ever did anything more effec tive in arousing management's interest in safety tlva.ii reducing accident costs, combin ing not only personal injuries but vehicular and all the other phases of accident preven tion into a single figure, and reducing it to a cost of so much of a fraction of a cent per gallon of gasoline for each separate plant, distributing plant and manufactured gasoline at refineries. When we did that, they sat up and took notice, because those were the things that they were interested in: What was the freight cost, tlie production cost, the sales cost, on that gallon of gasoline? When it was brought out in those terms, they were very keenly interested. So I say, get it in a graphic form that is talking their language in the way that all their other reports arc made, so that it fits into their method of thinking. Chairman Boulet: Now let's go to the safety engineer. What will we do with him when there is an indication tliat tlie interest tcvcl is sagging, or what should the safety engineer do for himself? Mw.ufcn: One of the best things that can be dune is to semi him to tlie Safety Con gress. I have attended Kevcral in the last ten or twelve years, and I always go home full, of new pep and enthusiasm. It is unfor tunate that they don't have them nftener than once a year. Member. I wifi take a crack At the safety director. He stxmtd go to tlie doctor and liave a good physical examination. Tliat may be tlie trouble with him. Member : Why wasn't tliat tried on the management? Chairman Bouvet: l haven't any objec- Maintaining Interest in Safety 151 lion. Will someone else offer something for the safety director? Member; Go around to other industries and get ideas from them. Member: Suggest that he go out and contact the diop people. Chairman Boulet: Get right out on the job and see the problem. Member : If you have a safety committee act up In the plant with several hundred safety committeemen around through the plant digging out tlie hazards, reporting them to their supervisors, I think the safety man won't liave any trouble keeping wide awake, if lie satisfies the requests of all the safety committee members. Chairman Boulet: Probably we could set up a catechism for safety men: "First, am 2 well ? Second, am T abreast of the times? Do 1 know what other plants are doing? Third, am I in dose contact with my men?" Will someone name a fourth one? Member: Am I in contact with others? Member: Pay attention to your state fac tory reports. :Chairman Boulf.t "Am I examining state factory reports?" "Am I analyzing all accident reports carefully?" Any others? Member: I found one thing in my short' experience. May I tell you I was a police official for a number of years, interested in safety, and now I am a director of wifely. I have found that we have been prone to dis cipline our people when they have done something wrong, but have failed to com mend good work on their part. When tliey have a good safety record, we are not giving them the recognition they should have. Chairman Boui.et: That is all right. Any others? Membf.h: "Am I doing all I can to help the foreman carry the safety load?" Member: "Ant I clteckiog my program to make sure I am not trying to operate in 19.17 with a 1916 program?" Chairman Boui.et: "Am I keeping my program abreast of the times ?" Member: "Do I practice whal I preach?" Chairman Boulet: Tliat is a good ques tion. I think, you safety men, if you take that list of questions and when you get back home analyze yourselves, you may find some thing. You may discover that part of your increasing frequency is due to your own self. We arc inclined to pass the bock to the foreman or the superintendent, but we slioukl analyze our own condition. Let's go on to the next one. What is the cure for the supervisory force? Meaiber: Some supervisors should lc fired and new ones employed. Chairman Boulet: We arc going t<* ar gue in a minute this matter of discipline by firing. Before we start tliat, I am going to ask somebody up here to take that question and discuss It. Mr. Huth: It seems to me that tlx* forenun is the most important fellow in this wliole business, as far a* the practical appli cation in the mill is concerned. For a long time we have been asking these fellows to do something and telling them what we wanted done, hut we haven't been idling them how to do it. We have, reached the point in accident prevention where the curve is not up and down as far as it used to he. I wonder some times whether we* can get it down any far ther and hold it there with reasonable cer tainty without working more with our fore men, telling tlicm what we expect them to do. One of the methods that seems to be de veloping recently is tlie conference method of going into all the asjiccts of accident pre vention, the technical side of it. the human side of it, and working it in with the actual production; not separating accident preven tion from production and making it some thing entirely different from the man's regu lar work. Chairx(an` Boulkt : We have a start. Will somebody pick up the flag and carry it on from there? Membrr : I would suggest that foremen be given the prerogative to select their men and refer tliat choice to the personnel de partment for approval. If the foreman is to be responsible for the man, he slx>uld be given the opportunity to select him. Chairman Bo.ui.kt: You think tliat will help him become more interested. I think that <* probably true. Member: During the past three years there has lieen a radical change in this thing coming about, due to labor. It has changed the safety inspector's viewpoint. Recently a publication hy the industrial accident commission came through, and their 152 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress statement says: "With labor unions assum ing added authority, are they considering the added responsibility ?" There is a thing I would like to hear dis missed. Is the foreman getting the support of management and the rest of the officials in the disciplinary measures he wants to use? His authority lias been taken away from him, to a certain extent. A man, a dreamer of power, in the plant has taken >vcr a good deal of this. 1 have found that hy getting hold of this fellow--he is human like the rest of us--he can be talked to. He has a lot of radical ideas, and other times he lias a lot of good ones. The good ones should be accepted. If some are not accepted, he should be told why; otherwise lie will have a grievance. Tlie oilier ones, that aren't good--|>as* them off and say, "We will for get tliosc. Let's do something about this." That is where I. as foreman, come in. I feel that is one of the biggest problems we have at the present time. Tt is gradually increasing. Something will have to be done about it. Chairman* UoCixt: 1 think you are right. I wouldn't want this group discussion of union labor matter* to cause any repercus sions. My experience is that if the union officials are properly approadted, they will support your safety programs one hundred per cent. You may not find that in your individual fdants. That is a problem that 1 think each of you as individuals must solve in your own plants, dependent on the relationship between management and men. I don't be lieve wc can solve tltar problem here. Mkmhkk: I am neither a foreman nor a supervisor. I edit two papers in my plant. Somewhere in the plants you will find the nwnct men with the labor union. I have done it. It may be surprising, but I have liity reporters, all union men, reporting to me the unsafe condition*, the unfit equip ment. I put that into the paper. I gather it along with tlx other topics. Wc get along tine. You have to contact the man who really knows. I do that. Chairman Bullet: I am certain that that problem can lx; solved, but I still don't think wc can thrash it out here. It is an individual problem and depends primarily on the relationship between the management and the nieu. There is a man who has helped to solve it in hi* own way. We will take that as an arrow pointing the wav, if you will; that is, that the new* relationship of organized labor and management must be taken into the pic ture as it affects the foreman, and any ad verse condition tliat lias arisen must be cor rected, and the safety man can be of help in correcting it. Let's leave it that way. Member: 1 think one of the best ways to arouse the interest of a foreman is to make that foreman understand, or the supervisor, if you call him that, that he is responsible for the accidents that happen under his supervision. Chairman Boulet; All right, putting the responsibility directly on the foreman for the accident; when the accident occurs, liolding him to it Membek : May I say just a word from the point of view of those who issbe orders. 1 want to make a confession. I am not quite sure it is going to be shared by any repre sentative of management who may be here or not. I think one of the ways in which wc lose the interest of the foreman and supervisory force is because we write orders or issue instructions or put out standard practice without first an adequate discussion of what is to go into it; that is. preceding the order by an adequate discussion, by having every body contribute something toward it. Second, after it has been written, there ought to be a period of training and discus sion so everybody understands it. It is very simple and easy to put something down on the bulletin board and say, "That is if." 7t is easy to write a letter. It is easy to |>ut out standard practices and instructions. I think, from the point of view of man agement, that is one of the worst curses to destroy enthusiasm and initiative. We have ourselves to blame if the instructions aren't carried out the way ive expect, because they aren't understood. Chairman* Boui.f.t: Your thought is to make the foreman part of management by giving him some say in the development of these safety rules and orders. Tliat is sound. Has anyone else 9omc way to help the fore man get out of this lethargy he gets into? Member: "Referring to the conference method, we have and do still use the con ference method with foremen in the safety Maintaining Interest in Safety 153 meetings. I have with me a copy of one ot these conference sheets. If you arc inter ested. 1 will read a few of the questions that we ask for discussion. Chairman Boulet : Go ahead, if it doesn't take too long. Member: This deals with foreman re(x/*ibi)lty. Tliat was the subject of the meeting. Tlie first question is this, "Is there aU3*one in this group who believes a fore man should lie held responsible for all acci dents in his department?" Chairman Boulet: Someone asked, "How was tliat decided?" Member: Tlxy did not believe the fore man could be held responsible for every acci dent, but it is a question you can discuss with your own foremen. Here is another: "Can the foreman con done infection in his department?" Another is, "Can we condone hernia or rupture acci dents?" This is the filial question: "Some men arc accident risks, some arc rigid and tense by habit, others' energies arc easily exhausted, confused intelligence, weary and always under pressure and so on. They usually do impulsive things that may be the cause of an accident. To what degree could the foreman be held responsible for such an accident?" That gives you some idea of wlwxt you can do by tlie conference method. Chairman Boulet: The conference method has a definite place in training fore men and directing their thinking. Your questions may be different from those of this gentleman, but still the method is there to he used, and it is another way to inspire the foreman to renewed interest. I am going to close tlie supervisory end by letting Mr. Rakestraw take a shot at it, C. N. Rakestraw : The question of the relationship of the foreman to accident pre vention has been so widely covered that it is hardly worth while for anybody here to go into it very deeply. I don't think anyIxxly will disagree with the fact tliat you cannot separate accident prevention from production. They are an integral part of the same thing. Once you try to separate them, you arc lost. I think all of us try to bring that home to our foreman and make him understand it is just as much a part of his job to have a good accident record as it is to turn out the right kind of steel or what ever you happen lo be making. Member: May I suggest that, while we all agree that the foreman is responsible for the accident, one of tlie best ways is to charge every accident to the reserve charges of the department involved instead of charg ing it directly lo the general comjxiisatiou. Chairman Rouj.et: That is nil idea. Some companies proliably can do that- Public util ities can't, because wc arc controlled by the Public Service Commission. Wc have to put it where tliey tell us. Let's go to the subject of 'Tor the men?" How can you stir up the interest of men, little tricks or schemes or ideas? Merjrb : Charts. Chairman Boulet: Accident curves, I suppose you mean. Member*. Contests. Chairman Boulet: How many think contests arc all right? How many think con tests have no place in the safety program ? R is about fifty-fifty. I would like to have somebody defend the contest idea. Member : About ten years ago we started real, intensive safety work. Wc had been having one, two. three and four major acci dents a year. We started to pick out a num ber of safety committees, of several depart ments, five men to a committee. We told each one that if their department would go through the year without an accident they would each receive a gold watch. Tlie result was, with fprty men on the committee, wc 1x5ught forty gold watches. I think that will bear it out. Chairman Boo let: 1 wonder if that was really a contest or if it wasu't in tlx nature of an award. Member: That was a contest. Wc kept that going for three years. The consequences were, every man wanted to be a safety com mitteeman so lie could get a chance to go nut and do his stuff and get a gold watch. Mf.murr: I want to ask this gentleman a question. Do you pay a man to report on time in the morning? Do you pay him to do his daily work? If you don't pay a man a premium for reporting on time in the morn ing or doing his regular daily duty, why pay him for doing something that is part of his job? 154 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Well, we pay that man when lie rcpuri* to work at eight o'clock. II he duein't rejuirt. we don't pay him. Mem But: Vou say you cave them gold watches because they arc safety men. In my estimation, safety is just as much a part of their job as anything they do. Member: It is. Member: Why pay them? Member: I think a lot will agree with me that, when you have some little incentive, you are going to get a lot more. Chairman Boolet: It is my understand ing tliat just the committeemen got the watches, not all die employees. Member; Just the committeemen. Member: I want to answer this gentle man over here as to why pay a workman for doing something he is expected to do in the course of his work? I am going to ask him the question: Why in the Army, for in stance. do they give us a medal of some kind for something that we are expected to do anyway ? Why do they put us in the brig it sve do something wrong? It works that way just die same. Take the police departments. They have some sort of recognition they give to Hie man \vh did his work, did not shirk it. M e will mil get very far in accident pre vention unless, hi connection with our dis ciplining of men, wc also have some sort of award, something iliat recognizes the indi vidual's merit, the individual's ability to per forin his work properly. We have that in the Calco Chemical Company. Wc divide our men into three classes, A, B and C. By the way. C is the lowest class. Men wImj liave been in the employ of the company six months or more belong to the Calm Safety Organization. They get a dis tinctive lapel badge. Men who hnvc been with us more than six months, not exceeding eighteen months, by the way, witliout a losttime accident, get a Class B lapel button, and tliosc wlio have been in the employ of tlic comjwny three years or more without a lust-time case get a Class A badge. We go through a considerable ceremony about it. Tlie works manager and one of the vice presidents arc always in attendance and award these lapel buttons as a distinction, u an incentive to work for. There is no mone tary award with it. but the men think a great deal of it. The buttons arc considered as a promotion, if everything else is equal, and they are Class A members of the Calco Safety Organization. Let's get back to the contests. The State of Mew Jersey Department of Labor, in cooperation with all the industries in the state, conducts a safety contest during the last three months of each year. This year is our tenth contest year. The Department of Labor has figures available on these contests. They show that siucc the contests were started, the number or plants participating and, naturally, the number of employees in volved, has grown, whereas the number of lost-time accidents lias been decreasing all the time. There is a definite stimulus to safety. There is a definite method here for making everybody in the plant, executives and men, more safety conscious. We in New Jersey sup port that because we see the good effect of it. I am not here to advertize tlie duPont Com pany. But the duPont Company lias just fin ished a six-months' contest, and they will tell you what value they got out of it. It was immeasurable. Contests, without doubt, are good if properly conducted. Member: Talking about lost-time acci dents--I know one plant where a man broke an arm. He had four days coming to him, took those off, and that was not a lost-time accident. Memher: That is not run fairly and squarely. Member: It is done. Mkmuer; It is my experience tint this con test plan has a tendency to cause fraud in reporting lost-time accidents. I can see from my own experience, and I have checked with some of my competitors who have won safety plaques iii this Council, that they have got them by fraud. I liave checked certain cases and found men who have sustained injuries that would keep them from doing their regular jobs, and they have been given a broom and stood in the corner with it. They were also transported to and from their homes in taxicabs in order to say they were in the plant. That is what contests liave done. Mesiukk: l would like to iicar that out. I liave liad the same experience right in my own town. A man at a committee meeting said he had forty-five trucks on the street every day of the year, tliat he had completed eighteen mouths of service with tliosc trucks, without one arcident. 1 asked him this que$- Maintaining Interest in Safety 155 tiem, "Wasn't any one of your trucks struck in the rear?" He said, "No." When a man tells you tliat, it bears out this man's state ment. Chairman Boo let: Now you arc all pick ing on the contest. I am going to call on one of my henchmen to defend it. Mr. Beck; l welcome this opportunity because last year my good friend Kueclien- mcister was on the same program with me on the same subject; the two experts differed, and I liave been thinking about it ever since. I feel this way, that you have to measure it in the final analysis by what you accomplish. To be sure, there is cheating. We have been conducting contests in my company for the last fifteen years, and we have changed the rules only twice. The first change was on ac count of the deaths. We were charging 6,000 days to a death, but we found it gave a credit to the plant for the next two or three years, so we dropped the 6,000 days charged to a death and did not charge it on severity but added it to frequency, as only one accident. Next--and this will probably answer some of yotir questions--we changed the question of lost-time accidents to compensable acci dents. You can cheat with lost-time acci' dents. The surprising thing about it is that the change took place a year ago, and we liave had a decided increase in my company during the last year in accidents where only two and three days were lost. In the final analysis, as somebody said here, tlic corporation wants to know, "Is it worth while?" So I have here a chart that shows the frequency rate over a period of 15 years, and the rate has been decreased 60 per cent I am conservative In saying I believe that probably a large percentage of our safety effort to bring about that reduction has been through the contest. We have been saying that the man to reach is the management. How are you going to reach management? C. B. has said the majority of you safety men arc here because you created a job for yourselves; you sold somebody the idea. I think he is right Your success depends upon how good a salesman you are. These trophies downstairs can be used to sell management, whether they are won hon estly or not. 1 remember one company that won five tro phies last year, and tliat particular company had the bright idea, "Well, let's cash in on the publicity." So they put them in a show window on Broadway, and vice presidents and general managers and even the president of that corporation came by those windows and saw them, and they had their eyes opened. They were being sold. They started asking questions. They started approving safety recommendations, and that is what you want them to do. This is one medium. It is a belter medium in large corporations than in the smaller ones. But I have found this: We have five corporations with less than 500 employees, and the fact that one of tliosc fel lows won a trophy one year, and didn't know it, aroused his interest. The next year, when he had an accident, he said, "Oh, hell, I lost the trophy this year. I am going to get busy." He started in to do a lot of work. We use many different ways to bring up children. We all don't bring them up the same way, but we all liave the same objective. I think we can think of safety contests in that same manner. Member : I think the gentleman has proved, by his own statement and figures, tliat his posi tion is wrong. He says his own figures prove the contest was right, and when he changed one little rule he got different figures and more accidents. I work in a large corpora tion, and we have found that this matter of contests is a matter of viewpoint. If you are new in the industry or new in accident prevention program, your contest may be very, very useful. But if you are coming down to a substantial program in safety, embracing a comprehensive safety training program for your foremen and your men, you will soon find that the contest lias lost a great deal of its value, and the men are really responding to safety training on the job. Chairman Bot/LF.r; Has anyone some thing else? Mr. Loomis : Wc have a poster system that we use in the main plant tlic day before a holi day. It makes the men feel that we are inter ested in tlicir safety after they liave left the plant. Tills poster is six feet high and four feet wide. We liave a portable bulletin board which can be made very cheaply. On Memo rial Day we had a poster seething with motor vehicles: "Injuries equal pain; disability equals misery; death equals sorrow; suffer ing equals regret. Drive carefully.'' For th? Fourth of July wc had a similar oni; 156 TtwUy~sixth Motional Safety Congress placed in the main exit. We liad "Fourth of July'' across the top. "Automobile accidents" with a question mark ; "Persons injured" with a question mark; "Persons killed" with a question mark; and then in brackets on the outer edge, "Do your |iart to keep these at zero." Then just a little phrase at the bottom here: "Remember this, safety is like a bad game. It is the number of times you arrive safely at home that counts." MJOUNXME.Xr Pressure Vessels WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 13, 1937 The session was called to order by Chair* man Dan L. Royer, Chief Engineer, Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corp., New York City, and General Chairman, ASSE-Engi- ncering Section. National Safety Council. Mr. Royer introduced the speakers. The address prepared hy Mr. Gibbs was read by Ralph M. Moon, of the same firm. What the Safety Man Should Know About Steam Boilers and Steam Lines By E. R. FISH Chief Engineer, Boiler Division, The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. With respect to steam boilers and steam lines, the safety man should be familiar with those factors that produce weaknesses re sulting in failures---factors that are prejudi cial to the safety of personnel and properly. The safety man Is not necessarily concerned with efficiency of operation, but he is con cerned with how the equipment should be operated in the interest of safety. The term steam boilers and steam piping covers a# great variety of equipment ranging from the inconspicuous steel or cast iron heating boiler, the pressure of which rarely exceeds 10 or 15 lbs. per square inch, up to the mammoth steam generating units capa ble of evaporating over a million pounds of water per hour at a pressure of 1,400 lbs. per square inch and delivering steam at a temperature of 900 to 950 degrees F. Obviously, such a wide range makes it im possible to discuss the various factors that affect each of them. However, there arc certain fundamentals applicable to boilers of both high and low degree. Internal Deposits Deposits or accumulations on the internal surfaces of parts of boilers exposed to high temperature gases interfere with the rapid absorption of heat. When directly in contact with the metal, water absorbs heat at a suffi ciently rapid rate to prevent the metal from becoming overheated. However, interfere with this orderly process and the metal very rapidly overheats to the point where it loses practically all its strength. Internal pressure then pushes the tneial nut and causes the socalled "bulge." In water tube hollers bulges on tubes not infrequently break through, and while they do not often cause any serious consequences to the attendants, sometimes steam or dame arc driven out through openiugs in the settings and some one is injured, in horizontal return tubular toilers the result is likely to be much more serious both from a personal Injury and expense point of view. Bulges in boilers of this type very fre quently break through and, being directly over the fire, flame and live coals arc very likely to be driven out of the furnace. Many state laws now require fire doors to to equipped with automatic latches that prevent them from being blown open when they are closed. Bulges in H.R.T. boilers have fre quently opened to such an extent that a true boiler explosion lias happened and great property loss as well as personal injuries and death have resulted. A serious explosion of this kind happened 157 15ft Tiventy-sixth National Safety Congress at a cotton seed oil mill in North Carolina due to llic accumulation of loose scale and mud on the bottom of the boiler over the fire. Six men were killed and several in jured, and the properly loss amounted to about $75,000 This accident could have been prevented by proper attention to in ternal cleaning. Interior surfaces of boilers of all kinds should he kepi clean. Cleaning may be ef fected by mechanical means, which calls fur iik)re or less frequent intermittent atten tion, mid winch in the case of fire tube IxtiliTS. i> \cry unsatisfactory. Another, and preferable method, is to treat the water used in the boiler so that the scale making con stituents arc changed to soluble compounds or non-scnlc-ntaking dc|M>sits that arc easily blown out. Oil frequently finds its way into boilers in some plants. This is highly objectionable, since only a very thin film of oil imposes a heat transfer barrier that almost invariably results in overheated metal. Riveted Joints One of the ills that aiTeCt boilers of riveted construction is the development of cracks IkUwcch rivet boles in the riveted seams. Obviously, if the metal is cracked between the rivet holes the strength of the joiul is very greatly reduced if, indeed, it docs not practically disappear. Cracking may lie ex perienced in eitlicr the double strap butt joint type ui construction or in the older lap seam construction, which is now practically obsolete, although there arc many boilers still in use so constructed. Lap seam cracks usually do not occur be tween rivet boles hut arc located under the plate just back of the caulking edge and arc tluc primarily to the eccentricity of the stresses which is caused by the otit-ofroirnrincs* of the shell at the joints Cracks that extend between rivet holes arc usually caused by the so-called "caustic embrittlement'' which is the result of certain feedwater characteristics, the discussion of which is not pertinent here. Methods of iii>pi*ctio*t to determine the presence and extensiveness of cracks of both these kinds have been worked out. Obvi ously, not tu find cracks of >uch a serious nature may result in disa-tmus explosions and such have wot infrequently occurred. In a lumber mill in Arkansas an upper drum of a vertical bent tube type of water tube boiler ruptured because of hidden cracks in a riveted joint. One man was killed and four injured. The mill was practically destroyed with a loss of $250,000. Au ex plosion due to this cause is not as inexcusable as those due to some other reasous but the correct diagnosis of certain indications will often stimulate an investigation that will dis close the true conditions. Overpressure Overpressure, as such, in boilers that arc reasonably sound is not very often the direct cause of a boiler explosion except possibly iu the case of low pressure heating boilers. The manipulation of stop valves coupled with an inoperative safety valve is a dan gerous combination and is only one of a variety of possible causes of unanticipated overpressure. There are many instances where overpressure has resulted in very serious explosions. The Steel hot water heating boiler of a dosed heating system in an apartment build ing in a Washington city exploded a few years ago. Several of (lie tenants were in jured and the property damage amounted to more than $30,000. Overpressure resulting from the failure of the control devices and a pressure relief valve that was stopped up by deposits were the cause, but lack of ex pert attention was undoubtedly primarily re sponsible. Corrosion The relatively soft low carbon steels that arc used universally in boiler construction are very susceptible to corrosion, and deteri oration of this sort has been the cause of many boiler explosions that have resulted in much loss of life and property damage. Cor rosion may be cither internal or external. Internal corrosion is rather easily discovered by an internal inspection. External corrosion. however, almost invariably occurs in those parts of boilers that are covered or are not otherwise easily accessible and which, there fore, do not come tinder the scrutiny of in spectors, if the boilers are inspected at all. There have been enough disasters of this kind to warrant the statement that the con cealed parts of the metal structure of boilers must be examined occasionally to determine whether or nut there has been any serious wasting away. In other words, any |iart of Pressure Vessels 150 a boiler that cannot be adequately inspected should be an object of grave suspicion. Most boiler fuels contain some sulphur which bums to sulphur-dioxide gas. If this uas comes in contact with moisture, the very corrosive sulphuric acid is formed While this may be very weak, it nevertheless does corrode and over a considerable period of time the results reach serious proportions. Soot and dust accumulations very oiten con tain some of this acid, so that if they come in contact with the metal surfaces corrosion results. However, sulphur docs not necessarily have to be present to cause corrosion. Dust in the shape of fly ash very frequently ac cumulates iu interstices between brickwork and boiler parts. Accumulations of this sort readily absorb atmospheric moisture and moisture in contact with plates causes cor rosion that over a period of time does, and has, so weakened the inetal parts that disas trous failures have taken place. A question that is frequently asked is whether boilers should be allowed to remain filled with water when not in service. If this is permitted, boilers are very likely to "sweat" with changes in atmospheric tem perature. If the temperature rises so that the boiler surfaces are cool compared to the air, moisture is almost inevitably deposited, and we thus have the moisture needed for starting corrosion. Many instances can be cited of failures due to the wasting away of plates in both water tube and fire tube boilers and in both low and high pressure boilers. Unless the surfaces, both internal and external, of all pressure parts can be criti cally examined, there cannot be any certainty that the boiler is structurally competent for service. It should be noted also that when boilers are out of service they arc likely to deteriorate much faster than when being regularly operated. Even the week-end shut down may be a time when corrosion pro ceeds apace. The head of the bottom drum of a vertical boit tube type of boiler recently blew out in a public utility electric plant in Missouri. The plant was destroyed with a loss of more than $100,000. Four men were killed. The cause was the undiscovered external corro sion of the head that had long been buried in tile brickwork, inaccessible for inspection. At a coal mine in West Virginia the ex plosion of a horizontal return tubular boiler destroyed the boiler house ami started a fire. The loss totalled more than $30,000. Four met) were killed. The top portions of the shell were covered with llic customary layer of brick. A leaky roof provided moisture that eventually corroded the shell plates so extensively that the thicknesses were re duced, over a wide area. Co the paint that there was not sufficient metal left to carry the stresses. Appurtenances All lioilcrs of whatever kind are provided with certain indicating and protective de vices necessary for their safe and proper operation. In general these may be enumer ated as stop valves on the steam and feed connections, water column, water gage glass and gage cocks, safety valves or water relief valves, blow-off valves and connected piping, feedwater regulators, fusible plugs and low water fuel cutouts. This list will, in general, cover the essential pieces of equipment but not all boilers necessarily have all of them. All these devices arc supplied for a pur pose. Some of them arc called on to operate only at long intcr\uls if they cvci function at all. However, they arc all supplied with a definite purpose in view and unless they are in condition to operate when called on to do so they might just as well be omitted. This means that ail appurtenances must be examined and maintained so that they arc always in operating condition. Even those that operate continuously sometimes get out of order. Un fortunately, automatic equi pineal of any kind is likely to sometime, for some reason or other, become inoperative. It is highly important therefore that all the de vices around a boiler, on which its proper operation and safety depend, be regularly inspected and properly maintained. Unless this is done, a preventable accident is likely to happen. The water connections of water columns frequently become stopped up. When this happens low water and overheating result often with serious consequences. With the proper attention this can be avoided. It is now recognized standard practice for safety valves to be arranged so that they can be tried at any time and wherever there are boiler laws it is mandatory that .safety valves be tested every' day. 160 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Steam gages sometimes give wrong read ings ami need to be tested frequently. Blowoff connections, particularly on ttorizontal return tubular boilers must be of sturdy construction and properly protected from high temperature gases. lilowoff valves must also Ijc of heavy const ructiou and so arranged that they cannot be quickly opened or closed. There have lccn a multitude of accidents to ifCrsons due to failure of some part of the blowolT connection resulting from improper materials, improper opera tion ami iosuflicicot protection. Attendance The proper ami safe operation of as im portant and potentially dangerous a piece of apparatus as a steam boiler, be it either high or low pressure, large or small, is dependent mi intelligent attendants and should be en trusted only to the care of those-who arc thoroughly competent. This is a point that is by no means universally complied with, even, oftentimes, in power plants of moder ate size. The value of the equipment in a very large plant is such that the management cannot do otherwise than provide it with the best l*ossil>le care and attention. However, there arc many Imiler plants that arc but very inadequately attended ami in thousands of 'inall heating plants the attendant is wholly nnin formed and ignorant. Piping Steam piping in n*>t a source of very many accidents. The failures that do take place arc usually in connection with cast iron fittings, such ;n tees, elbows amJ the valves, and usually in the pressure line. Water bununcr not infrequently occurs in steam lines. es|tccially when starting up cold. A slug of water traveling at a high rate of speed can deliver a sledge hammer blow a: an abrupt change in direction nr dead etui, and many east iron fittings arc-broken in this way. Expansion and contraction stresses that arc nut properly provided for, not in frequently result in cracked fittings or valves that permit the discharge of steam. Even low pressure steam is at a temperature such that serious injury results from coming in contact with it. Most piping is covered with insulation so that it is not easily examined, hut the 1h>Us and flanges and ihc provision for proper expansion can be checked. Construction and Repairs Safety men probably do not often have any part in the selection of equipment or methods of construction or repair, hut it is well for litem to know that a great deal of welded boiler work is now being done and many pipe lines are being fabricated by welding instead of the usual threaded and flanged construction. Every possible assur ance must be taken to determine that the welding process will give sound welds with the proper physical characteristics. Also that only welding operators are permitted to do the work who have demonstrated their ability to produce sound welds under the prescribed procedure. There have been so many instances of improperly welded joints, both in pressure vessels and piping, that every precaution should be taken to assure welds of an accept* able and safe nature. There need be no great concern about welded boilers, because that work is invariably done in shops that are properly equipped and supervised. This however, is not necessarily true with pres sure vessels of various kinds. There h a great temptation to effect re pairs of boilers and other pressure vessels bv welding. Repairs ot this kind should be permitted only after thorough analysis of the conditions and then only by proved, com petent welding operators. Rules have been adopted by the National Board of boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors respecting the application of welding to boiler repairs llial arc highly restrictive. The American Welding Society lias pre pared rules for the Qualification of Welding Processes and Texting ot Welding Opera tors. Both the rules for repairs and the quali fication of welders should be familiar to those concerned with equipment to which welding may 1>c applicable. Less than six mouths ago the wcldcd-in patch in the bottom of a horizontal return tubular boiler in a saw mill failed. The j*acch measures! 24" x 36" and was suffi ciently large to cause a major explosion. One man was killed and the. boiler house was demolished. An examination showed that it was a miserable job of welding, evidently done hy one entirely ignorant of the danger of that kind of repair as well as being an inexpert welder. Pressure Vessels 161 Personal Injuries Many personal injuries caused by expo>ure to steam or high temperature water, the discharge of which may be due to a rela tively minor accident, arc constantly hapircning. Many of these occur because of carelessness or ignorance on the part of the injured person but many of them are through no fault of the injured man. Meticulous attention to small details is necessary' to avoid the minor accidents. In numerable injuries have been due to men working on, or attempting to make repairs of, parts under pressure. It should be an invariable rule that the tightening up of bolls in ail attempt to stop gasket leaks or making other repairs involving hammering or possi bly welding should be positively prohibited while the equipment is under pressure. Furnace Explosions Furnace explosions arc of rather frequent occurrence, particularly where gas, oil or pulverized coal is used as the fuel. Great rare and nn orderly method of both lighting off and operating furnaces using these fuels is very necessary*. The lighting means should be introduced only after a furnace has been well ventilated and before the supply ot fuel is started. Some very disastrous explosions have hap pened in large boilers fired with pulverized coal, gas and to some extent with oil. Small automatically oil fired heating boilers very frequently have furnace explosions, but they are not usually of a serious nature. This kind o accident is worthy of careful con sideration by those concerned with boiler operation. Only a very few years ago a furnace ex plosion of natural gas occurred under a new 000 pound boiler in a city electric light plant in Colorado. One man was killed and four injured. The property loss was approxi mately $25,000. The boiler was just being prepared for service by men who were familiar with the use of natural gas fuel. Apparently the mismanipuiation of valves and fallure to take the necessary preliminary precautions hy ventilating the furnace before lighting off was the cause. What the Safety Man Should Know About Compressed Air Systems By CHARLES W. U1BBS Compressor Engineer Department, IngeraoU-Rand Co., New York City Power, to most people, including engi neers. means electricity or steam. To a few it means water power. Less frequently is compressed air thought of as power. It is more likely to be considered a convenience. Compressed air is probably actually handled hy more workmen in the average plant than either steam or electricity. Compressed air is a personal utility, but it is also power. Because of this familiarity with com pressed air and because of its generation and use in so many small shops (practically every gasoline station has its compressed air plant), the question of safe installation and operation is important. This paper will not attempt to rover the actual use of com pressed air. but will be limited to the instal lation and maintenance of the stationary compressor plant and system. All of the equipment should be designed for the maximum pressures which miphl he encountered. AD reputable manufacturers of compressed air equipment can offer units for practically an}' service which will pro vide on ample factor of safety. For the type of plant which the safety man will generally be called upon to consider, the operating pressure will scldom be above 150 pounds, and the compressors will be either single or two stage. By this we mean that the air will be compressed to discharge pres sure in one stroke of a piston (single stage), or it may be compressed part way in one cylinder and then transferred to another cylinder and compressed the rest of the way (two stage). In general, machines above 100 horsepower will he two stage, the power re quirements for 100 pound units being about 162 Iwcnty-s'irUi National Safely Congress 15 per cent less than for single stage. Two itage has its advantages from your stand- also, in that the discharge tempera tures from the compressor will be less. ('articular attention should be paid to the method of regulating the compressor output to prevent the building up of an excessive pressure in the system. AH compressors are or should be provided with some means of varying the volume of air compressed and delivered to the system so that the com pressor output is averaged up to that which is I>cing taken from the system. A steam driven compressor may be regu lated by automatically varying the speed in accordance with the demand, thus maintain ing an approximately constant discharge pressure. Electric driven compressors oper ate of necessity at constant speed. Methods of Regulating There arc several methods o( regulating constant speed compressors usually depend ent upon the site of the unit. Small units, such a* arc used m automobile service sta tions ami garages and in certain applications in industrial plants, arc most frequently auto matic stop-and-start control. The compres sors operate at full speed until the pressure in the system reaches a pre-dcterinincd point, when a pressure switch opens the electrical circuit ami stops the motor and compressor. When the pressure drops to some lower prc-dctcrmincd figure, the switch closes the motor circuit ami the compressor resumes operation. Where automatic stnp-aud-starl control is not advisable, a so-called constant speed con trol is provided. The compressor operates al full speed at all limes, the output being re duced in one or nunc steps to zero, main taining the discharge pressure Ixslow a I ire-dcterntitied max iimmw On what might 1k* called small and inter mediate sized units, constant speed control is usually "all on--all off." That is, the com pressor either delivers its full output or tnMic al all. Smite compressors use what is known as tree air unloading, where the inlet valves are held open, preventing the compression of air during the unloading pcruxl. Another requires a high pressure relief valve to exliaust the air in the high pressure cylin der to atmosphere, uhile the intake to the low pressure cylinder is closed off entirely. thus preventing the further compression of air. On the larger constant speed units, a sys tem of step control is used, the most satis factory of which is the automatic clearance control. Clearance control operates on the principle that there will be less air delivered by a compressor if the clearance space in the cylinder is increased. By proportioning the amount of clearance which is added through the opening of valves connecting clearance pockets to the cylinder, any de sired degree of unloading may be obtained. Free air unloadcrs of various types are also used on large units, but they are not as satis factory*, mechanically, as the clearance control. Steam driven compressors in the smaller sizes usually have a throttling (flybaiJ) gov ernor or some form of automatic cut-off governor. These act as maximum speed de vices only. Control of output is by one of the constant speed methods previously described. Larger units may be equipped for varying the speed to maintain a constant pressure with a built-in device limiting the maximum speed. In addition, it is wise to have an automatic safety device which acts to shut off alt the steam if the safe speed is ex ceeded. The important thing about the compressor and its regulation or control, from the safely man's standpoint, is that the control should be reliable and as fool-proof as is consistent with the requirements. Filter Is Needed The compressor plant should include an intake air filter to keep most of the dust ami dirt out of the compressor, to reduce the wear and valve leakage, and, in general. In make the machine a teller, safer and more economical unit with a longer life. The wise purchaser will also install an aftercuolcr lu coot Ific air as it comes from lit** compressor and I>cfore it passes into the air receiver ami from the receiver into live system. The aftcrcoolcr condenses the excess oil which may ltc carried over, condenses the water vapor which is always carried to a greater or lesser extent with the intake air and which is squeezed out of the air when it is compressed, much as we squeeze water Pressure Vessels 163 out of a sponge. The aflercooler should be designed with ample surface and built to withstand the pressures encountered. Jt should be protected with a safety valve and sttould have a pressure gauge to indicate al all times the pressure existing within if. Every air compressor plant should liave one or more air receivers. These arc simple tanks designed to assist in the removal of moisture and oil before the air passes into the distribution system, to provide a reser voir against the peaks of usage, and to main tain a more constant pressure on the system. The compressed air industry has practi cally standardized on the A.S.M.E. Code for Unfired Pressure Vessels in the manufacture of all receivers and auxiliary equipment. The receiver should be designed for some pressure slightly higher than the normal ex pected operating pressure and should be stamped and inspected to be sure it meets the Code. This simplifies insurance prob lems. The practice of using air receivers and tanks which have not been given a regular inspection and test is still all too prevalent and cannot be too thoroughly condemned. It is a fixed policy in our company not to quote on air receivers of any lower standard than 125 pounds A.S.M.E. We feel that if we were to quote and sell receivers, for say 30 pounds or 50 pounds and even though they were built to the A.S.M.E. Code, they might sometime, somehow be used on higher pressures with disastrous results. One hun dred pounds is the practical standard of air pressure in this country and an air receiver designed for 12S pounds gives sufficient lee way. Valves and fittings should all be carefully selected and installed for the pressures involved. These parts have now been well standardized and can be bought with safety. Installation Now that we have the eqiripmcnt bought, we must install it. First we must select a suitable location. From a safety as well as economical point of view, the place should be well lighted, with crane service if nec essary for handling heavy parts during erection, maintenance, and repair; and there should be plenty of aisle space. Piping should be so arranged as to be out of the way and >et accessible. Intake piping is usually connected to the bottom of the Cylinder. It should come in from the out side if at all possible, since the colder the air coming to the compressor, the less will be the likelihood of excessive discharge tem peratures and the greater will l*c the useful capacity of the unit. The air filter should Ik; placer! where it can be well ami conveniently serviced, nnd should 1>e regularly cleaned. Disrltargc pip ing is important. The air from a com pressor is hot, and for 100 pound service will vary from 250 degrees to d00 degrees temperature, depending uj>on whether a ma chine is two-stage or single-stage and also varying with the size and effectiveness of the cooling water supplied. Because of this temperature, the discharge pipes should lx? where men cannot easily cumc in contact with them. They should lx* carried up and out of the way, if ;it all possible or laid in pits beneath the floor. They sltouM lead as directly as possible to the aftcrcoolcr and the shorter the distance between the compressor, the aftcrcoolcr, and the receiver, the greater will be the over-all operating economy of the installation. No valves should be placed in the Hue between the compressor and the receiver. This statement is made in spite of the fact that valves frequently are placed in the line, and in spite of the fact that there are cases where the space is so limited that two or more machines pump into the same receiver and valves must be placed in the discharge lines at the compressors. Where this cannot Ik* avoided. It is abso lutely essential that a safety valve--at least as Targe as is on the receiver--he installed between tile compressor and the shut-off valve. But again it should be emphasized that no valve should be put between the com pressor and the receiver. Other arrange ments should be made if possible. It has been suggested that the best pa]>cr on com pressed air and safely would consist of (he words, "Don't put a valve between the compressor and the receiver," repeated 500 times. Both the aftercooler and the receiver should be so arranged that they will drain, that there will be no danger of freezing of water in the winter-time, and that all mois ture will be trapped and removed from the system as fast as it is condensed. The re ceiver in most plants is placed outdoors. This gives the air a chance to cool further \M /';*\'nty-sixHt Xuliomif Softly C>ou/ress by atmosphere radiation. and. since the receiver is frequently bulky, it docs not oc cupy valuable floor space. The aftcrcoolcr should be indoors in most climates to prevent freezing. Receivers usually have one opening near the tup and otic near the bottom. There is discussion, sometimes in great detail, as to whether the inlet should be at the top of the receiver with the outlet at the bottom, or vice versa. The piping usually lays out bel ter. with less mtetferencc with passageways, etc., when the inlet is at the top, hut the writer's personal opinion is that it doesn't make much difference. All water piping should 1* so laid out as to drain thoroughly and to drain the cylinders and aficrcoolcrs as well. This is a point to watch particularly in the winter time, if there is any possibility of temperatores in the building going to the freezing in/mt. It is easy for a cylinder head to he cracked hv freezing which might weaken it enough to make the machine dangerous to o[H.'ratc. A well planned system for distributing the compressed air to the various points of comsmnptioti will take into consideration the slope of the lines and the location of drop legs and drains. There should be no low* lnrkcis which are not regularly and fre quently drained. Automatic traps are recom mended. Condensation During rertaht parts of the year small quantities of moisture and oil may condense in the pi pi- lines in addition to that removed hy the aftercooler ami the receiver. This is due to tile differences in temperature be tween the atmosphere and the cooling water a- it may exist at certain seasons. This UKii'-lure tends to collect toward the ends of (he line, causing trouble for the men using the air. It is necessary, therefore, that the con densate Ik* removed from the system. In many simps this is accomplished by oiuming a hose line and allowing it to blow for a considerable length of time before putting the line to use. It is neither a safe nor a wUe practice to have air lines blowing freely around the shop to remove moisture. A pro|Hrr system lay-out will prevent this. After the installation is made, it should lc ilre<>cd up with paint and the compressor and equipment should be kept clean. Win dow's in the compressor room should also be kept clean, and the walls and floor should be painted. Operation And now w*c come to the operation of the plant. Having selected the proper equipment and having installed it in the proper wav, we must now' sec that in its everyday use we do not permit anything to happen which would create hazardous conditions. The compressor, oi course, must be driven by some prime mover. It is assumed that suitable protective devices have l>ccn in stalled on this prime-mover and that it is installed in such a way that there will l>c no danger of over-speeding. Reference to vari ous safety- codes should bring out the neces sary' safe-guards for each individual ease. On the compressor end, we must be sure that thcTCgulators or controls are in proper oj>crating condition at all times. VVe should have no valves of any kind in the piping between the pressure regulators themselves and the vessel in which the pressure is lieing maintained. If there is a valve in this line, it should be a routine part of every daily inspection of the machine--particularly be fore starting--to see that this valve is open and the line is free. This valve should lie so installed that the pressure is wider the seat so that it cannot be dosed l>y air pressure if the valve stem should break. Here again is a valve which should not be in the system, hut is frequently found there. It is a very simple matter to test most regulators manually, cither before the ma chine is started or immediately thereafter, and this should be a routine |art of the operator's procedure. Most air compressors unload frequently enough to keep the regu lators in working condition, but there are eases where machines arc used as Iwtsc load machines and eventually the regulators get ..stuck and will not function when necessity arises. Regular daily operation by hand of the control system is quickly and easily done, as a general rule, and deserves more atten tion than it receives. Steam units should lie frequently checked tu see that the governor does not permit sale maximum >jieed to be exceeded. Auto matic safety stops should be tripped at least once a week and preferably more often. These precautions are often grossly neg- Pressure Vessels 165 lectedL Running "on the throttle" should be prohibited. Cooling water for cylinder jackets and cooler* i most important. Not only should a reliable supply be used, but it should be as cool as can readily be obtained. Most compressors requiring water cooling arc furnished with a valve on the water inlet to control the water used, and with an open funnel arrangement on the discharge to per mit visual indication of the amount of water flowing. The exact temjK'raturc rf the water at the outlet is not of great importance, hut there arc certain limits which should not he ex ceeded even where water is expensive. A good general rule is to keep the water outlet temperature from any compressor below J20 degrees F. It will generally be found that the use of water quantities recommended by the compressor manufacturer will result in lower outlet temperatures than 120 de crees F. Cooling water must be clean. The use of scale forming water will eventually result in a reduction in the space for flow of the water, reduced heat removal, and higher dis charge air temperatures which are always a potential source of danger and trouble. Lubrication Lubrication of the air compressor is the must important operating item for the safety man to watch. An air compressor requires extremely little oil, but the oil should be of the very best grade and manufactured only liy a reputable manufacturer and selected specifically by the manufacturer for air com pressor service. When first starting a new unit, it is wise and customary to feed oil generously to a compressor. This helps the cylinder to take on a fine polish and assists in washing out the dirt which is found in any new machine, ho matter how carefully it has been cleaned out before starting. After a few days of running with a gener ous amount of oil, however, the oil should l*e cut down until an examination of the intake ami discharge valve shows that they arc just slightly greasy, not dry, and not oily. Tltcrc should hy no means be oil lying in the valve pockets or in the air discharge passageways in the cylinder. It cannot be Stated too emphatically that lubrication has more to do with the safety of the average air compressor system than any other item. Compressor valves arc subject to ex tremely hard service. They open and close very rapidly and because of this must be made as light as is consistent with required strength. It is not to be expected that a compressor valve will last indefinitely. U is a part which must be occasionally re placed. The valves should he given a regular scheduled msjcction--the period between inspections being dependent upon the par ticular service the machine encounters, plus experience. Generally, valves should be re moved every three to four months, cleaned and thoroughly inspected for any broken or excessively worn parts. When a broken valve--and particularly n discharge valve--is allowed to o|>cratc for any length of time in a machine, the leakage of compressed air back into the cylinder dur ing the suction stroke increase* the com pressor discharge temperature severely. A broken and neglected valve i also likely lo be found where dirt is (KTmitted to accumu late in the system. This dirt i* likely to Ik* oil-snaked it an excessive or poor grade of nil has been used, and will soon become baked into a hard carbonaceous mass. Eventually the temperature may rise so high that the oil ami oi1-*-oakcd dirt and carbon start to bum. They arc in a dense atmosphere of oxygen and will bum rapidly. This is, of course, a very dangerous situation because if there is enough of the oil the pipe or vessel may become red hot am! unable to resist pressure. Then an explosion occurs. Air Filters The use of air filters on the compressor intake is not only an economically sound procedure from the standpoint of reduced maintenance and longer life on the com pressor and valves, hut also from the stand point of safety because clean valves arc less likely to.leak and cause excessive tempera tures. and if they do leak for a while before they are discovered they arc not dirty and there is less opportunity for anything to catch fire. Air fillers should l>e cleaned as frequently as may be necessary. The frequency will, of course, depend upon the location and the running time of the compressor. They should be inspected not less than once in 166 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress every six week*, and preferably more often, and cleaned if necessary- Tlic air receiver is a tank ami as such requires little attention other titan occasional painting on the outside and inspection on the inside to make sure that corrosion is not taking place. Normally, the inside of the pipe lines and receivers will become covered with a very thin coating of oil. which will serve to protect them to a certain extent. Safety valves should be checked to see that they arc functioning and set at the proper pressure to protect the system. On an A.S.M.E. tank, the safely valves should not he set above the pressure stamped on the vessel and for which the vessel Is designed. All safely valves should be sprung by hand at least once a day to insure that they arc in good operating Condition and to clear them of any dirt that might lodge therein. The safety valves themselves should he designed and stamped to meet the A.S.M.E. Code requirements, and should be connected di rectly to the receiver with no intervening valve and as little piping as possible. Ourc again it will be emphasized that it is most desirable that there be no valve be tween the receiver and the compressor, bill that if there is a valve so placed there should also l>c a safety valve of adequate size between the compressor ami the shut-ofT valve. This safety valve should be texted the same as ah the other valves on the system. Ail aftcrcoolcr will do more to reduce whatever hazards may exist in the operation ot the average air compressor limn any other single piece of equipment. It cools the air before it passes into the receiver and pipe line, thus reducing the strain on the pip ing caused by daily expansion and contrac tion. condenses and removes moisture which exists in all air and which is squeezed out during compression and cooling of the air, condenses and removes practically all of the oil used in lubricating compressor so that in case of use of excessive amounts of oil--or a poor quality of oil--the oil can go no further than the aftcrcoolcr. This combined elimination of high tem peratures, even though the compressor may be in poor operating shape, and the elimina tion of the dangerous oi) situation, eliminates every possible danger of explosion or fire in the system. Many plants feel that an aftercooler is a worth-while investment from this standpoint only. An additional gaiu through the use of aftcrcoolcr* is found in the elimi nation of condensed water at the system out lets which renders it unnecessary to blow oft the lines before using them, and materially reduces the upkeep on air operated tools. The question frequently is asked, "How far should air be cooled in an aftcrcoolcr to accomplish the desired results?" The answer is, as usual, a compromise between the cost and the results obtained. The com pressed air Industry has standardized on cooling within 15 degrees F. of the incoming wafer temperature. This keeps the coolers economical in size, requires a minimum amount of water for cooling, and reduce* the temperature of the air to a point where most of the moisture is condensed and may be removed. The explosion hazard is cutircly eliminated. What the Safety Man Should Know About Processing Kettles By J. D. CRAIG Assistant to the President, Spencer Kellogg and Sons, Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. The enumeration ot the many individual standards which the safety engineer should strive to establish for cliemical processing kettles would constitute an imposing list of specifications. Hut the formulation of proper safety specifications relating to design, main tenance. operation and so on would be ex ceedingly difficult, if not impossible, without extensive knowledge and a clear understand ing of what is to be done in a given process ing kettle under any stated set of conditions. More specifically, what docs the chemistry of the operation dictate as logical safety measures ? What precautions are imperative to afford J. The greatest security to the employees; Pressure Vessels 167 2. The maximum protection to plant prop erty; 3. Tlte continuity of plant operations with quality of products? In fact, every safety program should he formulated on these well-recognized con cepts. Too often the average chemical super visor or operating foreman who is familiar with the most intricate chemical aspects of the operation ignores the safety angle. In stead. his attention and efforts arc centered upon such considerations as efficiency, yields, costs, quality of product, rapidity of equip ment turnover. The hazards of the opera tion often do not become apparent until actual experience with an accident. On the other hand, the safety engineer too frequently lacks any knowledge of the chemistry of w hat van hapf>Cii in the process ing kettle should there he some deviation from the limits as defined in the standard practice, due to causes beyond the operator's control. If he were more conversant with it, lie would most likely be spared the unhappy assignment of holding the post mortem to determine why it happened. And, more im portant, he would be in a stronger position to introduce intelligent precautions and pro mulgate rules of procedure to he followed, should the process get out of coutrof, which would most certainly reduce, if not com pletely eliminate, the possibility' of its ever happening. Too many safety rules come into existence after, instead of before, an accident occurs. A more extensive knowledge on the part of the safety' engineer of the chemistry of the process being carried on in the reaction vessel could conceivably be the largest single contributing factor iu safeguarding the em ployees, protecting the plant property and insuring non-interruption of the plant opera tion. Instead of the operator Incoming hope lessly' confused and thereby taking absurd chances in his panicky state of mind, he w'ould have an orderly course of procedure prescribing what he should and should not do in the emergency. Design and Installation Obviously, the type of chemical process and the nature of its operation must suggest the specific precautions and essential safety appliances required on and around the proc essing kettle. However, certain fundamentals may be outlined which have a bearing on design: 1. Docs the unit operate under positive or negative pressure, or at atmospheric pres sure? Wliat is Ihc allowable working pressure ? 2. What arc the best materials for its con struction? How thick should the walla be and how much wear from corrosion ami erosion is permissible before its factor of safety is so reduced that the vessel is no longer fit for operation? 3. fs the unit to he equipped with a spe cial lining of corrosion resisting material which, if a leak develops, would cause rapid deterioration of the main shell? Arc the chemicals to be employed of (lie type whose activity increases progressively with higher temperatures or with increased agitation? Are proper tests conducted to determine if metals are capable of withstanding any sjk?cific reaction under conditions duplicating as nearly as possible actual operating prac tices, vi/.., temperatures pressures, concen trations, etc? 4. Is mechanical agitation required? Recognizing packing gland problems as luring more difficult with most chemical reactions than with steam, has the best possible type been chosen? Where agitation is necessary and either pressure or vacuum is employed, an unusu ally deep gland packed with a material capable of withstanding the action of the chemicals involved and lubricated with a lubricant that wilt not easily melt or he dis solved is of vital importance. A slight leak through a packing gland could he extremely dangerous. Escaping vapurs of secondary products formed during various stages of the react ion might have deleterious pathological results. A cloud oT poisonous vapor could quickly affect Uie entire plant, whereas n similar steam release would lie purely local and unlikely to have any injurious effects. 5. If a closed reaction vessel, is it equipped with the proper size manhole? To permit unobstructed entrance of an average size man equipped with a safety belt it should be not less than an eighteen inch opening. Too frequently kettles are equipped with only fifteen inch openings, making it utterly impossible for one to enter without first removing the safct3' belt. 6. Have proper size safety valves and other types of pressure release systems been 168 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress provided? Is the corrosive action of the chemicals or their vapors such that it would be preferable to utilize the old style weighted lever type, instead of the newer spring re lease type of safety valve? It is essential that the valve be constructed of material not readily corroded by any vapors or liquids emitted from the process. Serious explosions have occurred where brass safety valves have been used on autoclaves in which ammonia was liberated from the reaction. Would it he preferable to have the safety valve constructed of the same material as is used on the interior of the reaction kettle? Is the size of the valve adequate to permit instantaneous release of pressure resulting from abnormal conditions? Is it necessary to supplement the safety valve with explosion discs? A reaction carried on under vacuum may necessitate heating coils in which steam pressures range from six to seven hundred pounds. Obviously, the safety valve must release instantaneously and be capable of discharging the greatest volume of vapor likely to form, at a rate insuring a rapid decline in the initial pressure. 7. Finally, has the kettle actually been designed for the process for which it is l>cing employed? The design of processing kettles for an operation carried on under vacuum must, of course, be quite different from those employing pressure. While this principle is so obvious, nevertheless it has ftcen overlooked on occasions with disastrous consequence*. Only recently a large company manufac turing impregnating materials employed for electrical insulation purposes experienced an accident with two fatalities. The reaction necessitated relatively high pressures. One of the processing kettles failed, and here is what the subsequent post mortem conducted l*v the safely engineer revealed. The company's business on this new prod uct having expanded beyorul the limit of the capacity of the initial installation; another unit was required. In looking over the ac cumulation of idle equipment in the yard, a large kettle was found which, from a per functory examination, appeared to be quite similar to the one already in use for this operation. Being of heavy construction, it appeared fully capable of withstanding high pressures. When put in operation, its performance srrtned identical with that of the original unit until, for some unknown reason, the temperature got out of control. Before any thing could be done, an explosion occurred, killing the operator and a maintenance man repairing an adjacent piece of equipment. It was found out too late that the kettle was not designed to withstand internal pressures, but instead was intended only for external pressure work and as such was safe for only those processes employing vacuum. ft would seem that even a layman would know not to employ a kettle designed for vacuum on a pressure reaction, yet in this instance it was done, and by a responsible company. Incidentally, the safety engineer was not consulted until after the accident. Inspection Following Installation The safety engineer's next responsibility should be a follow-up inspection of the installation to be sure that there has been strict compliance with the original safely standards. What arc some of the things to look for in this inspection? 1. Arc nil exposed moving parts, such as gears, belts, pulleys, agitators properly guarded ? 2. Have all specified pressure, vacuum, and temperature recording devices been in stalled? 3. Have temperature recording devices been so placed as to record accurately the highest temperature likely to be reached in the mass of the reaction and not merely surface tcmiKiratures, which could conceiv ably vary over wide ranges in comparison to temperatures in the interior of a large mass of material? 4. Have sufficient automatic controlling and regulating devices, with the proper alarms, been provided? Are the release valves and explosion discs of proper dimen sions? 5. Is the ventilation slack, exhaust fan or vent sufficient to eliminate all health hazards from obnoxious, poisonous, or dust-laden vapors emanating from the reaction kettle? 6. Have non-sparking devices, such as non-ferrous drives, explosion-proof motors, and vapor-proof bulbs, been provided in close proximity to the reaction kettle in the event that volatile solvents, distillates, or olicr flammable materials arc employed? 7. Have proper outlets been provided and arc they of commensurate size to balance inlets? Sometimes it may be justifiable to Pressure Vessels 169 equip a reaction kettle with inlets larger than outlets, but generally it is preferable to reverse this order. 8. Finally, have all the specifications of the manufacturer of the processing kettle been followed by the construction engineer making this installation? Minor deviations from simple instructions have brought dis astrous consequences. Just recently a certain company in my cilv specializing in the construction of heavy duty pressure vessels was called upon to settle a claim arising from the failure of one of its units which had been provided for a special type of process. The reaction em ployed a wide range of varying temperatures and necessitated rapid changes. Accordingly, the kettle wns equipped both with coils and :m external jacket used alternately for steam and cooling water. For a short while after the kettle was installed the process went along smoothly, Imt before the end of the first month an ex plosion occurred. Immediately thereafter a claim was advanced against the builder of the equipment on the basis of defective ma terial* having been used in it* construction. The builder's investigation revealed that the instructions which accompanied the equip ment had not been fully contplied with when the installation was made. The jacket was provided with bottom in lets and top outlets. There were four such outlets so spaced as to insure the best possi ble circulation and distribution of the cooling water. Despite explicit details ou blue prints furnished with the kettle to sliow how the connection* should be made, the company's engineer found that actually there were llircc steam connections, but only one water connection. What undoubtedly happened was that the cooling water coursed in a narrow path from the bottom inlet up one side of the kettle to the one outlet provided, with little or no circulation around the other *ides of the kettle. As a result of thermal shock or crystallization, due to uneven cooling, the portion of the jacket which covered the restricted course of the cooling water failed and a narrow strip extending from the inlet at the bottom to the outlet at the top gave way when steam pressure was subsequently applied. As is generally the ease, the operator was standing directly in the path of the traveling piece of jacket. He was not killed, but did suffer serious injuries. The manufacturer of the kettle, incidentally, did not have to honor the claim. The all-important observation in this case is the fact that the accident could have been avoided had the simple instructions fur nished with the equipment been properly carried out. Shouldn't it properly be the responsibility of the safety engineer to dis cover such negligences? Routine Maintenance Inspections Once a processing kettle has been placed in regular operation, frequent periodic main tenance inspections are essential. Again the type of the process or the nature of the chemical reaction* carried on must dictate the frequency, thoroughness, and kind of inspection to be made. 1. Is there an established routine for making both internal and external visual examinations? 2. Is there a competent test engineer and is the safety director authorized to employ him for inspections and hydrostatic tests thus placing responsibility for the Safety of the operating units? 3. Is each special feature of safeguarding, such as pressure release valves, checked during such inspections and suitably scaled or tagged to prevent tampering with after it has been properly set? Is the inspector authorized to condemn units which in his judgment do not test satisfabtorily, or which from visual inspections, hammer tests, in ternal measurements, etc., appear unsafe? 4. Is the inspector authorized to demand units for test when scheduled, or shut them down if reasonable requests are not met by operator*? Also, is he authorized to request at any time a shut down of any units ob served in operation contrary to prescribed procedure or regulation? 5. Finally, and of utmost importance, should there be an inspection preceding the major examination to determine if the con dition of the processing kettle, in the event that it is a closed vessel, offers no hazards to the test engineer? Has'the reaction vessel been properly cleaned? Have all explosive or toxic product* been removed ? Has it been exhausted of all obnoxious vapors or fumes and is an adequate supply of fresh air passing through it during the entire time the workmen are inside? 170 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Gas masks should be available at alt times. If of Ihe canister type, the proper canister for the specific vapor involved should be used. Rut in no instance--and too much emphasis cannot he placed on this observa tion--should a gas mask ever be used for a deficient supply uf oxygen. Too often the gas mask is considered a panacea for all gas problems. Imt unfortunately oxygen has no >ubstiiuic for sustaining life. It is impossible In withdraw more oxygen from a canister than is entering it. Some of you may Ire familiar with the tragedy (hat occurred in Buffalo on August 2K, 1935 when several men lost their lives while attempting to clean a closed vessel. A preliminary inspection of the tank seemed quite unnecessary since only a harmless ma teria). linseed oil to be specific, had been stoned iti il. The operator lowered his lad der ` c tank and started down, hut be fore he tuni descended many steps he felt and apf>carL`fl to he lying unconscious in the -clllmgs and sludge on the tank bottom. His helper, who up to that point had remained outside, rushed into the tank lo effect a res cue. He too fell unconscious before getting wen half wnv down the ladder. Tension was then so great that an emer gency rescue squad of the police and fire departments was called. Immediately upou arrival, anti without a further inspecion of any sort, the captain directed one of his assistants, equip]**! with the latest type of gas mask, to enter the lank ami to everyone's consternation l*e too suffered the same fate as the workmen who had preceded him without gas masks. With two men tying motionless in the slimy muck on tlie Ixittoin of the tank and seeing his own officer pitch to the bottom, gas mask and all, when only a few steps down the ladders, the captain decided on drastic action and made ready himself to enter the tank to rescue his co worker. Fortunately, lie took one further precau tion amt wore, in addition to his gas mask, a safety belt. He fared no better than the others who had preceded him down the lad der, Imt by means of (he safety belt was hauled out and rushed to Emergency Hos pital where he was finally revived. The other victims were removed by means of grappling hooks but all efforts at resusci tation proved futile. The city chemist, the coroner, and the health commissioner were next to arrive on the scene. To ascertain, if possible, what the mysterious deadly vapors could be against which gas masks apparently afforded no protection, samples of the atmosphere were taken and exhaustive analyses .of the most intricate nature were made in an attempt to isolate the poisonous constituent causing these fatalities. After extensive researches, public investigations, inquests, and much newspaper publicity, someone suggested that possibly there was an insufficient supply of oxygen in the tank. The hunch was readily confirmed by the most simple kind of gas analysis. The explanation in this instance for tine deficiency lies probably in the fact that the linseed oil, being a drying oil which absorbs oxygen from the air, had exhausted tins oxy gen inside the closed tank. As an ordinary manhole u*as the only opening, there was no means of circulating fresh air. The simplest kind of preliminary examination would.havc prevented the sacrifice of sev eral lives by revealing that I lie air in the tank was so depleted in oxygen tliat human life could not be sustained therein. Must Know Chemical Aspects 'I he foregoing questions are not all-in clusive. but rather merely suggestive of the kind of approach the safety engineer should make in formulating the safety standards to cover any particular set of operating con ditions. To make definite recommendations or direct answers to any of them is impossi ble w ithout first having a thorough and clear understanding of all the chemical aspects of the process to be carried on within a given processing kettle, whether it be the simple open mixing vat or the massive auto clave capable of withstanding pressures of twenty thousand pounds per square inch. Without such knowledge, howr can the safely engineer possibly determine what is needed, especially if during the process cer tain materials to be introduced in the unit are 1. Corrosive, such as acids or alkalis; 2. Erosive, such as metallic particles, iron filings, etc; 3. Flammable, such as some of the more volatile hydrocarbons; 4. Poisonous or otherwise injurious to one's healilu Frequently trouble arises, not in connec tion with the regular process, but rather Pressure Vessels 171 from some obscure side reaction occurring when the temperature or pressure gets out of bounds. Such contingencies should al ways be anticipated to the extent that ap propriate chemical controls and checks can be instituted. To cite another actual experi ence would, perhaps, be the best way to illustrate the kind of disaster that can result from neglect of this important angle. The laboratory of a large chemical manu facturing company perfected a process lo manufacture a complex, organic compound, in the course ot which a series of intricate reactions took place successively in the pres sure vessel. When the process was inaugu rated on plant scale everything seemed lo be o|*cmting smoothly and its behavior ap peared to be quite identical with what had been observed in the laboratory. The first step had been completed and the temperature was being increased prior to addition of further chemicals required in the succeeding icp. Then, without warning, there was a terrific blast, the equipment was demolished, and the research chemist, who had developed the process in the laboratory, and an oper ator lost their lives. The usual post-mortem investigation fol lowed. Ultimately il was found that it) the large plant size batch the temperature mounted considerably higher, because of the greater mass of materia), than had been the ease in laboratory experiments. At this higher temperature certain side reactions oc cur which are quite normal within such tem|>eralure ranges. The result is the forma tion of an explosive compound, a dinitro derivative, a sort of first cousin to T.N.T. If the temperature in every part of the re acting mass can be confined within the limits as employed in the laboratory there is no possibility of this explosive product form ing. But if it is allowed to form and is subsequently subjected to the higher tem peratures employed m the later stages ot the process, its own instability makes an ex plosion inevitable. Following such a catastrophe everyone was eager to work with the safety engineer. The final solution, from the safety angle, consisted of additional laboratory analyses. Immediately preceding the step when the hhst occurred, a sample of the intermediate product is now removed from the autoclave and an analysis made to determine to what extent, if any, there has been any formation of thiii dinitro derivative. If it is present in quantities in excess of one or two per cent, the entire batch of material is consigned to the sewer. To continue the operation with any appreciable amount of this impurity present would unquestionably bring a repeti tion of iltc first unfortunate experience. After all, it should he the safety engineer's responsibility to see that the process has been carefully described in writing by its author and approved for safety by a compe tent individual, or individuals, under hi* direction. At the same time all risks at tached to the process should be considered by him and appropriate precautions insti tuted. It should be his duty to sec that capable, well-li lined operator* and supervisors arc in charge of the process, particularly iF it is hazardous. In short, lie must possess a com prehensive knowledge of all the chemical reactions in the process, or physical changes which could occur. Otherwise how can he know that appropriate protective measures have been taken ? There is a long list of ascertainable facts which the safety engineer must have avail able if he is to do constructive work. Where only a limited number of processes and a few reaction kettles are involved, the prob lem is not so complex as in the case of the large chemical manufacturing plants where there may be literally thousands of processes and hundreds of different pieces of equip ment. In plants of the first type, the scope of (he knowledge required may be such as to make it easily possible for one man to handle the safety problems of the plant. In the latter instance, it would be an exceed ingly heavy assignment for one man to m? ,ter everything that should be known a1 >ut the chemical processes carried on in that plant, to the extent that he can intelli gently direct a safety program. In such cases, it would appear expedient to expand the safety man into a safety board or con ference group. The membership of such a board might comprise a competent engineer from the con struction division ; a chemist from the re search laboratory; an operating man; a maintenance man; and a representative from the department with which the safety prob lem is concerned; the entire group lo be headed by the safety engineer. Since the responsibility ot such a safely hoard would be great, il should have proportionate authority to carry out its 172 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress regulations. In a way, it might tend to decentralize safety responsibility, which, under certain circumstances, would be desirable-- tor it would tend to promote a different kind of safety consciousness right down the line, which after all is a most desirable objective. When the safety problem becomes too ex tensive and complex, reaching beyond the bounds which one individual can normally be expected to control, there is a tendency not to go far enough below the surface, into the fundamentals. Foods diM^isscd in the session on pressure vcmscU included the following: How often should steam lines be in spected? In general, for ordinary purposes, three times a year should suffice. What can be done to insure the safety <>t steam lines which arc in constant service? Musi these lx* lakrti down? No. regular routine inspection inctltods now in use should indicate when a line is becoming unsafe. Sometimes an experienced welder with high recommendations turns out a job that proves unsatisfactory or even dangerous. How is it possible to guard against this? A welding job should be supervised con stantly to insure consistent work on the part of the welders. Samples should be taken from time to time. Workers should know that this is being done, so that they will be on the alert and trying always to do the best job they know how. dDJOUKNlLlliNT Safety Fundamentals TUESDAY MORNING SESSION October 12, 1937 The panel discussion on Safety Fundamentals was held Tuesday morning, October 12 The session wa$ called to order by D. ID. Fennell, Consulting Engineer, Chicago, ami Vice President for Public delations. National Safety Council, wlvo presided and directed ibe discussion. Panel jrarlieipants were: E. K. Alexander, Safety Representative, Tex*<; Empire Pi|k: Line Co., Tulsa, Okla.; P. J. Brand, Director of Satcty, Pullman-Standard Car Manufac turing Co., Chicago; C. H. Dmsmore. Director of Safety, Wisconsin Power and Light Co., Madison, Wis.; E. C. Hild, Safely Department, Jowa Nebraska Light and Power Co., Lin coln, Neb.; D. F. McMurchy, Director ot Safety, Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville. Tcnn.; Ralph W. Pendleton, Secretary, Massachusetts Safety Council, Boston; and J. G. Polm, Safely Director, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Chairman Fhnnei.i. : Yesterday I sat in a meeting with a group of mechanical engi neers, who believe tliat a new approach ought to Ijr made to the industrial safety problem by taking it all to pieces and examining the works, trying to find out what has been making it go and what would nuke it go better. There is something intriguing in the very suggestion of safety fundamentals. Our first subject today is, "How can unsafe conditions l>c uncovered ?" TTk subject will he dis cussed by kff. C. H. Dinsmore, Director of Safety of the Wisconsin Power and Light Company of Madison, Wisconsin. C. H. Dinsmore: I will give you some of Ihe experiences in our own company. We Have a system set up whereby a committee is responsible for the discovery of unsafe conditions and practices. Our organization covers some 15,000 square miles of territory, a good many thousand miles of transmission lines and distribution. In that area we have our generating plants, our substations; we have our gas plants and water plants, hydro plants--just a typical, operating utility com pany. This large area is divided into 14 districts, and the various districts arc sort of little companies within themselves; each has Hs own organization. Now, in each one of those districts we have an investigating committee that is elected by all of the group. It is the duty of this committee to inves tigate every type of accident, employee acci dent. public accident, automotive accident, or traffic accident. I say automotive and traffic because we separate those; when wo speak of automotive accidents wc arc talking about our own equipment, and when we speak of traffic accidents, those are the accidents that happen to other motor vehicles not owned by the company. Of course, before you can investigate an accident, yon must have accident causes. So this same committee serves as an investigat ing committee to discover unsafe conditions and practices. One of their'means of investi gation is to provide every employee, whether >t be man or woman, lineman or clerk, with a report form which is addressed to the chairman of this committee, and begins like this.: "I wish to report the following unsafe condition or practice." He writes down wliat it is, signs his name to it, and passes it to his foreman. If it is something that the immediate crew can take care of in their nsnntenancc work, it is done; then the report form is passed on to the general committee. But if not, the report form is passed into the committee by the foreman, and at the Monday morning safety meeting of the 173 174 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress projxrr group, the condition is there dis cussed. Before tlic general safety meeting held in tlwt district within three weeks' time. Some disposition has been made of this un safe condition. I.et tin assume that an employee lias re ported that in a certain substation there are a mimher of oil switches which are obsolete in type, but it would involve the expenditure of $30,000 to get new equipment. If some of your companies are like ours, we can't go out and spend $30,000 every time an cmjdoyee thinks we need something. Bat he must he satisfied a> to why we are ruing to continue with that type of equipment, so it is then u)i to the invregtitMC ruawMIre. Tliey nay law in *o tu their manager, ur tliey nay lave t<> i-vm w< thr ewcvwl ulfcer to get thr answer r% Whmt t am wymg tu say is tlict tlir nuployar who ha* sapurmd the unsafe ortidrti>* t* ttrWNd* mm* bpwr llih an.wrr. and w^-rybud* m tin* **M his group tmna kwi how. dim Usm *** dis)Misrd *f We try to ci elar rfk-* >*>? u ww eu. ployees flat tt >*x hase uau- ai unsafe cutidniuH >* pruiixc * hftSM-d and retiort it. >m lave ei m< osmi amchiuarv llat will rhonuaw * TUr vxpefuMiur at our oxniaiiy it tliw we lave vsrj u*w k'ci- knit wiwrr know* bazaed* e*.wt. I would say. then, to dtMiwcr amie cutvdiliutts and printnr*. > iwnt have a care fully (tbuned t*(r*iL thr iwuream a committee. In addnaxi tu that t immuoee we liave. of roues*. ur rrlar dwnertka fvM. miners and regular patrol repum that are turned tit. fiatrol transmisskei line*, patrol of distrihutkat line*, iiatrol taking in *ubstatious. patrol <rf plants, jatrul yf under ground wtl. and su funh. All these reports are available tu tlie committee that must act. and I ran assure you that when that com mittee fails to act. there is considerable razzing from the entire group because they don't get their answer. Where something cannot lie taken care of Ixrcause uf some economy program that might be on. it is kept open until it is taken care of. Ciimbmas Fexxeu.: Mr. Dinsmore'stalk will now he discussed hy Ervin C. Hild of die Safety Department of the fowa-Ncbraska Light and Power Comjiany of Lincoln. K. C. Hild: Before our workmen can do their work safely, they must have safe equip ment. Many unsafe conditions can be elimi nated at the time your engineers make their equipment purchases. At .the time of the installation your operators may find some liazards that weren't discovered by your designer. If so, tltose conditions should l>c corrected. If they even slip through your operator, then your workman comes next. And only through training that particular man in what unsafe conditions actually are, will you be able to eliminate that condition before you have your accident. We arc inter ested in preventing that accident. I recall a case where one of our employees had an accident. He dropped a six-pound weight uM his toe and fractured it. We *fccd bin why that unsafe condition had been permitted to exist all these years m a Wand arv plant; and he said that he didn't dnuga die plant, and wasn't paid for the kse dci ign of hi* equipment. Wc had lost an cygnetuohy to make tliat employee co urease with tt* in the work for two or three %***. We discussed safety with him, and in the ka*uc conversation he uncovered three other luuarduu* conditions that were, of course, luutwriiairly corrected. That employee now UeW that he is one of the regular safety employee*. Kaju-m W. Pendleton': Periodic inspccare wtMvdrrful but I think they could tw a gr^at deal better if occasionally they are dux by a rank outsider, somebody who i ma familiar with the plant itself. Some body who know* what safety if all about, what accident prevention is, can find things tliat we are stepping over each day. Wu ought to collect a great number of sugges tions in our inspection work, and then, after wc have collected them, we sliould grade them, according to their merit, A. B, and C. I.et us tackle the A's first and then the B's and then the C's. Chairman Ff.nnf.u.: The other night I sat in a meeting wrath about four hundred men who were celebrating 1,005 days of no lost-time accidents in their plant. The prob lem of this group was, how could they main tain that very happy condition? I told them they should start in right the next day and resurvey the entire plant, looking meticu lously and searchingly for anything that might possibly constitute a hazard. They might find a ramp with a broken plank. They might find a floor that had grown slippery, Safety Fundamentals 175 or a tread with the surface worn off. But 1 certainly knew if they went through that plant searchingly they would be bound to find a lot of things that might constitute a hazard, and the beautiful record might be broken because they had failed to detect tliat thing. So the |>rgram. then, was tu nuke a study of their entire plant. As a matter of fact, before tlic meeting was over a com mittee was appointed to start in on that the very next day. Remember, there are no little things in safety. Member: The gentleman pulcc aboot an outsider making an inspection of a plant. What is wrong wish uv factory inspectors? Aren't they reporting wn>afc conditions that they find m gueng through a phot? Mr Dishms After ad, there are jo*t certain thing* that ihw i.nti ide, buna fide inspectors are luufcmg for. That i* wtthuo* taking anything away, uf course. been the importance uf their )uk. k i* net or let* of a netnr, and they can't look fur rote littk thing that mmnc tottue might iiotHi orer. If there is i umwhimi thr wncr with the equipment, if we lack a proper pad in front of a mejachbuard ue i uewnthing uf that kind, proper clearance wr mn'ifiing elm. they will dtecovor thm, Ntreiy Chairman Frnkrij. - Ow w*t will be "What MMtittti* a good safeguarding prugramIt giU be diseassed by Ralph fndlcMi, secretary 4 the Massa chusetts Safety Council. Ralph W. Pen button : I asked Walter J. Brennan, Safety Engineer of the Maine Department of l^bur & Industry, about this particular question, and he said to me. in no uncertain terms: "More ill will has hecu bred by an ill advised, poorly designed safe guarding program than any three other phases of the work." He said, "In the hundreds of mills that l Have been going into the past several years, 80 per cent of the workmen feel that safety is simply guarding the machinery, the moving machinery. They believe that that is all there is to a safety program. The only time you hear about safety is when the com pany has some point-of-operation accident; somebody loses a finger or a liand. Then tliat company goes to work on an intensive safeguarding program, and you don't hear about safety again until something else hap pens." I Ixdievc that in a safeguarding program you must use common sense. Wc must con sider the three essential factors, men. ma chine., and materials. We must analyze our problems. our specific hazards and our gen eral hazards from those three angle*. Having done that, our safeguarding program must l>c compatible with the plant purse, with the mechanical force available, and with the (articular process or hazard that wc have to do with. Today our machines arc coming in with accident prevention taken right front the blue print, starting right from there. Of course, that is our engineering approach. Chairman' Fexnrll: Here is a case rec ord. A short time ago I was able to have a very large company put on a safety pro gram. employ a safety director and proceed to put the plant hi safe condition. Unfor tunately. when a survey was made of the entire plant to detect hazards and to build up corrective means, the company decided dial the cost was entirely too high for the time being. They wanted to spread it over three year* of time. In the six months after a purely cducatixul safety program Wii put on, a 35 per vent better record was made than for the six month* oi the previous year. But within two months after that one man was killed in an elevator accident because of improper control uf door*; and two days later a tuau was killed in a tempering oven explosion Iwvause a relief door to take care of those explosions would have cost about $200 t* put on. There the record of the dx months wa* spoiled. Frequency led into severity and two ntcu were killed within that length of time. I quite insist that modern safety practice calls first for the correction of all hazardous conditions and thr proper guarding of machines. Now wc will hear from Paul Brand, Di rector of Safety of the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company of Chicago. P. J. Brand: I want to emphasize main tenance, on top of what has been said, and the need fnr including safeguards on machin ery that is purchased. It seems to me that safeguarding today differs very little from .that of a good many year* ago when the National Safety Council set up standards after thorough study. I am always glad to go back, review those 176 Twnly-sixlh National Safely Congress standard* and freshen up. T think that is the point in a good safeguarding program, to establish your standards, make them as uni form as you possibly ran. and maintain them in good condition. About 80 per cent of safeguards in certain plants aren't the proper type that go along with good safeguarding. Uniformity is certainly important in this work. Member: Mr. Pendleton seems to wish to leave the impression that manufacturers of machinery build into their designs practically all the safety that is necessary. I would like to challenge that sutemeut. Chairman Fennell: Let me offer this suggestion: When the management buys machines without the proper safeguarding, they are just immoral; that is all. Any machine that can have safeguarding built into it should be purchased in its entirety. 2nd if it is not there, tle machine shouldn't l>c purchased. Mr. Pendleton : 1 agree that when or dering our equipment, we can quite fre- tfucntly save our company grief and money by considering the safety factor at that time, rather than waiting until later when wc will hare to build certain guards to protect our people. Of course, safeguarding standards vary in the states: what is compulsory in Massa chusetts nay be perfectly all right in Con necticut or Rhode Island. I still insist that it is Utopia when we rail have that thing considered at its source ami liavc the safeguarding done before wc get the equipment, as long as we are buying it new. Member: Unfortunately, price continues to be an important factor in all purchases. Member: If your purchasing agent is on the job. you will get properly guarded machinery. J. C. Polm (The Goodyear Tire & Rub ber Co.. Akron. Ohio): Any of us who don't have something in our standard pur chase contract, when we are buying a piece of equipment, to tell a supplier that that piece of equipment must meet t!>e require ments of the state law wliere it is to be oper ated, is out of line. Member: Let us take an actual case. Let's say we are ordering a simple punch press. Should wc demand that the manufacturer equip that punch press, say, with any one of three types of guards, the hand type, cage type or jerk-back type? Should wc specify those? SIould the manufacturer provide tliat machine with any of those methods? Chairman Fennell: We certainly ought to find out about it and, if he is not able to do it. get the guard that is available and either put it on ourselves or see that it is put on. Mu. Pendleton : 1 know of a particular company that is saying to the manufacturer, "Wc will buy your punch presses providing you can equip them with the electric-eyc guard." When lie gets it down to a certain price, this (articular company is going to buy twelve of them. The manufacturer is trying to see how lie can work out the thing. Chairman Fennell: Wc will go to the next subject. Donald McMurchy, of the Tennessee Valley Authority, from Knox ville, Tennessee, will discuss "What are tire best ways to keep aud use accident records?" D. F. McMcrcuy: I think one of the fundamental considerations is, what objec tives do you Hope to reach dirough your safety program? Are you trying to comply with certain laws, or arc you trying to install in your plant a practical, workable safety program by which the majority of accidents will lx prevented? I might even say, tire great majority, liecause it has been the expe rience of industry for over thirty years that alioul 98 out of every 100 accidents arc preventable. I don't believe there ever has been an accident fur which there was no explanation. VVe can take all of the conditions and cir cumstances under which an accident occurs, duplicate them, and have another accident. That same set-up will produce accidents any where in your plant, ill ours, everywhere. An accident prevention program is a pro gram that involves an analysis of tliose causes, an orderly approach to the elimina tion of those mistakes in your processes. Whether they are of a mechanical nature or an otherwise physical nature, or whether they arc human failure, they are mistakes. Whether or not they result in any injury, they are still mistakes, and they are things that any well organized plant will try to eliminate. How do they proceed on such a basis? They can't do it effectively from personal observation. They will have to do it from a very complete record of the mistakes tliat Safety Futuiamcntals 177 have beat made. All of the conditions that have surrounded accidents in the past, if arranged and studied and analyzed, will dis close to those who have the job of eliminat ing them, where they are to look for their troubles. It may show this point of opera tion, that scaffold, that floor condition, that stairway, that elevator, this unsafe practice, or that type of man on that job won't work. A very simple parallel to this accident prevention program is followed by the public health authorities in the control of com municable diseases. A simple illustration: There is an outbreak of typhoid fever iu a little community, a dozen cases or more. The doctors immediately get the history on every one of these cases. "Where have you been swimming7 Have you been drinking water from any well or from an unsuper vised source?" Questions of that kind, when answered by all twelve of them, usually develop one source of that infection. The prevention then is a means of controlling that source. That is a very simple approach to the control of communicable disease. Accidents, unfortunately, happen from an infinite number of circumstances and condi tions, and combinations of than. The prob lem is vastly more complex. But by a sys tematic approach to finding the sources of accidents in your own plant and by directing your control measures towards those sources, you approach your safety program in a very logical manner. Chairman Fennell: J. G. Polm, of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., will discuss Mr. McMurchy`s talk. J. G. Polm: There is one point in con nection with record-keeping. It is very easy in a large organization to build up a wealth of information that does not mean anything iu the future. The first thing you know, you have duplicated a filing system here and there, and, after it is all done, it is never referred to. You don't have anything except a lot of lost time; you don't build it up tu use it. In our organization we make the original or hospital entry, when someone comes in for treatment, serve several purposes. We use a regular duplicating pud system, making five copies. You probably wonder where all of those fire copies go. Only two copies are actually filed. The minute that entry is made in the hospital, one copy goes in the mail basket and out into the shop to the super vision In charge of that particular area, so that they can contact that worker within the next hour or two, if he has gone back on the job, and see just what was wrong. It is strictly up to the supervision to cor rect that particular hazard if there was one involved, whether it was the human clement or whether It was a machinery set-up. Tlierc are very few of these individual records tliat actually come to the attention of the safety department. We depend entirely on the co operation of the nursing staff in making the entries, and in selecting and accumulating the few that we will be particularly inter* etvd in. The other copy goes to the central filing system in the labor record section so, if you have tu handle that individual some time in the future, you can easily have laid out all of his injury records. As far as any other records are concerned, we just don't keep them in our picture ex cept to establish our cases from a compen sation angle. Of course, wc do build up statistics to compare our figures with the rest of the field and with the National Safety Council. From our smaller plant units operating outside of Akron, we don't demand anything in Akron except on the serious cases. Our management has always held that the safety of an individual worker is entirely up to the supervision that he is working under. From a safety department angle and a build-up of records, we have no use for accident details, except to let the individual super vision know that we kuo'.v something lias happened in his organization and it is pretty well up to him to straighten out the situa tion. Chairman Fennell : I wish some of you would tell us what use you make of your accident records. Statistics arc utterly use less unless you do something with them wlten you get them. Member: In our company we keep two kinds of accident records: One, the record which is for the claim department, the legal part of the accident. The other is a cause report which we use for analyzing accidents and for accident prevention. That report helps us to measure our acci dent prevention work. Through it we can measure just to what extent the company is progressing in accident prevention, to what 1/8 Tweuly-sixf/i National Safely Congress extent management is backing tip our pro gram. ami to what extent we measure up in comparison with other industries. It helps t<> keep ii >n our toes. Also, we can meas ure what departmoits arc doing by studying their records, one against the other. If one department's accidents are beginning to mount, by comparing that department's work with other departments, we can usually find some solution. Down in the department, they keep the same records, and the department head meas ures the activities oi the different divisions. If the division heads arc not performing as the department head thinks they should, if the supervisory force is not following through on accident prevention, the depart ment Itead has the facts right in his hands. Then, again, the divisions can measure their supervisors' activities; die supervisors can measure their foremen's activities. Hie foremen, in turn, can measure the individual workman's activities. Our records are kept <>ti even* man in the company. At any time we can tell you the record of any man, from the standpoint of a workman, on any fore man from the standpoint of a foreman, any *U]>crvisor (ruin the standpoint of a super visor. division head, department liead or, as far as that goes, the company itself. Mkmiikk: 1 am nut going to tell you wliat <>ur records do. hut what I wish they would do in the ixrtrolcum industry. I will fust cite one instance. 1 have a friend here this morning who ha a rather severe headache. If we had an accident form on his case it might show that It** was up pretty late last night, and it might have something to do with the beau tiful lady he was with, and we might stop there. Who would have the temerity to ment it mi in our record that a special entertain ment committee Had arranged for these beau tiful ladies, knowing the frailties of* safety men? Tliat is in a light vein. But Iterc i* what I am getting at. Do we Iww provisions in our records to get at (he iuiidaiiictiltfls of accidents? Do we go to our manager and say. "Here is a certain type ii swing line that has been found in one of our refineries. You put pressure on the darned thing and it knocked a man's bloom ing head off?" Is that swing line a cause? U that a fundamental of safety, or is that still only part of a symptom, part of the diagnosis? I would like to get into our rec ord some place how we can go beyond those symptoms. The final cause of the thing may go into personalities sometimes. Ciiaikman Fknxf.i.1.: Mr. MeMurchy. wilt you answer the question? Mr. McMumcuy: In my organization we try to eliminate duplication of effort. Is there any particular reason why your com pensation record of an injury could not carrytile essential cause information? There is no reason why the original report of accident cannot be made a complete one, rather than to have the compensation unit make a report and then have the safety unit come m, inves tigate it and make a parallel or a duplicate report. Certainly, if a clear, concise descrip tion of the manner in - which that accident occurred were given to the compensation agency, the question of passing or handling that claim would be greatly simplified. There would l>e a minimum of supplemental inves tigation to find the facts. Mkmder: In large utility companies we usually have two forms of accident reports. One reason is that the accident report must go into the claim department immediately, and it carries facts surrounding the accident and much information with which we In acci dent prevention work are not particularly concerned, in regard to history, dependence and such. The cause report requires 'a great deal of study in our company. It sometimes requires a week or two before that cause report Is completed, and it may cover many sheets of paper carefully written up. The claim agent isn't particularly interested in all of that information. Member : You often find in fatal accidents that a man has never been in any other accident- How are you going to reconcile the keeping of records in that particular case? Mr. Polm: This particular point is a difficult one to cope with in an industrial organization. For instance, you have an old employee who has been doing a certain operation for seventeen or eighteen years. He has always been recognized as a safe worker. You have nothing in your files to indicate tliat there is anything else in the picture except a safe operator. Then all of a sudden he loses a finger. It may be im possible to find out why that particular thing happened. The point is well taken. I too am at a loss to understand this type of case. Safely fundamentals 170 ,\f. D. FCossoris (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington, D. C.) : 1 would like lu tell you about a standard method of ana lyzing accident causes which is now in prep aration ami should be out early in the spring. This is an attempt to standardize the analysis hi accident causes, in which several agencies lartiripated. The cause code proceeds on the basis tliat most accidents result from one of two causes. There is cither an unsafe act or an unsafe condition of equipment or machinery* The juim is to determine what was basically at iault in the acrklent. The cause analysis breaks into six parts, each of which can easily be taken care of on a relatively simple form. The first point asked is, what is the agency or object moot closely connected with die accident? If the man slipped on the floor, then the floor is ibe object. If the accident happened because a man got his fingers caught iri a punch press, then, of course, the punch press is the object; and so forth. The second point, what part of the equip* meut was involved? That, of course, pri marily applies to machinery. Is it transmis sion apparatus, gears? Is it at a point of operation, or what else may it have been ? The third point h. was an unsafe art com mitted ? Was the man exposing himself mneeessarily to danger? Were boxes and so forth piled unsafely? Was tlicrc grea>e ou (he floor? Did the man operate equipment without authority ? Dkf he remote safe guard*. or whatever else it may have been? The fifth point concerns the question of material or mechanical defect. Were the tools the man used in any way defective? Was the machinery unguarded? Sixth, the man** personal make-op. or the personal defect, so-called. Was the man un familiar with Knglish, for instance? Did he Ilave jkjot eyesight? Did he have bad hear ing? In other words, the cause code is getting at three things. Was there anything mate rially at fault with the way the man did his job? Was there anything tlie matter with the man himself? Third, was there anything the matter with the equipment or tools with which he was working? That particular cause analysis will be tested out before very long in one of the states where it will be used on the accident report form which must be made to the Workmen** Compensation Board. The reason why the Industrial Commi.sriin) is going to do it on that basis is precisely that given bv Mr. MeMurchy, that the que*. turn ot fault is immaterial ou the Work men's Compensation Act; '.vhat wc arc try ing to drive at i* causes of accidents, not how the man got hurt, not what the cause of the injury was but wlwt the came of Oh; accident was that brought about the injury. Incidentally, the U. S. Department oi l^hor is putting that same information in n manual, which will be suggested to industrial commissions of states. I think before very long you can get Uat same sort of informa tion from the Department of Lalmr. Member: In my opinion, we have too many record*. What is the attitude of the man in the plant with regard to the record ? Last week I happened to notice a man walking afuund the plant, limping. I said, uWl\at happened to you, Joe?" He said. ''Last Friday a plank dropped ou my foot." I brought him into the first aid room, took a picture of it, and he had a broken huuc in hi* foot. I said, "Why didn't you cume in. Joe?" fie said. "( didn't want to get tuy nann* *<n the record.** Of CMurx, 1 went out and tried to find out what wa> wrong. Hie man did not want to come in became hi* name and number were taken. He didn't want us keeping a record of the number of times he went to the first aid station. It * all right to keep a record if a man has a permanent disability or loses a finger, box where we go to the extent of, every time a man oumc* in. asking him how he did it and why he did it. he is going to keep away, and he is not going to take care of that thing. Member; It ts a matter of organization and perxmnel training. We keep records ou all accident*, whether they result In injuries or not. Wc find it is very profitable, and our men are one hundred per cent for it. I just wonder where the foreman was tliat allowed that man to walk around limping. Member; Our company also makes a rec ord of every Injury, reyardte** of how slight or how great. Wc find we get very good cooperation from the men in reporting all 1R0 Twaity-xirth National Safely Congress injuries, if they arc properly taught the cost of an accident to themselves. You kmnv, it costs a man to Itave an accident. I found that out by experience on myself. It has cost me in the neighborhood of $20,000 in salaries in tin; past ten years for the loss of three fingers on my right hand. You will find that, if the men realize the cost of an accident to themselves, forgetting the cost to the company, they will he wilting to repurt every injury, regardless of how slight. Mkmdek: I have just one more thought on this man's experience, because it parallels, to some extent, the experience we have had. I have a strong su.<jicin that, if you were to go back to that department and talk to that foreman and his men, you would find tfiat the foreman is using those reports turned hi by the dispensary, to ride the indi vidual. When you do tliat, you are defeating tin; wliolc safety program. You will dis courage men from coming in. Sometimes records can be user! in that way, to advan tage; but if you (lo it regularly, particularly through your supervisory force, you arc going to kill tlie whole thing. Member: Mr. McMurchy suggested that one character of the record, which we want to use for analysis of the causes nf the acci dents. might lie incorporated in the dispen sary record. Tliat is an unwise thing to do. Organized labor lias, in a number of in stances throughout die United States, made a great point of keeping secret, as the physi cian docs, information regarding the indi vidual medical record with respect to any accident that occurs. \Yc respect those wishes on the jiart of workmen, and would not under any circumstances broadcast to tlie mechanical organization possible future de velopments in ifie curative processes follow ing an accident. The records might disclose features of nun's personal condition which might leave a permanent reflection against him in the organization. Legally it has been maintained that you may tint do that. CiiAtauAV Fkvxku. ; Now we conic to tlie subject. "What is safety education?" and l have tied it to another subject which seems to he quite tlie same thing: "How can' the principles of safety education be applied to the man on the job?" I have asked Mr. Point to start this discussion; and following him, Earl K. Alexander, Safety Representative of tlie Texas Empire Pipe Line Company. Mu. Poi.m ; Safety education is getting across to the individual on the job the way you feel almut the situation as a safety direc tor. The thing loses force as it passes through many hands, and you finally find you have trouble on the line. Safety edu cation is mud) easier to approach where die unit is smalt. In a large plant it may be a pretty tough proposition. A person can take advantage of the bulletin board service. We have tried to approach the individual workman on an appeal hash, not with what you cal) payroll inserts, hut pretty much at an educational build-up on a series of six or seven individual weekly cards, where we want to clean up a situation in a particular spot. We liave these cards run off with terse sentences on how much an individual should value his. eyes, for instance, if it is an eye problem, or how much he sliould value his feet, if it is brokett toes. One that is out standing right now relates what our good friend from the Pullman Corporation docs in his particular organization, saying that a man wears his goggles in this particular area or be doesn't work in that particular area. I think most of you will bear me out that it is pretty difficult, with labor as it is today, to use the tactics tliat were used fifteen or sixteen years ago. amt say, "By God, you do this or else." You have other factors in tlie picture today, and you have to make a build-up. Our build-up on this eye story is built up pretty well from prepared material such as National Safety Council Safety Instruction Cards. We pick out a series of six or seven, running them along in sequence, so tliat this individual workman will receive them once i week. If you have a series of six or seven, hv the tune you are down to the sixth or seventh one, about 90 per rent of your cards arc kept, put in the pocket and carried home- Wlicn you finally come to the last card, you can give tlie individual a short summary and then lay out your safe practice, giving supervision and the individual workmen the time to get set on the program. We also lave our house organ or em ployees' magazine, and that is a very good approach. One good spot from an educational angle Safety Fundamentals 181 is the first aid attendant. If the approach of the attendant is right, and if the patient is courteously handled, that person has a chance to get in some good work for you on an educational basis. Iu large organizations particularly, you have to he pretty darned good to get your story across to 16,000 or 17,000 people, when you can't sit down ultoss the table and talk to each one of them individually. If the story goes through six or seven or eight hands, the problem is far more difficult. E. K. Alexander: 1 think safety educa tion is trying to get every employee and his family safety conscious. To do that, we started with first aid training. We followed (hat with bulletins posted regularly on the bulletin boards and iu the periodicals which the company furnishes. We have all kinds of safety items, safety information. The accident records arc analyzed in such a way that tlie men will see what arc the most hazardous jobs, I think our men arc going to report all of the minor accidents as well as any more serious accidents when they become safety conscious. At all of our locations we have a safo.'y inspection committee. It meets regularly. Each committee member handles all the de tail for one day each week. He starts out at eight o'clock in the morning, punches the time clock, and looks on die post for orders or goes to his foreman for orders. In other words, he goes through every detail during dial clay. For instance, he has to climb a stile to gauge a tank. The rest of the men in tliat committee have the privilege of asking him what condition that stile was in, was it loose? If it was, why wasn't it reported? We feel that will get results on these definite rules that the company have but have become sidetracked. It gives each man a chance to find out what these definite rules arc and what they can do about it. Memder: Is there a cooperative program on safety education between tlie safety men in industry and tlie labor unions? That might help the workers. Mr. Polm: That is iu the picture already. In Febamry, 1936, when our plant was closed for a period of five or six weeks, one of the first committees organized after we opened up was a safety committee of five men. They meet with me once each week. We have an operating procedure whereby a complaint on the part of an individual must he presented to his supervision, and it is up to the supervisor to act. If the indi vidual workman disagrees with that, tlicn he takes his complaint to his Goodyear local safety committee, and I then come into the picture. As a general rule, I have already passed an opinion on the problem by the time it comes back to me through the labor organization. You might think tliat that entails a lot of handling, but it really doesn't- For instance, in two vears I think we are up to Complaint Xu. 36 or 37. ADJOURNMENT Safety Inspectors FRIDAY MORNING SESSION October 15, 1937 Tlte session was called to order by F. R Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., Detroit, Michigan McLean, While Star Division, Socony- who introduced the speakers. How to Inspect a Factory Elevator for Safety By K. A. COLAHAN District Engineering Manager, American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Philadelphia Some stairs maintain rigid control over the type* of elevators installed as well as over the maintenance of elevators already installed, while other states have displayed no interest and have set up no requirements whatever. Under such circumstances, it is to be anticipated that many $ocaI)cd elevator*, especially those not of recent installation, carry potential operating hazards, requiring frequent and thorough inspection. This is particularly true of the so-called "factory elevator,* which normally we look at as being a "freight elevator," not intended for tile carrying of passengers, but frequently carrying "factory' employees." Since the purpose of inspecting an elevator is to determine its condition, both from a mechanical operating as well a* a safety standpoint, it is logical to consider the safety of the individual making such an inspection. Loose clothing should never be worn while such inspections are being made, and par ticularly loose blouses or shirts with flapping sleeves or trousers with outwardly turned-up cuffs should not be permitted. Numerous accidents have occurred to ele vator inspectors because of improper cloth ing. It is perhaps unnecessary to suggest that the inspector should be alert at all times, and should watch for and avoid any projections into the hoistway. Extreme rare should be used when on top of the car, so that there is no possibility of being caught between the car top, and the overhead beams or struc ture. The person operating the car, during the inspection, should be clearly and plainly informed and directed. When iusjttcting equipment located in the pit. extreme care should be used in avoiding the descending car and in watching the counterweights, as well as those in adjoining hoistways. In all elevator installations, there arc three important divisions: The Elevator Machine The Elevator Car The Elevator Hoistway The first step slrould be the operating of the car several trips up and down the hoist way, noting particularly the brake action, and the acceleration and retardation of the car at each stop. Any excessive brake slide should be especially watched for. If the car is operated by 3 car switch, the condition of the latch locking the operating handle in neutral position should be examined. If the operation is by a hand cable or shipper rope, it should be noted whether broken wires pro trude, whether a centering rope is provided and projicrly adjusted, and whether the lock ing device and stop halls are in proper posi tion. In the event of an emergency switch being in the car it should be noted whether it is properly protected and a careful check-up should also he made of the condition and ac tion of all hoistway entrance gates or doors and especially electric contacts or interlocks 183 184 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress where these are part of the equipment. The car covering should be examined to see that it is sufficiently secure and rigid for its pur pose. The car gate or gates should be examined and it should be observed whether there are dangerous projections in the hoistway. The condition of the elevator car floor should be examined. Sufficient light, either natural or artificial, should be provided. An examination of the car enclosure should terminate the inspection made within the car itself. Inspection from Top The next step is the inspection from the car top. There should be an operator who lias been thoroughly instructed with regard to his actions during the inspection. From the top of the car, all counterweight through rods and fastenings metaling eotlerpins and locknuts should be examined as well as coun terweight oil betters where these are m use. The counterweight <ahk fastenings should be dosely examined, partiailarty with refer ence to broken wires or possible loss of lay. If cable clamps are used, it should be made certain that the bolts are tight An examination should also be made of the cable fastenings on the ear crossbead, and any variation or lark of tension in cables should be observed. i)y moving the car two or three feet at a time, the greater portion of the counterweight traction and governor cables can be thoroughly checked. This examination on the lop of the car should include the governor rope releasing carrier, to determine its freedom of opera tion. It is essentia] to determine that the releasing carrier Is not so rigidly set as to pull the governor rope through the governor jaws. From the top of the car, a careful examination should also be made of the nor mal slow down, and stop switches, as well as final limit twitches. Where a door-oper ating device is in use, this examination sliould likewise be made, while all rail sur faces, joints and fastenings as well as rail alignment should be carefully noted. It occasionally occurs that counterweights run in separate enclosures and cannot be in spected from the car top. The inspection should then be made at the door or opening of such an enclosure nearest to the top of the hoistway, and the cable so marked that the balance of the inspection can be made where these cables pass over the overhead sheaves. After the inspection from the car top has been completed, the lower portion of the hoistway inspection should be made in the pit. The elevator hoistway pit should be free of water, refuse or combustible material of any type. The lower limit switches should be examined as well as the governor rope idler sheave and compensating sheave if one is in use. Buffers should be closely examined and in tbe case of oil butters the oil level should be noted and the piston examined for ex cessive sideplay. In the case of spring buf fers, it should be noted whether they have become deformed through repeated depres sion, or have retained their original shape and are properly fitted to the base provided. In addition, counterweight enclosures should be noted with regard to clearance and security. Tbe under clearance of the counterweights should be eramined when the car is al tbe upper terminal boding, in order to determine possible need for shortening the cables. While in the pit. an OEamhaation of the "safety device" should be made, by pull ing out she cahicv oa the "safety drum" where a damp type of safety is used. The safery should operate sufficiently free to permit of app&atMo oi the safety jaws on tbe guide raiL This type of test should be made upon every inspection, and is in tended primarily to insure a freedomofactioo of the nfdjr. It should be noted that there is a auffirirtf mint*/ of turns of the cable left on she "safety drum* after this hand pnO-oat test, to provide for additional ymBtxit required by the governor operation of tbe safety. In the case of the "slack cable safety" or so-called "instantaneous types," involving the use of pawls, wedges or rollers, a test can be made by placing a supyxxt under the car. and the maririnr operated until a slackening of tbe ropes occur. The or support should then be knocked out, permitting the safely to instantly apply. To avoid injury to the cables or overhead equipment, additional Mucking should be provided in tbe pit, to stop the car if the safety does not engage. Aoutlxr manner of testing instantaneous type safeties, ts by nsc of a block and fall, attached to the overhead beams by which the car is lifted off tbe hoisting cables, and then slowly lowered mail the safety is ap plied. Tbe former im Hmd of making the test from the pit can be door with a mim- Safety Inspectors 185 mum of equipment and generally has been the practice followed out. but where the necessary equipment is available, the test by block and fall is preferable. In making the latter type of test, it may, at times, be nec essary to block-up the counterweights. Machine Room The elevator machine and those other por tions of the equipment located in the machine room should now be inspected. In the case of overhead machines, gratings, screens and flooring should be examined, this to include all overhead fastenings, such as bolts holding overhead sheave bearings to beams. Alt overhead drums or sheaves should be thoroughly inspected and tested for possible cracks or weaknesses. This sliould be done by a light tapping with a hammer. Drum spokes as well as those in the overhead sheaves liave frequently cracked, developing the possibility of failure of the drums or sheaves. At the machine, there can also be examined the sections of cables which could not be closely observed from the car top or hoistway. On overhead drum machines, the inspector should make certain that there is sufficient remaining wrap on the drum, when the cables have been run out to the limit of their respective travels. An important part of the elevator drum machine is the automatic limit stop and too frequently this is found out of adjustment, permitting the car to overtrave! in either direction and frequently necessitat ing full dependence for stopping the car on the stop balls on the shipper rope. It is urgently important that in the maintenance of the elevator machine, the automaic ma chine limit stop be kept properly adjusted to prevent not only possible personal injury, but also for the prevention of possible property damage. Another important part of the elevator drum machine which is very frequently neg lected in so far as its proper functioning is concerned, is the machine slack raid', de vice; this particularly being true where this device is of the so-called roller or grooved pulley type. In an astonishing number uf instances, these have been found to be out of position with regard to their proper place in contact with the hoisting cables, and in any such instance where the car downward travel would be impeded, there would be no control over the continued operation of the elevator machine and the resulting excess of slack cable. The slack cable device there fore, should always be in proper contact with the hoisting cables. All gears should be carefully inspected to determine the degree of wear and on ma chines, where the drive is by a worm-gear, the amount of backlash should be closely noted. An excess of backlash in the wormgear will denote at least the necessity for adjustment of the thrust bearing or perhaps renewal. It is also important that the oil level in the gear case be maintained nt a proper height and that the oil be frequently changed. Bearings, of course, of all types should be closely examined, with reference to possible lost motion, and with regard lo proper lubri cation. In the case of an electric elevator, the motor should be examined with regard to freedom from excess dirt, also the hearings, with reference to proper lubrication. The condition of the commutator is im portant and such an examination would in clude a check of the brushes and brush holders. On A.C. motors, the condition of slip rings should be carefully noted. The brake is an important part of any elevator machine and still we frequently find it inefficient because of a number of conditions. The brake linings are frequently permitted to remain in place until they have been completely worn through and the sur face of the brake drum has been considerably damaged. Linings should be renewed before they reach such a condition, and brakes at all times should be sufficiently effective to perform property. Controller Mechanism We frequently have found a total neglect of the controller mechanism. This neglect extends not only to the mechanism types located on control boards, but also to the self-contained controller mechanism on the machine. It is not at all unusual to find excessively worn contacts where the car bons have been practically burned away. Under such conditions, the carbon holder can and frequently does "freexe" to the opposite copper contact, this creating a very serious condition in tht controller mecfianism. On the type of control operated through a solenoid and starting arm, these frequently hang up, and badly burned or pitted contacts result not only in accidents to the elevator 186 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress from improper starting, but also frequently severe damage to the electrical equipment It is, therefore, essential that particular attention be paid to contacts on the control mechanisms of all types. The examination should also cover resistance grids and fuses. How often have we found fuses that have been renewed with heavy wire, nails or other current carrying objects! Generally, we find the governor located in the machine room when the machine is at the top of the hoistway. The governor should always be closely checked with regard to freedom of action, lubrication and the ability of the governor jaws to engage the governor cable properly. The number of instances of governor ineffectiveness is surprising. Many times governor inspections have disclosed a lack of clearance sufficient for the fly-balls to property function, this being due to the governor being located loo close to a side wall or some other projection. Under no circumstances should the gov ernor at any time be ineffective, since such failure, of course, removes the safety factor in preventing the falling of the car by the proper application of the car safety device. The examination of the governor should be thorough, to make certain that under no con ditions can it fail. I recall many years ago, an instance in volving an elevator in a very high class apartment building where the governor had been installed, running in a backward direc tion. Only a careful examination discovered this in time to prevent a possible failure. In general, the above outlined procedure should be followed, but where the elevator is belt-driven, the condition of the belts, of course, is important, and they should be closely examined, as well as the belt shifters in order to note their condition and arrange for their replacement before failure. Another type of elevator covered only partly in the procedure outlined,* is the hydraulic elevator of several types. Sta tionary and traveling sheaves should be ex amined with a mild hammer test and as m the case of the other types of machines and drum or sheave grooves should be noted with regard to extent of wear. Guide rails and guide shoes of the travel ing sheaves should be examined closely, with regard to proper lubrication and excess play. Piston rods should be checked for corrosion, excess of wear and alignment, and where more than one rod is used the equalization on the crosshead should be noted. Cylinders should be inspected with regard to their being properly supported and secured to these supports. Leakage under pressure should be noted to determine the packing condition, and operating and shut-off- valves should be ex amined, with regard to leakage and proper fastening. The pump packings should be inspected and it should be noted that a relief valve is provided. The safety valve should be tested preferably by increasing the pres sure slowly, or to a pressure of about 10 lbs. above normal working pressure. Pressure Tanks Pressure tanks should be inspected for corrosion, leaks, or incipient cracks, and should in all instances be provided with a pressure gauge. Internal inspections of such tanks should be made at least once every three years by a competent boiler inspector. This time requirement also applies to the pistons of hydraulic elevators which should be exposed, thoroughly cleaned and inspected at least every three years. The above suggested procedure does not, of course, include many details which the competent elevator inspector would observe in his norma) inspection of an elevator. Because of this, there has been but little reference made in this paper to the condition of cables that would justify their renewal. Various factors enter into this question, such as the length of time the cables have been in use, the normal extent of use, the type of maintenance with regard to lubrication, the periods of time between inspections and the condition of the cables with regard to wear and the number of broken wires. All of these phases have to be considered in determining when cables should be replaced, and It has been found extremely difficult to establish a standard of condition which could be followed without exception. 7 would therefore, recommend that the advice of various Cable Manufacturers be followed in this connection. Time wilt not permit of including all of the minor references which might be made. The experienced elevator inspector, how ever, would undoubtedly pick up such inci dental phases, as for instance:-- Checking pelcocks on hydraulic pumps or tanks. Safety Inspectors 187 Signals or other alarms on elevator cars, the aptitude of the elevator operator, where one is steadily employed for the safe operating of an elevator, car and hoistway clearances, etc. My outline is iutended to be helpful as a suggestion of procedure. It would probably not be contrary to the purpose if X mention that there has recently been published what is known as an "Inspector's Handbook** or "Manual,1* which is intended to make known the "American** recommended practices for the inspection of elevators. This handbook or manual has been sponsored by the Ameri can Society of Mechanical Engineers, National Bureau of Standards. American Institute of Architects, and has been de veloped through the co-operation of a large number of affiliated bodies, including the elevator manufacturers, casualty insurance companies and others, under the auspices of the American Standards Association. 1 would Strongly recommend the use of this handbook or manual as a guide in the prac tice of elevator inspections. How to Make a Safety Inspection of Electrical Equipment By P. L. G. HASSKARL Safety Engineer, Pennsylvania Power ft Light Co., Allentown, Pa. Before inspectors or workmen make in spections of equipment, they should study the arrangement of it, be familiar with its operations and the duties it performs. With out this knowledge * an intelligent safety inspection cannot be made. The person or persons who make safety inspections sfiould try to visualize the move ments of the workmen or others who may pass the equipment being inspected. This will enable the inspector to develop safe methods for doing the work and to recom mend barriers and other safeguards. There are three objectives to each safety inspection--first, to prevent injury to persons who walk by or pass in and around the equipment; second, to be sure that it can be operated safely, and third, to be sure that it can be tested or repaired by the main tenance men without risk to man or prop erty. With these thoughts in mind, let us make a tour of inspection of electrical equip ment of the producers, distributors and the industrial users of electric current. Steam Electric and Hydro Stations Since these plants are the source from which the currant originates, we will start here. Usually during an inspection trip the in spector is accompanied by the superintendent or his representative to act as a guide. Such a person is of modi assistance to the inspec tor. He should be capable of explaining the methods employed for operating, testing and maintaining the equipment. Generating Floor We go first to the turbine or generating room and while on the way observe the en trance into it,, whether it is free of foot liazards, obstructions, and that stairways and platforms are equipped with railings and toe boards where required. This part of the in spection should apply to all entrances and exits. Close attention should be given to the operation of the doors to find out if they work freely. They should open outwardly to provide quick means of escape from the room in an emergency. The floor in the room, especially that part of it around the turbines and generators should be examined closely for obstructions and openings around various pipe line*, con trol valves extending up through the floor, drive belts, and conduits, to detect all Haz ards to the users who may at times have to move quickly and accurately without advance warnings, oftimes under dim lights. The next inspection is that of the turbines and generators. The guide should be asked to explain the duties of the operators, and others who may work in this vicinity. Then check up carefully to see that sufficient space is provided to operate the throttle valve, to take bearing temperatures and oil pressure, 188 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress and that steps and platforms or other suit* They usually work atone--therefore, the able means are provided to reach all places inspection of equipment should be made for to which the operators must go to inspect, adjust, oil or clean these units. Control Room Due to the importance and small size of the various units of the equipment in the control room, one usually finds this place quite free of hazards. However, attention slioiild be given to possible foot hazards (curled rubber matting), projections from the board into passagesvays and instruments that may be suspended too low* on brackets from the control board. the elimination of hazards encountered while operating switches, replacing fuses and mak ing inspections. A check on the length and type of switchsticks will disclose in many eases the distance the operator is removed from the switches during the operating of them. Switch sticks under six feet in length indi cate that under certain conditions the oper ators are working too close to energized equipment and are in danger of arcs and shocks. Find out where and under wliat conditions these switch sticks are used. Switchboard operator? are the key men in Visualize the position of the operators the operation of the plant and they should be while they are making- switch movements protected against inadvertently injuring with switch sticks. Will they stand too dose themselves during the performance of their ' to energized equipment in back or alongside duties. of them, arc switch cell doors nr panels re Switch Room or Gallery moved--if so, for what purpose? From the control room we go to the switch and bus rooms. These are considered the heart of the plaut and most dangerous. Normally oil circuit breakers arc operated from the control room. In the event switches fail to open or close, bow are they manually operated? What is the location of toggles, Normally the cables from the generators levers or cranks on the switdies ? Are there go to the oil circuit breaker disconnect two exits provided as means of escape from switches, through these switches to the oil any location in the switch room? circuit breaker, then through disconnect switches to the station bus. From the bus, cables or leads may go through various switches to overhead lines or underground in cables to the switchyard. Consequently, there arc oil circuit breakers, disconnect switches, cables, leads, floor and bus bush ings to inspect, test, repair and operate and usually in a limited space. The inspection of this equipment should What methods arc in use for blocking out switches on permits, how are the signs or tags attached to the switches? Are insulated platforms or rubber matting installed in accordance with accepted prac tices? Where are the fuses located, how are they replaced--by Iland or with tongs or fuse sticks? be broken down into four parts:-- Are the cell doors, switches, etc., properly Pint--Can the passcr.sby inadvertently labeled? make contact w'ith energized equipment? To Third---We next deal with the testers. protect these persons from injury the switch These men have varied duties which bring cells should be the enclosed type with re them close to energized equipment For ex movable doors and the cables or lead* to the ample, (hey test bushings, meggar test insula various switches should be of sufficient tion, DoWe test transformer windings, height from the floor or barricaded with proper type guards or shields. Where this kind of protection is not practical or docs not exist, such sections of the rooms arc insulators, inspect lightning arresters, check oil circnit breakers with cycle counter for opening and closing of contacts, etc. In making these tests many guards and barriers blocked off with substantial guard rails or their equivalent. In safeguarding the pass erby, we protect operators, testers and other workmen against accidental contact .with the energized or moving equipment. are removed, connections and/or taps made to equipment, some of which may be ener gized, but normally the work is done on de-energized parts with the adjacent equip ment energized. Second--The operators or switchmen have Their methods for doing this work and duties to perforin under varying conditions. provision* made to facilitate testing should Safety Inspectors 189 be checked into for the purpose of eliminat ing (he hazards they normally encounter. Fourth--The maintenance men present a different problem. The nature of their work is such that they remain in a given location for a longer period of time than the opera tors or testers. Inspection of electrical equip ment to protect them from injury requires a study' of each piece of equipment. Is the equipment designed so that it can he taken apart readily? Is there sufficient upacc provided to enable the men to do this work? Are temporary barriers necessary for protection to men and adjacent equipment? Are adequate lighting facilities provided? Remember there are occasions when the maintenance or repairmen must work under MlHtormal conditions. Check into their methods for repairing or overhauling any part of the equipment--in this way, a thorough inspection will have been made. The same inspection methods should be followed during the inspection of other elec trical equipment in the plant. These units are important and may be hazardous, there fore, be equally as thorough in the inspection of them. Switchyards The inspection of switchyards is not diffi cult, the problems presented in these arc obvious. Improper elevation or energized parts without guards or barriers is easily seen. Usually close clearance between vari ous units of the equipment can be barricaded. Where switchhouscs are installed, they are generally made of metal and so designed that all of the high voltage equipment is enclosed However, many of the outdoor switchhouses contain hidden hazards--this is due to their compactness. The provisions for testing and making ad justments and repairs should be scrutinized. Check the location of the test blocks and spatee available for lowering the tanks of the oil switches, also the location of high voltage leads. We next examine the lightning arresters and pot transformer*. If they are not ele vated. arc barriers or guards Installed aroood them? Are the air break switch levers or handles conveniently located so as to uttile the operator to move them freely? Are mmmhamd pfautorm or ground grids in stalled below the levers or handles? Are the air break switch rods insulated or grounded? Are the fuses replaced by hand or wilh fuse tongs or a fuse stick? Can they be replaced from the ground? If the fuses arc replaced from a raised platform, how is it reached, by ladder or stepped structure leg? Does the operator while climbing up to the platform come in close proximity to ener gized equipment? How are the disconnect and air break switches inspected and replaced? Can the blades and clips be de-energized? Are hose connections provided on transformers for filtering the oil while they are in service? Can the lop connection be safely made? Is permanent or temporary grounding equipment provided? Clearance above ground of overhead, in coming and outgoing lines should be checked. Are all switches and the equipment prop erly labeled with signs? Are the proper number and size of switchsticks kept permanently at both attended and unattended switchyards? Are they pro tected from the weather?; Conditions of fence or enclosure, also dis tance of the equipment from the enclosure should be noted. Can'an unauthorized person conveniently enter the switchyard by climbing over or under the enclosure? Substations At both attended and unattended substa tions the inspections recommended for the generating and hydro plants should be fol lowed. Underground and Overhead Lines From switchyards and substations the electric current is transmitted to customers via underground systems or overhead lines on wooden or steel poles, or steel towers. These units may be considered electrical equipment--however, no attempt will be made to cover the inspection of them in this paper. The safety inspection of underground sys tems and overhead lines should be covered separately. There are available many papers and pamphlets on the inspection of these units of electrical equipment, such as : The Overhead Systems Reference Book; The Underground System Reference Book and 190 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Safety Methods in Power System Construc tion, published and distributed by the Edison Electric Institute (formerly National Elec tric Light Association). Customers* Electrical Equipment The inspection of commercial and indus trial customers' electrical equipment should be approached carefully. The commercial department of the utility company should be told of the proposed inspections several days in advance of the inspector's visit to the customers' establishments. This will enable a commercial representa tive of the utility company to contact the customer and explain the purpose of the injector's visit, also make arrangements for representatives of the customer to accom pany the inspectors during the inspections. All of this makes for good customer rela tions--likewise, presents an opportunity for the inspectors to teach the customer accident prevention in connection with the operation and maintenance of electrical equipment. Customers* equipment may consist of an outdoor or indoor substation, one or both; motors, cranes and other various electrical units. Before inspections arc made of the out door substations, the inspector should have full knowledge oT whether the customer or the utility company owns, operates and main tains the equipment. The exact status of ownership, operation and maintenance in whole or part of this electrical equipment should be constantly kept in mind by the inspectors. On not criticize or condemn customers' equipment, hut explain to the representative in a constructive way the existing Itazards in and around the equipment and suggest cor rective measures. Usually a customer receives service over an overhead line terminating on a. pole or structure supporting air break switches, thence to the substation located on the cus tomer's properly. The equipment generally consists of light ning arresters, fuses, disconnect switches, oil circuit breakers, metering equipment and transformers enclosed in a wire or wooden fence. The location of the substations w*ith re spect to their distance from the streets or highways, walkways, paths, railroad sidings or crane and truck movements should be the determining factor in deciding whether the enclosures arc adequate. If the substations are near streets, hrghway*. walkways or paths, is the enclosure of sufficient height, and designed to prevent pas&ersby from mak ing contact with the equipment with their hands or auy object over, under or through the enclosure? If wire fence, is it grounded? The inspectors should ascertain the move ments of cranes, trucks and railroad cars in the vicinity of the substations and endeavor to suggest methods to prevent injury* to per sons and equipment. The clearance of conductors and energized parts above the ground sliould be cheeked. The location of fuses and the methods and conditions under which they are replaced sliould be looked into. The location of the metering equipment should be studied carefully. Can this equip ment be tested and the meters read without exposing tlie testers and meter readers to high voltage conductors, switches, etc? Can the oil level in the transformers be checked and the oil filtered safely with the equipment energised ? Arc guards and barriers provided to pre vent persons inadvertently making contact with energized parts of the equipment? How is the electrical current transmitted from the substations to the various building* --is it high or low tension voltage? Follow the txiur.se of the line, in this way one may delect hazards to persons and the conductors. We now turn to the electrical equipment in the buildings or plants. Naturally we start at the place where the leads from the substation enter. They may go direct to a bus, switchboard or fuse panel. The voltage of the equipment should determine the basis of the inspection and the suggested correc tive measures. Can passersby or workmen inadvertently make contact and receive a shock from the equipment? Is rubber matting installed on the floor in front of switchboards or fuse panels? Are switdies properly labeled? Are they accessi ble? Are exposed parts barricaded? Are unauthorized persons prevented from enter ing the area around switchboards, large motors, etc. ? ' Are the leads or wires to the motors or other electrical equipment in conduits or Safety Inspectors 191 other approved grounded supports or are the conductors of the old, open type? Are the lead* to the motors exposed ? Are the motors and other electrical equipment grounded? Arc the machines, etc., operated bv electric current grounded to the common grounding system? The portable leads to large movable elec trically operated units, such as cranes, shovels, etc., should be carefully inspected. Also, the connections at the source of power and the attachments at the units. Housekeeping Good housekeeping is essential in accident prevention work. Without it no safely cam paign can be successful. Therefore, the in spectors must be alert at all limes and detect untidy conditions. Rubber Protective Equipment It is the inspector's responsibility to inspect and check up on the kind and quantity of rubber protective equipment required for each part or unit of electrical equipment. This is necessary to safeguard the operators and others who may operate or work on it. Toole and Equipment Inspections of electrical equipment should also include a check up to find out whether various kind* and correct number of tool* and pieces of equipment arc provided to operate, adjust and repair it safely. Methods and Practices Inspection's should include a review of ex isting methods and practices for operating, testing, repairing, etc., of all the electrical equipment. Without this knowledge it is difficult to make recommendations for bar riers, guards, tools and changes in equipment to eliminate hazards to persons or damage to the electrical equipment. Reports During the inspection clear and concise written notes should be made, the hazards recorded, and suggested methods for cor recting the conditions clearly explained in writing or by a rough sketch. Many thorough inspections have been nul lified by carlcssly written reports. Remem ber, we must show good cause for and justify all additional safeguards and changes in operating and maintenance practices. ADJOURNMENT Safety Training THURSDAY MORNING SESSION October 14, 1937 The session on Safety Training, a panel discussion, was held Thursday morning, October 14. It was both aboot the purposes and methods of conducting a program of training to promote safety. Panel participants included the following: Milo W. Gray. Safety IXrector, Weirton Steel Company, Weirton. W. Va.; Ray L. Mai tin, Director of Industrial Education, State Board for Vocational Training, Austin, Tex.; John A. McCarthy, Assistant Commissioner of Education, New Jersey Department of Public Instruction. Trenton; Charles A. Miller, Supervisor of Safety, The Texas Com pany, Houston, Tex.; Olaf Newgaard, Personnel Manager, Bethlehem Steel Co., Chicago District, Chicago; G. A. Rofalfing, Safety Engineer, Aluminum Ore Co., East St. Louis, 111.; A. C. Thompson. Director, Personnel and Safety, Swift and Company, St. Clair County, 111. The session was called to order by Chairman S. C. Dickinson, Safety Engineer, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Francisco, who presided, introducing the panel partici pants and directing the discussion. Chairman Dickinson: We are discussing the following subjects: What are the objectives of safety training? Who shall be trained? What types of training are the most beneficial to industry? Is there any relationship between safety training and safety rules? How can training methods be applied to small groups in remote locations or widely scattered isolated groups? What train ing methods are most effective? What part, if any, does the safety committee have in the training program? Should visual methods be employed in the training program? How? Milo W. Guay : What are the objectives of safety training? Tltc reduction of accidents and accident costs. You know why we are all here--to try to save human life and limb. If we can get that across, particularly to the management, that is the main thing. A lot of you fcUows in safety have probably had trouble getting things that you wanted, particubriy when there was talk about reduc ing cocks. After alt if you can reduce the accident cam, post (air gotten somewhere, became these are hidden costs that most man agements really never take into consideration. Another thing Is to bring out the dangers of the human element, namely, carelessness and thoughtlessness. Sometime ago I found that 93 per cent of my accidents could be traced directly, to the human element, not to any defect in machinery. 'Methods of working safely should be con sidered in every plant. There are too many employment departments picking a man out of the waiting line if he looks like a husky bruiser, whetlrer he has any brains or not. They say to the foreman, "Here, put this man to work." Tlte foreman says, "Here is a pick ami shovel; get to work." He doesn't show him how to do it; he doesn't show hint what he should do, what the dangers of the job are. He may put him down in a ditch without any shoring. That man doesn't know the difference between shoring and side-walling a ditch. That is where we have to start. We have to show men what the job should be and where they have to watch out. Until we do that, our accidents are going to con tinue. Until we get these men safety-minded 193 194 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress and a lot of the young fellows coming in from schools, 1 think we are going to have a tough job. When we start training them and show ing them where tlie troubles arc, wc will get some place. Chairman* Dickinmjn; W1k> shall be trained? Ray L. Martin : Everybody. I have always regarded industrial training, safety training, as a cooperative undertaking, one that has to be taken seriously by every individual within a company, from the floor-sweeper up to the general manager. I have seen some sad fail ures in attempts to put over safety training programs for the reason that the management or Use foreman or some person along the line was not tn wltolc-hcartcd sympathy with the program. I liave seen, and I believe you have seen, efforts to put over safety programs in which the safety engineer concentrated on the work ing force entirely. I can't see how such a program can be effective. Not only must a program he taken whole-licartcdly by every body within an organization, but we must reach (he point where that cooperation shall spread outside the company and become a cooperative undertaking of the public. Industrial organizations have done a great deal to spread the gospel of safety. In our state our people have been made safety-minded on the highways through the courtesies of men who were trained within industrial organizations. Wc are beginning now to look upon safety as a public educational responsibility. As *oun us I return to Texas wc will release a bulletin on safety training and traffic safety, which "will be distributed to all of uur public school teachers in tlie high schools of Texas. Wc believe that if we can start early enough, if wc can indoctrinate in these young people who are just beginning to drive, safe habits of driving, you men in industry will have a far easier job. It isn't enough for you to carry on safety tranting. You must liave the cooiHrration of public officials, public school teachers, and everybody along the line, to make that thing universal. Chairman Dickinson: What types of training nre the most beneficial to industry? A. C. Thompson : Live, up-to-date posters, safety conferences or classes, and personal contacts are very beneficial in the training program. Posters, if attractive and in proper locations, arc read by many, many employees who benefit from the information furnished. I have in mind the repair department of a certain plant that had no safety organization. One of the men who was safety-inclined took it upon himself to get hold of every safety poster he could get, no matter whether it pertained to his line of work or not, and placard one end of the room with them. He had about forty or fifty posters just tacked up; some overlapped the others. We all real ize that any man who would even notice those posters wouldn't get much otit of them. To he effective there should be no more than two, possibly three posters in any one location. Safety classes for a group or department are of great value in educating employees. "Hie conference method is an important train ing medium, especially for foremen. It pre supposes a meeting of employees, foremen or supervisors in which each individual contrib utes his knowledge to the common pool and benefits from the contributions of others. Conference training is especially valuable as a means of promoting desirable job pro cedures and the development of new methods. The conference should be carefully organized, however, or it may develop into just some thing that will not accomplish anything. Personal daily contacts by safety inspectors and committees continue tlie educational work, as lltcy are in direct contact with the em ployees and foremen and are ready to offer suggestions. It is the man on the job who makes or breaks the safety record. It is use less, therefore, to inaugurate or continue any effort tliat does not finally influence this key man in the safety program. In our own plant we were introducing a type nf hard hat worn by men who work hi locations where objects fall. It was an awfully hard job to get one fellow to agree to wear one of these hats. Finally we prevailed on him. He had worn it only about an hour when a roller fell from a high rail and hit him on the head. That man is thoroughly sold, but I wouldn't advocate that kind of training. As contacts are made daily by members of tl>e safety committee, they are in a position to offer advice and training to every employee in the department during the entire day. When this is done consistently, it makes employees safety-conscious. Chairman Dickinson: Would any of you Safely Trowing 195 like to ask questions of the men who have tatked so far? Member: The first speaker announced that 93 per cent of the accidents in his department could be ascribed to the human element. That seems very high to 1 have been an acci dent investigator for the last five years in our plant. When 1 started out first I think in about 75 per cent of the cases I could blame tite man. I found out afterwards that we reduced that to 50 per cent, and last year it was 25 per cent. I have come to the conclusion now that blaming the man on the job docs very little good. I don't mean that the man is never to blame, but if you blame him, your safety work is ended right there, as far as the man Is concerned. You get the ill will of the man; you can get no valuable suggestions from him. Tell him instead that you are more interested in how to prevent the next accident than in who was to blame. If you can convince a man that you are sure he is not more than 49 per cent to blame for the accident, tlie man will talk. If you blame him over 50 per cent, he will not talk. Mr. Gray: I did not blame the man, but in the investigation for our own particular benefit we found tliat the human element entered into 93 per cent of the accidents. The man was at fault, although the man was not notified that he was to blame. MeMREB: The speaker talked about the fellow being hit on the head with a roller. I just wonder whether we capitalize enough in our training work on the things which actually occur rather than telling a mail about something that may occur. I believe in preaccidcnt prerenttuo. You can go before a hunch of men and say. "John Jones got hit with a brick. If he had had a hard hat on, he wouldn't have been hurt so badly." You liave something concrete to offer. 1 suggest that you liave a `'historian'' in every' department with the responsibility of collecting just such instances as this, to be used in yuur training program. Chairman Dickinson: Is there any relatiouship between safety training and safety rules? John A. McCarthy: Some of the discus sion here indicates a need for training and a need for establishing some procedures whereby safety may be established. The greatest set of rules known to people In this country are tlie Ten Commandments. They are recognized by Christians and the non-Christians as a code that regulates one's relationships to his God, to his neighbor and to himself. Wc may memorize tlmse, hut when we go into action and have to meet those relationships in our daily life. I ilnuht if we ever remember the Ten Commandments. We function as a result of training based upon those Ten Commandments. While I think wc should have some safety rules, they should be used for the purpose of training and not with tite expectation that tlie individual will memorize them and apply them in his daily occupational life. You can't expect a green worker, a young worker, com ing into new situations, to remember a set of rules dealing with safety practices. He is in an environment that is entirely strange to him, where he has to take into consideration the things he has to do, where be lias to use a great many judgments that require thinking, and where lie has to perform up to production standards. He is not going to remember those rules and regulations. If he stops to remem ber them, the chances are he is going to get into difficulty. The same thing is true with the experienced worker. You don't expect him to remember these rules. Yon expect him to perform on the basis of the experience that he has de veloped. I doubt if any of you here, when you are driving your cars, consciously- remember any of the safety rules and regulations for driving. There is a learning process involved there, one tliat is very simple and based upon a stimulus and response. Now I. am talking pedagogies, which may lie foreign to the indus trialist but it is simply taking a group of men. particularly tlie foremen who arc re sponsible for training, and teaching them some of the simplest and most fundamental things involved in the learning process. Your posters will be absolutely useless unless tliey are of the type that will stimulate through the eye and bring info effect tlie response desired. The same'thing is true throughout your training program. Most foremen assume that when they tell an individual something, their job has been done. But telling is not teaching. In many instances the manner in which the telling is done sets up a barrier which pre vents the type of response that you want. We must have rules and regulations with respect to safety, but these should lie a code. 196 Trvcnty-sixth National Safety Congress a standard upon which training should be established. Then if we establish that training and condition the worker--by exposing him to the proper kinds of performances, time after time, until these performances become fixed, then we have that relationship of the rules and training. :Chairman Dickinson Does anyone care to discuss the question? Member; Gentlemen, I think I con pre scribe a formula for a poster which will be read. Inject the personal clement. Try taking pictures. You don't liave to be an expert photographer. 1 know practically nothing about photography but 1 can take ordinary snapslxxs of some unsafe condition and have them enlarged to about 8 by 10 or 11 by 14 sice. The result of an accident always makes a good picture. A picture of a smashed foot brings home forcefully to the rest of the boys just how it would be if that were their foot. They will pay attention to the photograph and look at it because it is something tangible within their own plant. It is not an artist's conception of a smashed foot. It is an actual picture. Most of you have draftsmen in your departments. Get them to put whatever letter ing you want on the poster. I guarantee they will be read. Chairman* Dickinson: Question No. 5 is. "Wliat training methods are most effective?" Of.ak Nkuc.aaxd: The most effective train ing mctltuds arc those which can be taught to the men in simple, easy language, and in a manner which would cause them to want to know* more about their plants and industries. If this interest is not aroused, the training program cannot lw successful. Forcing the employee to take ati extensive course of study should lie tried only as a last resort. Chairman Dickinson; Has anyone a question? If not. let's pass to No. 7: "What pari, if any. does the safety committee have in the training program?" G. A. Ruiii.fi xn: I can only tell you our experience on this subject. The safety committee is tin' important part in any safety training program. It has always seemed to me that there is a bottle-neck in safety. Between the top, where the educa tional part comes in, and before it reaches the men. something stops it. There are various ways of getting this edu cation down to the men. But most of the visual forms have some kind of hitch in them. If you put a poster up. you can't tell all of your story in pictures. You must have a little writing on it. A lot of the fellows in the plant can sec a long way off when they don't have their bifocals, and they walk iip to the bulletin board and squint and can't get anything off of it. When a fellow wears bifocals, if you put the poster too high, he has to double his neck back to look at it. Quite a large number read very laboriously. In that case they just pass the poster up. If you can get someone actually to teach the man by personal contact, it is very impor tant. That is where the safety committee comes in. Ttiat is the set-up we have in our plant. The education comes in at the top. We try to get it percolated down to the men through the foreman. We are not always suc cessful, but I guess we are as far as the human element will permit us to be. The fact that there are about 6,500 dele gates here is indicative that most plants come here for.their source of safety education. That safety education must go from here bade to the plant, down into the top of the plant, through your administration, your supervisory department, out to the men. I don't see any other way to get it there except through your foremen and safety committee. Chairman Dickinson: Have any of you an idea as to whether we should continue with our safety committees or not? Member: In our plant we use safety com mittees a lot One thing we discovered in a survey on the foreman was that invariably, wliere the safety committee wasn't giving him very much support, he wasn't asking them to do anything. Member : Some of you have vice presidents and general managers as members of your safety committees; others have the workers out in the field. Wliere do you get the best support, or where do you sell safety better, through a central safety committee composed of the white-collared guys or the fellows who work in the plant? Where do you get the best results? Member: My company has a method which might be of interest to others. We have a large number of branches. Mention was made of the educational value of using each acci dent to prevent further accidents of the same kind. That ties right Into this discussion of the best use of a safety committee, because a safety committee needs a method and needs some information and needs something to take back to the departments. Safety Training 197 In our case the foremen are always mem bers of the safety committee and must attend every meeting. At the meetings we always have a letter from our district office and from our central office, two letters. Usually these have already been read by all members of the committee, hut they are discussed. The gist of these letters is a survey or discussion of any accidents which may have happened at any of our plants. The equipment in most of our plants is similar. If an accident happens in our plant, we must send in a letter describing that accident in sufficient detail so that the central office can pass it on to all the other plants and all can readily visualize it. That letter doesn't stop with the safety committee. It is passed on to foremen in departments using equipment sim ilar to that on which the accident happened. These foremen must discuss, with every man who works on that equipment, ail the details of the accident, no matter where it might have happened. In that way we take advantage of every accident that liappens in the entire company, driving it home by personal contact. You must have that personal contact with the toreman or man, backed up by the safety men, and point out to the boys, "Set what hap pened here on this machine, cleaning it, or doing this or that ?" thereby making that man visualize the danger he is up against. Mrsiher: In our organization the turnover of labor is very small. Our men stay with us for years and years, and they represent a very interesting training problem because we can train them carefully. We have a very com plete training program connected with our safety program. Wc have a 15-minute discussion program for every man in our department on safety or training. Most of the Ideas discussed dur ing those 15 minutes come from the men in the field, from an accident or a near-accident. We point out the rule that was violated. Tlie foremen, who are the instructors in our de partment, take up that topic for 15 minutes aid discuss it with all their men, so we know that every man in the department has had that training. The difficulty of a rule book is that you arc not sure the men understand it and you are not sure they read it. So we use that plan to make sure that all of our rules are properly interpreted to the men. Every so often we repeat these rules; that is, one by one and over a period of years wc go through the entire rule book in the discussion periods. The men respond to this plan because many of the ideas we use come from them. We ask them for suggestions, "What shall we discuss next week?" Wc give credit to the man who made the suggestion. That is taking safety training to every man in the department. Member : How many foremen have yon? Member: Six hundred. Member : Do you find that all of your fore men are good teachers? Meaiber: We have made all the foremen good teachers. Before we started this pro gram, wc incorporated in our training a supervisory training program, which wc called foremen discussion meetings. We care fully, through tlie conference method, teach our foremen the technique nf teaching safety and things pertaining to their job. Member: We have a trainmaster on the Santa Fe Railroad who plus a rule every week on the bulletin board and on the train register for the men to discuss for each week. Just as an example, yon pin on the board Monday morning, "What is a restricted speed signal?" It will surprise you fellows how those men, among themselves, will discuss that particular rule and then go to the trainmaster and tell him their version. He lias them all interested. It never grows old. Mr. Sl'lTStEH (Columbia Steel Company): Wc have a method called the Stickman Axigraph. We do not leave it to a man's imagi nation to read a written description. We draw it by representing the human clement as a sticlcman, just as you drew hi kindergarten. Wc have found that by putting tliat on the board, showing the position of the mail just before he was injured, as he was injured and after he was* injured, in the three elements, the men will look at (hose bulletins and read them and discuss them where they will pass up written descriptions. Chairman Dickinson: "Should visual methods be employed in the training program? How?" Ciiaki.es A. Miller: I do not believe any safety program will be effective without visual methods. We in the Texas Company depeid to a large degree on the visual method, such as moving pictures, cliarts or cross-sections. In 198 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress other words, we go back to the A. B, C's of safety. I have been in this work almost twenty years, and I believe many industries today are making the mistake of teaching the em ployee higher mathematics, so to speak, when they* should be giving him the A, B, C's of safety. A little buy reads his printer. On the page uf the primer there is a picture, a story pic ture. As he reads (understand, he doesn't know his A, B, Csf he glances at those pic tures. If you cover up those pictures, the chances are he can't read a word on the page. That i- how* we have to deal with safety. We have to have a thing which is not only visual or a physical picture of safety, but we must be the type of men who can build up that mental picture by which wc can guide the individual to keep him free from accidents. 1 might describe to you, or you perhaps may read about a tiger or a lion or a horse. Maybe you have never seen one. You would fie like the little boy and his reader if you didn't have the picture. If wc can draw these graphic pictures as we talk to our employees rattier titan go to them with cold. Jurd facts and say, "This has got tO be done.** or "Wc are going to fire you if you don't do that,** we show them the bene fits of safety to them. I liave never yet seen a group of employees who wouldn't give me 100 per cent coopera tion if I could show them benefits. I believe that is true of any organization. We talk altout visual education. Sears and Roebuck--that grand old catalog, in millions of 1tomes, read by millions of farmers. What would he the result on the cash register of Sears and Roebuck if it published that catalog with no pictures m it? Seriously, there is tiie fundamental of vour visual education. I think there is a lesson that we might take back. In our first aid training course of the Texas Company in which I leave some 175 first aid instructors, we are continually at this work. We create an atmosphere. We hang around the walls of the room life-sized pictures of the pressure points of various types of frac tures, splints, bandages and what-have-you. We give the man a visual conception of what he is coming into. Then we lay aside the lecture, and we give him something in his hand, a splint, a band age, and we show him how to use it. We have found tliat to be a most effective way. We stand today with more than 13,000 men trained in first aid in two and one-half years* time. As a result of that training, we have brought benefits to thirteen human beings whose lives were saved. Visual education ties in with your bulletin service, the right type of posters, the place ment of those posters. If you have a bulletin board that is badly arranged, bulletins illy selected, what is the visual picture trying to tell? The employee gazes on the board. After all, that is your safety newspaper, and that board should reflect the news of the day. If I were to hand you the Kansas City Times this morning, you would read it. If I gave you the same paper tomorrow morning you would look at it. If 1 gave you the same paper on the third morning, you would tell me to go to hell. Mow, that is the attitude of Mr. John Worker. Make guinea pigs of yourselves. When you get some wild idea that you think is a knock out, and you are going to tell the boss what a marvelous man you are, go back in the room instead, shut the door, and give yourself a shot of it. If it doesn't work on you, don't try it cxi anybody else. One more thing concerned with visualizing safety is dramatics. We have meetings in our organization in which my own department sits on the sidelines. We do not even furnish the script. We furnish nothing but moral sup port. From three to eight hundred people, women and children, come out to these meet ing, and there on the platform they dramatize safety and first aid. They write their own script, put on their own show. The wive* will remind the husbands that on the third Thurs day of the next month there will be the safety meeting, "and don't you forget it, because we are all going." That is another avenue you should not overlook. Member: One question regarding the bul letin board, (lie number of posters to be placed on it. Some here are in favor of a lot, some not very many, and some only one. I wonder if the last speaker uses only a limited number of posters and permits the posting of any noaces. other than the poster itself. Mr. Miller: Up to a few years ago we had a rather difficult problem in getting over the idea of using the board as a newspaper, selling one idea at a time. 1 used to go around and have to fight to take off notices about some Safety Training 199 constable naming tor election, or a notice of a meeting, and sometimes had to pull down a cobweb to find that the bulletin had been there for weeks, and a dozen would be piled on. Then wc established a system that has been very effective in our larger plants, where four or five thousand men arc employed. By actual tests, we have found that by putting a new bulletin on the board every day we got a better reception. We do it for this reason: When a bulletin stays on the board, it becomes a fixture. H you get a beautiful calendar on the first of the year, you hang it in the office. When you come in the first few days, you admire that calendar. It isn't veiy long until that becomes a fixture, and you never notice that picture unless somebody calls your attention to it. You perhaps liave pictures in your own home right now, and you couldn't tell me what was hanging there because you haven't looked at them for months. We give the employees an idea and then change the board next morning. As a result, these men come in on the job and, as they visit from one department to the other, as they work about, they see these new ideas and know there is always something different, just like the newspaper you buy every morning. Member: Do you let them put anything other than posters on the board? Ma. Miujtji: No. Member; In ray company I have approxi mately seventy poster boards. These do not have to be elaborate. Most of my boards are probably 24 to 30 inches, but they are painted a pretty enamel color, with trim and with "Safety First" at the top. Those hoards are kept religiously dean. There is nothing on them except safety posters. If anyone dares to put a notice of a meeting or any other thing on those boards, it is immediately taken off. Keep the safety boards for what they are intended, safety purposes. A lot of folks make mistakes in locating these boards. They should le located in posi tions where tlsey are noticed by the greatest number of employees the greatest number of times. Fosters should deal with the depart ment in which they arc placed. For instance, in our gas detriment wc wouldn't think of putting a poster dealing with an clcctriccf accident because the man in the gas depart ment is nut concerned with that type of acci dent or that type of i>oster. The question has been brought up here as to the number of posters, large or small. I believe that the large, full-sized poster in picture form has the best effect. Some of these are works of art, and arc bound to hold the attention of everyone in your employ. I have iu mind a poster that has been in my office for the last 12 ycar. It shows a little child with a beautiful dog, and the words under it arc, "When is daddy coming home ?" That poster is in a glass frame in my office, and it lias never been changed. I have Iiad a number of employees remark about what a wumfcrful poster it is. Even tlc vice presi dent of the company has commented on it. There is a picture; there is a piece of art. It is something that attracts. I don't believe you can get it so well in writing: at least I haven't found it so. Keep the hoard clean and change the post ers often. We change our bulletin boards religiously, every week. Seventy boards keep one man busy for two days changing the posters and seeing that they are put in the proper place. Never put a poster twice on a safety board; never repeat; always have a new story*. You arc going to find that the employees read them. ADJOURNMENT Safe Use of Acids TUESDAY MORNING SESSION October 12, 1937 Chairman C. E. ttalstoit, Safely Director, opened the session and introduced the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., speakers. Safe Handling of Portable Acid Containers Such as Carboys, Drums, Jugs, Flasks By REUBL C. STRATTON Supervising Chemical Engineer, and Leon L. Goolden, Chemical Engineer, The Travelers Insurance Company, Hartford, Conn. In 1936 in the states of Illinois, New York, Maryland, New Jersey and Penn sylvania approximately 13 per cent of all chemical accidents were due to the handling of harmful substances including acids. This percentage was only exceeded by accidents caused through the handling of objects. In general, certain chemicals in concen trated form (and occasionally in solution and in compound) may cause injury in four different ways: (a) Burning, from direct contact with the skin or eyes, or indirectly through the clothing. (b) Fume poisoning or suffocation. Some chemical fumes are poisonous if in haled, while others tend to exclude oxygen and if insufficient concentra tion in the atmosphere, this atmos phere may fail to sustain life. (c) Poisoning when taken internally. (d) Fires or explosions resulting fruin their improper handling and storage. This paper will attempt to describe vari ous types of portable transportation equip ment for acids which are generally used with highly satisfactory results. Jn general carboys, drums and other large containers arc filled by gravity from ele vated storage tanks, the acid being admitted by a hand valve. Such a valve should be constructed of non-corrosive metal or other acid proof material. In certain cases acids are elevated to upper tanks by compressed air or to the carboy or drum filling station. Such procedure introduces a hazard, first, to see that valves are self-closing when tire operating hand pressure is released and that the air pressure is not so great that if Ote vessel happened to be inadvertently closed, it would rupture it. Twin safely valves limiting the air pressure should always be installed. It is preferable to establish the c^.boy or drum filling station in tlic yard p /ay from other manufacturing operations and to cover the station with a roof only so that plenty of ventilation will be had at all times. Filled carboys should never be piled more than two tiers high, cither in the yard or in planrbuilding*. The transportation of carboys, either by standard railway or~by plant railway equip ment, introduces a definite problem. The carboys must be securely placed on the rail road car, never more than two tiers high, and securely fastened in place by floor cleats which prevent shifting of the load. When a destination is reached and a car loaded with carboys is spotted, it should be immediately unloaded and the acid carboys placed in the proper storage section of the yard or acid honsc. In unloading cars a proper gangplank should always be used, of ample width ami securely fastened in place. Transportation of the carboys can be safely and advanta geously conducted by the use of a two-wheel 201 202 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress carboy truck which lifts the carboy box by fastening itself under the handle cleats. The carboy should clear the ground at all times. When flat four-wheel trucks are used, these should be of a low type with wheels of sufficient diameter to ride over floor irregularities without jolting the toads un necessarily. The truck should be provided with end and side boards so the carboys will not slide or fall off the truck platform. The handling of carboys from and to such delivery vehicles should be preferably done liv two men, properly trained in their work; and. where possible, they should be consti tuted members of the maintenance crew and the only ones authorized to take charge of transportation and storage of acid. Where it is necessary continuously to re plenish acid in tanks using carboys as a transfer medium, it is an unsafe practice to lift carboys and balance them on the edge of tanks while tlie contents arc emptied. Many acid burns as well as severe physical strains have been caused hy permitting em ployees to follow this practice. Either a mechanical tilting device should be installed or the acid may be discharged from the carboy by the use of an air ejector or siphon. When such a device is used the carboy itself is not under air pressure and conse quently there is no danger from rupturing the flask vessel by excessive internal pres sure. An added safety feature is that the air pressure regulating valve may be in stalled at a point away from the operation, taking the operator out of the danger zone. Acid may be siphoned safely from the car boy if it is placed in an elevated position, having the siphon discharge below the level of the liquid in the tank, thereby eliminating possible splashing. The siphon may he started by creating a small amount of pres sure on the carboy by using a small aspirator bulb similar to a typical hand atomizer. The intake valve is removed from the atomizer so that it is necessary to place the finger over the opening to establish a pressure. The operator is required to watch the siphon and only the amount of pressure which is necessary to force the starling fluid over the bend of the neck is created. Siphons arc particularly valuable where small con tainers such as bottles, jugs, and flasks are filled from the carboy. A pneumatic acid pump may also be used in such instances, particularly for filling bottles with small neck openings without the use of a funnel. This pump consists of an acid resistive tube which extends into the carboy to a special stopper fitting which is also equipped with a hand-operated rub ber bulb. The acid is forced from the car boy by creating a small amount of air pressure on top of the acid by compressing the rubber bulb. While the establishing of air pressure is generally considered an un safe method for ejecting acid from a car boy, yet in this instance it is permissible because the pressure remains only on top of the liquid as long as the cork or stopper is held in place by hand. When the hand is released from the bulb, the stopper will rise and the air in the carboy is released. It is extremely hazardous to use a high pressure air supply or power-operated air pumps on glass vessels. When necessary to pour acid from car boys into small containers, a modern incliuator should be used. The carboy should be securely dogged in position in the in clinator so that it cannot slip or fall. A gear-operated inclinator is preferable as it gives the operator safer control over the carboy regardless of position. The inctinator should be so constructed that it will auto matically return to the upright position from the pouring position in case the operator releases his hold. Where acid may be drawn from inclinators by inexperienced or unauthorized employees, the inclinator should be provided with a locking device, the key of which is kept by the foreman of the department. When a call for acid is re ceived, it gives the foreman an opportunity to see that the employee is properly equipped for handling acid, also a check upon the amount required. What has been said concerning (he pro|>er handling of carboys, applies in the majority of instances to the handling of drums. Drums filled with acid sliould not he allowed to roll from point to point, particularly from an elevation, but rather when neces sary slide down a skidway onto a proper buffer. When drums are rolled to storage racks, they should always be placed with the bung side up. Drums in storage as well as during transportation should not be left where direct sunlight can increase the tem perature to too high a degree. This may cause undue expansion of the contents of the drum or it may increase the rapidity of chemical action within the drum. Safe Use of Acids 203 Acid drums in storage sliould be vented periodically by loosening the bungs so that any gas may be allowed to escape. The em ployees doing this sliould always wear acid proof gloves and goggles. Open lights or naked flames should never be permitted near acid drums either in storage, in filled condition, or when empty. Acid drums should never be emptied by the use of compressed air. The drum should have the hung opened, a spout in serted and then be rolled into a cradle where the acid may safely be allowed to empty into a receptacle. It is welt to use the small plug in the head of the drum which may be removed when the drum Is In a vertical position and a valve plug installed. Extreme care, both in storage and trans portation, must be taken that no water gets into acid drums as the dilution of the acid may accelerate the attack upon the metal causing the vessel to deteriorate or the for mation of dangerous hydrogen gas which may become ignited or create sufficient pres sure within the vessel to rupture it. Carboys and carboy eases sliould be tested periodically if these containers arc used continuously for transportation of acids, particularly by rail. A properly made car boy is not a fragile container but there are definite limits to its ability to withstand shock. A broken carboy is hazardous to a workman who may not have been informed as to the proper methods of dealing with such leakage. After exhaustive tests, a large manufacturer of acid, developed a swing test machine which gives an accurate gauge on the shock resisting strength of the carboy package. All carboys should be peri odically tested. Acid drums should also be tested periodi cally. Most drums arc built to withstand a pressure of 30 pounds. A certain percent age of all empty drums should be tested to this air pressure periodically, although all drums may not be sufficiently strong to withstand air pressure up to that limit. It is important not to place excessive pressure on any drum. When operators require only small amounts of acid, smaller portable contain ers are required. The chief hazard both in using and transporting such quantities of acid lies in the accidental breaking or up setting o the vessel. Specially designed carriers are of assistance in preventing such accidents or the container may be a small jug which is loosely fitted into a fibre or sheet metal cylinder and packed with so cial acid resisting composition or other pli able material. The containers should be provided with a protecting cover and proper carrying handles. Certain safety precautions arc required where small quantities of acid are handled. Good flooring is essential so that worker* may cany the containers without danger of tripping or slipping. The floor should be kept in good repair and should drain to a filter or catch-basin. Plenty of industrial light is required, particularly where fumes^ and vapors are likely to limit dangerously the field of vision. Vapor proof and acid proof electrical equipment is required. Even with the best of physical surround ings, proper personal protective devices are needed. Where fumes are encountered, ap proved respiratory protective devices should be issued and all employees instructed in their use. Rubber or acid proof gloves, proper protective clothing, goggles, etc., arc essential. It is particularly important that workers using or working near acids, even though handled in small' quantities, have proper foot protection. Foremen should be held responsible that all workers handling acids make use of the equipment provided. All eipployees should be instructed con cerning first aid for chemical bums as well as emergency measures to be applied. The location of deluge showers and other im mediate emergency devices or neutralizing agents sliould be explained to each worker. Forcmcu should be instructed never to place a man on a job requiring the handling of acids unless he is positive that the worker knows every safety precaution. If tlic cu mulative total of all safety measures are taken, then accidents will be reduced to a minimum. Discussion following Mr. Stratton's ad dress touched upon the following points: Does the sun's heat have the same effect on carboys as on metal drums? The effects of the sun's brat ujkmi the con tents of a carlioy is not so pronounced as it is upon the contents of a metal drum, be cause the carboy is somewhat protected by 204 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress its ease, because the container is not af fected by acid reaction, and because it does not have a screw stopper and thus provides a belter chance to relieve pressure. Is it advisable to apply neutralizing agents when acid strikes the eye? No, it is advisable to use only water in copious quantities. Whnt procedure should be followed in taking rare of hydrochloric acid bunts IS or 20 minutes after exposure? After 15 or 20 minutes' exposure, this is no longer a first aid case. The quick serv ices of a doctor are required. Should pressure be applied to a carboy to empty its contents? No. it is oever possible to tell just how much pressure will rupture a vessel of this kind. Tests conducted at Harvard l/ohrersity showed that carboys will rupenre any where between 5 and 40 pounds of pressure. Occasionally a weaker one raay be carpen tered which will rupture at a pressure lower than one pound. Safe Storage and Distribution of Acids Within Industrial Plants By L. PAUL TURGKON Director of Personnel, McCc.i Radiator & Manufacturing Co., Detroit, Xktasaa. Acids are usually stored or distributed locally in one of four ways: a. Large tanks or vats b. Metal drums c Class carboys d. Small jugs When a new shipment of liquid chemical is received, it is good practice to open the containers at once to relieve any internal pressure which may have developed in transit. Considerable care should be exer cised in opening the containers, to avoid get ting burned in case the internal pressure causes liquid to spurt out. Only workers who have been instructed should be per mitted to perform this operation. The gen eral practice is to slowly back * up the screwed cap, which permits the gradual t\scajc of the built-up pressure inside of the drum. With some chemicals, it is advisable to leave a 10 per cent air space, to allow for rises in temperatures. After this is done, the containers should again be sealed. Jn some plants, they make it a practice to open each container once a week thereafter. Tanks and Vats Acid storage tanks should be placed ou concrete foundations, and So located that they* will permit easy access (or complete inspection. Every tank used for the storage of chemi cals should be so installed as to minimize the danger in case the tank should rupture and the contents escape. The tank sfcowid be so supported that leakage from any past of it would be noticed immediately, and it should be covered on the outside wick a suitable protective paint that will pcnrcia corrosion from moisture, fumes or other causes. Overflow pipes should be provided, and when necessary* equipped with flow indi cators, o installed as to shut off the fnmf automatically as soon as any liquid starts to overflow. All open tanks or vats shoeid be installed in such a way that there wilt he no danger of employees falling into them. The top of the vat should be built to a height of not less than 30 inches from the floor or stand ing level; otherwise, a double liandrail, at least 30 incites high, should surround the vat. Walkways should not cross over open vats, but if they are absolutely necessary, they should be equipped with substantial handrails and toe boards. Such walkways should be inspected at frequent intervals, to make sure that none of their parts have been weakened by exposure to the chemicals. In those plants where pipe lines are used for the local distribution of acids, lines aad all fittings should be plainly marked to indi cate their contents. Warning signs should be placed at open ends, showing plainly the chemical being handled in the line. Inspec tions should be made at regular intervals, and all leaks repaired at once. Safe Use of Acids 205 Obviously, where the liquid is carried through overhead lines, care should be taken to avoid drip Itom these lines, where they cross over passageways, by the instal lation of protective devices to guard work ers against injury. Before starting a repair job, the acid valves should be dosed aad locked, the pipe drained, and sufficient time allowed for the gas to escape. Where a cutting or welding torch is to be used, the pipe should be thor oughly washed with a neutralizing alkali, and then flushed with steam and boiling water, making sure that every possible pre caution has been followed before the repair yefc * started. Otherwise, the flame might ruse act explosion. TV same precautions should apply when dranmg or repairing empty tanks or vats. PiCame of the many hazards and serious pruhVaat evolved, it is important that only experienced men. familiar with this type of urk. should be used. Danger signs should W freely used to indicate when workmen *rr as work. All pipe lines should be disrumaecied and blanked off. The failure to observe this elementary precaution has been the frequent cause of serious accidents. Before entering or starting to repair an empty tank, it sliould be filled to overflowing with a strong solution of soda ash, after washing it out with steam introduced under considerable pressure by means of a hose. The soda ash solution should be allowed to remain in the tank for several hours before it is drained to permit any one to enter. Gas masks and life lines should be held in readiness for emergency. At ah times, work should be performed according to a well defined and standard ized procedure, and extreme care taken to see that instructions are strictly followed. Metal Drums Drums used for holding chemicals vary in size. They are usually made of light steel, and may hold from 500 to 1500 pounds of chemicals. They are best handled on roundbed two-wheeled hand trucks. They are usually emptied by gravity or by acid pumps. After the contents have been removed, drums should be thoroughly cleansed to remove any possible liquid and free sediment remaining. This is done by spraying live steam through the bung, and flushing with boiling water for several minutes. Drum should then be drained and allowed to dry thoroughly. Carboys Carboys are glass bottles that hold about 12 gallons of liquid and weigh 100 to 300 pounds when filled. They are generally en cased singly in wooden boxes to prevent breakage. To prevent unnecessary. corro sion, crated carboys should not be stored in damp places, or in open yards where they arc exposed to weather. Separate store rooms or buildings arc recommended, pref erably with a concrete or brick floor, prop erly drained to the sewer or to a catch basin. Crated carboys should not be piled one on top of another, but on suitable racks erected for the purpose. When ou the floor, they should rest on wooden strips so that, in case of breakage, the acid will not come in contact with the crate. Extreme care should be exercised in han dling full carboys, so that they will not be dropped, unduly shaken, nor struck against or by other objects. Broken carboys have been known to cause explosion and fire, and there is always the danger that the spilled acid wilt come in contact with the hands, face and body of the person handling it. Mechanical appliances for handling car boys are nearly all economical, and much safer than the simple picking up of a carboy by one or two men. The choice of these mechanical appliances depends upon plant arrangement and the intelligence of the workers. Ordinary warehouse trucks should never be used, as they are impractical and unsafe because there is no means of securely holding the carboy in place. A better type of truck lias a fork attachment, one prong of which passes on each side of the carboy box and beneath the side cleats. It is equipped with large wheels so the car boy can be raised several inches from the floor, can easily be handled by one man, and the carboy need not be touched with the hands at anytime during the operation. Small Jugs Some plants require only small amounts of acids, sometimes less than a carboy. In such cases, acid is usually shipping in small jugs. To overcome the danger of acciden tally breaking or upsetting such vessels, there has been designed a container that consists of a small jug loosely fitted into a 206 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress fiber or sheet metal cylinder and packed therein with a tar composition. The con* tainer lias a tight fitting cover and a strong carrying handle. General Chemical burns are always painful, and sometimes cause death. Workers cannot be too careful in avoiding accidental splashes and direct contact with acids which will cause burns. Instructions as to the proper handling of acids should be definite, practical and thor oughly understandable. They should con tain not only a warning of the dangers of the various acids used, but also fully de scribe the standard procedure in which work must be performed, and the proper methods of administering first aid in case of injury. After an accident, a thorough knowledge of the elementary first aid practices is ex tremely important, as a worker's life may depend upon the immediate administration of relief. And so, first aid remedies, with instruction for their use, sltould always be readily available. Floors, where acids are used or stored, should be kept in good repair, and should not be slippery nor made of material that will Income slippery with wear. The)' should be properly drained to the sewer or to a catch basin. Working places should be well illumi nated. Good lighting is especially desirable where steam, fumes, or vapors arc Kkcly lo limit the field of vision. Proper ventilation is essential. Work rooms should be so arranged that all poi sonous fumes are eliminated by suitable ventilation, or through the installation of adequate exhaust systems. Proper ventilation may be secured m sev eral ways. Not all of the methods generally used, however, are equally effective, and great care should be used in selecting the method best suited lo any specific condition. Workers should wear suitable clothing, and all the necessary protective devices should be put at their disposal, to guard against accidents. Men continually handling acids should be encouraged to change their clothes and take a bath before leaving the job at the end of the day. The big problem in avoiding accidents when handling acids lies in fl) adoption of well recognized safe practices; (2) tltorough understanding on the pan of the men of these practices: (3) their positive and conscientious enforcement by a combination of careful supervision, proper training of ucti* employees and emphasis on the constant use of common sense. The following points were mentioned in the discussion following Mr. Turgeori's ad dress; What can be done about the hazard* of overhead acid lines? Underground lines should be used when ever the plant layout permits. If this is im possible, the acid pipe line should be passed through or housed in a Larger pipe which serves as a jacket, draining to a safe place. A warning that, will always bear repeti- lion is, ''Don't look up when you see a wet spot on the floor." Step back, out of.the way, before .inspecting for the leak. Better still, inspect acid lines periodically, so that there will he no occasion to look up and expose one's self to an acid bum on the face or eyes. Is the hand control or the foot control preferable in deluge sltowers? The foot control is better. It operates more rapidly. The deluge of water starts as soon as a man steps on the platform. Safe Use of slcuis 207 Protective Equipment in the Handling of Acids by the Consumer By E. G. EBERHARDT Safety Director. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, St. Louis, Mo. The recognized hazards to guard against in handling acids are bodily harm, destruc tion of property, particularly clothing, and in some cases fire. Protective equipment is not just a matter of providing the worker with personal pro tective equipment of some kind. The man agement should also be provided with pro tective equipment in the form of study of the method of handling acid and responsibility for the education of the worker. Providing the worker with the necessary personal protective equipment such as gog gles, rubber gloves, rubber aprons or even whole rubber suits will depend upon the manner of handling. However, emergency showers w ith quick opening valves, making a large volume of water instantly available, should be installed so that they are easily reached. The method of handling and the kind of equipment to use should be determined after a study of the problem. 'Much emphasis should be put on the edu cation of the worker. He should be given the necessary instructions in the clearest terms so that there is no chance for mis understanding. He should be acquainted with the seriousness of the hazards to be encountered. Personal habits should he checked. Soap and water are the best pre ventives for infection from small injuries. A daily change of clothes may l>e advisable. Some of the more common acids are;-- sulfuric, nitric, hydrochloric, the mixed acids of nitric and hydrochloric, hydrofluoric acid, carbolic, hydrocyanic, acetic, picric and oxalic. All of these are liquids, except the last two, picric and oxalic. Thy types of containers used are tank cars, tank trucks, drums, carboys and bottles. Tank ears and trucks: The usual pro cedure for emptying these is by blowing with air. When the tank is received, the first thing should be to vent the tank through the air connection, not through the discharge pipe, as there may be enough pressure to force acid through the dtsclutrgc pipe. After the tank is emptied it should again be vented and then all valves closed. Storage should bo not above IS feet, so it will not require more than IS pounds pressure. Pipe lines and valves should be of the proper material to withstand corrosion as well as pressure. They should be inspected frequently. The repairing of pipe lines should be considered hazardous work and warning signs or locks should be placed on all valves. Lines should be thoroughly drained before starting work. Shields through which a chisel can be used should be employed when opening a flange, to pre vent spurt, because there may be a low spot m the line and all acid may not drain out. Workmen sltould always wear rubl>cr gloves, acid tight goggles and other necessary pro tective equipment. If it is necessary to repair tanks, they should be washed out thoroughly, then filled with water, neutralized with soda ash. Closed tanks should not be entered uithnet wearing a safety belt with a workman man ning the rope outside of the tank. Canister type masks should not be used in closed tanks. The hose type mask should he used, hecause of a possibly high concentration of gas or a deficiency of oxygen. Drums: Drums of acid should Ik: stored in a cool place, bung up. When received, and every time they arc moved, the bung should be loosened slowly to release any pressure. If stored over a period of time this should be done weekly. A cloth should be plarcd over the hung to prevent spurting out when releasing the pressure. It is not considered good safe practice t<> empty drums by' air pressure. This can he done safely, however, provided the air pres sure is reduced to 5 pounds and the drums and pipe lines inspected regularly. The most important precaution is--'"RE SURF THE REDUCING VALVE ON THE AIR LINE IS WORKING. AND THAT THE SAFETY VALVE WILL POP OFF WHEN THE PRESSURE GETS ABOVE THIS FIGURE." Carboys: Carboys arc covered with po rous stoppers to guard against pressure building up and bursting the bottle. This stopper should be wired on to prevent splashing when moved. The wire should lc 208 Tivcnty-sixtk National Safety Congress cut with pliers and completely removed to prevent hand injuries. If the carboy has a glass stopper, a cloth should be placed over it, and the stopper loosened slowly to release the pressure. Care should be taken to see that the car boy is not too full. If it is too full, the hazard of "blow out" when removing the stopper and splash when starting to pour is greatly increased. Carboys should be moved with an ap proved carboy truck, the long handled truck with the fork attachment, one prong of which passes on each side of the carboy tinder the cleat. Thi type of truck places the worker away from the carboy so that if the bottom falls out when moved, and the bottle should break, the worker will not be burned. Carboys are emptied in several ways, most frequently by use of an inclinator of ap proved type, by pouring over a triangular block, by forcing out by air, or by syphoning. Mention is made of the triangular block because in our plant the men preler this method to pulling the carboy into the inclinator. The hazard involved in this method, whether using block or inclinator, is splash, both when slarling to pour and when bring ing the carboy to upright position. The following rules for emptying carboys should apply 1. Wear acid tight goggles. 2. Wear rubber gloves. 3. Remove stopper. A cloth should cover the stopper on other than the porous clay stoptwr*. when removing, to pre vent blowing out if any pressure is present. 4. Use of inclinator or triangular shaped carboy block. Tilt carboy slowly, hold ing pitcher nr container close to mouth of carboy. When pitcher is full, set it down, replace stopper in carboy and then slowly let carboy back to upright position. If the stopper is not replaced, liquid may be splashed into (he oper ator's face should the carboy slip and tip back with a jolt. Forcing out by air was mentioned so that (his procedure could be condemned. Carboy bottles are not built to withstand air pres sure. Ejectors which are operated by blow ing air through the exit pipe, thus creating a suction which draws the acid out, should be used. Syphoning is another safe way to empty carboys. However, no one should ever be permitted to start the syphon by mouth. A suction bottle or hand bulb should be used. If syphoning is attempted by mouth, the possibility of "back up" is present and the worker may get a mouthful of acid. Small bottles, of course, require the worker to wear goggles and rubber gloves. Ventilation: In using acids in open vats or tanks for operations such as pickling, proper ventilation should be provided. The suction opening should be below the head of the operator so that fumes do not reach his face. If exposure is for a short time, a canister mask of the approved type may tie used. Most of the respirator types are not satisfactory because they use only a piece of cotton or cloth for a filter. One of the most serious features of fume poisoning is that the effects do not always show up immediately, Some men think they are immune, but these beliefs are without foundation. Precautions should be insisted upon. Special mention should be made of addi tional precautions to be taken with some of the less common acids: hydrofluoric, hydro cyanic, picric and oxalic. Hydrofluoric Acid or etching acid is so corrosive that it can be handled only in rubber, lead or paraffin containers. Skin burns from this acid are probably the worst of acid burns because of the difficulty in stopping the action. I know of a case where some got under the finger nail of a worker and he complained of burning for several days. Hydrocyanic Acid. This acid boils at flO0 F.; therefore it gives off vapors at room temperature. These vapors are absorbed through the skin. Therefore continual ex posure may prove fatal. 5. See that carboy is completely empty, and then wash out. Failure to do this presents the greatest hazard in handling, because the men consider the carboy empty. Picric Acid. This is highly explosive. It should never be brought in contact with metals, since it forms picrates, which arc highly explosive. It should always he handled moist, at least 10 per cent water. Safe Use of Acids 209 O-raiic Acid. This is mostly handled and used in the dry or crystal form. Respiratory equipment should always be worn. As a pro tection against continual exposure the ex posed parts, hands, arms, face should be coated with an ointment such as vaseline, lanolin, or a facial cream. Ammonia. While ammonia is not an acid, hut exactly the opposite--an alkali or caustic --it should have mention here. The same general safety measures for handling acids should apply to ammonia. Extreme care should be exercised during the summer months. Because it is sold at the comer grocery in very diluted form as household ammonia, most people believe it is compar atively harmless, even though it may smart the eyes and skin if some is spilled on it. However, it can cause just as serious a bum as acid if it comes in coutact with the skin, and it is the most serious of all eye bums. A technical discussion of bums of the eye can be found in the Ophthamologic Review, Vol No. 7, year of 1932. The best first aid for all acid accidents is large quantities of water to wash off ihc acid. The one exception is for carbolic acid in which case alcohol should be used. Further treatment should be given by a spe cially trained first aid man or a competent physician. The safe handling of acids by the con sumer can be summed up in one word, CAREFULNESS---Carefulness by the man agement in providing the best method, pro viding safe equipment, providing the proper training of the worker; and carefulness by the worker himself in following instructions. Following the address by Mr. Eberhardt the following points were discussed: In pickling operations what is the best way to introduce acid into the tanks? Pouring acid out of carboys held by a crane or lifted over the edge of the tanks is unsafe. What appears to be a safe method is to run the acid to the edge of the tank with a pipe line controlled by a valve, run ning a rubber hose from the end of the pipe line into the tank, so that there will be no splashing. In pulling water into the eye to dilute and wash.away acid tluit has entered the eye, can any other method be used than spattering the water in the fingers? This method soems objectionable, because there may be some acid on the hand. A drinking fountain offers the most satis factory solution. It should, however, throw a stream of water sufficiently high so that the eye will be bathed thoroughly. Are any special precautions required in handling empty carboys ? Carboys which are supposedly empty are as dangerous as those which are full. Em ployees should be required to flush carboys thoroughly after the contents have been emptied. They should also be required to tag them as having been washed. Handlers of empty carboys should be instructed not to pick up any w hich do not bear the tag. Is the use of welding advisable in pipe joints and in tire seams of tanks? Welded construction on acid work is of questionable safety. Riveled construction is recommended. ADJOURNMENT Aeronautical Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--Capt. R. V. Rickenbacker, Eastern Air Lines, New York City. iSice-Choinnan--Major R. W. Schroedek, United Air Lines Transport Corp., Chicago, III. Secretary and Program Committee Chairman--Jerome F. Lederer, Aero Insurance Under writers, New York City. The meeting was called to order by Homer Acromotivc Corp., Kansas City, Mo., who L. Bredouw, President, Bredouw-Hilliard presided, introducing the speakers. The Importance of Flight Dispatching in Air Transportation By LARRY C. FRITZ Eastern Region Superintendent, Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., Kansas City, Mo. Flight dispatching may be defined as the control of aircraft both in the air and on rite ground to the end that scheduled opera tion of aircraft may be carried out with the greatest margin of safety. A resume of the various (Actors that enter into flight dispatching will indicate why it is a prominent element in safety in the air. First, the flight dispatcher, one on duty every hour in (he day in llie principal zones, is in. radio contact with all flights from the time they take off until they land at their destination. One hour before a pilot starts on his run he Report* to the dispatch office. There he goes over weather conditions as reported hourly along his route and discusses the weather situation with the flight dispatcher on duty and one of the company meteorolo gists. The dispatcher has previously become familiar with the conditions over the entire U. S., having gone over the reports and discussed the recent weather maps with the meteorologist. Weather maps, one of which is drawn every six hours from several hun dred reports over (lie United States and Canada, are supplemented by airplane soundings with a meteorograph, pilot balloon soundings for wind aloft dala, and (rtnpcra* ture and weather condition reports received by pilots Co round out a broad picture of weather conditions. The pilot has decided whether the flight can be made with absolute safety and it the flight dispatcher is of the same opinion plans can be made for the flight. In his discussion with the meteorologist and flight dispatcher the pilot has obtained estimates of cloud base and tops, visibility, location of particular storms, their intensity and rate and direction of movement, probable levels where icing conditions may be encountered and force and direction of wind. He deter mines the altitude to fly to insure safety and comfort for his passengers and secondly to gain the greatest help or feast retardation front winds. If the pilot is not at a main terminal his forecast and flight plan data prepared by the meteorologist are forwarded to him hy radio at least one hour before the flight is due to depart, and with latest weather map available he is able to go over conditions in the same manner as if he were talking it over with the meteorologist. If he is in doubt as to the safety of the flight fie may telephone the flight dispatcher and discuss 211 212 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the flight ui|h him prior to making his de cision. Thus, lie has checked his own deci'iun at least twice with his consultation with meteorologist and flight dispatcher. He further verifies the weather conditions by going over the latest forecast issued by the U. S. Weather Bureau covering his par ticular route. The pilot then computes his flight plan from data on wind and temperatures at various altitudes. He computes the speed that will have to be made to maintain sched ule or the most economical speed from his wind and temperature data and the per cent |Mwcr to use. His altitude may be anything iruni 300 to 12,000 feet, only being restricted by the prescribed odd or even levels of th ing and the weather conditions. If he is living from zero to 179 degrees he will.fly at o<ld altitudes, one, three, five thousand, vie., Iitit if flying from 180 to 3S9 he will lly at even levels. This provides desired altitude separation of flights going in opiKjsitc directions. He computes his time over intermediate check-points and time to his various stops. He computes his gasoline consumption and determines how much he will use to the next refueling stop and determines his radius of action. .Vow the amount of gasotine necessary is not just enough to reach the terminal tliat he is released to. He must have a reserve uppiy sufficient for cruising at least forty- five minutes after reaching this terminal, if weather is good. If weather is near the minimum requirements he must plan on enough gasoline in addition to carry him io one or two alternate airports where weather is good; airports that lie can reach after arriving over his destination and still have fuel enough for an additional fortyfive minutes. The dispatcher in conjunc tion with the meteorologists has selected these alternate airports, taking into con sideration the probable weather conditions, the proximity and condition of the alternate fields. After making these preparations a clear ance form is made up giving a written release by the flight dispatcher to (he pilot for release to the next terminal. This clear ance is first signed by the mechanic in charge of servicing the airplane who indicates that engines and equipment have been inspected and found in satisfactory condition for the flight and indicating the amount of gasoline and oil the plane is serviced with. The flight dispatcher signs the clearance releas ing the flight from a terminal to the next scheduled stop. He also indicates whether the flight is to proceed ground contact or, if weather conditions necessitate, on instru ments. Latest weather reports from the many observing stations along and adjacent to the airway are put on the clearance. A copy of the latest report on field conditions at the various airports and fields is appended to the clearance together with a forecast for die route made by the United States Weather Bureau and a special trip forecast made by the company meteorologist. Then the pilot signs the clearance, ac knowledging receipt of clearance and the weather reports, and indicates that lie con siders conditions suitable for scheduled flight and that he will conduct the flight in accordance with approved procedure. A copy of the clearance is retained at the dis patch office with a copy of the pilot's flight plan while the pilot takes the original. Again the pilot and the dispatcher have checked each other. At each point or terminal where the flight lands a new clearance is prepared and the flight dispatcher after considering the weather and gasoline load releases the flight to the next terminal. Once in the air the flight dispatcher has not just cleared the flight and forgotten it. From the pilot's estimated times over vari ous check points along the route, the dis patcher, by means of radio telephone, checks the flight's progress from point to point. Continually watching the weather changes, the dispatcher is ready to advise the pilot of any bad weather that has developed along his route. He may, for instance, advise him to detour a thunderstorm in a certain direc tion, or to change his altitude to avoid re ported icing conditions. The dispatcher is aided in his analysis of weather conditions by hourly and special reports from observ ing stations over the entire United States plus reports from pilots in otlier flights from coast to coast flying at various altitudes. Rules and regulations have been promul gated covering every contingency which might arise in flight such as radio failure, engine failure, poor flying conditions and many others. The pilot is trained as to the procedure to be followed in the event any of these occur and the procedure to follow Aeronautical Section 213 is nearly automatic. The pilot reports any variation from normal routine in flight and if the dispatcher believes a departure from the calculated flight plan is advantageous, such as landing at an intermediate field, he issues orders for the pilot to land. Since every known contingency has been considered in the procedure laid down by the company in its instructions, the decision of the pilot and dispatcher are identical. Their first consideration is the safety of the flight. However, there arc times when in the opinion of the pilot, or flight dispatcher, or both, flights cannot operate with a large factor of safety. This may be due to fog, thunderstorms, icing conditions or generally low ceilings. Then the flight dispatcher must decide what to do with the flight. If a de lay of a few hours will allow normal re sumption of flight, the passengers are sent to a hotel and plans arc definitely made for resuming at a stated time. If It appears that unfavorable weather conditions will persist for some time, the passengers are trained to some point enroute where they can again be picked up and the flight continued to its destination. Twice a day the flight dispatcher, after consultation with the meteorologist, issues a flight advisory forecast in which probable flight movements for the succeeding fifteen hours are planned with regard to weather conditions. These arc supplemented by two additional advisory forecasts at intermediate periods and are corrected if weather con ditions become substantially dianged during the period. Thus the flight dispatcher is able to plan his operations over a period of time in addition to keeping a close super vision of flights actually operating. Planning for Safety By RICHARD C. GAZLEY Chief, Safety and Planning Division, Bureau of Air Commerce, Washington, D. C. The Bureau of Air Commerce has been particularly concerned with the Improvement of aids to air navigation on the Federal Airways System. As there have been few precedents by which manufacturers of this type of equipment could be guided, the Bureau, as practically the sole customer for airways aids, has tound it necessary to de sign a large share of the material needed. In its planning work, each regulatory offi cial df the Bureau and each executive concerned with installation of airways aids, has tried to carry on his work with one eye on today and the other on tomorrow, so that regulations placed in force today, and air ways installed today, should not be anti quated two or three years from now. That policy worked very well when the industry was small and development pro ceeded slowly. It was possible to take care of problems as they arose and make ade quate provision for them without any com promise with safety. However, in the last year or so. aviation has swiftly become a highly' complex and highly technical factor in the transportation world. This growth has come so rapidly that wc have had all we could do to take care of problems as they arose, without an opportunity for the thoughtful planning for the future. The obvious remedy was to create a divi sion solely to take charge of atl work con cerned with planning for the future of aviation. I n this way, other divisions would he free to carry out their existing duties in connection with enforcement of regulations, construction, maintenance and operation of airways facilities. The Safety and Planning Division is the planning agency for the Bureau of Air Com merce, with safety as a central theme. The scope of this division is large, requiring as it does a knowledge of the entire field of aeronautical research. Tn general, the Safety and Planning Division will study trends in the industry and sponsor and coordinate, or initiate, certain types of research and in vestigation, and on the basis of these studies guide the industry and the Bureau in a tong range program. This division will therefore serve as a clearing house and coordinating agency with respect to the research needs of the industry and the Bureau. One section of the division is devoted to aircraft problem*. The field is large, in spite of the fact that great progress has been made in aircraft design and construction. 214 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress The handling qualities of aircraft pre sent one problem, especially in the smaller types which have been criticized from time to time as being too difficult to learn to fly. Several contracts, looking toward improve ments in this direction, were let prior to the formation of this Division. Whether or not these will provide a clue to the course of further research cannot be determined at so early a date. In addition to problems connected solely with the mechanics of aircraft construction and operation, there is the problem of weather which has always been with us. A formidable foe of all forms of transporta tion, weather assumes even snore importance in aviation, for in the air a pilot is almost entirely at the mercy of the elements, unless he is armed with efficient and proved safe guards to offset each danger as it is pre sented. Icc has been one of the most stubborn -ml persistent trouble makers, but a great deal has been accomplished in the fight against it. Ingenious de-icing devices, which by a pul sating movement crack ice forming on the leading edges of wings and tail surfaces, have been developed and are in service use. The formation of icc on propellers has long l>ccn one of the outstanding hazards. A major advance in the solution of this prob lem lias been brought about by the Bureau of Air Commerce in cooperation with the aero nautics industry, with the development of a simple device known as a "stinger ring" which provides for the continuous feeding of an anti-icc solution to the propeller blades while the aircraft is in flight. Icc formation in carburetors, equally as liAzardou* lo safe flight as that on propellers, has hem the subject of extensive research by Bureau engineers. Icc in the carburetor checks the flow of fuel mixture, and this may occur even when the outside tempera ture is as high as 50 or 60 degrees F., due to ihc fact that the vaporizing fuel causes a temperature drop. The development of a type of carburetor that would be inherently ire free was sponsored by the Bureau, and was completed. There remain, however, some very import ant problems in connection with icc forma tion. Ice still has the annoying and dangerous habit of freezing on windshields, thereby obstructing the pilot's vision, and on pilot heads, causing inaccurate instrument readings. Ice formation on certain types of ailerons can also present a hazard. A num ber of organizations, working independently, have been busily engaged on these problems and it is obvious that the Bureau should give whatever impetus and help is needed. Present types of position lights, which protrude from the surface of the airplane, provide a start for the formation of ice on wing tips and present another problem. Wc believe that a satisfactory flush-type light would provide added safety and work is nowbeing undertaken toivard that end. An added advantage of such a light would be its contribution to increased aerodynamic efficiency. Some time ago an airline pilot brought to the Bureau an idea that was thought of so highly that we are sponsoring its develop ment. Not yet complete, the plan is to pro vide in the airplane cockpit a properly orientated chart of an airport. When de scending through thick weather, the pilot would see by this means an accurate reproduction of the airport below him just as he would see the airport itself in clear weather. Such an idea, if seriously ad vanced years ago, probably would have been considered somewhat visionary, but it has practical possibilities today. We would be helpless without proper and sufficient airport facilities. For a number of years the Bureau' has maintained a section devoted entirely to airport work. The engi neers of this section have heen available for consultation with city, town, and community officials interested in constructing or improv ing their airports. Under the emergency works program, the Airport Section has worked closely w'ith the Works Progress Administration and its predecessors in a na tionwide airport construction and improve ment program. The Airport Section, which is now a part of the Safety and Planning Division, will continue this work, and it has been assigned additional duties in connection with future planning. One of these projects is closely concerned with a problem which will be even more pronounced in the future--the relation of the size and location of airports to the types of operation* conducted from them. In an ef fort to obtain exact information a* to takeoff and landing distances required by different types of airplanes in varying at mospheric conditions and at different altitudes, motion picture cametas are being Aeronautical Section 215 used to photograph various aircraft as they land and take off. The pictures are then placed in a specialty designed and calibrated projector which throws the images on a ground glass screen. In front of the screen and directly against it is a glass grid which enables the observer to read directly the rate of climb and angle from the take-off point. This information, together with the recom mendations and advice of the Post Office De partment, Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, Ar my Air Corps, private flyers, scheduled air lines and commercial operators, and data from other sources will be the basis for fu ture airport planning. Another project calls for the compilation t>[ a photographic record of all airports in the United States. These will be assembled from the Army, National Guard and other agencies, and will be brought up to date by field personnel of the Bureau of Air Com merce and scaled. The photographs will show facilities of all kinds, whether zoned or not. area available for expansion, drainage system, length and direction of runways, types of hangars and other buildings, lighting system, communication system, type of field, and storage and transportation facilities. Much of this information will be collected from a nationwide survey and sketched on the photographs. The complete data will be used to determine the classification of vari ous airports in the formulation of plans for development over a long period. By compari son of facilities shown on the photographs and information collected by the survey with the opinions of airport officials, the types of aircraft that can be ultimately handled by each airport can be determined. A financial survey will also be conducted, and this in conjunction with the survey and photo graphic project will enable the Bureau to determine the estimated cost of the develop ment of a field and facilities to its ultimate capacity. Somewhat related to airport problems and also of major importance in air transporta tion are the long range planning aspects of so controlling airway traffic as to prevent collision* and at the same time to keep air ports and airways available as public facili ties. About a year ago the Bureau inaugurated an airway traffic control system to relieve congestion along the airways and at major airport*. This system is under the jurisdic tion of the Airways Operation Division. The Safety and Planning Division, through its Air Transport Section, will be concerned with the future aspects of this problem, for just as it has become of importance today it will certainly assume a far greater im portance year after year as the amount of traffic increases. Therefore, in our planning program we must attempt to ascertain just what proportions this increase will assume, in which direction it will be, and shape our plans accordingly so that we will not he caught off guard with an outmoded system five or six years from now. Another major field of inquiry concerns the human clement. This is a problem to which no existing rules can be applied. Wc can set up exacting limitations and require ments as to physical fitness and piloting skill, but there we must stop. From then on wc are confronted with questions about which little is known. Wc Iiave designated this problem as "pilot fatigue." The project which is set up under this newhat vague heading seeks to determine those factors whicli impair the efficiency of a pilot, to the end that such factors may lie eliminated, minimized or controlled. This is a vital problem, magnified as it Is by the in creasing size, speed and complexity of mod ern and projected airplanes. It is obvious that the amazing adaptive qualities hereto fore displayed by American pilots cannot be stretched to a mastery of unlimited com plexity and it may be true that, even under present conditions, the strain of competently handling their jobs is shortening the useful life of the pilots. Returning to mechanical problem*, wc encounter the subject of power plant vibra tion and its relation to propeller failures. Under some conditions a combination of vibrations in the power plant and engine mount is set up which if allowed to continue may produce a dangerous amount of fatigue In the propeller. In present types of aircraft we know the points at which the vibration will become dangerous, and the necessary precautions arc taken to avoid the danger zone. Our problem then is not concerned so much with the elimination of vibration in present types, but with finding means to predict and avoid dangerous combinations in new designs now in the jig and on the drawing board. The Bureau has given full recognition to this problem and is conducting studies in co operation with the indastry to develop means 216 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress for the prevention of propeller failures due to this cause. The projects assigned to the Power Plant Section relate to its general responsibility of determining the hazardous factors in power plant operation with respect to both forced landings and fire, and finding means to eliminate those hazards. You arc familiar with the role played by radio in Uic navigation of aircraft. As air craft operations have been extended, radio ha* become increasingly important. On the Federal Airways System more and more em phasis is being placed upon radio. In former years, contact flying was more or less the rule in aircraft operation, as the aids neces sary' for flying for long periods out of sight of the ground had not been perfected for extensive use. However, the use of radio has diminished the weather hazard from year to year as new devices and new means of replacing visual contact with radio information have been perfected. Now aircraft fly more or less as a matter of course above the clouds and away from sight of the ground, but still receive all the information needed to conduct tile flight safely and without dependence upon ground landmarks. However, it must be pointed out that certain restrictions still limit this type of flying. Regulations forbid the starting of any flight in the face of known dangerous weather conditions, but if a pilot should encounter such conditions un expectedly while in flight, it is possible for him to complete the flight although his vision may he shut off for protracted periods. Many improvements have been made possi ble by research and development work on the part of the Radio Development Section. It ha* been concerned largely with the index ing of future requirements and the carrying nut of experimental work necessary to' per fect new ideas. Because it has been con cerned with requirements of the future.-it is now possible for the Bureau to go ahead with its modernization program which will place in service use equipment which was in the laboratory several years ago. Further improvements are still in the laboratory or just emerging from it For inMaitce, a forge aniouiil of uork lias been devoted to the perfection of a means by which teletypewriter machines could be op erated by radio and reliability equal to land line operation has been obtained. The Bu reau's radio development engineers are now seeking means by which teletypewriters may be placed in aircraft and the information transmitted directly to the pilot. The pilot will receive written messages in flight, thereby preventing misunderstanding, and also leaving the crew free to examine the messages later. With the growth of radio, the question of frequency allocations in the bands now as signed for aviation purposes lias become a pressing one. Tn order to get around this problem, and also in an effort to obtain cer tain distinct advantages, the utilization of ultra-high frequencies is now under serious investigation. Two new types of radio marker stations developed for airway (raffle control purposes operate on ultra-high fre quencies and consideration is now being given to the utilization of these frequencies for radio range use. The radio range stations, upon which a pilot is dependent for directional guidance along the .airways have a tendency in some localities to present bent and multiple courses which give the pilot false indications of his position with respect to the airway. Static, which sometimes blankets out the signals, is also a disadvantage. It is now felt that the use of frequencies in the ultra-high zone would eliminate many of these disadvantages or at least minimize them to the point where a greatly increased efficiency and reliability would be obtained. Projects concerned with the development and test of ultra-high frequency radio range transmitters and receivers have been as signed to the Radio Development Section for immediate consideration. Also in the field of radio is the problem of landing aircraft when low visibility makes it impossible for the pilot to make a normal landing by visual contact with the ground. While in the air, the pilot can navigate by means of his instruments and radio if visi bility is lowered by fog or other conditions. It is possible for him to locate the airport by instrument and radio, but he must be able to see in order to land his airplane. We are confronted, then, with the problem of finding some means to replace the ne cessity for visual contact with other means of furnishing the information nctCTMr)- to complete the landing. At present, if a pilot learns by radio (hat the airport at which he is to land is closed in, he must laud at another airport, and on all airline flights certain airports arc dcsig- Aeronautical Section 217 nated in advance as alternates so that he Laboratory work in connection with carry can complete his flight safely even though ing out projects adopted by the Division will it does not end at the scheduled stop. be -performed by agencies outside of the This, of course, seriously interferes with schedules, altltough it is imperative that safety be considered first of all. but, it causes inconvenience to passengers who must wait until the weather clears at the terminal airport or proceed by some other means of transportation. Bureau of Air Commerce, preferably com mercial laboratories, under the general supervision of the Bureau and supported in part or wholly by our funds. Where it is necessary' to determine specifications to guide outside agencies, the Bureau will do some development work, but it seeks to avoid even such activities if the result can The Bureau of Air Commerce and the be satisfactorily obtained otherwise. ? aviation industry have been concerned with this problem for a number of years, and active work has been under way in an effort to perfect a practical instrument landing system. During the past ten years several types of landing systems have undergone development and tests and a considerable fund of information concerning the advan tages and disadvantages of each has been ob tained. A survey of alt types has been made and it is now possible to fulfill the require ments of a satisfactory system by combining the best features of those proposed in the past. The major airlines, the Federal Com munications Commission and the Bureau of Air Commerce are now in agreement as to the features necessary* in a practical instru ment landing system. The most important project of all has not yet been touched upon. It consists of a de termination, study and classification of the present and future needs of the industry, the results of which should form the basis for our futuie program. In other words, it is largely futile for us to attempt long range planning for the industry or the Bureau until we have first conducted some intelligent planning for ourselves. This work is now under way and should provide intensely in teresting results. It will never end, of course, but perhaps that is the secret of the fascination of tins profession. These problems are not (tie Bureau's con cern atone. They are of importance to the entire aviation industry and to every one who makes use of aviation in any form. The While radio is becoming more and more Bureau is acting chiefly hi a coordinating important to air navigation, effective airway capacity and is furnishing facilities for the and airport lighting is still of prime concern prosecution of this work so that it will be and the Bureau is conducting research look carried out along definite lines. It cannot ing toward the improvement of facilities of carry the entire burden alone, and, therefore, this type. Tt has assigned to the National wc are extremely anxious to have sugges Bureau of Standards, research projects look tions and information from any informed ing toward improved airway beacons, air source so that we may truly be in a position craft landing lights, runway illuminators and! lto aid the related causes of aviation and other problems in lighting. 1 liofety. Rating of Instructors By ELWOOD B. COLE Technical Assistant to the Director, Bureau of Air Commerce, Washington, D. C. The Air Commerce Act of 1926, as amended, authorizes the Secretary of Com merce to certificate airmen as to their comIKrlency. The ability of a man to fly an airplane is determined by certain theoretical examinations and practical tests. However, the proof of such ability and the issuance of a certificate of competency do not imply (hat the man is also competent to impart such knowledge to others. Further tests are needed and, under the new Civic Air Regu lations, will he given. Upon the satisfactory completion of such tests, the applicant will be certified as competent to inslruct and such certification will take the form of an instructor rating on his pilot certificate. This rating by itself will be subject to denial, suspension or revocation for cause. 218 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress There are practical reasons for the rating of instructors. The outstanding justification of such action lies in the inadequate or poor quality of instruction being given by pilots who arc unable to convey their knowl edge to others or who. in an effort to earn enough money to build up their flying time, are instructing students before they, them selves. have acquired sufficient knowledge and experience. Under the. present regulations, only a transport pilot may instruct for hire; while a private pilot, regardless of the amount of time he has accumulated, may instruct, but not for hire. This arrangement has been the direct cause of many accidents. The instructor rating requirement should eliminate most of tliese evils. AH commer cial pilots (now called transport) wilt be eligible, as will private pilots who have acquired 200 hours of solo flying time. The same commercial privileges will apply as at present. A limited commercial pilot will not be eligible, since, having secured his 200 hours, he is then reads' to take his commer cial pilot rating examinations, after which, if successful, he will be eligible for an in structor rating. If lie wants to instruct, not for hire, he should then change his rating to private. An earnest effort is thus being made to establish a definite line of cleavage be tween commercial ami non-commercial ac tivities and to examine and certificate airmen accordingly. In the past, two private pilots could fly together in a dual controlled aircraft. Under the new regulations, this may also be done provided one of them is the holder of a proper instructor rating. The same applies to any two pilots flying in a dual controlled aircraft--one of them must be a certified instructor. This ruling should tend to de crease materially the number of accidents in this type of flying. The only point of con tention will be whether or not the pilot is abiding by the commercial privileges of his particular pilot rating. One of the most important features of this new rating lies in the fact that the certi fication of an instructor carries with it an actual protection of the man who can so qualify. It also establishes a recognition of the importance and responsibility of those pilots who are carrying on in this field. As. to the actual procedure necessary for a transport pilot to secure ins instructor rat ing. it should not impose any particular hardship. On the effective date of the new' regulations, or as soon thereafter as possi ble, the transport pilot will be given his new commercial pilot certificate together with an instructor rating. Both will be in full force and effect until the next regular re newal date. At that time, the pilot rating will be renewed upon proof of the necessary renewal requirements, but the instructor rating will not be renewed until the appli cant has passed the required examinations and tests. Cleveland Airport Radio Traffic Control By JOHN BERRY Commissioner of Airports, Cleveland, O. With the design of the Cleveland Airport in 1928, it was foreseen that a central control |K>int for a method of traffic control on amt in the vicinity of the airport would be a prime necessity; so a control tower was con structed overlooking the airport. Manual signals and lights were used until 1929 when, during tire National Air Races at the Cleve land Airport, t!erc was concentrated one of the largest groups of Army, Navy, marine, commercial and itinerant aircraft ever assembled. In controlling this great number of planes, we discovered both our manual and light signals to be inadequate. Much thought had been given to radio, so, enlisting the facilities of RCA, which gen erously offered cooperation, design of equip ment was instituted, resulting in the latest models of airport transmitters and receiv ers. In the control tower we placed our equipment, and the control tower, since that time, has been manned 24 hours a day. The traffic situation from 1929 until today has rapidly increased. During 1929, the movement of ships and passengers through the Cleveland Airport totaled 14,455 ships and 15,825 passengers. This movement of ships and passengers increased yearly until Aeronautical Section 219 in 1936, the movement of ships numbered 33,140 and passengers 184,017. Our original tower therefore was deemed inadequate and a new tower was designed which allowed unlimited visibility, more effi cient operation and a higher degree of safety. In this tower was placed every control nec essary to safe operation on the Cleveland Airport. The radio equipment, which has been constantly improved, now consists of two AVT No. 1A-RCA airport transmitters with an RCA-AVT No. 8 amplifier unit and an RCA-AVA No. 3 radio beacon at tachment for blind or instrument approaches. These insure continuous operation in any emergency. Also, six RCA-AVR No. 11 re ceivers with crystal attachments for stand ing by on the day and night frequencies of the air lines using Cleveland Airport. Besides the radio equipment, in the lower were placed all controls for airport l.ights, floodlight, both arc and incandescent, inter phone to airline radio dispatchers, hangars, airway traffic control, weather bureau and ticket office; a public address system, instru ments for wind direction and velocity; barometer and thermometer. The personnel employed arc experts in their line with a good background of educa tion, air operation, radio and pilot experience. They carry the necessary type of radio li cense and there arc two men on duty 24 hours a day, working eight hour shifts--with three extra men, experienced and licensed, available for relief at all times. Incidentally, the original three operators who opened this station in 1929. are still the nucleus around which the increased personnel has been built Safety of operation is the first principle of tower efficiency. Speed of operation is secondary. AH instructions from tower to pilot arc given in (he nature of helpful sug gestions, never as order* or commands; in the last analysis, the pilot is his own captain. This has resulted in the 100 per cent co operation of all pilots, transport and itiner ant. Careful phraseology is used to avoid misunderstandings, such as pilot's name, line, trip and ship number. A pilot, after being released by Airway Traffic Control, contacts the tower upon entering the Airport zone, which is about 30 miles or ten minutes dis tant, giving his name, line, trip and ship number, stating his position and altitude in relation to the airport- The following is the standard procedure and phraseology used at the Cleveland Airport and adopted at Washington as a standard: "WRDT answering Peeples in United One. No traffic reported between you and the field. The winds at the field arc South, Southwest, S SW at 15 miles per hour. Occasional gusts to 20. Field clear. VH be standing by." When in sight of the airport, the pilot calls again. "Peeples, United One, to WRDT. About three miles northeast." "WRDT to Peeples, United one, all dear for your landing." anil when on the ground, "All dear to keep rolling, nothing around you, and taxi to gate No. 7 please." Tiie operator, with his unlimited visi bility and radio equipment is, one might say, in personal contact with each pilot, and can then handle all types of traffic, whether transport inbound or outbound, or local fly ing as well, relieve congestion and help the pilot maintain Ills exacting schedule. At Cleveland Airport, it is not unusual to land five or six ships at one time and in perfect safety, due to" the large all-way hardsurfaced landing mat which facilitates fast ground movements, besides providing ex cellent take-off and landing conditions. The pilot is relieved of traffic worries and may give his entire attention to the plane itself. ADJOURNMENT American Society of Safety Engineers--Engineering Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--D. L. Royer, Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corp., New York. N. Y. Vice-Chairman--C. B. Boui.it, Wisconsin Public Service Corp, Milwaukee. Wis. Vice-Chairman--R. E. Donovan, Standard Oil Company of California. San Francisco, CalifSecretary--W. Dean Keefer, National Safety Council, Chicago, III. Members at Large-- Cyril Ainsworth, American Standards Association, New York, X. Y. *C. B. Auti, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., East Pittsburgh. Pa. J. 1. Ranash, Consulting Engineer, Chicago, HI. K. W. Beck, United States Rubber Products, Inc., New York, N. Y. H. R. Bixlek, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., New York, N. Y. (Metropolitan Chapter) E. W. Bullard, E. D. Bullard Co., San Francisco, Calif. (San Francisco Chapter) H. F. Gilbert, American Cyanamid Co.. Linden, N. J. (New Jersey Chapter) Roy M. Godwin, Philadelphia Electric Co , Philadelphia, Pa. (Philadelphia Chapter) *W. M. Graff, National Bureau of Casualty & Surety Underwriters, New York, N. Y. H. ) Griffith, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa. (Western Pennsylvania Safety Council Chapter) R. McA. fCgnwN, Industrial Commission of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. .J. M. Kerrigan, United States Rubber Reclaiming Co., Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. (Niagara Frontier Chapter) Everett F. King, Lever Brothers Co., Cambridge, Mass. (Boston Chapter) Thomas E. Lichtfoot, The Koppers Coal Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. M. G. Lloyd, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. G. II. L. Miner, E. J. du Pont dc Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del. W. S. Pain*, Aetna Casualty & Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. Geo. F. Pkussinc, Union Oil Company of California, Los Angeles Calif. C- E. Ralston. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. A:. S. Kscut-A, Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc.. New York. X. Y. G. E. Sanford, General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. C. W. Smith, Stan<lard Oil Co. find.), Chicago, III. H. S. Smith, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., New York, X. Y. R. C. Stratton, The Travelers Insurance Co., Hartford. Conn. R. F. Tiialner, Buick Motor Company, Flint, Mich. S. E. Whiting, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. William P. Yant, Mine Safety Appliances Co, Pittsburgh, Pa. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--C. B. Boulft, Wisconsin Public Service Corp, Milwaukee. Wis. Vice-Chairman--R. E. Donovan, Standard Oil Company of California, San Francisco, Calif. Vice-Chairman--C E. Ralston. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co, Pittsburgh. Pa. ^Deceased. 221 222 Tzvcnty-sixlh National Safety Congress Secretory--W. Dean Keefer, National Safety Council, Inc., Chicago, 111. Members u/ Large-- Cyril Ainsworth, American Standards Association, New York, W Y. J. I. Uanakh, Consulting Engineer, Chicago, III. E. W. Hf.ck, United States Rubber Products, Inc., New York, N. Y. K. \V. Bullard. E. U. Bullard Co., San Francisco, Calif. (San Francisco Chapter) (jfAki.es IX Paulin, Consolidated Edison Co. of N. Y.. New York, K. Y, (Metropolitan Oiapter) II. F. Gilbert, American Cyanamid Co., Linden, N. J. (New Jersey Chapter) Nov M. Godwin, Philadelphia Electric Co., Philadelphia, Pa. (Philadelphia Chapter) H. J. Griffith, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa. (Western Pennsylvania Safely Council Chapter) R, McA. Keown, Industrial Commission of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Everett K. King, Lever Brothers Co., Cambridge, Mass. (Boston Chapter) Thomas E. Lightfoot, The Koppers Coal Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Af, G. Lloyd, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. J. E. Long, The Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corp., Albany, N. Y. N. B. MacHose, Bethlehem Steel Co., Lackawanna, N. Y. (Niagara Frontier Chapter) H. L. Miner, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del. \V. S. Paine, Aetna Casualty & Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. Gko. F. Pbussing. Union Oil Company of California, Los Angeles, Calif. A. S. Regula, Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., New' York, N. Y. A. V. Rohwujek, Duluth. Missabc and Iron Range Railway Co., Duluth, Minn. D. L. Rover. Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corp., New York, N. Y. G. E. Sanford. General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. J. S. Shaw, Hercules Poudcr Co., Wilmington, Del. C. W. Smith. Standard Oil Co. (Ind.), Chicago, 111. H. S. Smith, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., New York, N. Y. R. F. Thalnlii, Buick Motor Co.. Flint, Xiich. S. E. Whiting, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. Wii.i.iam P. Yaxt, Mine Safety Appliances Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. WEDNESDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 13, 1937 'Hie animal meeting of the ASSEEngineering Section of the National Safety Council followed a luncheon and convened with D. L. Royer, Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation, New York City, general chairman, presiding. All reports had been mimeographed, and copies were dis tributed at the luncheon. A report of the address delivered at the meeting by Elmer A. Holbrook, dean of the Schools of Engineering and Mines, Univer sity of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa., will be found elsewhere in this record. The report of the nominating committee was presented by C- W. Smith, chairman. Other members of the committee were A. S. Reguta, S. E. Whiting, Dr. M. G. Lloyd, and R. F. Thalncr. The committee's list of officers, as elected, will be found in this section o.f the Congress Transactions. Other sessions sponsored by the ASSEEngiueering Section included those on "Safe Use of Acids/' "Industrial Dusts," "Pressure Vessels." "Industrial Fumes, Gases and Vapors," "Safety Training," and "Safety Inspectors." Engineering Section 223 Engineering and Industrial Accident Prevention By E. A. HOLBROOK Dean, Schools of Engineering & Mines, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. Pa. The essence of early safely work was the safety education of the worker. Education has ever been one of the two legs supporting safety. We did not go far in our safety program until we discovered that safe materials, safe guards, safety standards and safe equipment were equally potent with worker education in reducing accidents. These material things constitute the second leg of our safety body. I notice with pleasure a wide diversity of use of the term "engineering" in the world of safety. There is nothing to tell you that a man must go to college to be a safety en gineer. Nevertheless, an engineering college is perhaps the place where a man may learn easiest how to design a safe boiler or build ing or of the thousand and one material fac tors of safety that we associate with engi neering. He learns there also how to draw conclusions from his facts, and we trust he may later in practice utl with professional wisdom. When we remember the efforts of the Red Cross thirty years ago, or we read again the first mine inspection act in Pennsylvania, there was little to indicate that safety ever would he of professional engineering inter est. Today when you consider the enormous accumulated data on the material side of safety, engineering of its writings, its myr iad standards, its exacting practice, you must admit that to absorb, interpret and ap ply this world of material requires a mind (rained to the college or equivalent level. As a parallel example, electrical engineering was unheard of before 1880, yet in the past 50odd years, it has through research and prac tice, accumulated data, writings and stand ards of such importance and variety that tlie single human mind cannot in a lifetime span its whole held. Think again of those modest beginnings of safety, mostly in the minds of men in the mining, metallurgical and railroad industries. Slowly it felt its way, largely with a humani tarian background. Then came workman's compensation, giving the work a definite economic background. Finally, and with in creasing acceleration, the methods and prac tices of safety have penetrated today not only into every corner of our industrial world, but into our individual daily life. Certainly as regards industry, [ am ready to admit that Safety Engineering has ar rived; that in its historical development, in its penetration of organization and manage ment, in its influence on production, eco nomics and design, and by its high standards of research and practice, Safety Engineer ing is on a plane where it demands a place in our engineering college curriculum. The curious fact remain* that in general the engineering colleges of this country have not* yet assigned to safely engineering any definite recognition. Several years ago it seemed that the time had come where in a great industrial center like Pittsburgh we should offer a course in Safety Engineering on a college level. We determined in this course not to deal with safety as applied to any specific industry, for we believe that in these industries them selves, the special application of safely prin ciples best can be mastered. Rather we tried to uncover the basic principles or essence of safety engineering, common to and of inter est in all industries. Thus our year's out line for the subject covered pur|oses, ori gin, growth, agencies, and organization for safety work; industrial hazards, manage ment responsibility, and safety education. Then came individual accidents, their causes, costs and prevention; accident classification, machinery and the human factor, design as affecting safety; safeguarding the working place, inspection, and materials handling. Finally, wc studied safety codes and stand ards, workman's compensation (origin and rate making), and methods and results of safety work in typical industries. This class has gone on for some seven years; first under its founder, the late Dr. J. W. Hallock, and for the past two years under Irvin Brinkman, safety director of the Mclntosh-Hemphill Company. The classes have varied between 20 and 70 men enrolled. A curious difficulty has been the absence of a satisfactory text book. Is it not noteworthy that although there are hundreds of college text books covering almost every conceiv able engineering subject, I know today of 124 TzcrniX'sixfh National Safety Congress m teat -uitablc for a college cwrx in safely ntKtiRrrins. The Anaonr Institute of Trrtmulugy las admirable courses in fire jtfevrotiun engineering. and Harvard Uni versity la undertaken extensive work in traffic and highway engineering and recently Itas offered 13 fellowships to men wishing framing an this field. These exceptions bring (ml by contrast how little attention most en gineering colleges give to safety. Perhaps it will take another generation of engineering teachers to recognize that today safety is a part of every engineering prob lem and as essential as the items of cost, good design, probable life, and general use fulness. You of the National Safety.Couneil have done a great work in educating employees and employers, insurance companies, stand ardization agencies, the child in the school, the man on the street, and the woman in the home- But for sonic reason you have not made the engineering colleges safety con scious. You have accumulated writings and data s0 vast that no single mind can absorb them. You know that your continued success de pends upon diffusing safety knowledge this year and next, yes even from generation to generation. You should have at work men trying to explore for that essence in safety problems which 1 sometimes think cannot wholly be expressed--it can only he felt. May I call attention here to the tact that, so far us we know, a college or a university is likely, next to the church, to be the most enduring agency of civilization. Even in this young country, Harvard University has cele brated its three hundredth anniversary, re minding us that it has outlived changes in government, in religion, and in peoples. Es sentially it has been the repository of great ideals ami truths, equipped lfe lrci down from generation to generation, un dimmed and often refueled. For this rea son alone, l say to the National Safety Council that you ought to form an alliance with otic or more American engineering schools, trusting in this way to insure the perpetuation, without fear or favor of all that is at the heart of safety. I believe also that within a college, and away from the stress of economic struggle, where research in safety principles can best be carried on, you would find, through sup port of a chair of safety engineering, that out of it would come a sifting of wheat from chaff, an extraction of the essence from the mass of material things. Of a more practical nature, an engineering college department interested in safety should be able to put out text books on safety, more valuable therefore to the stu dent than the general references we now have to use. On this foundation must come courses in the principles of safety engineering offered to the undergraduate engineering student. Whether you like it or not, the truth is that the bright young boys of today go to col lege, most often lo an engineering school, whereas the similar boy of 30 years ago gen erally entered industry after high school. This means that the future safety engineers and industrial leaders are largely going to be products of a four year college engineer ing course. Safety engineering can't just be discussed like politics. It must be felt, it must be lived, it must be instilled into these young engi neers firmly. Then and then only will they react instinctively to safety in engineering. I do invite, most earnestly, the attention of the Executive Committee of this Council to the need, through cooperation with the en gineering colleges, of educating our future engineers in safety. ADJOURNMENT Automotive and Machine Shop -- Power Press Sections Automotive and Machine Shop Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--M. A. Ci-ARK, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Detroit, Mich. Vue-Chairunni--II. \V. Uouiton, Murray Corp. of America, Detroit, Midi. Secretary--W. H. Fratfk, Cadillac Motor Car Co., Detroit, Midi. News f.vlter Editor--K. F. Thai.mkk, Buick Motor Co., Flint, Midi. Engineering Committee C/itVnu--L. B. Loomis, Ternstedt Manufacturing Div., General Motors Corp., Detroit, Mich. Health Committee Chairman--Dr. A. L. Brooks, Fisher Body Detroit Div., General Motor* Corp., Detroit, Mich; Membership Committee Chairman--C. W. Bisnor, Lycoming Manufacturing Co., Williams port, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--E. Maukntate, Motor Products Corp., Detroit, Mich. Program Committee Chairman--\V. A. Bkchmx, Chrysler Corp., Detroit. Mich. Publicity Committee Chairman--Paui. A. Dr.NZic, Kclsey-Haycs Wheel Co., Detroit, Mich. Statistics Committee Chairman--C. E. Sanford, General Electric Co., Shencctady. X. Y Members at Large-- L. E. Averiij, Chicago Eye Shield Co.. Detroit, Midi. Hoyt L. Frachex, Detroit Steel Products Co., Detroit. Mich. Meku C. Half, General Motors Corp.. Detroit. Mich. M. J. McCarthy. Fisher Body Corp,. Detroit. Mich. R, A. Shaw, Murray Corp. of America, Detroit, Mich. Caw. L. Storck. I>eJco Products Corp.. Dayton. Ohio. R, F. Thai.nf*, ftuirk Motor Co., Flint, Mich. C. T. WtNEOAK. Chrysler Corp., l>clroiif Mich. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--H. \Y. Boclton*. Murray Corp. of America. iMroit. Mh.Ii. yiec-Chairman--L. R L*;vis. Tcmstedt Manufacturing J>iv., l<mrraJ Detroit, Mich. t'>rj>. Secretary--C. \Y. Bt*Mor. Lycoming Manufacturing Co., Williamsport. Pa. News Letter Editor-- L. B. Gatelv, Yellow Truck & Coach Manufacturing Co, Pontiac. Mich. Engineering Committee Ch*zirwutn--NY. X'. Khausf.r, NYillvs-Overland Motor*. Inc., Toledo, Ohio. 225 226 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress Health Committee Co-Chairmen--Dr. A. L. Brooks, Fisher Body Detroit Div.. General .Motors Corp., lictroit, Midi. \V\ H. Rietz. Ilg Electric Ventilating Co., Chicago, ill. Membership Committee Chairman--Nils Juell, Hayes Body Corp., Grand Rapids, Mich. Paster Committee Chairman--H. A. Zacharj, Henry Vogt Machine Co., Louisville, Kv. Program Committee Chairman--M. J. McCarthy, Fisher Body Detroit Diw. General Motors Corp., Detroit, Mich. Publicity Committee Chairman--V. I. Trotter, Plymouth Div., Chrvslcr Corp., Detroit, Mich. Statistics Committee Chairman--J. C. Bower, Wcstingbouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., East Pittsburgh, Pa. Members at Large-- L. E. Avf.rill, Chicago Eye Shield Co.. Detroit, Midi. M. A. Clark, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Detroit, Mich. Hovt L. Fkacher, Detroit Steel Products Co., Detroit, Mich. Meri.e C. Hale, General Motors Corp.. New Ydfrk, N Y. It. A. Shaw, Murray Corp. of America, Detroit, Mich. Cahl L. Stoiick, Delco Products Div., General Motors Corp., Dayton, Ohio. R. F. Thalnek, Butck Motor Co., Flint, Mich. C. T. WtN'fiCAR, Chrysler Corp., Detroit, Mich. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Sessions of the Automotive and Machine Shop and Power Press Sections were held jointly A list of officers of the Power Press Section will he found on page 535 of this volume. The opening session was called to order by Acting Chairman M. J. McCarthy. Safety Director, Fisher Body Div.. Genera) Motors Corp., Detroit. Mich., who introduced flic speakers. Developing Safe Workers Through the Employment Office And Job Training By HARRY C. BIGLER Personnel Director, Research Laboratories Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit The employment man is in the best possi ble position to instill safety consciousness in the minds of new employees. He is the first representative of the company to con tact the now employee. His responsibility for safety is as great as that of the safety engineer or foreman, due largely to his op portunity to observe the physical and mental qualifications of the applicant. He meets the new man when lie is in the most receptive frame of mind. While he may not be able to judge a man's ability to perform a certain operation efficiently and it may not fall within his line of duty to teach the rudiments of the job, he should explain company policies and place special emphasis on safety. There should be no hesitancy in explaining that Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 227 the company will not tolerate accidentprone employees, for they are distinct liaa- ards to themselves, their fellow workers, and to company property. The employment man should be thoroughly familiar with conditions surrounding the job for which he is selecting a man. He should know the fatigue elements and the types of workers required for the job, remembering that upon his ability to select men depends the functioning of a smoothly running organi croachment upon his authority. However, the introduction of compensation laws and labor legislation in many states, the tremendous labor turn-over costs in industry, and the increases in insurance premiums helped to bring to the attention of managements the idea that some medium of control had to be exercised. Consequently, the safety engi neer. thought of in terms of a necessary evil or disease, slowly found his way into the spotlight and his job from then on was zation. The employment office itself can be definitely outlined. an important factor in creating the correct The plant physician can also take a place impression on the new employee--neatness among tltose responsible fur the develop and orderliness of the office and surround ment of safe workers in industry. The final ings can indicate the type of good house selection of any man is subject to the ap keeping in the plant, so essential to proper proval of the medical staff. While the safety conditions. employment man concentrates on the mental The prospective employee is undoubtedly anxious to obtain the job and make good. Since he has his mind set on conforming to the requirements of a new job, new associ ates and new environment, he will un and experience qualifications of the new man. the physician decides on the physical fitness angle. The plant physician, in other words, acts as a double check on the proper selection of a new employee. doubtedly react to new ideas on safety, The railroads were among the forerun especially when the benefits he will derive ners of the safety movement and soon are explained. realized the value of educating the workers No man will deliberately cause injury to himself or another, nor do I like to charge an injury to carelessness on the part of the person injured. Carelessness might be the under-lying cause of an injury'--but whose carelessness? Did the employment man do his duty, or simply provide a book of on accident prevention and accepted as an integral part of their program the selective training of engineers, firemen, brakemen. and round house employees - Their pro gram designated special training periods for each employee and the employee was ad vanced accordingly. safety rules containing a hundred or more The meta) working industry finally took don'is? a leaf from the railroad manual and used 1 recall an incident where a new man was being "written up"' in one of our plants. He was handed a book of rules on safety and told to read them carefully. After going over them slowly he laid the book down and indicated that he understood their meaning. When asked to sign his name to the employment card he made an X. What good were written rule* in this case? The it as a pattern to organize and develop safe workers. It was a good experiment indeed, for a review of the industry's accident ex perience shows tlie success in the reduction of industrial tragedies that plagued the in dustry' in the early years. Taking Genera! Motors' record, our frequency rate in 1937 is only one-sixth of that in 1925 and the .severity rate only one-third. I'm sure other man could neither write nor read, and yet units of the automotive industry can show a he could not be denied the right to work. similar improvement. Experience has taught o* that a little <\t one of our plants a very effective plan exl:a time spent by the employmeat man was recently adopted and has been success and departmental foreman with a new em ful in developing safety consciousness among ployee before be actually starts work will new as well as older employees. This plant not only pay dividends in the form of held regularly scheduled "executive train quality and quantity of workmanships but ing*' meetings for the purpose of developing will greatly reduce bans suffering and the best possible kind of leadership. Com accident costs. In esriy years, as attempt on pany policies and their effect upon good the part of anyone to encourage selective workmanship and production schedules were employment was often frowned upon by the discussed. Accident prevention methods employment man who coouikrtd il an en were suggested or at least discussed in an 228 Twcuiy-sixth National Safety Congress abstract way until the personnel director de Accidents are too often charged to the cided that such a group could become the wrong account. In the last few years the very' backbone of all the safety activities trenfi has been to place responsibility for in the plant. The result was that the last accident prevention with supervision, par thirty or forty-five minutes of each meet ticularly the foreman, but what happens ing were devoted to the elimination of si>c- when an accident occurs? If the accident cific injury-causing hazards. Each one results it; damaged property, and not nec present was asked to prepare a list of all essarily in injury, the employee is disci the accident eases with which he was fa plined accordingly. On the other hand, if miliar and make specific recommendations the accident should result in injury, steps tor their elimination. arc usually taken to discipline the person I was present at one of the very first safely sessions of this new group, and was surprised at llie enthusiasm and sincerity directly responsible. Supervision, though only indirectly responsible, should not be exempt from such measures. with which the subject was discussed. I 1 am pointing this out to show that re teamed that accidents arc sometimes caused sponsibility lor accident prevention property by poor suircrvision or, let us call it lack placed, plus a thorough investigation, and of proper supervision. The safety session idea followed by justifiable discipline, will add worked but the results were not so marked immeasurably to your plana for an alert and until it was decided to bring into these meet efficient personnel. Eternal vigilance should ings a number of men from the shop and be the pass word with which a man enters allow them to express their opinions as to hi* place of employment and it is the em the causes of accidents. Meetings of this ployment man's job to impress it on his sort were related week after week and are mind. vtill txfing held. A list was compiled and boiled down to twenty-one specific causes ol plant accidents, namely: An analysis recently made of all our 1936 accidents showed that: 9.5 per cent were eye injuries, accounting for 27.8 per cent of 1. Carelessness. 2. Congestion. 3. Type of work. the days lost. 32 per cent were hand injuries, resulting in 58.3 per cent of the days lost. 25.4 per cent were foot injuries, causing 5 4. Poor housekeeping. per cent of the days lost. In other words, i>. Departmental and general activities. 6. Improper storage of material. 7. Inexperienced help. eyes, hands, and feet accounted for 67 per cent of all accidents and 91 per cent of all lost time. Such information should be given 8. Short schedules. 9. Ignorance. 10. Equipment condition. 11. Poor supervision. each employee, particularly the new ones. What better type of ammunition could Ihe employment man have at his disposal to drive home the importance of being alert? 12. Haste. In plants where safety' contests are held 13. Failure to follow instructions. 14. Horseplay. 15. Taking chances. frequently, the nature of the contest should Ire fully explained, especially the part the new man wilt play. Most of us possess that 16 Thoughtlessness. 17. Nature of work. 18. Attitude of **11 can't happen to life." 19. Hazardous conditions, such as lack of 'pare and equipment. 20. Fatigue. 21. Curiosity. competitive spirit and the desire to win, or at least to be on the winning side, but only by working safely can we hope to win. It is both impractical and impossible to point out to a new employee each specific hazard he may encounter in connection with his job in a certain department, just as it is The important thing about this safety impossible for one to be conscious of each meeting type of program is that every man separate danger he might encounter in an in the plant, from supervision down, takes automobile trip over a new road. We must, part in it and shares the responsibility for however, teach the worker to be alert 100 accident prevention. Their suggestions do per cent of the time and to be constantly on not go unheeded, but are given the same the look-out for hazards which are not treatment and handled with the same dis usually connected with the type of work he patch as other important company matters. Is doing. Rules should be kept at a minimum. Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 229 General precautions applying to a certain kind of work, plus 100 per cent alertness to unusual hazards, are adequate instructions for a new employee, if properly adminis tered. It is a difficult job to teach a man how to be alert, but it can be done. First, let him realize that he will be working with people who are willing at all times to give any necessary assistance. Remove that tension which results from working among stran gers and make him feel relaxed. Rigid en forcement of the principles of helpfulness on the part of older employees should be insisted upon, for without the full coopera tion of these older employees any effort toward safety training will be futile. The safety program in any plant should begin in the employment office but by no means end there. Plant the seeds of safety and let them grow out in the department where others might benefit Tire foreman's job begins where the em ployment man's job ends A change in surroundings always carrier with it a certain amount of unrame4*. doe to different types of machines and. **o+t of all, a difference in company pofccie*. All this must be overcome as soon as powuMc. Therefore, instructions as to safe and proper operation and the confitkm exist ing in the department should be given freely. Generate an incentive within the man by teaching him to devise way* and mean* of improving the operation or product. You will find that every man takes pride in h work if he is doing a job he like*. He will take the same kind of pride in the fact that he does his work safely. Demonstrate the principles of machine operation, what results are expected, and explain what may happen in case the in structions are violated. Most of all, let him see you actually doing the job. Turn the job over to the man and observe him closely; then by constructive criticism and patient helpful hints, try to make him correct his faults and don't fail to hand him a bouquet if he does a good job. The first three steps require a relatively small amount of time, while the fourth must go on indefinitely. There is still another step, discipline, which will be exercised only when the foreman's instructions have been violated. The degree to which disciplinary RmsuiT* are to be inflicted should depend upon the violation and I wouldn't attempt to Minot a standard list of penalties. Now. in summary. I'd tike to stress one or two points which to me seem very im portant. First, the employment man can get the ran he wants if he knows what kind to look for. Then he can light the flame of safety consciousness which may have been extinguished since early childhood. It has been stated that an early and provident fear h cbe mother of safety, therefore, safety is an inherent quality sometimes awaiting development. You never heard of anyone who refused to seek a job in that plant because it's too safe. Any safety program begins with the interview of a prospective employee. Visual Education Methods By R. H. FERGUSON Manager of Safety, Republic Steel Corporation, Cleveland, O. The general educational methods avail able to the safety man and followed in many plants are bulletins, posters and such ma terials and devices which call attention to the importance of safely. Practically all of of us use the splendid poster service of the National Safety Council. Perhaps even this service could be improved if we. as mem bers. would cooperate more with the Poster Division in the preparation of the material. We could help them Jo be considerably more specific than they arc for many of us at present. There are many types of posters available also from insurance companies and persons interested in the sale of educa tional information. Your particular attention is directed to the homemade poster prepared by some man in the plant. These posters cover certain types of hazards--perhaps some particular 230 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress accH^nt which has occurred--and they al ways tl attention because both (fte men involved and others in the plant are ac quainted with the details. By all means use tills homemade poster idea. The drawing may be crude, but after all. it's the idea you are trying to put over. processes, these may be of little use tomor row. The only alternative, where profes sional pictures do not fit your needs, is the use of amateur pictures. These are ex tremely valuable where you go into your own plant and actually take pictures of plant conditions. It is quite essential that you let Within the past few years, the National Safety Council has made available a service of posters of a large or outdoor bill board size. These are about 10'feet by 12 feet. They carry general slogans and one is made avail able each month. Many plants are using this service and to my mind, this "Jumbo your imagination have play, and while your picture may not have the finished appear ance, yet you will be able to put over many details impossible to touch otherwise. Re member, you arc actually dealing with your own conditions which your own men usu ally know so well. Such motion pictures of Poster'* has a very definite place in your accident prevention activities. In all cases where you arc using posters and bulletin Itoards. it is essential that the Imard be kept neat and clean, well painted, well lighted and changed often. A second method of using the safety* re minder idea is by the use of various types oi signs at several locations in the plant. For instance, w* have painted signs at certain locations carrying such slogans as THINK" -- "DON'T GET HURT" -- "WORK SAFELY." These same ideas can he worked into revolving or moving signs. They can be placed on electric or gasoline lift trucks that move through your plants They can be used on life-size figures which may he moved from place to place. All of either the 8 millimeter or 16 millimeter sue are relatively inexpensive and will be found most helpful. Film strips have been developed on a fairly wide scale by the National Safety Council. These strips are in a definite se quence, and talks have been prepared to go with each of them. These will be found very valuable, but this service of the Coun cil could be of more use if members would work with the Poster Division in further development on specific subjects. Recently the Travelers Insurance Com pany, in cooperation with the National Manufacturers Association, developed sev eral film strips to which sound has been added. One of these covers an industrial safety subject and one public safety. These this is intended only to remind the person are splendid for general purposes. nel continually of safety ami of the impor I have now in process a film strip of this tance to them of preventing accidents and nature. This strip will be composed of pic injury. Few plants have* made (he fullest use of electric signs and flashers for safety purposes. tures of our various operations and we believe it will be of general interest. Our General Safety Orders will J* touched on In all tf this, we sltould never overlook the fad that mechanical displays, used widely in some plants, arc of untold value. Hy this I mean the diorama and its various uses in explaining safety rules, unsafe prac tices. and specific accidents; the use pf ani mated figures never fails to attract attention. The placing of safety signs, etc., on trucks to be polled through the plant once or twice a day lias been found quite useful. briefly, as it is with these orders that prac tically every employee is familiar. The in troduction of this strip will show a picture of our Operating Vice-President and our Director of Industrial Relations. Each of them will stress the importance of safety and the prevention of injuries in our opera tions. Every time this picture is shown, you will actually hear the recorded voices of these two men. From the visual educational standpoint, In the use of film strips, the Cootax we now conic to (He specific methods which camera should not be overlooked, because may be employed for training supervisors in many instances the small pictures taken and personnel- in your plant of actual conditions can be Professional motion pictures that fit your needs are few and far between. Even though you develop particular pictures from projected easily and inexpensively. These pictures should be taken in sequence and present actual plant conditions. a commercial standpoint today, with the In the use of all of this material. It is rapidly changing industrial methods and well to visualize specific rules to better carry Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 231 out your general educational activities. The ordinary photograph has been of great help in bringing out such ideas as housekeeping and safety. In some cases, it is possible to use such photographs in projections, and right along with that you should keep in mind that glass slides are mighty useful and inexpensive. Many organizations use publications or magazines. While much of such material is lost, this is a method of presenting safety which has been of great benefit. We do not use the employee publication method but issue instead specific information sheets relative to safety instructions to our fore men. This is material the supervisors may* use in their group safety meetings, and it is so prepared that it may l>e passed on to their men. Perhaps the idea 1 wish to touch briefly upon now is one which should have been discussed at the beginning of this paper. Of what avail are all of the posters, bulletin boards, lights, flashers, beautiful signs, and what have you, if the men in the plant fail to sec and understand them? So many of us today took but do not see. I do not intend to undertake a psycliological discussion of this problem, but there arc one or two little things we can do to **et our workers to observe what they see. 1. Use only short slogans; that is, get your idea across with just a couple of words. If you use more, it will pot register in the human brain. 2. Make it easy to read. Educational ma terial which is hard to see or grasp is wasted. That is why I like bright colors in posters, and bulletin boards that arc clean and well-lighted- 3. Use only items or subjects that are clear to the people you are trying to reach. Remember the example of the homemade poster and place yourself in the worker's position. If you knew the artist, knew the thing he was attempting to picture, surely your interest would be much greater. 4. Change your signs and posters--move them around and your people will get the habit of glancing at the sign or board for a few words of a short reminder about the job--and safety. The real visual training for the prevention of accidents and for efficiency on any job is job analysis--and teaching the man to observe what he secs. This phase of our subject is the most important. To teach the job, the foremen must know how to do the job; how to do it safely; how to do it effi ciently. In addition, he must know how to teach the men under him to carry out such instructions to the letter. So many safety men overlook the limita tions of a foreman and forget the foreman's many responsibilities. I believe it is the safety man's obligation to make sure the foreman realizes the hazards of the various tasks which his men must perform. Never have I known a foreman to fail to accept a safety suggestion which was properly pre sented. The safety man must be sure that the foreman knows how to get the safety story over to every one of his men, and above all, that the foreman actually -knows the safety story involved. This calls--for visual edu ction by the safety man, and unfortunately, r my holding such responsibility fail to measure up. The matter of job study has received much attention in this country. During the last two or three year*, we have developed a method in safely meetings of talking about ipecific items where we possibly can, ex plaining just how things occur and how un safe practices can be eliminated. We are trying to tell men what to do and thus make them think. In one particular plant \vc were having trouble in dosing car doors. Pinched and broken fingers were experienced. Car doors were being pushed from the rollers. Men were falling between the dock and the car and so on. A thorough study of the method involved indicated that the foremen were >u disagreement, but the happy suggestion was offered that light chain fall could be used to good advantage (or this work. This wax developed, discussed, and explained in a group safety me'eting, and has practically eliminated the difficulty. We actually dem onstrated the difficulty and showed how it could be eliminated. Incidentally, we se cured a number of good ideas on loading and unloading cars which might not other wise have come to the management's atten tion. In this same plant we were experiencing difficulty with piling objects of various sizes and shapes on trucks. For production and safety purposes, it was essential that rou tine be followed. However, considerable adverse experience led us to call the men 232 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress involved together in order to demonstrate, by actually showing them, how to load a truck and then explaining the reasons for it. The difficulty was eliminated, the Itazard eliminated, the men understood and coopcrated for the benefit of all. You have all known of many instances where the protective devices provided were not employed by the parties to whom they were issued. This, of course, is a problem which must be continuafly kept after, but in many cases, after the proper use of the protective device is explained to the worker --just how it is to be used and what it will do for him--you will very often find that the equipment will be used regularly. Only by actually demonstrating, by doing, by sltowing, can you get such points across to the man on the job. The contest or the arousing of a competi tive spirit between departments is always useful. Dramatics, such as playlets and skits, have been found of use in more formal meetings. The use of first-aid demonstra tions lias been found of considerable ad vantage in u number of plants. This gives the men something specific to do and has a great teaching value for safety. This is particularly true of the demon stration and teaching of artificial respira tion. An example on the use of stretchers, telling the men the location of the stretchers and how to set them up and how to handle injured men can also be used. This has a very definite benefit from a visual standpoint in getting the idea across--to get men to think in terms of safety. Developing Safe Workers in Metal Working Industries Through the Regular Supervisory Force By VAN B. HUNTER Supervisor of Safety, International Harvester Company, Chicago Safe workers can be developed in no other way than through the regular supervisory foTce. The supervisor must lie the key man in any successful safety program. Too often supervisors arc prone to think of safety not as an opportunity, but as an added responsibility--something apart from their already varied and exacting duties. But accident prevention effort goes hand in glove with every other supervisory activity, can be controlled by exactly the same methods, and many times by the identical effort that is used contra) production, costs and quality. There must be. first of all, painstaking in struction backed by employee support and day-by-day supervision that is both suffi cient and efficient. The mere fact that a supervisor must accept the responsibility for accident pre vention does not mean that he must person ally watch over each member of his group every hour of the day, any more than he would be expected to stand beside each workman to see that he does his work prop erly. Actually, the supervisor is responsible for the result, and- in like manner is respon sible for carrying out the program aimed at the result. It is obvious, then, that any safety program, to win the support of the foreman, must be designed so that it will be a help and not a hindrance to him. Above all, it must be in keeping with good industrial relations. In considering this subject from the in dustrial relations as well as the supervisor's viewpoint, we must recognize that we have been and still are passing through one of the most trying periods in industrial history'. Few, if any, of us have ever faced a similar situation. What we have passed through during the past seven years has vitally af fected all industrial relations, and has left a mark on safety relations as well. We are now faced with the problem of rebuilding safety organizations under new conditions. There can be no doubt that the supervisor and the employee alike have felt the impact of these sudden social and eco nomic swings. In too many cases the net result may be a change in philosophy on the part of both that will tend to increase the feeling of indifference on the part of the em ployee and a feeling of helplessness on the part of the supervisor. We must also keep in miud Uiat the pres- Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 233 ent-day supervisor is held responsible for many other things in addition to safety. The chances are that he was selected for his job because ot his ability to produce rather than on bis record for safety accomplishments. Yet the supervisor cannot be relieved of his safety responsibility without at the same time relieving him of his authority. When this is done, he is no longer a supervisor. With a job to be done that is exacting as to quality requirements the supervisor ob viously would pick the most dependable em ployee to do it. He would make sure the employee was fully equipped and properly instructed before starting. Under these con ditions the chances are a hundred to one that the job will be done safely, because the same elements that assure quality are a guar antee against accident. Lack of instruction, or failure to follow instruction, and improper methods continue to be the cause of mishaps to men that result in injur*', just as they cause mishaps to material that result in stioiled work. Wc are constantly reminded that accidents to men and accidents to ma terial spring from the same source. Costs arc another thing of major impor tance. Tt would be difficult to visualize a department or an industry with a high sever ity rale showing a low cost of production. A reliable authority tells us that the indirect cost o( accidents amounts to four times the direct or reported cost. It is quite unneces sary to emphasize how an accident, particu larly a serious accident, can disrupt the morale of employees, stop the flow of prodoction and increase the cost of the product. Yoe all know, too, that no case of serious injury ran f*c fully compensated so far as the r<qitnyC i* concerned. In t)i final analysis. preventing accidents is not only good human it is just good business. The lime has long since passed for using 'hotgun methods in preventing accidents; what we need is sharpshooting practice. There was a time when accidents were so numerous that almost any kind of effort, if pointed in the right direction, would show revolts. As the number of accidents has de creased. however, tlie problem has become more specific, and wc must adjust our method i*> suit time conditions. Two things are necessary : First, we must tonvmtt ourselves that accidents can be pre vented. Ask yourself, for example, how many accidents have occurred in your plant, or within your knowledge, that could not have been prevented. We all know too well that after an accident, means can be found to prevent the same kind of accident from oc curring again. Second, we must train our selves and those who work with us to antici* pate the probable accident and do something about it, or we will continue to send men home to face their families and their futures as cripples. I have said that wc must be more specific. Let me suggest that each job, regardless of its nature, be thoroughly studied for accident possibilities ami that a definite, systematic method be followed to make sure that some thing is done about it before an accident is caused. At first tins may seem to be a large order; yet if it is done in an orderly and systematic manner it can be done quite easily. For example, if one job or operation is covered each week, a total of more than fifty different jobs can be taken care of within a year. When we consider that this work would be carried on by each depart ment doing the same thing, it is apparent that the task i not at all impossible of accom plishment. Make "Exposure Studies" Generally speaking, every operation must be studied through its various cycles by the industrial engineering and lime study depart ments before the method can be established and before a price can be set. Isn't it just as practical and just as necessary to consider each job and each cycle of the operation from the standpoint of the hazard involved? Why not adopt--at least in principle--the method of time study, but instead of think ing of the time element, consider each cycle from the standpoint of cxjxjsurc? You may he surprised to find how many times there is absolute harmony lietwccn safety and efficiency. We have found it the rule rather than the exception. Let me illustrate by an actual experience. An employee performing a gang punching operation on steel parts got his finger under a punch. After the accident an investigation disclosed two things that contributed In the cause: First, improper stripper equipment had bco used; that is, instead of using a stripper for each punch in the gang, a stripper was used for each end of the bar. The result was that in placing the stock the chance of the operator having his finger under the punch was increased. 234 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Second, the operator was reaching with his right hand for another piece of stock which was beyond easy reach and he pulled his left hand out of position, so that it was di rectly under the punch. Both of these causes could have been apparent before this acci dent, if someone had studied the set-up then as was done afterward. Before this job was started again two things were done to make it safe, and inci dentally both of them contributed to a belter product or improved efficiency. First. a stripper was provided for each punch, with the result that the chance of accidentally getting a Anger under the punch was practically removed, and the chance of the bar seizing the punch on the up-stroke, due to the bending of the piece of material, also was removed at the some time. Second, instead of reaching for each piece of stock from the truck, a shelf or holder large enough to hold 20 or 30 pieces was provided in front of the press just below' the lower die. This permitted the operator to do the job with much less effort and faster. Requires Cooperation To be realty effective, this analysis of ac cident causes should be done with the full cooperation of the employees affected, or a group of employees doing similar work. Such a method will not only take advantage of many opinions, which is desirable, but also will prove to be highly educational to both the supervisor and the employees. Wc have recently conducted an industrial liazard survey, designed to point out and to record occupational hazards where a process or an operation creates a condition that may result in health impairment. This has been done by the close coopcratiou of the engin eering, medical and safety departments. As a result, in most of our operations we now have a record of all such jobs with a specific recommendation for correction. These recommendations are being carried on tickler until completed. An analysis of jobs for accident hazards might in the same man ner result in a scries of departmental operat ing rules to prevent accidents, just as wc now have rules based on accident experience. Accidents arc caused by exposure to dan ger. Sometimes this exposure results from deliberate chance-taking, but a far greater number of exposures result from unseen haz ard* which are part of some established operation. Far more significant is the fact that the number and severity of accidents are likely to bear a direct relation to the number and extent of the exposures to dan ger 'll is obvious, then, that if accidents are to be reduced, the exposure to hazards must also be reduced by systematic, orderly pro cedure aimed squarely at accident possibil ities, and removing them before an accident is caused. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 The Placement of Men from the Standpoint of Physical Fitness By HAROLD A. VONACHEN, B.S., M.D. Medical Director, Caterpillar Tractor Co. Peoria, 111. The purpose of pre-employment examina tions is not to accept only those who are physically perfect, hut to find the true con dition of the .employee and place him in an occupation in which he will be able to pro duce the work required of him without detriment to his own health or that of his fellow-worker. During the past ten years wc have had experience with 40,000 pre-employment and Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 235 periodical examinations. Our routine is briefly this: Following the acceptance of the applicant by the employment depart ment, he is submitted to the medical division for examination and the results with rec ommendations are then submitted to the personnel division. If an employee has been absent for seven days, regardless of reason, he must again submit himself for physical examination. Our rejections have varied between 5 and 0 per cent, the average being approximately 6 per cent. occupation that requires no marked exer tion, he may be a valued employee over a long period of time. Tn all cases where there are correctable defects, we instruct the individual to con sult his family physician for treatment and then to report to our department in a month for a further check. Many defects arc found of which the applicant has no knowl edge; he is grateful for the opportunity of correction and is impressed with the fact that the examination is for his benefit as well as that of the employer. Reasons for complete rejection of an em ployee will vary with the type of industry, hut every medical director should bear in mind that rejection should only be made when the physical condition of the indi vidual indicates that he would be unable to perform the duties required of him or that he might further injure his own health or jeopardize the health and safety of his fel low employee. Complete inguinal hernjas, ventral and umbilical hernias, acute venereal infections, contagious dermatoses, hypertensions, either essential or associated with kidney damage, cprdiac diseases associated with signs of decompensation, visual disturbances which cannot be corrected, tuberculosis, silicosis with modifications, varicosities of lower ex tremities are only a few of the conditions which have caused us to reject the 6 per cent of applicants. The remaining 94 per cent were not all in perfect physical condition but were aided in the correction of their physical defects and when complete correc tions were impossible, were placed in occu pations suitable to their physical condition. Defective vision is most common. The ipen must submit tliemselvcs to an oculist and arc not placed on the job until suitable adjustments arc made. All hernias are not rejected; if a weakness of the fascial wall, an enlargement of the Tings with a slight impulse are noted, the individual is in formed of his condition and asked to sign a statement to the effect that he has been informed at the time of employment. Then lie is instructed that certain ways of lifting and twisting are apt to aggravate his diffi- cultics. Cardiac disease is not a cause for out right rejection. If the heart is compensated and if the applicant can be placed in an Our plan for dealing with the syphilis problem is unique. This plan is by no means accepted as final in our organization, but it is humanitarian and has for its sole pur pose the health and future of the employee. Every physical examination in our routine is not complete without a Kahn test. If this is found to be positive, the employee is instructed to present himself to his family physician for a rccheck of his blood and asked to bring the report to the medical division. If this checks with the original findings, he is employed with the under standing that he must take treatment con tinuously and that in six months his family physician will be consulted as to his faith fulness in treatment and a further check will be made by our medical division. Of course, no men are accepted who arc in the stage where they would be a menace to their fellow worker, nor do we retain any one who presents any signs of contagion. Now immediately there will be the cry that we are accepting cases of syphilis who arc allowed to associate with other em ployees. But all of you are also accepting cases of syphilis, only you arc often ignorant of the fact because in the vast majority of cases ordinary physical examinations fail to disclose syphilis. Our cases are receiving treatment, thereby in many instances avoid ing total disability, avoiding neurological changes which make them a menace to themselves and their fellow employees, while your cases are slowly and surely be coming worse with the result that many will be charges of the state as inmates of insane hospitals. Let us remember that a perfect physical condition is not absolutely necessary for em ployment, that the employee should be in structed and aided in the correction of his 236 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress defects and not rejected until every reaMjnahle means has been exhausted to place him on a job which will not be detrimental to his health or the health and safety of his fellow employee. But an equal problem now presents itself after we have placed the man in employ ment. and that is to help hint preserve liis health. The health of the individual must be considered from every angle because many accidents on machinery have buen due to faulty reaction time of the individual as a result of ill health. Naturally, no mind will function normally in a diseased body and I strongly hope that the time will come when yearly examination* among all employees will be compulsory. I realize that there n> much opposition to this thought at the present time in certain quarter*, hut iMimc day the employee will realize it is for his Itcncfil that such pro ceedings arc instituted. In tf*ose organiza tions and industries in which I have had the pleasure to function as yearly examiner, 1 find that the employees are extremely well pleased with such periodic examinations and are asking that they be continued. If men are made to understand that they will not he taken from the pay roll because of their physical condition, but merely advised as to what steps should be taken to preserve their health, then I am sure that eventually this goal will be reached. Habits also are an important factor for we know that excessive drinking or smoking slows the reaction time of the average indi vidual and makes him more susceptible to accidents. The home environment again must be considered. If . an individual is unhappy in his home life, if he is confronted by sickness and death in his immediate family, there is naturally a mental disturb ance and he is unable to concentrate, and the consequence of a lapse of memory sootier or later is a serious accident. Point of Operation Guards for Metal Working Machines By SAMUEL S. DIBSDAI.E Safety Engineer, The J. G. Brill Company* Philadelphia It has always been my opinion that a plant engaged on a production schedule has less point of operation hazards than the smaller plant. Usually each machine in a mass production plant has some specific op eration to perform day in and day out, and aside from changing the tools for sharpening occasionally, the general set up for the ma chine is seldom changed. In shops of this type, precautions for guarding at the point of operation can gen erally be coordinated in the desist* of the loots, dies, and jig\ providing the safety en gineer is consulted: but how* many of us are consulted about these requirements when dies or tools are being designed? We usually have to recommend litem after pro duction is started and then, tt our recom mendations arc radical, we are reminded that they will flow up production. Production can be measured at the end of the day or week in the value of the dollar. The cost of saving fingers and limbs can not be credited. We only hear about the cost of an accident after it occurs. It win repay every company, whether large or small, to have its safety engineer, insurance company inspector accompany the production engineer or superintendent when ever new machinery is to be purchased. The specifications of the machine should not be confined to production alone. An accident or two on a machine, due to inadequate or poor guards, will cost much more than the expense of sending the safety engineer to see that it is equipped* by the builder with the necessary guards. The small plant is usually at a disadvan tage in installing guards at the point of opera tion, although there are many guards on the market that can be purchased and applied to standard machines. htlmiiolh'c amt Machine Shop-Power Press 227 The variety of operations and the necessity of changing the set up of the machine, in some cases several times a day. make it im practical to install these guards without add ing considerable cost to the operation. Those interested in purchasing guards can secure anjr information desired from the Associated Guard Maker*, with headquar ters in Chicago. Often plants with a well-organized saftey program have their safety record upset by an employee who had generally been considered a careful workman. An accident of this type took place a short time ago in a machine ilnjp I was visiting in Philadelphia. The shop had a well-organized safety program. The housekeeping and general safety conditions could be noted the moment you entered the building. Shortly after en tering the room where this man was em ployed, we heard a commotion and saw the man being helped to a scat. He was on the verge of collapse, having narrowly escaped a very serious accident, with apparently no one to blame but himself. He had been operating a 24 inch engine lathe, his job requiring him to drill and tap some cast steel washers. As it was a piece work job, he took a 14 inch universal chuck and removed the back plate, since it did not fit the spindle of his machine. After remov ing the plate, he chucked the universal chuck in the regular chuck of his machine. Unfortunately the chuck wrench and the screws of the larger chuck were badly worn, and it was impossible to get a tight grip upon the universal chuck. Consequently, after he had drilled and tapped a few of these washers, the universal chuck became loose, flew out of the larger chuck and just missed striking him in the stomach. It is almost impossible for any safety en gineer or member of any safety committee, unless lie minutely inspects ever)* part of the machine tool equipment, to protect the oper ator of a machine from an accident of this character. You and I must secure the help and the assistance of ihc operator liimscll. There was no good reason why this man should have used a wrench that was worn badly. Since neither the wrench nor the chuck is returned to the tool room for in spection, we must rely on the mental alert ness of the operator to prevent accidents of this kind. In Pennsylvania, to safeguard workers at the point of operation, a law lias been passed, giving Hie Department of Labor and Industry' authority to draft new rules am! regulations to eliminate hazards which might be created in an industrial establish ment. This was enacted to replace the old Fac tory Act of 1905. Tt enables the Department of Labor and Industry to promulgate regula tions to guard Ihc operators of saws, planers, punch presses, rolls and all other machinery where a serious accident might occur. The inspector from the Department of Labor and Industry can order a guard placed at the point of operation or the machine shut down entirely. There is apparently no short-cut in guard ing the various machine tools at the point of operation. It is largely a matter of meeting the conditions as they are found in individual shops and being governed by the operations performed on the machine. It very often occurs that a guard successfully installed on one type of machine will be totally unsuc cessful on the same type of a machine per forming another operation. Designing for Safety* By B. E. ROCKHOFF Designing Engineer, Detroit Steel Products Co., Detroit, Mich. I want to drive Home one point. It is tH*.: Every plant has its peculiar die and t<jJ buard^. and it is up to the tool d*rutmer to and oat what they arc and provide iqcbr to giTfoxac them. W W. K Cam. Secretary-Manager. EssexA siuisw. Windsor, Ontario, What should the tool designer do to de sign for safety? 1. Accept your responsibility. There arc some designers who feel that designing for safety is not their job. "My job is to design toots that work, to make them safe is the safety engineer's job." Not a bit of it. The 238 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress safety engineer's job is to spot hazards and rc|>ort them to the proper authority to have them removed. The teeth in the punch press arc only one of his problems. He cannot design safe guards for all your tools; that i your job. 2. lidwrote yourself. There are certain broad principles of safety that every tool designer should know. Read the National Safety Nexus regularly- and carefully, it is an education in safety. This Conventioti is one of the greatest schools of safety that there is. Here you are informed concerning safety in general, here are discussed specific problems that others have encountered. I would like to see every chief tool designer in the country* come to this convention to leant about safety and, what is equally im portant, lx1 fired with the enthusiasm that is apparent in others here. Methods of Learning There arc three ways of learning t By in formation, by* observation and by experi ence. You can get plenty of information right here and now. Much can be learned hy observation, but, whereas Information can be brought to you, to learn by observation you must go to the scene of operations, and that means plant visits. Don't miss an opportunity to see what the other fellow docs. Experience is not the best teacher, it is merely the most impressive one. I f you could only he sufficiently impressed by* the information ami by your observations you could avoid the bitterness and costliness of cxiericnec. Profit by Experience Hut there arc things that are learned only lv exicricm*t\ When these experiences come, do not miss the opportunity of p'rofitin by* them. J. Study your problem. As a tool de signer your vision must be broad enough to look beyond the mere provision of a guard on a die. You may be confronted with the duty of handling large fixtures or jigs. That is a problem you can often solve. It may mean no more than providing holes for M*rcw eyes. But they should he in the design. Show them on the detail drawing with a clear, note as to what they* are for, so that some economically minded tool maker does not omit them. On the other hand it may mean the design or purchase of elevating trucks for handling heavy tools and it may mean redesigning them so that the tools cannot slide off because the tops arc oily. It may mean providing a small jib crane or a trolley track. And it may mean that you must FIGHT with another department to get these safe guards. That is your job in designing for safety. Investigate Immediately When experiences come in tlw form of accidents, do not miss the opportunity to profit by them. Investigate every accident --at once. See the injured man and be im pressed by the horror of accident. Some designers shrink from this. I did, too, but I decided that I would let each specific major accident make an indelible mark on my mind.' Also see the JOB and find out for your self definitely why that accident happened, so that you can work out a remedy < the design of the tool rather than by issuing another shop rule which can be broken. The safest safety is the kind that is designed into the tool. For an example here is one of those "queer** accidents. A new operator was hired to run a press on which there was an overhead mechanical device connected with a crank shaft to operate a device on the die. The foreman, a man of average height, operated the press fur die new man and then walked away. He had hardly turned his back when the new man was knocked out cold. Cure la Simple Tim is what lutpixucd. The overhead mechanism, on its down stroke came to within 5 feet 10 inches of the floor, which was sufficiently high so that it did not strike the old operator or the foreman. But the new operator happened to be 6 feet 2 inches and the first time he tripped the press the lever struck him on the head. This problem calls for a solution by the tool designer who must provide mi the design plenty of clearance under such moving parts or guard them completely. Make detail drawings of safeguards as a part of the permanent record. Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 239 Recent Developments in the Safety of Internal . Transportation Equipment By B. F. McAULEY Material Handling Engineer, Western Electric Company. Hawthorne Works, Chicago Manual transfer of materials within a manufacturing plant in addition to being in herently hazardous generally calls for stren uous effort. Industry has recognized this condition and the trend is lo reduce the number of heavy manual handling opera tions through the introduction of mechanical equipment, thereby making employment more agreeable and satisfactory. In this improve ment industrial trucks arc taking an im portant part Industrial truck manufacturers have been alert to the needs of industry and to the possibilities of this type of equipment. One has only to look back at models that were considered the last word only a few years ago to realize that the last ten years have hem a remarkable period in this industry. Several important developments have been introduced which have made trucks appli cable to operations unthought of only a few years ago. An interesting example of the progress in this field is the high capacity truck designed for use at continuous sheet mills. The out put of these mills is large and trucks have successfully met the requirement that a smooth connected flow of large coils or rolls be maintained between major processes. Ham and platform trucks are particularly suited to this class of work and units with capacities ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 pounds have been designed especially for this service. Wheel pressures on these trucks are high and the larger units are equipped with effortless power steering for ease in maneuvering. Sixty-volt motors are generally used in this heavy duty service and many of the power plants are gas- electric units. Another important application of electric trucks is in the handling and changing of heavy dies used in forming automobile bodies. Formerly such dies were in general handled with overhead cranes but especially designed electric trucks and auxiliary equip ment have simplified die changing operations and lessened the accident hazards associated with handling and transfer of dies weighing up to 20 tons or more. Another advantage of handling with trucks is that dies can lie easily transported to other sections of the plant for storage or repairs. Other outstanding examples of electric trucks that have reduced accident hazards are telescopic tiering trucks which permit safe handling and storage of materials at heights that were formerly considered im practical or exceedingly dangerous. Trucks are also being used to transport ladles con taining molten iron from cupolas to molding floors in foundries. These ladles are fitted with splashless safety covers, and an addi tional safety factor is that the flexibility of trucks permits hot metal to be carried closer to the point where it is to be used, thus reducing the distance it has to be carried in small ladles by hand. The industrial truck industry is compara tively new and until recently manufacturers have for the most part concentrated their attention on engineering developments and improvements in design, but it is evident that safety is now receiving serious considera tion as is evidenced by several of the more recent designs which provide better visibility and protection for operators. Other features that have been found to be of special value to safe operation of power trucks arc dynamic and regenerative braking, first-speed foot-control of the travel motor on three `motor units, and over-running clutches on tiering trucks. Dynamic braking on the travel motor is of particular value where ramps must be negotiated. This feature provides for gov erned speed on descending ramps and under normal conditions also takes much of the 2*10 7 ti'cuty-sixth National Safety Congress burden oi stopping away frum friction brakes. Thus the possibility of complete brake failure is practically eliminated and friction brake maintenance is reduced. Control of lioist motors on high lift trucks has been improved by adoption of regenera tive braking, that is, when loads arc being lowered the hoist motor acts as a generator thus providing a braking action which per mits lowering the load under control in addi tion to* returning a small amount of energy luck into the battery. This type of braking greatly reduces (be possibility of dropping loads due to the failure of the mechanical brakes. A recent design of control interlocks the first speed (ravel control with the brake Icda1. This is of particular advantage on tiering trucks and other three-motor trucks, as it permits "inciting** the truck forward or backward with the foot pedal while leav ing the hands of the operator free for ele vating or lowering (he load and steering the truck. regulations governing (he operation of trucks within the plant. The time required to train operators varies, as some are naturally better qualified for this work and become proficient in a very short time. I Iowever, in every case it is well to bear in mind that the more effi cient operators will always be those who anticipate possible interferences and above all react speedily and without confusion in emergencies. The structural characteristics of buildings used for storing raw materials sometimes do not readily lend themselves to overhead cranes for unloading, storing and handling sheet, strip and coil stock. Consequently the safe and efficient handling of relatively large quantities of such raw materials pre sents a problem ivliich has been simplified by the development of unit load and pallet shipments. Most of our sheet and strip slock is 96 inches or less in length and therefore can be loaded crossways in freight cars. Suppliers ship these materials securely Over-running clutches on the hoist motor bound in unit bundles weighing approxi of high-lift trucks practically eliminate jam mately 4,000 pounds each. ming during titc lowering operation, jam ming may seriously affect the stability of piles of tiered material and thus introduce the possibility of accidents caused by falling material. Individual bundles usually have cleats strapped to the lower surface and sides to permit handling with fork trucks. The side cleats separate the bundles and reduce snag ging when the width of bundles is less than Experience has shown that the introduc the length of forks. When cleats are not tion of protective equipment such as steer attached, bundles are laid on runners placed ing lever and pedal guards occasionally en on car floors and vertical spaces are gen counters O|>|x>$ifion from some of the more erally inserted between bundles. Unit bun capable and experienced operators. This dies in each end of the car are usually reaction, no doubt, is due to the assumption chain-tied with strapping, or blocked to (hat installation oi guards reflects on their prevent excessive shifting in transit. Suffi ability to handle trucks without endanger cient clearance is left opposite the doors to ing themselves or others. However, after permit a truck to enter and turn into posi they have had an opportunitj* to drive tion. Individual bundles are picked up by guarded truck* practically all arc soon con the fork truck and placed on platforms or vinced of the benefits of the protection pro live skids, which are then removed from the vided. As a result of the greater use of p6wcr trucks, many injuries such as strains and hernias inherent in hand trucking opera tions have to a large degree been eliminated, hut some new* hazards of an entirely dif ferent character Itavc, of course, been intro duced. fudustry is taking prompt action to combat these hazards. The best general pre car to the storage area with a low-lift plat form truck. The time required to unload an average car has been reduced to one hour for three men as Compared with five hours for five men unloading by hand. With mediauical handling fatigue has been largely eliminated and the accident frequency has, therefore, been greatly reduced. ventive is, of course, training. No employee Handling scrap material has long been a slnnitd Ik allowed lo drive an industrial serious problem from the Standpoint of truck until he has demonstrated his ability safety. Scrap from those of our punch to operate In* vehicle in a safe manner and presses that arc not equipped with roll feeds has become familiar with the rules and and scrap cut-offs is placed either on stake Automotive and Machine Shop--Poivcr Press 241 trucks or in box trucks and delivered to the balers. The bales are placed in tiering skid bins and stored until a car-load has been accumulated. A rotating fork truck is used to tier the bins and later to load the baled scrap into gondola cars. Turnings and other scrap materials which may or may not be baled are handled in much the same manner. Another very interesting and practical de velopment is our method of handling stacks of pig lead with electric trucks. Under the old method pigs weighing approximately 90 pounds each were loaded in jumbled piles in box cars and there was no other alterna tive than unloading by hand. Minor changes to a tilting fork type truck and the attach ment of a three-sided box enclosure lo the lifting mechanism provided a very satisfac tory means of handling thirty-five pigs of lead, stacked five wide, cross piled seven high and weighing approximately 3,200 pounds. Refiners who supply the lead use loading equipment of a somewhat similar design which also handles units of 35 pigs each. These stacks are set adjacent to each other in two or three rows at both ends of the boxcar in which they are shipped. Each row is placed on wooden sliding strips and se curely bound with two steel straps. Thus each row is free to slide back and forth as a unit, and unless the car is subjected to very rough handling in transit, there is little change in the relative position of pigs in the individual stacks or rows. the design and application of electric trucks for handling three-wheeled cable-corc trucks .having a gross weight of 10,000 pounds. Structural details of a portion of the build ing in which these trucks o|icratc limited the concentrated floor load to an amount that would not permit lifting the cure truck entirely clear of the floor. It was therefore necessary to design a lifting mechanism strong enough to support a portion of the weight of a loaded core truck and suffi ciently manageable to permit operation in restricted areas. Cable core trucks have a fixed axle in front and a swivel caster in the rear and can be pushed or trailed with equal case, from cither the axle or caster end. The electric truck grips either the front axle or lugs on the swivel caster and lifts that portion of tbe core truck free of the floor. The lifting mechanism consists of upper and lower jaws for gripping the object to be raised. The operation consists of aligning tire gripping jaws with the core truck axle (or with the lugs on swivel caster) advancing the electric truck until the jaws arc above and below the axle (or lugs) then moving the lift controller into the **UP*' position. The lower jaw, which is connected to the lifting mechanism, raises the axle until it comes in contact with the upper jaw which holds it securely. The gripping pressure depends upon tension of coil springs at inner ends of the pivoted upper jaws, the normal setting of which is 1,500 pounds. The operation of unloading after bands have been cut is relatively simple. Dimen sions of the lifting box provide slight clear ance over a stack of thirty-five pigs, and each side has a flange extending inward at the bottom. To unload the stacks of lead the lifting box is lowered so that flanges fit under the lugs on the ends of the pigs in the bottom row. The truck is then moved forward and the box raised and tilted back ward. In this manner each stack of thirty- When lifted, the core (ruck in effect be comes an integral part of (lie electric truck, which then caf-rtes a portion of the core truck load. The installation of this equip ment has completely eliminated burns, strains, and the unavoidable fatigue associ ated with manual handling of cable core* in and out of vacuum drying ovens and the cable drying room, which is maintained at a temperature of 125* with a relative humidity of 'A to 1 per cent. five pigs is lifted and removed from the car as a unit. Trucks have proved particularly well suited for this service as they not only reduced the time and physical effort in volved, but also practically eliminated such hazards as hand, foot and back injuries that are inseparable from heavy manual handling operations. For years our industrial trucks had been painted a dark green that blended with interior backgrounds. Although collisions had been remarkably few and of minor consequence, a more contrasting orange- yellow has been adopted as standard color to make the trucks more conspicuous. When instituted, this change stood out as a radical Probably one of the most notable ad departure but the marked contrast soon vances from the viewpoint of safety was wore off and the bright yellow color has 242 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress undoubtedly made trucks easier to see and thereby reduced the possibilities of some one being injured by moving trucks. From the standpoint of safety, our ex perience with industrial trucks at Haw thorne has conclusively demonstrated that types of hazards long associated with man ual transfer of material have been reduced to a very low figure and that accidents chargeable to industrial trucks have re mained considerably below what might rea sonably be expected when the activity and quantity of materials handled on these units is taken into consideration. Prevention of Accidents in Repetitive Operations By DR. JAMES S. THOMAS President, Chrysler Institute of Engineering, Detroit, Mach. There arc three rather definite approaches to the solution of the problem of accidents in repetitive operations. (1) Selecting the ^iterative*: (2) educating them once on the job: and (,1) the wide adoption of safety devices on machines. Investigation of accidents in factories and workshops is more than 100 years old. The Factory Act of England was passed in 1853. Under this act government inspectors of fac tories were appointed. At first they had to do with lung hours of work for woiiicii and children; but accidents caused by unguarded machinery were reported by these inspectors. Under a subsequent Factory Act passed in 1844, regulations were laid down designed to reduce accidents in factories and workshops uing machinery. letter tlicsc laws were further extended, and inspectors were given a still wider range until about 1878 shipyards were brought under suiiervisiun and accident cwtrol. By 1895 laundries, docks, warehouses, electric utium. and other buildings were included. Hy 1901 ||>c Honw Secretary wax given jHiwcr to certify manufacturing and machine processes used m factories, and to say .when they were dangerous, and to make such regu lations on the prevention of accidents as he deemed necessary. In our own country legislation had made great progress. This has been brought about hy accident prevention organizations and their educational programs. There are so many factors in the problem of preventing accidents in repetitive opera tions that no single track of approach can be made to it. Before making suggestions for the preven tion of accidents it will be well to examine briefly some of the causes. Negligence Tltere is ample statistical evidence that accidents are due more to negligence of the workers themselves than to defects in tlic machinery. There are two classes of acci dents, those caused by defects in the machine and those caused by the negligence of the workers. Accidents due to the human ele ments offer the more difficult problem and our efforts should be definitely concerned with this human factor. Accident Proneness Accident proneness is particularly impor tant to those who manage employees engaged in repetitive operations. In 1919 Greenwood and Woods investi gated the accident frequency in groups of workers engaged in various machining opera tions in the manufacture of shells. While some suffered no accidents at all, others suf fered once, twice, and a few more frequently, even though all were engaged at the same machine and on the same operation. Chance might explain such a phenomenon, but it would be very unsatisfactory. Workers might start equal, but suffering one accident, a worker might then from nervousness or fear have his accidents increased or decreased. If accidents increase to such a person, they may be called biased accidents. But some workers would start already nervous, or more prone toward accidents; in this case, the accidents occurring would be classified as unequal accidents. Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 243 In a study of a group of 648 women in a shell factory working over a period of 13 months, it was found that two-thirds had no accidents, about one-fifth suffered 2 accidents, while the more frequent accidents, from three to five, were suffered by 2G workers. If, now. these accidents had been figured on the "laws of chance," only 8 would have suffered these multiple accidents. Unquestionably, some workers are prone to accidents. compared to 5 per cent of low accident men. Again, 40 per cent of high accident men showed lack of aptitude, but only 12 per cent of the low-accidcnt men showed the same lack. These results were obtained by scrialaction laboratory tests and arc fairly accu rate for general conclusions. An investigation of 167 men of tlsc Cleve land Railway Company was made, and the SO drivers with the poorest records were Personal Qualities subjected to careful clinical study. This re vealed that only 12 per cent of the men were The influence of age and experience on accidents is very definite. These are gener ally studied together for the simple reason that they cannot be separated. Experience generally runs parallel with age. There are ample statistics showing that the experienced workman has fewer accidents than the inex perienced. Inexperience is at a maximum, of course, when a worker starts upon a factory opera tion. He should be carefully started on a "fool proof' machine and under the most suffering from such disabilities as high blood pressure, defective vision, organic disease, or senility. The commonest causes of accidents were: impulsiveness and irresponsibility, 18 per cent; faulty attitude, 15 per cent; failure to recognize personal hazards, 12 per cent; faulty judgment of distance and speed, 12 per cent; failure of attention, IQ per cent; nervousness and fear, 6 per cent. These tests indicate the importance of the man's attitude and pre-disposition in the prevention of accidents in repetitive operations. careful supervision. Differences of Nationality Stamping presses are especially dangerous and should he carefully guarded. Reliable statistics prove that the accident rate of groups of both men and women are 6 to 6 times as great on the first day as during the next 5 days, and from 400 to 800 times greater than they are after 6 to 12 months' experience. Practically all metal trades show the same tendency percentages. Experience is a very important factor in the prevention of accidents in repetitive operations, and beginners shonid be given most careful super- t/iWou. Undoubtedly, the ability to speak the lan guage of the country in which one works has something to do with accidents. After an 8-year study of some of our largest iron and steel mills it was found that among 12,600 American born workmen, the accident frequency was 91; among 18,700 foreign bom workmen, but speaking English, the accident frequency was 99; while among 22,900 for eign born, but speaking no English, tlx: fre quency jumped to 213. Influence of Fatigue Mental Attitudes and Pre-Disposition Extreme fatigue is a conducive cause in increase of accidents in repetitive operations. Accident proneness is often influenced by Use mental attitude and the disposition of tlie worker. Statistical records indicate that the accident prone are likely to be iusubordi nate and disregardful of accidents. They may be excitable, too. and tend to do the wrong thing in an emergency. Such workers have many characteristics a little hard to classify, but they clearly indi cate defects in the personality and lack of aptitude on tfie part of workers for their occupation. Ou the Boston Elevated Railway, for ex ample, it was found that 39 per cent of highaccident men were defective as measured by their record of "uncooperative behavior/' as Imbert has pointed out that accidents in crease during the last two hours of the morning and afternoon shifts. LeRoy affirms that the increase of accidents toward closing hours of the shift is definitely due to fatigue. Bogardus states that 82 per ceut of 2,678 accidents studied by him were to some extent due to fatigue. Large amounts of data have been collected in England and in the United States, showing that accidents increase as the work spell lengthens and that the maximum of accidents occur during next to the last hours of the shift. Vernon, in his study of 50,000 accidents incurring in four large munition factories in England during the World War, found some 2-H Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress sinking evidence of fatigue influence on acci dent rates among 10.000 workers in a targe fuse factory: for three months, November, (Jcecnilxr, and January 1915-1916, workers were on a ii-ltonr day, 75-hour week. Then i>r 15 succeeding months they were on a 10-lmur day and a 64Va-hour week. He found that among the men the "fatigue pe riodM aceoumed lor only 14 per cent more .irrulcnts than the subsequent period. Dot among the women workers accidents were 173 per cent higher in the "fatigue period" than in the subsequent juried. This undoubt edly proves that men are "tougher" than women. However, it is definite evidence that fatigue has something to do with accident prevention and should he taken into account. Alcohol The consumption of alcoholic liquors greatly increase* accident liability, even 1 hough the quantity taken is insufficient to produce intoxication. There arc ample sta tistics to prove this point taken from con servative studies made in hnlf a dozen dif ferent countries in the world. Such studies luive (icon made in Prussia, Sweden, Eng land. and America. Most of the evidence relates to excessive drinking, and it is difficult to obtain proof of die effects of moderate drinking on acci dent liability. Vet Vernon concludes, after a somewhat conservative study of the work ers of England during the World War. that the consumption of alcohol in moderate quan tities often reduces motor coordination and the e;i{>acity of attention amt concentration and is. tliercforv, a contributory cause to accidents. Influence of Lighting 1'itor artificial lighting will surely increase the accident rate in any factory and is par ticularly noticeable in repetitive operations. The Travelers' Insurance Company, after a study of 91,000 accidents in factories in the Cniicd Stales, tabulates no less than 24 per cent of them due to poor lighting. As a result of eight years of safety work, these same accidents were reduced t.o IB per cent, hut inn until the services of 108,000 men were lost for a period of One full year! The Dc|>arttnci)tal Committee of the Eng lish Home Office found after a study of 161,000 accidents an excess of 25 per cent during the liours of artificial lighting as compared to work done during daylight with natural lighting. Among dock workers this accident rate rose to 51 per cent. A great deal of study has been devoted to artificial light in Ihe factories, and tins phase of our safety work cannot be overemphasized. Machine Tools Machine tools for metal working are re sponsible for a large number of accidents in repetitive operation. Nearly one-half of all machine tool accidents are due to lathes, one-sixth of tliem to milling machiitcs and power presses, while tlie remainder are due to miscellaneous operations. Some of these accidents are caused by lack of guards on moving parts such as toothed gears, chain gears, belts, and pulleys. However, the ma chine tool builders are more and more per fecting the efficiency of guards to enclose the most dangerous parts of the machine. For example, a turret lathe is now made with a guard for intake of driving pulley and belt, completely enclosed gear wheels, enclosed chain belts, and metal guards for most of the other moving parts. Vet most lathe accidents arc due to the operator's failure to replace the guards after changing gear wheels. Some are due to arti cles flying from the lathe because they arc not properly secured by the chuck, but a much larger proportion arc caused by contact of the fingers or hands with sharp edge* of the metal, mashes between projecting part* of the revolving piece and fixed parts of iIk lathe, and some entanglement of the workman's clothing with the revolving arti cle. Only a few of such accidents could he prevented by any form of guards however carefully designed. Power Press Power presses are dangerous because of ttoir moving dies and tools. Much ingenuity lias been used in designing tools and fencing for machinery of all sorts. There are some who feel tint such guards interfere with output. On the contrary, production is, in certain processes, increased as much as 25 per cent due to the confidence inspired in the oiterators by these devices. All press machines need guards for fly wheels, gear belts, and pulleys; and where roll feeds are required, it is important to provide guards against pinching the fingers in gear wheels and nipping fingers between Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 245 the rolls. Clutches are often dangerous and require different forms of guards. Safety clutches should be used in conjunction with sufficient guards. Presses arc usually set in motion with feeders or one-hand levers. These need suitable guards. Likewise, an efficient brake is necessary for every press and demands almost constant attention. Press work consists of feeding, holding, and removing the pressed article. The meth ods chosen for these operations should obviate as far as possible the necessity of placing the operator's hand under the tool. The use of stops, spring trippers, and pres sure plates all help to reduce accident* in such repetitive operations. At the Chrysler Corporation our safety efforts are based upon two general princi ples, the recognition of accident prevention as an essential part of the organization of our factories, and the common interest and endeavor on the part of the employers and workers in the individual plants iu seeking constantly to promote higher standards of safety. It is utterly impossible to get accident prevention in plants without recognizing fully the educational nature of the problem. This means that we must recognize the im portance of safety organizations and the functions of safety organizations. Tl>e entire safety movement is essentially, basically, and perpetually an educational movement. It is designed to teach loth employer and em ployee the ways in which accidents arc caused and the best methods of preventing them. Since this is true, it i* vital that employers should be thoroughly convinced of the im portance of safety education and that they should see that foremen, superintendents, and wdrkers alike share their enthusiasm (or safety and for the safety organization. To bring this about, the organization should have representatives of employers, superin tendents, foremen, and workers in its make up. The safety organization should be headed by men who liavc a practical knowl edge of tl*e plant, who know men, and who have the qualities of leadership to secure warm cooperation of all the forces. The educational purpose of such an organ ization is : (1) to secure the cooperation of the departmental managers and foremen; (2) to educate the workers, especially the young ones just come into the plant, in all methods of accident prevention; (3) to inspect salely devices and all guarded machinery and t<> improve safety devices constantly; (4) to keep a record of ail accidents, whether large or small. This work can best be done by working committees, and it would be advisable to change the personnel of these committees every six or eight months to provide a more intimate contact and knowledge of the prob lem to as many men as possible. Fosters Ways and Means Since accident prevention work is so largely educational, tlic safety committee should utilize every opportunity to carry on an educational program. One-efficient way is to use posters. The poster must be attrac tively designed, properly displayed, ami kept fresh and interesting. The poster should be applicable to the types of hazards arising in almost all indus tries. Some sltould be especially applicable to hazards arising in a particular operation. The picture or the actual wording is not so important as the mental impression asso ciated with the poster. The picture may represent a piece of machinery never used in the factory, but the slogan, if applicable, will create the impression just the same. Psychological investigations have shown greater interest on the part of the worker* iu negative posters than in positive ones. At one such investigation, for example, 20 post ers were selected in such way that each subject was treated on two poster*, one showing the advantage of foresight and the other showing the results of failure to have foresight. A number of persons were allowed to inspect the display, and the time spent before each poster was recorded without their being conscious of the fact that they were being observed. The average time for each lierson per poster revealed a 30 per cent higher interest in the negative poster than iu the positive ones. Such slogans as "A moment's thoughtless ness may mean years of misery," "The best safety device is a careful man," "Accidents are somebody's fault. Don't let them be yours." "Any fool can be careless," "Safety always--all ways," "The time to prevent an accident is before it occurs" can be printed 246 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress on the pay envelope or on a slip of paper inserted in the pay envelope. The slogan must not be subject to question. For example, "Recklessness is tto indication of courage. Brave men are always careful'' is not true. Brave men are not always care ful. Or, "The wife of a careless man is almost a widow." This is too exaggerated to carry conviction. Very effective use can be made of the moving picture. Paint It is the business of tlic flight surgeon to study flying, to watch the pilot for fatigue, rough landing, for plane bounces, and whether or not the pilot is completely in charge of the operation. The pilot must at ail times be master of the plane. In this same sense, the operator must always be the complete master of the machine. The safety engineer is, therefore, flic flight surgeon of his factory. He must always be alert, always helpful, and always at the business of watch ing his machine pilot to the end that no mistakes may happen. Machines on which repetitive operations arc performed should be painted a challeng ing color. Some striking color, such as yel low. constantly reminds the operator that the machine is there. It would likewise de mand attention. The Chrysler Corporation has some 400 of its big service trucks painted yellow. It took this step to reduce traffic accidents with these trucks. It has been remarkably successful. Accidents have de creased materially. Likewise the little serv ice trucks in our plants Are all painted a bright yellow, and this color is a constant warning to all people in the plants. Their presence is too obvious to be overlooked. A brightly colored machine must be kept clean. A bright shop is a clean shop, a clean shop is an orderly shop, and an orderly shop is a safe shop. There is such a thing as "visual acuity." An attractively painted machine keeps crying out to the operator. 1 am satisfied that some experiments conducted alung this line wonid reveal striking results. While on this matter of cleanliness, com ing into a clean factory is like leaving a dean, orderly Itomc in the morning. Safety suns when a man gets up in the morning. If the house is clean, orderly, well conducted, he leaves home in a safety mood. If he enters a factory that is clean and bright and orderly, lie continues in that mood. Foremen and bosses sometimes fail to appreciate the value of a little good cheer in this matter of accident prevention. There is such a thing as "Safety Sunshine" in a factory, and this can best be spread about by bosses. Supervisors aixl foremen in plants van get a good educational leaf out of the flight surgeon's book. Flight surgeons are constantly alert to the slightest lack of at tention on the part of the pilot. When this goes up to a-certain point, the pilot's atten tion is directed to it by tlac flight surgeon. Fitting the Man to the Job Care should be exercised in selecting workers for specific tasks. Regard should be had for accident proneness. This is a highly technical and difficult field, but it should be all the more challenging for that reason. Vernon- discovered accident proneness to be identified with seasons. Of 136 workers who had no accidents in February of a cer tain year, the total number showed only 0.16 accidents during the next five mouths. While 62 workers who had one or more accidents during the same February suffered 9.35 acci dents or more than twice as many as during the subsequent five mouths. If, in 100 workers, 80 arc accident free, and if all arc subject to the same risk, then the mean number of accidents should be 22 for cadi 100 workers. Now, if the number exceeds this, it is due to sonic accident prone workers who by reason of personal qualities are exposed to risks, or became some of the groups are exposed to more risks owing to the character of thetr work. No matter how long tlic statistical period or how great the number of workers, the observed excess of accidents is still due to accident proncncss or environmental condi tions or both. It is possible to identify persons subjected to unique environmental conditions if tliey are at all pronounced. Newbold's survey is reasonably conclusive. He studied 22 factories with a total of 6,938 men and 2,024 women workers. Records were made on specially prepared cards, and they covered periods of three months to two years. The articles included electrical appa ratus, textile machinery, automobiles, gen eral engineering products, soaps, candy, tin boxes, cardboard boxes. There were 16,188 Automotive and Machine Shop--Power Press 247 accidents, and the number of accidents was very definitely influenced by a comparatively small number of workers. There was evi dence that part of the result was due to personal tendencies. Since there is no doubt about the existence of accident proneness, some psychological tests should be devised and adopted which would enable us to identify accident prone persons and shut them off from the more risky occupations. Some good work has been done along this line by Dr. Charles Drake and reported by him to the American Asso ciation of Applied and Professional Psychol ogy at the University of Minnesota last August (1937). But further work must be done in devising tests. Farmer and Chambers liave pursued this matter for 12 years, and their main conclusions have been published by the In dustrial Health Research Board. These re(x>rts shoutd be studied by all who are inter ested in the problem. But the most skillful psychologists still find great difficulty in discovering accident prone persons, and we shall, for the present at least, have to rely largely upon the trial and error method; hence if a worker on a repetitive operation is found to incur more than one or two accidents in a limited course of time, he should be transferred to some other job. To identify accident prone persons we slialt need to keep accurate records of all acci dents, even the most trivial. A trivial acci dent is as important as a serious one and may even constitute a better guide to proncness. In conclusion, all inventions have three important characteristics: They result from a crisis, they are the work of a slightly dif ferent or superior mind, and they succeed or fail in their work depending upon the alti tude of the people at the time and |4arc the invention is made. It should be observed, too, that we invent institutions as wc do our machines. The safety movement is a pure invention and exhibits the three fundamental charac teristics. The advancement of our industrial techniques created the crisis. Slightly dif ferent or superior minds began to think about the accidents, and out of it has conic the safety movement. The success of this invention will depend upon the attitude of the people toward it and their acceptance of its educational work. ADJOURNMENT Cement and Quarry Sections Cement Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--Fred R. Hunt, Nazareth Portland Cement Co., Nazareth, IV Vice-Chairman--'W. J. Worthy, Medusa'Portland Cement Co., Toledo, Ohio. Secretary--A. J. R. Curtis, Portland Cement Assn., Chicago, 111. Kews letter Editor--Jack Dempster, Canada Cement Co., Ltd., Montreal, P. Q., Can., F.uyincering Committee Chairman--William Moeller, Lone Star Cement Co., Dallas, Tcxa>. Highxvay Committee Chairman--M. A. Koppman, Southwestern Portland Cement Co., Los Angeles-, Ca)i[. jl/ri;7u*r.f/ii/ Committee Chairman---Henry A. Reningek, Lehigh Portland Cement Co., Allentown, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--J. W. Kennedy, Huron Portland Cement Co., Detroit, Midi. Program Committee Chairman--A. R. Sunderland, Ash Grove Lime & Portland Cement Co., Kansas City, Mo. Members at Large-- D. B Coleman, Missouri Portland Cement Co., St. Louis, Mo R, B. Fortuin, Pentisylvania-Dixie Cement Corp., Nazareth, Pa. Gordon C. Huth, Universal Allas Cement Cn., Chicago, III. Ji. Posselt, Lone Star Cement Corporation, New York, N. Y. J. B. Zook, Great Lakes Portland Cement Corp., Buffalo, N. Y. Officers Sleeted for 1937-38 General Chairman--Fred B. Hunt, Nazareth Portland Cement Co., Nazareth, Pa. Vice-Chairman--A. 1L Sunderland, Ash Grove Lime & Portland Cement Co., Kansas City, Mo. Secretary--A. J. R. Curtis, Portland Cement Assn., Chicago, 111. Keros Letter Editor--Jack Dempster, Canada Cement Co., Ltd., Montreal, P. Q. Canada. Engineering Committee Chairman--Wiu.Iau Moeller, Lone Star Cement Corp., Dallas, Texas. Hifjinvtty Committee Chairman--M. A. Kofkman, Southwestern Portland Cement Co., Los ' Angeles, Calif. Membership Committee Chairman--H. A. Kentngf.r, Lehigh Portland Cement Co., Allen town, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--J. W. Kennedy, Huron Portland Cement Co., Detroit, Mich. Members at Large-- P. N. Uusunkm., Missouri Portland Cement Co., St. Louis, Mo. R. II. Fohtuin, Pennsylvania-Dixie Cement Corp., Nazareth, Pa. Cordon C. HutK, Universal Allas Cement Co., Chicago, III. E. Posselt, Lone Star Cement Corporation, New York, N. Y. F. E. Town, Medusa Portland Cement Co., Manitowoc, Wi^. J. B Zook, Great Lakes Portland Cement Corp., Buffalo, N. Y. 249 I 250 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Sessions of the Cement and Quarry Sec tions were held jointly. A list of officers of the Quarry Section will be found on page 557 in tins record. The opening session was called to order by Fred B. Hunt. Nazareth Portland Cement Co., Nazareth, Pa., general chairman of the Cement Section. Analysis of Accidents in the Cement Industry By A. J. R. CURTIS Assistant to General Manager, Portland Cement Association, Chicago Twenty-five years ago a special committee reported to the Portland Cement Association at its animal meeting at the old WaldorfAstoria in New York City tlie results of an investigation of our industry's accident ex perience. That pioneer committee obtained unanimous approval of a course of action to be undertaken to reduce the number of dis abling injuries and fatalities, rolled up its sleeves and went to work. It is fitting on this, our silver anniversary of safety, that wc review briefly the quartercentury of progress made. The original accident prevention committee queried 56 cement companies and obtained from 41 of them information about their accident experience for the years 1909. 1910 ami 1911. This is what it found: of 6.207 pcrMnis employed iu 1909. 1.206 or 19.4 per cent suffered disabling injuries; id 8,521 em ployed in 1910. 1.144 or 13.3 per cent were injured; and of 8,827 employed in 1911, 1,358 <r 15.4 per cent were accident victims. Tlic program inaugurated by (hat farsighted group of six cement company execu tives in the fall of 1912 has been broadened and developed by successive committees with the splendid cooperation and support of the memlrcr operating units. Last year, by no means the safest in the history of our industry, less than 1.3 per cent of the approximately 25.000 persons engaged in the manufacture of Portland cement suffered injuries severe enough to cause them to lose me from work. Progress in the First 10 Years By 1922. at the end of ten years during which emphasis was placed largely on physical safeguards, protective devices, and the de velopment of safety rules and regulations, the number of disabling injuries and fatalities was reduced to a point wliere there were 41.7 lor each one million man-hours worked by the industry. This was a decided improve ment over estimated accident frequency rates of 97.0 for 1909. 67.0 for 1910 and 77.0 for 1911. Contests and Campaigns In 1923, the Portland Cement Association's safety trophy, 7,000 pounds of carved and polished concrete bearing the inscription `'Safety Follows Wisdom," was first offered to the plant operating during tlie calendar year with fewest accidents. The winning plant had a record of three disabling injuries at the close of that year, the finest perform ance recorded tip to that time. No one gave much thought to the possibility that a cement plant could operate an entire year with a perfect safety record, but in 1924 one plant accomplished this. And because perfection cannot be improved upon, it was announced that safety trophies would be awarded to all plants reporting perfect calendar year records. In Uie 15 years the awards have been made. 117 cement plants have won the trophy, many of them repeatedly, and a grand total of 351 plant years liave been worked without a single disabling injury. The June No-Accident Campaigns, intro duced in 1925, have contributed in large measure to the success of the industry's safety program. Conducted when plant operations arc heaviest, these intensive drives have been responsible for substantial reductions in acd- Cement and Quarry Sections 251 dents not only for the month of June but also for the preparatory months of April and May. Also Interest and safety enthusiasm carry over for a number of months. As one plant after another demonstrated that it was possible to operate an entire year without a disabling injury, the old tenet that accidents are unavoidable and tliat the em ployee who was able to work safely month after month and year after year was "lucky" were thoroughly disproved. In one year, 1933, trophies were awarded or reawarded to 54 plants. Iu otlier words, over one-third of the cement plants in the industry operated without a single disabling injury that year. The second decade of consistent progress, from 1923 through 1932, saw the frequency of disabling injuries and fatalities reduced 89 per cent to the all-time low of 4.5 per million man-hours in 1932. For that ten-year period the severity of injuries was reduced 75 per cent to the low mark of 1.B0. The Past Five Years The four unsettled years from 1932 through 1936, however, saw the frequency and severity of disabling injuries in an upward trend, for the first time, to an extremely unfavorable high in 1936. You will be pleased to know that this elevated trend has been sharply reversed in 1937. A look at the record for last year will sharpen our appreciation of this year's much more favorable accident experience. Three of the most significant points brought out by a precise analysis of accidents for 1936 arc, briefly; ). One hundred twenty plants reported 35 per cent more accidents during 1936 than 124 plants reported during 1935. Frequency of accidents was the highest in six years, severity greater than it had been in a like period with the exception of one year, 1934. 2. Three departments. Quarry, Raw and Burning, worked only a little more than onethird of the total man-hours operated by the industry but were responsible for fully onehalf of alt accidents reported and 53 per cent of all actual time lost on account of disabling injuries. Also, three-fourths of the total fatali ties for the year occurred In these depart ments. 3. Tlie most startling fact for 1936 was that one-fourth of the cement workers who were hurt had not been in the employ of their plants one year before the injury occurred 1 Only five per cent of the total employees in the industry were iu this group. And practically one-half of the injuries occurred to workers whose length of service ranged from a few hours to five years. Only 16 per cent of all employees in the industry had less than five years' service. The need lor better safety training and more effective supervision of workers in uur industry is unmistakable. But 1936 is history. What is the trend of accidents in the cement industry in 1937? 1. The total number of accidents fur the first eight months of this year is 22.5 per cent lower than the total for the first eight months of 1936. There has been no similar reduction in the number of accidental deaths, however; the total of fatalities to the end of August stood at 11, one less than the total killed dur ing tlie same period last year. The U. S. Bureau of Mines reports that cement produc tion from January through August is 15 per cent in excess of production for the same period in 1936, and shipments are about 8 per cent heavier, indicating that man-hours worked, or exposure will exceed last year's total. A 10 to 15 per cent increase in man hours operated and a 22.5 per cent decrease in total accidents reported should show a sub stantial reduction in accident frequency rate at the end of 1937. Forty per cent fewer per manent partial disabilities and lower monthly totals of actual days lost indicate that, if the present trend continues, the end of the year should see a marked reduction in severity rate. 2. Tl>e three problem departments, Quarry, Raw and Burning, have contributed 39 per cent of the accidents reported to the Associa tion during Hie first eight mouths of 1937, an improvement over last year when tliey ac counted for fully half of the total accidents recorded In 12 months. Six of the 11 fatalities reported in eight months have occurred in these three departments. Credit for practically the entire improvement in accident frequency of this trio goes to the Raw department which has reported about seven per cent of the dis abling injuries and fatalities so far this year compared with 12 per cent last year. How ever, four of these were fatalities. Quarry has experienced 19 per cent of all injuries and fatalities reported during the eight months compared with 21 per cent of 252 Twenty-sixth National Softly Congress the 1936 total. The Burning department has been responsible for 13 per cent of all acci dents compared with 17 per cent last year. One key to the problem of effectively stopping accidents in our industry lies in better control over these three departments. The greatest increase in per cent of total injuries this year over last has been in con nection with plant railroads outside the quarry, indicating need for prompt regulation and en forcement of safe working practices among trainmen. Railroad is the only department, other than Raw, to report more tlian one fatality so far in 1937. Yard. Shops and Finishing departments in that order, show the next greatest increases in per cent of total injuries for 1937. Aside from Quarry, Raw and Burning, the Packing and Shipping, Power and Cement Storage departments are the only ones in which there scorns to be better control over the incidence of injuries this year than last. 3. The record shows tliat imjjerativc need for training of the new worker in how to do his work safety is just as unmistakable at the cml of the third quarter of tlic current year as it was at the end of last year. One-fourth of the cciuent workers wIjo were hurt these past eight months liad not been in the employ of their plants one year. And men having less than one year's service make up only onctwentieth of the total employees in the indus try. The cemcut industry can not and must not overlook the development of safe methods of performing operations, the careful training-- the careful teaching--not telling, of men how to do their jobs properly and safely. Better control must include careful follow-up by competent supervisors to make sure that the worker thoroughly understands his work and what He is and is not to do in connection with it in order to keep safe. Falls, falling and sliding cement and other objects, hand tools in hands of injured, flying or moving cement and other objects, electrical equipment and improper piling and handling of objects are the leading causes of disabling injuries in 1937. While falls of persons continue to lead the list of causes, as in industry generally, fewer falls in relation to total accidents have been reported this year than last Twenty per cent of the injuries tliat occurred In the first eight months resulted from falls compared with 23.5 per cent all last year. Special mention should he made of the in creased frequency of injuries resulting from handling of power lines and electrical equip mart. In three-quarters of 1937, two deaths and ten cases of severe burns have resulted from contact with electricity compared with two deaths and the same number of injuries from the same cause dnrintj the entire 12 months of 19361 Only experienced, alert men should do electrical work. Fractures and severe cuts, burns and bruises straw why the severity rate of the cement industry usually so much higher titan its frequency rate. Now a word about the smaller plants. In 1936 the group of 75 larger plants operating more than 250,000 man-hours per plant, had an average frequency lower than that for the industry as a whole. The group of 45 smaller plants, representing but 22 per cent of the total man-hours worked by the industry, had a frequency rate 42 per cent higher than the industry'* average. And history will reiwat itself at the dose of 1937, according to infor mation now available. ft is true that fewer man-hours operated give greater weight to both accident frequency and severity rates. But the work of preventing accidents in small plants differs from large plant activities, not in principle, only in detail. The principle*, as such can not be altered. a. Management's unqualified interest and support. I>. Knowledge and pertinent accident facts. c. Appropriate and effective action based on tlrase facts. The technical disadvantage experienced by the small plant executive and supervisor when injury rates are figured is offset by the oppor tunity he has of making direct contact with employees at frequent intervals. By his inti mate knowledge of his men and of their work he should be in a position to speedily diagnose accident-producing conditions. He is not obliged to set up complex and expensive pro cedure. In short, if he is guided by accident prevention fundamentals and a keen interest he may* proceed directly to the determination of pertinent facts and take action on these facts with confidence that the control of acci dent frequency and cost lies in his hands. Cement ami Quarry Sections 253 Let's Go Into This Accident By W. W. DEADMAN Superintendent, and Fellow Employees, Lone Star Cement Corp., Bonner Springs, Kan. Thorough study of the accidents in the cement industry, as disclosed to us by the monthly Round Table discussions, leads the inquirer to ask why or how come? Pulling aside the curtain that lies between the printed page and the actual facts and hap penings at the plant invariably brings to light a failure in the safety set-up. This may be singular man-failure, it may be group man-failure, or it may be organiza tional failure. We are giving here our conception of the cause or causes which underlie the great majority of accidents in our industry, and have chosen from last April's Round-Table discussion a simple, unnecessary ami all too prevalent type of accident. We have taken author's license to change the pertinent facts where necessary to make our points clear, for the prime requisite in analyzing any ac cident is the "why" frame of mind. The injured man was an American with a-good command of English; age 23; length of service, one year; and was employed as a laborer in the raw tunnel. His duties consisted oi watching the raw bucket car rier, keeping the tunnel clean, and assisting in repair work as necessary. Spare wheels for the carrier were stored on a portion of the frame work above the bucket carrier at a height of about six feet from the floor. A nearby step ladder was used when nec essary to obtain these wheels. This em ployee climbed the ladder, obtained one of the wheels, and, on descending, fell when one of the steps of the ladder broke. His injury consisted of a mashed and broken left thumb resulting in a loss of time of ten days, and terminating a long accident-free record. The scene now is the superintendent's office the morning after the accident. CHARACTERS S ............................. Superintendent MF ................. Gen'l Mil! Foreman SF ............................Shift Foreman Inj....................... Injured Employee SI ....................... Safety Inspector S- I h^ve called you men Iumu to discuss yesterday's accident. It is lo be regretted that such a trivial matter should spoil our excellent safety record, and it definitely proves that these trivial matters arc possibly much more important than wc have been giving them credit for. (Supt. to Mill Fore man) Did you request the injured man to report here this morning? MF. Yes sir, I did, S. Were you there when the accident happened ? MF. No, I was not. SF. I was there. I had taken a repairman and gone up to replace four broken wheels and was using Blank as a helper. S. What lime was it? SF. Around (cu-lllirty. Wc had taken off three of the wheels and had started to take off the fourth one when I told Blank to get me fonr wheels from the stock pile. He took the ladder over, set it in front of the pile, and apparently climbed up, picked a wheel off the piles, and was stepping down when the second step broke, causing him to fall. S. How did his thumb get mashed and broken? SF. He said he stuck the middle finger of his left hand in the hole of the wheel, and when he fell he couldn't let go and his thumb was caught between the wheel flange and the concrete floor, S. Did you see him fall? SF. No, neither the repairman nor 1 saw him actually fall. We had our backs turned and were removing the fourth wheel when we heard the step break and turned just as he was picking himself up from the floor. S. Had Blank ever helped on this work before? SF. Yes, we have changed a number of wheeels on this carrier on two previous occasions, and he acted as helper, getting the repairman the new wheels, oiling them when they were put on and in general mak ing himself useful. 254 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress (Knock is heard) S. Come in. How arc you this morning? In}. Pretty good. S. We arc sorry that you had this acci dent yesterday, and we have requested you to come here so that ut may learn all of the details 01 what happened yesterday. Why, in your opinion, were you injured? Inj. Because the cracked step in the lad der broke and I fell. S. Did you know the ladder step was cracked ? Inj. Yes. S. How long did you know this ladder step was cracked? Inj. About ten day* ago when I was stacking some new wbeek, one fell on the ladder and cracked the step. S. When this happened did you report it to your foreman? Inj. Yes sir. I told the shift foreman. S. (To SF) So you knew this ladder was cracked ? SF. Yes sir; now* that Blank mentions it, I recall him telling me, but I was busy at the time and the incident dearly slipped my mind. S. J>id anyone else know the condition of this ladder? SI. Yes, I found it in vbe condition stated on my inspection t<mr Vt week. October 4th. eight days ago. S. Did you report (his to the mill fore man ? SI. Yes 1 told him about it at the time, and he said he would have it fixed. S. (To Blank) Why did you insert your finger in the hole of the wheel when you lifted it off the ptk? Inj. My gloves were greasy, and 1 felt that it would be a better way to hold the u heel than to grip it in my hand. S. Why, whrti you knew the ladder was cracked, did you use it ? Inj. Because it was all 1 had to use. and l had to get up there to get the wheel, and in stepping down I made sure to step un the side away from the crack; but I guess that, wasn't enough. SI. Yes, and in doing this, you violated Safety Rule Xo. Id which rules that a man must not use or permit the use of any known defective equipment. S. Blank, are you familiar with this rule ? Inj. Well, no, 1 guess not. Si. Truthfully, Blank, arc you familiarwith any of our safety rules? Inj. Well, eh, when I went tu work here the timekeeper gave me a booklet about some safety rules, but I never did read it. S. You have been attending our regular monthly safety meetings and have heard much about us not wanting you to take any chances; couldn't you have gone about get ting this wheel down in a safer way? Inj. Yes Sir; but I thought the step would hold me. S. You mentioned that one of these wheels fell when piling some new ones last week; did this ever happen before? Inj. Yes Sir. The place where we store these wheels in over the carrier is quite hard to reach. I think we could pile those wheels in a more convenient place as there is plenty of room along the west wall where they could be carefully stacked on the floor. S. Thank you Blank. I feel that is a good suggestion and appreciate your com ing here and giving us your opinion. What did the doctor say? Inj. He says if all goes well, I can come hack in about a week. S. That's fine and that will be all today, Blank. (Blank exits) S. Well, men you heard Blank's state ment. Let's hear what you have got to say for yourselves. (Addressing If F) You knew about this ladder. How come you did not have it fixed when the safety inspector told you about it ? MF. My carpenters were busy on that roof job for we wanted to get it finished before had weather. J intended to get one of them on it as soon as they had finished the roof. 5. Couldn't you have taken one of them off and had this repair made? It wouldn't have taken very long. MF. Yes, but you wanted that roof job in a hurry, and I was trying to get it finished. S. You think that roof job was more im portant than taking a chance with an ac cident hazard? MF. Well, we have often put those small jobs off for a rainy day, and I thought we could this time; but it is obvious now that it was the more important as it would have Cement and Quarry Sections 255 prevented an accident, but still, if wc hadn't got that ioof finished and it had rained, we would have caught hell, wouldn't wc? S. Yes, you probably would; but I can *iill see no reason why you couldn't have had someone fix that ladder as it would have only taken a short time. MF, You arc no doubt right; probably we old timers are lax in seeing the impor tance of these rigid safety measures and still have some of our old habits acquired dur ing the early days when safety was of minor importance. I, for one, am going to resolve to pay more attention to these small details in the future. S. Good! They arc important, but this doesn't dispense with this accident, yet. (Ad dressing SI ) You stated that you caught this ladder last week and that you reported it to the mill foreman who said he would have it fixed. Did you check later to see if it was taken care of? SI. No Sir. S. You are supposed to make a weekly inspection, which was yesterday. Why didn't you check up on this at that time ? SI. I was in a hurry, and as this was an out-of-the-way place, I skipped it. , S. Why were you in a hurry? ST. Because I had other work that T wanted to get finished that day. S. Was this work important? SI. Well, it was tliat report on Accident Statistics that you wanted. S. Which do you think was the more im portant now, inspection or an early report? SI. It is obvious that the thorough in spection was more important as it would no doubt have prevented this accident; but i wanted to please you by getting out the re port that you wanted early. S. Since this occurred, what do you in tend to do in the future to prevent its reoc currence? SI. Make thorough inspections at all times regardless of other duties. S. There is one point that Blank brought up where we have all been negligent, and that is the location and the manner in which we pile those spare wheels. Here we are, four so-called safety minded men who have lor a long period of time been tolerating a hazard that should be obvious to almost anyone. (Turning to MF) Do you think this location that Blank mentioned a suit able one for the purpose of storing wheels? MF. Yes, that is an ideal place and I can't see why wc didn't think of it before. S. All right, lei's change this pile im mediately. (To SF.) You mentioned Blank as helping you on these repairs ; what kind of a worker is he and what is your impression of him? SF. He is a good worker; however, he is inclined to take a chance and is rather im pulsive at times. S. Have you ever discussed this impulsive ness with him and endeavored to show where such action might lead to trouble? SF. No, Sir. S. Don't you know that part of your du ties is to learn the characteristics and nature of each one of your men so that you can correct any inherent tendencies they have to go off talf-cocked, and to show them per sonally every detail of their work which includes acquainting them with the safetyrules and regulations? SF. Yes Sir; but we wouldn't get any thing done if we had to follow every move ment of every man to be sure he didn't make a false step. We can't be wet nurses. S. I realize that, but you are charged with the training of these men, their morale, their attitude towards safety as well a^ maintaining production and. quality. MF. Wheel This is sure different than it used to be ? SI. Well, it's not so hard. Wc have dis cussed this matter before. You fellows know our set-up; hut I do think this meeting this morning is bringing a lot of things to light that wc should have seen before, and l re fer chiefly to the fact that apparently our safety work is not reaching every matt in this organization. S. Exactly! That is obvious to my mind from Blank's attitude in..taking a chance and not familiarizing himself with our safety rules, and in your apparent disregard of the matter of a cracked step on a ladder which you assumed to be a trivial thing. But what shall wc do to improve matters? MF. Well, I have an enlightened idea as to our duties and I am sure the shift fore man has. In thr future, I am going to pay more attention to these trivial matters and get in closer contact with my men and sec tliat the shift foremen do likewise. 256 Twenty-sixth Xotional Safety Congress SI. I l*Heve that our genera) safely meet ing* will man more to the men if. instead of liaving ou1*>idr sjcak* all of the time. uc sltould make the program* more our uttn orjwuzartMiu: u*mc uu men a* spaJur* and |k**31K urkint! up consider- able diwsoun m tilmg <a*r- from the hound TaUc tliat i )>ut <<it In lie A*M<ialiun; ala* drvutmc a )ii of tltc time in the -id> ( out aiH\ S Thai ki> i4ai, and I W tliai \%m <di *)' urn month'* jfrujtrMit akmc that Imr Ha* ambodt <!< got an dca* SK 1 have one f uc*-*i tiro* tee liaee a mlr retjuiring am faulty Udder or other i<m.] to le taken to tlw mod let it W litr afel) ro>)KMi>iUl(iv to see Uroi Midi a tool doe* twit go lari in tie tool room until properly checked and repaired by some craftsman. S. Thai's a good one. and we will give it immediate consideration. In addition. I sug gest that wc pick out a man from each de partment and bring him in to our safety committee meeting*, rotating tlie^e men so tltat Mf can eventually lute them all meet with us thu- giving the*e mm a closer biigttt as to our safety work and permit us to get their ideas. Also. I ill. until further notice, hold weekly meetings with all the foremen wherein we can make clear the ad ditional duties that you men must assume, one of w hich w ill be to see that your men are acquainted with our safety rules and the training of new employees. We can al*o discuss various individual- who do not seem to l>e cooperating one hundred per cent. Is Training a Vital Factor in Effective Safety Work?* By F. M. PEPPER General Plant Employment Supervisor, Illinois Bell Telephone Co., Chicago Much of the effort s|ent in safety work lias been more nr less inspirational in char acter. with considerable stress placed un sell ing the hlca of safety. Too much time and effort have been *|M3it in stimulating our people |o do something to prevent accidents and in injuring them, and too little time and effort in teaching them how. Tlte job is essentially one of adequate 1 raining, both for the supervisor and man. The essential considerations in those manage ment functions which are concerned with doing tfw job safely arc no different from tliose management functions which are con cerned with securing a product for which the industry is organized. Effective supervisory training means secur ing effective supervision for the job as a whole. When a job is well done, preventable accidents will be at a minimum. There should Ik a tendency to set up pro cedures which are apart from die usual supervisory functions. Prevention of injuries on the job is a matter which lies almost entirely m the hands of the direct supervision of the job. `Editor's Note- This In a brief abstract of Mr. Pepper's address. One of tlte roost difficult problems facing us today is to return to the foreman his ret|x*iti1>ility for tiie safe doing of the job wliiclu by various measures, we liave taken away from him. He must feel that the safe doing of tlve job is his responsibility and feel that he is the man to do something about it. Rarely, if ever, is tlierc an accident on a job which is considered particularly haz ardous. Wc must not assume that the foreman or supervisor knows how to conduct the work safely. Wc must Ik sure tliat he docs and assist him through a proper training pro gram. It is safe to assume tliat a majority of all fatal and serious accidents are directly or indirectly attributable to the failure of super vision at some level to function projierly. It is quite evident that supervisory training as a means of avoiding accidents is necessary. The development of a supervisory training course is a much more difficult procedure thau Uic development of a technical or voca tional training course. Apart from the tech nical features involved, (here docs not seem to be any general formula. There is. of Cement and Quarry Sections 2S7 course, some similarity of procedure in di recting the work of any man on any job; but different industries employ such different types of people, under such a wide variety of circumstances, and place such a diver gence of requirements upon them tliat the problem of supervisory training in its more comprehensive aspects is peculiar to each type of industry. The general treatises on leadership give the groundwork, but the subject matter for any supervisory training course for any par ticular industry lies within tliat industry. We must go out and see how our job is being supervised now; analyze the procedure of every foreman and supervisor; compare them and select the best; look upon supervision as a process in itself, and sec how best to direct the work of the people. It is a long, tedious, and costly process, but one which, carried through to completion, will pay dividends in the end. WEDNESDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 13, 1937 Ttsc Wednesday Luncheon session of the Cement and Quarry Sections was addressed by lirozah Hale. Superintendent of Safety, Atrfci''c. Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, Ik spoke on "The Common Sense of Safety." The address was substantially the same as another address by Mr. Hale before the Steam Railroad Meeting. The complete paper will be found in the Steam Railroad section of this volume. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Work of the National Silicosis Conference By R. CAMPBELL STARR Assistant Safety Engineer, U. S. Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards, Washington, D. C. Silicosis is strictly an occupational disease. Medical science has not reported silica dust as affecting any individuals except those who, over relatively long periods of time, have worked in an atmosphere where the air which they breathe contained excessive con centrations of free silica. The interest of the IJ. S. Department of Labor in a broad social and economic prob lem such as this has its origin in the Organic Act, effective March 4, 1913, which created the Department. This act, among other things, gives the Department of Labor the duty "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the Uniter! States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profit able employment." With this in mind, and believing that through joint effort of all concerned, much could he done to eliminate the hazard, the Secretary of Labor called together in Wash- 258 Twenty-sixth National Safety Cmu/rcus iugton on February 26, 1930 ;i group of about 75 men representing leaders in indus tries having a silica problem, labor leaders, and outstanding representatives of the medi cal, legal, and engineering professions, as well as insurance carriers and State adminis trators. After considering various phases of the silicosis problem, this group generally agreed that through a pooling of knowledge aud a frank discussion through the conference method important advances could be made toward, first, overcoming the hysterica! at* titude on the part of employers, labor, and others; second, after careful investigation, to consolidate in one place all known data with regard to the preventive engineering methods; third, analysts and recommenda tions in connection with adequate standards of compensation for those workers disabled as a result of the disease. As an outgrowth of this initial meeting, another group, similar in composition to the first conference, but expanded to include some 200 individuals, was invited to come to Washington on April 1-1,1936 to outline ways and means of attacking the problem. After hearing silicosis discussed from the stand point of the employer, labor, and the medical profession, by outstanding experts in the field, this large group endorsed the confer ence method as proposed, and as a result lour main working committees were ap pointed by the Secretary of Labor with the advice ami consent of the group to investi gate ami report upon the outstanding phases of the silicon* problem. These committees were: 0) Committee on the Prevention of Silicosis through Medical Control, (2) Committee on the Prevention of Silicosis through Engineering Control, (3) Committee on the Economic, Legal and Insurance Plrnscs of the -Silicosis Problem, (-1) Committee on the Regulatory and Administrative Phases of the Silicosis Problem. A fifth committee, known as the Correlat ing Committee, was named. It was under the chairmanship of W. H. Cameron. Managing Director of the National Safety Council, ami consisted of the chairman of the four tech nical rommittec^ just mentioned ami two ad- vinors, one on labor problem* ami one tin mining mailer* These committee members served without compensation and gave freely of their time and cflort in studying the problem from their respective viewpoints. After nine months of careful and searching study, these commit tees advised the Secretary* of Labor that they were ready to report. Consequently, on February 3, 1937 the Second National Silicosis Conference was called in Washing ton. At this time summary* committee re ports were presented to the Secretary and considerable discussion was given them. Shortly after this second national confer ence the Department published, as Bulletin No. 13 of the Division of Labor Standards, the summary reports of the four committees referred to above, together with an abstract version containing the principal findings and recommendations written in non-fcchnical language. The full rei>orts of the c.ommittecs, com prising several thousand typewritten pages, arc now being edited am) will go to the printer very shortly. It is expected that they will lie issued in four separate volumes sometime during the fall or early winter. Nature and Extent of Silicosis Physicians generally' agree that silicosis, in the layman's language, is a disease of the lungs, caused by breathing air containing silica dust, hi which the normal lung tissue is replaced by fibrous or scar tissue. Silica dust is found in many industrial operations, but the hazard is acute only in such industries as metal mining; anthracite mining; quarrying, drilling, and tunneling in granite, ganisler. and sandstone; smelting and refining; foundries; potteries; glass works; stone-products industries: grinding; hulling; and sandblasting. Of (he -19,000,000 workers in the United States, only 1.000,000, or 2 per cent, it is es timated, are in any way exposed to the haz ard of silicosis. About half of this number, nr 1 per cent of the total number of workers in the country, arc exposed to a serious haz ard, and approximately 110,000 of these have silicosis iu some degree. Medical examina tion of men actually at work indicates that between 4,000 and 5,000 workers are seri ously affected by the disease. In addition to Cement and Quarry Sections 259 those already permanently detached from their employment by reason of disabling sili cosis. The status of the 1,000,000 workers ex posed to the liazard of silicosis was analyzed thus by the committees making the survey; A percentage of the 4,000 to 5,000 workers having silicosis are completely or partially disabled because of this disease and have their difficulties further com plicated with tuberculosis. The remainder of the 4,000 to 5,000 have silicosis and disability in some degree/ but no tuberculosis. Approximately 105,000 have silicosis, but no disability and no tuberculosis. Approximately 900,000 arc exposed to silica dust, but have not contracted the dis ease. Contrary to popular belief, silicosis is slow to develop. Usually it lakes seven years or more of exposure to silica dust for a worker to contract the disease. A few cases that liave been known to develop in as short a period as one aud one-half years occurred under extreme and unusual condition*. On the other hand, many workers have labored under ordinary exposures to silica for more than 30 years without demonstrating any trouble whatever that could be diagnosed as silicosis. gineers, insurance companies, legislators, ad ministrators, and others. The reports of the conference committees on engineering control aud medical control recommend specific procedures for attack ing the problem through those two avenues of prevention. A partial list of these recom mendations follows: Survey the working conditions lo deter mine the severity of the hazard aud indi cate what needs to be done to decrease it. Secure information on best procedure. Design plant for dust control. Provide building ventilation. Store dusty materials in dusttight bins. Enclose material-handling equipment. Isolate dusty processes. Provide wet methods of operation.-- Water, oil, and other liquids may be used effectively-- 1. To suppress dust at the point of origin iu such operations as rock-drilling; han dling, pulverizing, and milling rock and ore; grinding metal on grindstones; abrasive-wheel cutting of granite aud sand stone. 2. To prevent the redispersion of dust that las settled on the floors, walls, and other surfaces such as in the granite in dustry and in foundries. Silicosis Prevention Silicosis can be prevented in three general ways; First, by preventing the creation of silica dust; second, by preventing the dis persion of dust into the atmosphere of a working area; amt third, if it is impossible to apply the first two methods, by the use of personal protective equipment such as respirators, to prevent the inhalation of the dust In carrying out a prevention program, many agencies must cooperate. In the view of the committees studying the problem, tlie employer is called on to do most of the work and to spend most { the money, lint his work and money will never accomplish the maximum results unless the worker is will ing to cooperate and carry his share of the responsibility* for helping to control dust and for using the personal protective equip ment. In addition, physicians can play a definite part in preventing silicosis, as can also en Design equipment to control dust. Establish good maintenance and house keeping procedure. Provide respirators. Instruct tlie workers. Responsibility of Workers The cooperation of the workers is neces sary if the hazard of silicosis is to be re duced to the minimum. The worker should realize that the safe practices recommended and the equipment provided are designed to prevent injury to himself and to his fellow employees. The equipment should be used as directed and every effort should be made to maintain it in good working order. Further more, the worker is frequently in a posi tion to observe faulty equipment and unsafe practices, and he should make it a point to report all such conditions to his supervisor. Statutory Regulation While the primary approach to the prob lem must be tlie prevention and diminution 260 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress of the liazard, the fact oil he recognized that until silicons ha* been i]d out. workers who now have the 4i*ca*c, a* well as those who may ocilrzcl it, must receive workmen's compensalion just as do those workers who arc injured in accidents. Accordingly, the committees of the silico sis conference were unanimous in presenting the following recommendations: Coverage for silicosis in the compensa tion acts of all States. This roverage should be compulsory. lice. . of competition between the same or simitar industries in various States, the laws, rules, and regulations of the several States should be as uniform as practicable. Should Be Insured The employer should insure his obliga tion for compensation either through selfinsurance subject to the posting of ade quate funds, or with an authorized in surance institution. Insurance should not be denied any em ployer, provided the State authorities certi fy that he complies with the State require ments as to proper safe working condi tion >. and |ay$ the premiums involved. Workers having active pulmonary tuber culosis and silicosis should be removed from employment. Such workers should lie granted suitable compensation payments and medical care. Workers disabled from silicosis (but with no tuberculosis) should ultimately k< granted the same amount of compensa tion as those disabled by accidental in jury. Two years is a reasonable minimum limitation period for tiling claims subse quent to the date of the last exposure. Further Activities of the Department of Labor In carrying out its duty as stated in the basic law, the U. S. Department of Labor has conceived that there is immediate need for the conversion of known facts in the medical and engineering fields working toward prevention, and in the legal, insurance and regulatory phases looking toward ade quate workmen's compensation, into a prac tical, readily understood program which will adequately take care of the silicosis prob lem. Ill its program of cooperation with the 48 States, the Department of Labor has in cluded a section covering silicosis and simi lar dust diseases. This breaks down into three main sub-headings: (1) Assistance in the preparation of reasonable and adequate codes, rules, and' regulations prescribing methods of prevention; (2) assistance in the establishment of equitable standards of workmen's compensation for those em ployees disabled as a result of the disease; (3) a general educational program among State officials, factory inspectors, etc. so that they will be equipped with adequate knowledge concerning the disease, its method of prevention, and its proper treat ment under the workmen's compensation law. Follows Two Lines This application program, which is just now getting under way has been commenced along two principal lines: (1) The compiling of practical information concerning actual dust control installations in typical silica hazardous plants, together with approxima tions as to cost, not only of installation, but also of maintenance of dust control equip ment iu such plants; (2) a program of visual education supplementing the summary and full mmmittcc reports of the National Sili cosis Conference. It is contemplated that in this field such media as film strips, lantern slides, posters, illustrated bulletins, etc. will be utilized. Further, in connection with the various exhibits of the department, shown at various large expositions, trade association meetings, labor and technical organization meetings, etc., it is contemplated that much factual information will be used, pointing toward ways and means of correcting the hazard and of establishing adequate stand ards of workmen's compensation. Following the address by Mr. Starr a hazards in quarry operation look place. This round table discussion of outstanding concluded the Wednesday program. Cement and Quarry Sections THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 261 Methods Used by a Sand and Gravel Company to Win the National Safety Award By M. A. KOOP Safety Director, Lyman-Richey Sand & Gravel Corporation. Omaha, Neb. The Lyman-Richey Sand & Gravel Corpo ration operates 22 plants, located throughout the state. Each plant is operated as an individual unit, normally employing one foreman and from three to six men on each shift. Total annual employees number 200 to 250, with an average of 275,000 to 325,000 man hours. AH production operations are by lake type dredges, involving such hazards as usually result in electrocution, falling, burning, and drowning. Although our safety problems were the same as those of most small operators, our record in the year prior to the safety pro gram was 79 lost-time accidents in 163,275 man hours' exposure. In fact, there were so many accidents reported that we received very unfavorable comment from the Slate Compensation Commission, and some insur ance firms flatly refused to insure us. It was evident that the system of each plant looking out for its own safely was all "haywire/' so a safety program for all plants was decided upon and put into operation in the following manner. First, an old employee, well versed in all plant operations was selected as safely di rector, devoting his full time to safety work. Second, all employees were required to pass a physical examination. Most of the employees passed this examination, but a number were found to be physically unfit. Third, all machinery and equipment were made as mechanically safe as possible; guards placed on gears and around open moving parts, ladders carefully inspected and jroards built over them, hand rails and toe boards placed around platforms and on stairways, electric equipment checked for improper size switches and faulty wiring. Fourth: An annual meeting of all fore men was decided upon to discuss safety plans, and plant operation*. This proved very profitable, since from experience we had observed that the attitude of the fore man is reflected in the workman. Fifth: In addition to the trophy to be won in a safety contest, substantial cash award* were given the foremen having the best plant safety record; and we honestly believe these cold, round dollars did more than any thing else in keeping up interest in safely and plant competition. Sixth: All plants were provided with bulletin boards, posters and first aid kits. Seventh: The policy was adopted of hold ing each foreman directly responsible fur his plant and each operator responsible for the condition of that particular part of the equipment he was operating. It was the duty of the safely director to ro from plant to plant, making routine in- pections, observing, and instructing when necessary in methods of safe operation, and conducting plant safety meetings. At these meetings all plant safety prob lems were discussed, and the men encour aged to make any suggestions in regard to equipment or its operation that would tend to eliminate future accidents. Many good ideas, successfully executed, originated from this source. One of our greatest problems has been iu getting men iu use their heads for something other than hat racks--to think. This is espe cially true of new men. New men are prone to apply safety meas ures to other than themselves, and the alert foreman proves Ills worth in directing and cautioning until unconsciously the men be come safety minded. Iu 1934, as a member of the National Safety Council, we entered the National Safety Contest and although we did not win an award several of our plants had no lost time accidents m an average of 30,000 mail hours' exposure at each plant. 2(>2 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress in 1935 we entered the safety contest spon sored by, Rock Products and under the auspices of the U. 5. Bureau of Mines. In this contest, the 10 Lyman-Richey plants winning awards had no losMtmc accidents in a total of 124,324 man hours' exposure. However, our total man hours' exposure for all plants in 1935 was 349,423, with 13 lost time accidents reported. During the year 1936, 11 minor lost-time accidents were reported with a total expense for compensation and medical fee* of less than $1,000. In 1937, up to date, we luve had but two accidents, both minor eve injuries with a total lost time of only five day*, no com pensation. Safety Practice of the Inland Lime and Stone Company- By ALFRED W. HEITMAN Assistant Genera! Superintendent, Inland Lime and Stone Company. Manistique, Mich. The Inland Lime and Stone Company is located In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan approximately 25 miles cast of Manistique. The principal parts of (he operation include a large quarry where the stone is drilled, blasted, and loaded into cars, eight miles of railroad, and a modern crushing and screen ing plant where the product is crushed, sized, and stored ready for shipment by rail or water. The entire plant, including the haul age system, s electrified. When the company started to operate, it was faced with a unique safety problem. Sound engineering in design had reduced to a minimum the mechanical and electrical hazards. Guards and other safety devices were employed to protect workers from every possible injury. Nevertheless, there was art acute safety problem due to the nature of the men whom we were forced to employ in this highly mechanized plant. They were the local inhabitants, and had been .for the most part lumber jacks or farmers--men who worked alone and were aox-uUimud to thinking only of their own safety. Now they were suddenly thrust into new and strange jol>s, in dose contact with other men. where a careless or reckless act might cause serious injury to several fellow-workers. We knew that the principles of safety must lie taught and kept constantly before these men. and therefore initiated plans Tor thorough safety education. Foriunalelj' our foremen had been previously employed in companies active in the safety movement and were already "safety-minded." They were the nucleus nl>oiit which we built mir safety program. This consisted of bi-weekly safety meet ings of the entire personnel, at which the importance of safe practice was stressed and safe working habits were demonstrated in short talks. All men were instructed in first aid by the United States Bureau of Mines, and this training is repeated al>out every three years. A safety engineer, who also directs the safety programs of other Inland properties on the Michigan and Minnesota ranges, was made available. His duties are lo inspect all properties regularly, see that all machinery is properly guarded, that safety regulations are being followed, and that unsafe practices and unsafe conditions arc eliminated. He also furnishes material for the bulletin boards and supplies safety* literature' for meetings or safety talks. At the same time we instituted a system of safeguarding the general health of- em ployees. Many were in need of medical, surgical, or dental attention. The city of Manistique was ivithout a hospital, but when the scope of the company's medical service was realized, a Itospital was provided. Every employee was given a physical examination and required to return lor re-examination annually. Our first examinations exposed many cases of hernia, defective eyesight, poor teeth, and other ailments. Recommen dations for the correction of these troubles were made and a continuous health record kept for each man. These records soon showed a gratifying improvement in the gen eral liesdlh of the community. Our accident record for the first few years was far from satisfactory, and indicated that the prevention of accidents is a problem that Cement and Quarry Sections 2()3 primarily involves the human factor. Me chanical safeguards arc by no means the chief consideration. Men have to form safe habits lo govern them all the time (hey are at work. Many of our early accidents may have been the result of inexperienced men reacting too slowly to new environment, but as late as 1932 our accident record had im proved only slightly. In the year 1931 we operated 354,680 man hours, had 16 lost time accidents, 12 of which were compensable, with a frequency rate of 45.1 and a severity rate of 329, costing $16,040.42 in compensa tion. During the year 1932 our record had improved hut was Still poor. It was at the end of 1932 that we altered our safety practice and embarked upon the improved program which is now in effect. Its immediate result was to give us 27 con secutive months, a total of 684,440 man hours, without a lost time accident. This achievement enabled us to win The Explo sives Engineer Award in the National Crushed Stone Association for the years 1933 and 1934, a certificate of honor from the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association, and a certificate of honorable mention from the United States Bureau of Mines. Our revised safety program incorporated many of our former ideas on safety educa tion but was specifically aimed at the prob lem of encouraging the worker to form safe working habits instead of forcing safety down his throat. Numerous methods were employed to accomplish this purjtose. It was decided to divide the men into sev eral groups under the different department heads and foster friendly competition be tween these groups by means of monthly safety premiums. These premiums are given in the form of cigarettes, cigars, chewing gum, or snuff, to each man in any department which completes one month without a lost lime accident. Each department head is responsible for keeping his group eligible for these premiums. The general safety meetings were abolished and the safety in struction work delegated to the department heads, who deal with the smaller groups and can give more attention to individuals. A definite attempt is made to have each employee assume his share of the responsi bility to promote safety. The foremen se lect one man each week to act as safety in spector in his department. His duties are to report infractions of the safety regulations pud any unsafe practice or conditions which cotnc to his attention. The inspector's recom mendations, when sound, are acted upon im mediately by the foremen in order lo con vince the men that they arc really partici pating in their own safety campaign. Al though many of their suggestions arc of minor importance the inspectors do succeed in reporting and correcting unsafe practices which the men develop from time lo time and which might eventually lead to accidents. The safety premium idea is carried still further. When a man has worked for five years without a lost time accident he is eli gible lor membership in our Five Year Safety Club and is given a jack knife suit ably inscribed. For the foremen a safety din ner is given at the end of each operating season. At that time any foreman who Ita* had no lost lime accidents in lus department for three years is presented with a properly engraved wrist watch. Four of our foremen already have won these awards. When the entire plant completes a year without the occurrence of a lost lime accident, turkeys are given to all employees at Christmas. Still wider in scope than the departmental competition is the Inland Safety Trophy. For this award our company competes with the (nland-owned iron mines in Michigan and Minnesota, and the coal mines in Kentucky. To achieve equality in com[K.iilion among such dissimilar operations, an appraisal was made of the relative safety hazards inherent in each type of operation and the contestants are handicapped accordingly. The trophy itself arouses wide interest in this competi tion. It is a striking bronze plaque on which arc sculptured, from actual photographs, typical scenes in carl* class of operulion. Penalties as well as premiums arc neces sary for the effectiveness of a safety cam paign. Men failing to observe safety rules and practices arc disciplined by means of a temporary lay-off, the length of which varies with (he seriousness of the offense. Repetition of an offense is punishable by discharge. We arc convinced that the vital point'' of our safety program arc putting the safely problem in the hands of Ihc men them selves, letting them lake active part in cor recting unsafe practices and keeping up their interest by means of the monthly and yearly awards. However, we arc constantly adding to our safety precautions in an effort to protect the men in every phase of their work, 264 Twcnly-sixih National Safety Congress First aid treatment is administered for slight injuries at the plant, and the injured person sent to the doctor for further at tention if it is considered necessary. Both the doctor and foreman make reports of the injury to the general superintendent and the safety director. Attention to small in juries is extremely important, for all trivial accidents arc potentially serious. To em phasize this, men who arc involved in slight accidents arc sent letters by the general su perintendent, analyzing each accident, sug gesting a safe practice by means of which it could have been avoided, and urging greater care in the future. Safety clothing is compulsory. Hard toe shoes art* worn through the mill ami quarry, goggles arc furnished in any operations where there is danger of Hying materials, and respirators are used in places with high dust concentra tion. Bulletin hoards furnish another medium for focusing the attention of workers upon safety. We have installed, at the gale of the plant, a large general bulletin board designed from one illustrated in the Ar- tional Safety News and attractively illumi nated with neon lights. A green light burns day and night to indicate the absence of tost time accidents, and is changed to red for the duration of any time lost. Men passing this board daily become so accus tomed to the green light that when the red does appear it serves as a daily reminder that an accident has occurred, and results in increased caution everywhere. In the large board, and also in smaller bulletin lioards in each department, arc displayed standings in inter-company competition, he honor roll, lost time accident statistics, and National Safety Council posters. The com pany slogan "Always Work Safely" is painted prominently on every locomotive, railroad car, and power shovel used in any of our operations so that it cannot fail to come to the attention of men who work on or near this equipment. To complete our safety program, we rec ognize that special attention must L>c given to new employees in order to make them "safety-minded'1 al the very outset. The foremen, u|x>n hiring new men, instruct them in the safely policy of the company and caution them to observe it well. Each new employee is given a safety pamphlet. The effect of this is to make the man extremely cautious during the period when he is new on the job and his clumccs of being injured are greatest He will pay as much attention to safety as to the perform ance of his work if he knows that both are equally important in deciding whether or not he is to become a permanent employee. Another pamphlet, containing blasting rules, is issued to quarry employee* whose work Involves the handling of explosive*. These rules are similar to those rro*mniendcd by the powder companies and in use at most mines. In conclusion it must be ak) that variety, as well as being the spice of life. i the key to the success of any safety program. No single plan, however well conceived, can hold the interest of a group of workmen for any length of time unless sufficient variety is introduced to overcome their tendency' to liecotnc inured to 'nstant repetition of the same thing. The resourceful executive must continually seek new ways to present old ideas. Graphic Method of Portraying Accidents By EARL SPITZES Safety Engineer, Columbia Steel Co., Pittsburg, Cal. For years we have posted our accident investigation reports on the bulletin boards of our plant with the hope that the workmen would read and study the reports and cor rect their ways. We noted that very few of the workmen would take the time or make the mental effort to read and study out our very complete one. two or three-page rc]>ori>. The fcwr men who did study the reports were our super-safe men who were thoroughly safety conscious, while the aver age workman and the accident-prone type would read very little, if any, of the report. We decided to try to find a way to interest Cement ami Quarry Sections 265 our men in the accident reports. Remem bering the attention always given home made drawings, we made a drawing of our next time losing accident, showing one position of the workman as he was injured. We placed our typewritten report, giving the basic cause, recommendations to prevent repetition, etc., alongside of the drawing and then watched the results. We found the drawing did attract a great deal of atten tion, but still the important summary in the report was ignored. We came to the conclusion that it was not altogether laziness or lack of interest on the workmen's part. We found it was difficult for men, accustomed to using their muscles rather than their minds, to build up the necessary mental picture from the written description. Often the terms we used were strange to them. Others, our foreign workmen, could not read English. I thought of my own experience at reading v\rilicit reports of accidents occurring at other plants of our company and tire U. S. Steel Corporation. Often I was confused uith the terms used and found myself taking the lazy man's way of "just skipping it " 1 reasoned that other safety engineers must experience the same reaction. From an accident analysis standpoint we break our accident down into its three ele ments describing the position of the work man and his surroundings before, during and after the accident, just as the majority of vua probably do. We therefore decided to draw a series of sketches depicting these three dements, accompanied by just a few lr> of description for each of the eletnrat-. .\* 1 am not an artist, having had only the free Hand drawing experience which accompanies an M. E. course at college, and since I had no artist in my department, it was necessary for me to resort to the use of the stickman to represent the human ele ment in the picture. This was the same figure you and I used to draw in kinder garten--slicks or straight lines representing the various parts of the body, and a circle representing the head. At the investigation of the next time los ing accident which occurred in the plant I liad a witness go through the motions of the injured man in the three elements. I was surprised at the ease with which I could sketch the man in the different posi tions. Immediately the idea seemed prac tical from a report angle. I reported my discovery to Wm. Cohn, our general super intendent, and he approved the idea. We had our mimeograph operator ctil a stencil from my sketches, including a brief written report, and the reprint was posted on all bulletin boards. Immediately the idea was popular. Practically all our men slopped and read and studied the report. Some came in and complimented me on 11 to idea, said it was the first time they really understood how accidents occurred. Some of our for eigners told me they could read the pictures and learn how the accident occurred. We knew, finally, that we had solved the prob lem. All our workers were interested. The "Stickman" sketches embodied the necessary elements to command their atten tion and provided the necessary simplicity in order that the workmen, as welt as the foremen and others in a supervisory ca pacity, would at a glance grasp the funda mental lesson to be learned from the accident. Being a series of graphic pictures of the accident, portrayed hy a "Stickman," we called it a "Stickman Axigrapli." One of tlie most important results from the use of the Stickman. which developed very sliortly after we adopted its use gen erally in the plant, was that we found our accident investigation committee must be very definitely certain of the movements of the workmen in all phases of the accident; that the baste cause for the accident had been found and that the recommendation to prevent repetition was correct, before the committee could safely allow its findings to be graphically portrayed. An error in such conclusions would be quickly detected. Thus the Stickman Axigmph acts as a stimulus and at the same lime as a cheek on the safety committee. Another unex pected result was the general favorable reaction of the workmen. We have never, to my knowledge, had one complaint from an injured workman or his relatives and friends because of bis name and actions be ing made public all over the plant. In cases where the cause of an accident is definitely self-evident and the fault of the injured person, we have found a good wave of thought is produced and good industrial relations engendered by asking the reader to supply the cause or causes, rather than criticizing the injured in the report. On the other hand, if the company is involved, di rectly or indirectly, be frank with the men. 266 Twenty-sixth Aationul Safety Congress It is to be understood this axlgrapli is .supplementary to and docs not take the place of the regular accident investigation report with its complete details giving witnesses' statements, etc. The Stickman Axigraph is divided into two parts--the graphic part and the brief written description. Any person with a high school level training in free hand drawing or with natural drawing ability can make these sketches. Remember that your stickman is the star actor in the tragedy. Keep the rest of your picture as simple as possible. Show only one stickman figure, unless it absolutely cannot be avoided. Depend upon your writ ten description to explain persons ami things indirectly involved. Remember the stickman, although made only of lines, can be made to represent various natural angles of the human body in various positions. A good average height for your stickman is 1 inch in order to get three sketches on a standard letter size 8l/$ x 11 sheet. First draw a horizontal line to represent the floor line. Second draw a vertical line about half the height of the finished man--about yt inch long and inch above the floor line. Then draw in two legs--each point about Jd inch long. We don't try to show the pelvis. Then draw his feet. Then the shoulders--a horizontal line a short distance below the top of the body line. The two arms with dots for the hands, and Ihcu a circle for the head, and you Itave your stickman. This idea can also be used to port! ay near accidents and unsafe practices. My final plea is--keep the stickman figure ami sketch as plain and simple as possible. Don't even put features in his face unless you have an eye accident to i>orlray. The Psychology of Safety By GEORGE W. HANLEY Safety Director. The Perfect Circle Company, Hagerstown, Ind. Mathematics and other sciences are gov erned by principle* which always give the right answer. When these principles arc used, it is imi*ossib!c to get anything but the right answer. Two and two are always four --never five. Do you. as safely engineers, anticipate the same accurate results from the principles of safety which you employ? Perhaps j'ou will say, one should not exinset as definite results from a program of safety, because you arc dealing with a human element which is variable and docs not have the definiteness of mathematics. But behind every human activity there arc unchangeable principle* similar to those governing mathe matics. If you wish to use electricity you must be familiar with its principles and know how to apply them to get the best results. H you wish to grow grass, yon must understand and put into operation the principle governing vegetation. In every thing we do successfully, we study well the principles ami work in harmony with them. To present safety successfully, then, we must know how to present the thoughts which will obtain the results desired. Man--tltc fellow to whom you are trying i< sell safety--is a composite of good thoughts and nothing else. What about all the bad which i* SO evident in those whom we know ? Those qualities never came with man. They arc only educated beliefs, which lie lias acquired. Carelessness or lack of safety practice is also an educated belief. The only reason you know tle correct rule of mathematics is because your teacher wouldn't let you learn anything else hut the right rule. It wasn't your fault that wrong answers were kept out. You tried hard enough to put them in. Thus you learned that mathematics is not a combination of right aud wrong answers---but only of right answer* or positive qualities. This same rule applies to man. Man is a product of environment and experiences. He lias Imill his human existence and individu ality on his own observations and conclu sions, ami this has. in a more or less degree, obscured his real self and his spiritual quali ties. A man is careless, not In-causc it is natural lor him lo be careless, tuit because he has Cement and Quarry Sections 267 acquired the habit of thinking in a carder manner. He is safety minded because for some reason he has been convinced of il.s value and wants its advantages. As the re sults of his daily experiences, man--any of the men you deal with---has established a set of standards of his own. This we may call his individuality. He lias his own stand ard of honesty, truthfulness, responsibility, and safety. These may not agree with yours, because each man sets up his own standards, based on his own experience and education. If your safety program is not based on principles which will exact definite results from human thought, then your program is a hit and miss program, designed to meet the human opinions which surround j'ou. Your standards of safety thinking and pro gram must be higher than those of other individuals. You can't teach safely until you understand the basic principles of safety yourscl f. Very seldom arc mental reactions taken into account in placing the cause and re sponsibility for an accident. You say a man's hand was injured and the hand must lie cared for in order to correct the results of the accident. But have you traced mental reactions through sufficiently to be sure (fiat the hand could not be injured unless that mental picture was first entertained in thought? If you have, you have arrived at the logical conclusion that everything you do is mental--that is, it is thought expressed. The injury to the hand was only effect, it was caused by the possibility of such an accident entertained in thought. When you realize that you are wholly mental, or thought expressed, and think of and recognize your body as being only your identification mark, you will realize that your body and its actions can be kept under com plete control of your mind--doing only what you wish it to do. Then, when you think safety you will express it; and the opposite thoughts---accident and death--cannot be present. You must remember that two op posites cannot be present in the same place at the same time. When light is present darkness disappears, sorrow cannot exist in the presence of joy, truth cannot entertain a he, and love annihilates hate. In every ease it is vour decision as to the nature of the thoughts you entertain which determines the results you obtain. How docs your safely program reach the man 40 years old, who lias never had an accident? He thinks he never will have an accident, and he thinks he is doing all that is necessary to keep from having an accident. This usually is the fellow who has one of those unexpected accidents which go to make up 70 per cent of your accident record. If such a fellow finally docs have an accident, what caused it? Surely his 40 years' ex perience should have taught him how to avoid it. If you press him for a reason for the accident, lie will prohahly (ell you it happened so quickly he couldn't prevent it. But you men who arc professional detec tives of hazardous thoughts should know immediately that the cause of the accident was due to the standard or lack of standard of his safety thinking. His standard of safety thinking was not sufficiently devel oped to recognize certain types of hazard.*. Thus for him, at least, tire accident was unavoidable. But do you admit some perfectly plausible accident is unavoidable? If you do then you have no principle governing your safety program. In building your safety program have you studied your people, aud "set in" the proper safety approach which will reg ister in each individual consciousness; or, is your program a general spread of safety ideas, hoping that some of them will find lodgement in the consciousness of your workers to tltc extent that your accidents will gradually be reduced? In building a safety program two distinct lines of thought arc usually used; one is fear, the other is logic. VVlicn you use fear yon must leave out logic. Fear and logic are opposites. Fear makes one do things for fear of the consequences. It is an impelling blind force which scares one into doing something. Logic is the result of a mental debate which takes place in one's conscious ness, out of which reason gives you a logical motive for doing or not doing certain things. Physical "stunts" may be amusing or enter taining, and even slightly educational, inti they can never take the place of pure logic, presented to man-in the same manner as he received the fundamentals of education when he went to school. Have you ever listed the attributes of intelligence whkh produce a constructive safety program and will make a man safely conscious, or conscious of safety? Without a list of such constructive thoughts and their proper classification it is impossible to build a satisfactory safety program. 268 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Thin list would contain such ideas as, protection; enjoying the use of normal physical faculties, such as hands, feet, eyes, etc.; ability to cam full supply; life and its sweet pleasures--not handicaps; elimina tion oF pain and suffering due to accidents; pleasant normal appearance; alert analytical thinking; and many other such positive con structive thoughts. The place for safety to begin is down where individuals live and work. The safety Utopia is wlirn every worker becomes so safety conscious that he thinks safety, prac tices safety, lives safety and knows why he (ever has nn accident. How* to get safety to the individual is your problem. If you adopt the premise that your safcij* program is purely mental and if you arc just an ordinary psychologist, you can easily build up a safety program, which can lie put across with very |K>sitivc results. When you prepare such a program and make a correct analysis of thought, you may Ih: surprised to learn that fear or gruesome details don't teach safety. You will also hod (liat the guarding nf dangerous ma chinery docs not teach safety. You will find that guards only cover up hazards. they don't remove them. You win find that only as you plant the idea of logical safety, for safety's sake, in the consciousness of indi viduals and it liecomcs a definite part of their habitual thinking, will people actually become safety minded. Is not this the way you became safety minded? The average individual cannot be taught safety through fear, for lie is not afraid of fear; lie lias no reason to fear, for he thinks he knows how to avoid accidents. Your approach must then be by logic. Some one will say a contest will increase interest in safety--that the giving of watches, medals, and other simitar prizes arc the best in ducements for safety. What quality of thought do you touch hy a contest?--the spirit of competition. Is that safety--a con tinuing enduring type of safety which will make a man naturally safe for the sake of safety, or is it a "shot in the arm," which will need repeating as the human thought gradually slips back into its natural care less condition? You cannot class all contests as a "shot in the arm," because the right type of a con test will excite pride in a safety* record; al though starting from what might be con sidered a negative beginning, gradually it may produce a very* positive result. If the mental result obtained by a contest is "Our department has learned how to work safely and keep out lost time accidents," then you have accomplished all you can hope to ac complish in your safety program. On the other hand, if the result is, "We won the Gold Watch," your results will be negative because the watch has replaced in the thought of the individual the idea of safety, and safety which is bought is not permanent. The most effective method to make the individual safety minded is to surround him with such positive safety atmosphere that he consciously*, or unconsciously, will ab sorb safety thinking and practice. Do we agree that safety is wliat indi viduals want when they* understand the joy and happiness it will bring to them? If so, the principles used by* successful advertisers arc a most potent force in presenting safety. Posters which may be quickly read and easily understood--posters with a good picture tell their story in a few words. In developing this form of advertising the Na tional Safety Council has done a swell job. If a plant had no safety engineer, and would post the National Safety Council's posters throughout the plant with only a reasonable amount of care, accidents in that plant would automatically decrease, for the simple reason that these posters instill the right mental picture in the thoughts of the worker. Should negative posters be shown? Not unless you want negative results. Perhaps no article ever written on safety attracted more attention than "And Sudden Death" by \V. W. Furnas. Did it decrease accidents? The records for the year of 1936. the year this article was published, show* that there was a 6 per cent increase in accidents throughout the nation. This article did not remove the mental picture of accidents, it only attracted attention to accidents and death. Any psychologist will tell you that there are four definite metttai steps in mak ing a sate or presenting an idea--attention, interest, desire and action, and you must establish each one of these in the conscious ness of the individual from whom you de sire the action. "And Sudden Death" did not follow through. The individual was left to decide what action to take, and since most individuals think they arc practicing all the safety necessary, there was little action. Cement ami Quarry Sections 269 Your safety program must be so definitely outlined that the logic of your mental pic tures will raise the safety* thinking in indi viduals to a standard which docs not admit accidents either as a possibility or as a nec essity. Wrong images of thought must I>c destroyed before you can prevent them from finding expression. When you do a mathe matical problem on the blackboard and in error mark down that two anti two are five, you show a wrong* answer. To show a right answer you have to erase the wrong answer and substitute the right ode. In our think ing, we can't arrive at a right conclusion while holding in thought a wrong premise. Our daily acts are the product of our daily thoughts. Before we take any action we think it. not in one instance, but in every instance. There is no such thing as sub conscious action. Accidents then, are a slip in the thought processes of the individual. Someone will maintain that it takes more than a "Pollyanna" method to teach safety, that it needs "brass knuckles." The "brass knuckles" method is Only an arresting agent. It i> not curative. In analyzing human thought you will find that there is a men tal "build-up" which human thought accepts, sometimes with a mental struggle, but more often without. Certain actions of people when first observed do not register pleas antly. Then as these actions are generally practiced by others they are accepted as custom, and eventually this custom is con sidered a right, or a lawful privilege. How much habit thinking does the aver age individual do? That is, how much thinking is thinking, and how much is just a repetition of the routine of life? Do you cat habitually? That is. do you have about the same things for breakfast? Do you dress habitually, tiave a regular routine of putting on certain articles of clothing in their order? Probably* the only individual thinking you do is to decide whether you should change dex or pul on a clean collar. How habitual are you in driving your car? Driving is often referred to as second nature--isn't that about the same as thoughtless habit? Every one practices certain acquired habits of safety. If you raise your arm or close your eyes when an object is coming toward you, you intuitively are practicing preconceived safety. If you take a sip of hot coffee before taking a large swallow, you are practicing safety. If you are driv ing your car along the road fifty miles an hour and wish to get out. you stop vour car before getting out. Why? Because your logic tells you it is the safe thing to do. If you have not already done so, you will find much food for thought in traciuu the origin of accidents to habitual thinking and habitual working. Muss production is largely responsible for this, for it requires the individual to do the same thing over and over, until it becomes monotonous or hum drum. What causes the accident is, that something momentarily attracts the work er's mental attention and he loses his rhythm of habitual thought. Then before he re gains this habitual rhythm, he has an acci dent. Because the habitual thinking of workers plays such an important part in safety ami the foreman is on the ground all or most of the time, the most effective safety work can and should be done by him. The alert foreman will keep constant supervision over details of operation and when he sees un safe practices he will correct them immedi ately. Thus, the thought of the individual is kept in line, the same as your school teacher kept you from injecting mistakes into your problems in school. What is the key which unlocks the mind of the average individual to admit safety qualities of thought? Perhaps no quality of thought in any person is so vulnerable as pride. It is self pride which makes one accumulate and attain a position in life. Self pride is the impelling force which makes one wish to be on a par with his associates; that forces one to know how to do, and if possible excel. You have a right to ask that I furnish some proof that the psychology I am sug gesting can be applied in a practical way*. Two years ago we decided that our safety record was not as good as it should be. We set up a physical safety organization with heads of departments as divisional chair men. Under these divisional chairmen were department foremen as chairmen of depart mental groups of employees. These safety groups hold monthly meetings, promoting safety in their respective departments. When we started this plan the minutes of these departmental groups were most interesting. Month after month they suggested changes in machinery, special guards to cover up hazards, change of procedure, and many other changes in the physical setup of the plant. Not in any instance did these groups 270 Tu'cttty-si.rth National Safety Congress recognize that accidents were caused f>y the human thinking of individuals. In other words our groups were always placing the cause of accidents upon the machines, or the action of others, never on themselves. Our problem then was to turn the thought of individuals from machines and processes to themselves, and help them find the cause of accidents in their own mentality. To do this we began to give publicity to instances where, by proper safety thought, accidents were prevented. Bulletins were issued describing in detail how accident prevention was accomplished. The subjects covered by these bulletins were also used as the basis of discussion in department safety meetings. Thus the idea ot thinking ahead of the accident began to grow. When an accident did occur we issued a bulletin analyzing the accident and pointing out the menial quality of thought which made the accident possible. Gradually the thought of our workers began to find ways to prevent accidents and the idea of having an accident licgan to disappear. To stimulate and encourage the workers to improve their safety thinking we de signed a bulletin board liaving on it the name of the department and a division of the hoard by months upon which "Gold** ami "Red Stars" were pasted indicating the safety record for the month. If at die end of the montli a "no lost time" record was achieved, we Kent to the foreman of that group a "Gold Star" to be placed on hts bulletin board. The foreman capitalized oti lus deportment's accomplishment try calling all his group of workers together and went through the ceremony of posting this "Gold Star" under the proper month. This proved to be an outstanding method of creating individual and departmental pride in pre venting accidents. H is looked forward to as a recognition of accomplishment and* lias aided greatly in changing the thought of the workers from machine hazards to what they could tin to prevent accidents. Hot that the "Gold Star" had any value. It is only a little piece of paper which we buy for 75 cents a hundred, but the presence of the "Gold Star" on their bulletin board is a symlfol of accomplishment: and in a very striking manner tells every employee in every other department of their ability to work safely. If a department was unfortunate enough to have a tost lime accident in a given month we sent that department a "Ked Star" which the foreman placed on the de partment bulletin board. He too called his department together to see the "Red Star" pasted on the bulletin hoard. The "Red Star" instead of the "Gold Star" touches the pride of the .individuals in that depart ment and gradually each resolves to do his bit to put "Gold Stars" on his board. At the same time the foreman informs his workers of the "Gold Star" records of other departments. Tins works wonders in help ing workers to decide that if workers of other departments can get "Gold Stars" they certainly can do as well. This system has brought into play two vital qualities of thought; pride in individual and departmental accomplishment, and the desire to excel In safety thinking. That this system is obtaining very definite results is indicated by the fact that from June 30, 1936/ to June 30, 1937, our Hagerstown Plant had an accumulation of 1,600,000 man-hours without a lost time accident. Such a record was never accomplished before. In our Tipton plant there has been only one lost time accident of three days in two years. To keep the foreman safety cliairman fully informed and properly educated on safety ideas and procedure we peruse the information sent us each month by the Na tional Safety Council, and other sources of information, to obtain illustrations of safety principles. Bulletins describing in detail how these principles may be applied arc sent to the foreman. To help maintain a "Gold Star" record for his department the foreman finds it helpful to pass the outline of the principles on to his workers. This establishes principles of safety in the minds of both the foreman, and his workers, and helps raise the standard of safety thinking which is all that is necessary to prevent ac cidents. When individual workers are prop erly informed on safety principles and are encouraged to develop pride in their depart ment safety record, accidents just do not happen. ADJOURNMENT Chemical Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--H. L. Miner, E. I. du Tool de Nemours & Co.. Wilmington, Del. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Program--Ralph L Rocfrs Jr., Tennessee Eastman Corp., Kingsport, Tenn. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Engineering--J. J. B. Fui.ENWIdek, Hercules Powder Co., Pariin, N. J. .Secretory--Ralph O. Keefer, Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pa. Sews Letter Editor--F. W. Dennis, Hooker Electrochemical Co.. Niagara Fall?, N. Y. Membership and Publicity Committee Chairman--C. E. Sevrens, Merrimac Chemical Co., Inc., Boston, Mass. Occupational Disease Committee Chairman--Dr. Leonard Greenovrc, New York State Department of Labor, New York, N. Y. Paster Committee Chairman--E- L. Root, Celluloid Corporation, Newark, N. J. Statistics Comim/lrc Chairman--R. C. Stratton, The Travelers Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. Members at Large-- A. L. Armstrong, Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y. E. F. King, Lever Brothers Co., Cambridge, Mass. S. D. Kirkpatrick, Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering, New York, N. Y. John Roach, Deputy Commissioner of Labor. Trenton, N. J. John S. Shaw, Hercules Powder Co., Wilmington, 1VI. Plummer Wheeler, American Cyanamid Co., Linden, N. J. S. E. Whiting, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Dwluii, Mass. Peter M. Wiijon, Mathieson Alkali Works (Inc.), Niagara Falls, N. Y. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--H. G Miner, E. I. du Pom de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del. Vice-Chairman in Charoc of Program--Ralph L. Rogers, Jr., Tennessee Eastman Corp., Kingsport, Tenn. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Engineering-- Ralph O. Keefer, Aluminum Co. of America, Pittsburgh, Pa. Secretary--R. S. Mackie, General Electric Co., Nela Park, Cleveland, Ohio. AVtvi Letter Editor--F. W, Dennis, Hooker Electrochemical Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Occupational Disease Committee Chairman--Dr. Leonard Gkeenburc, New York State Department of Labor, New York, N. Y. Membership and Publicity Committee Chairman--C. E. Sevrens. Merrimac Chemical Co., Inc., Boston, Mass. Statistics Committee Chairman--R. C. Stratton, The Travelers Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. Visuot Education Committee Chairman--E. L. Root, Celluloid Corporation, Newark, N. J. 271 . 272 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Members tit Lurtje-- A. L. Ammstkonc, Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y. 1C. F. Ki.xn, Lever Brothers Co., Cambridge, Mass. S. I). Kikki'.vtkiik, Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering, New York, N. Y. John Roach. Deputy Commissioner of Labor, Trenton, N. J. Iojin S. Shaw, Hercules Powder Co., Wilmington, Del. Pmjmmek VYjif.elek, American Cyanamid Co., Linden, N. J. S E. Wiiiting, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. TUESDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 12, 1937 Sessions of the Chemical Section opened with a luncheon meeting with H. L. Miner, E. 1. du Pont dc Nemours & Co., Wilming ton, Del., general chairman of the section, presiding. William P. Yant, director of research and development. Mine Safety Appliances Co.. Pittsburgh, Pa., addressed the delegates on "Latest Protective Devices and Safety Equipment for Chemical Workers." TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Safety in Chemical Laboratories By A. B. RITTER Chemist, Hercules Powder Company, Wilmington, Del. It i* generally accepted that all of the hazards which arise in the several stages of chemical manufacture arc present in the research laboratory on a small scale at least. It is also accepted that there exist the ad ditional hazards of experimental chemical work. How can !*nh types be designated in order to help the chemist protect him self and bis equipment? We suggest that this be done by dividing the hazards into two groups, known and unknown. In the known group we should include the physical hazards, not only as they.pertain to machinery, equipment, ap paratus, anl temperature, and illumination, etc., but also as they relate to the human Ixxly. This known group includes exposure to harm from physical forces; such as, heat, light, and electricity, and that physical strain which is associated with the human body. For the dangers in tire unknown group which the chemist must face, it is sug gested that they be given the names under which they will probably be classified after (heir initial display. These terms may be defined as follows: Explosion hazard is ex posure to danger from a violent expansion of gases. Tire hazard is exposure to danger from burning or combustion. Toxicity haz ard is exposure to danger from poisons. Personal equation hazard is exposure to danger from the tendency of an individual to err. There may be a few who seldom err and there are those who are prone to err more or less frequently. Therefore, the Chemical Section 273 personal equation hazard is classified not as strictly unknown but as generally unknown. We will now give you definite examples of unknown Iiazards in the industrial re search chemical laboratory. At the completion of a satisfactory miniature test, two determinations by the nitrometer method were made on a new explosive oil without check results being obtained. The oil reacted rapidly but since other materials were known to behave similarly no particular significance was at tached to this observation. An attempt was made a day later to establish check results without a further miniature test The Story is brief but impressive. The oil was being washed with concentrated sulfuric acid into the reaction bulb when it prematurely de composed, bursting the bulb. This phe nomenon was classified as an explosion and the oil as submitted was considered an ex plosion hazard in nitrometer work because of the exposure to danger. Let us lake another instance of an un known explosion hazard. A specially ni trated cellulose had been made with great care in the laboratory. Removal of the mixed nitrating acid was, of course, nec essary. It had been customary in preceding work to filter off the add by suction. Ac cordingly, the same small suction flask was cleaned with acetone, dried to remove visi ble liquid acetone, and connected to a water aspirator. Immediately that filtration started, an explosion occurred which shat tered the flask. The nitrated celhilose was scattered but did not take part in the ex plosion. We, as witness, can verify the fact that two workers left the room hur riedly. one seriously hurt. Here again an unknown hazard had made its appearance. The explosion probably resulted from ace tone vapor coming into contact with mixed nitrating acid. Now let us consider an unknown fire hazard. It was desired to determine tlte solubility of chlorine in methanol, for possi ble use in chlorination experiments on a certain base material. The combination of chlorine and methanol was thought to be dangerous. A commendable literature search was made without verification of that thought Thereupon, commercially pure methanol was measured into a glass gas washing bottle and a moderate stream of chlorine was bubbled through at cold water temperature. This was carried out without mishap in a ventilating hood. In the next run, the methanol used was that obtained hy distillation of commercially pure metlianol which had been recovered from tests on the same base material. This redistilled methanol was used as described in the first run. After five minutes bubbling of chlorine, the glass stopper popped out and a blue flash occurred, simultaneously with a splash of burning liquid. Take another unknown fire hazard. In this case, there was fuming in which the material charred slowly and was consumed without flame. A certain organic compound was nitrated for the first time. During subsequent purification, signs of instability were observed which disappeared when the product was drowned. The nitrated product was removed from the water and, for the purpose of stabilization, was dissolved in a suitable solvent and agitated with weak soda ash sofution. So much heat was pro duced that the mixture was hurriedly thrown out. As it hit the ground, it fumed. Now let us consider an unknown toxicity hazard. Solutions of an experimental syn thetic resin in octyl acetate were being made at slightly elevated temperature, about IIS* F. Care was taken to avoid actual contact with the components. After a week of making solutions, dermatitis appeared on the hands, face, and on part of the body of the chemist's assistant. It was known be fore the work started that ester solvents could produce dermatitis on hypersensitive persons. However, although octyl acetate is an ester, it has a high boiling point and was not thought to have been the direct cause. The particular cause has not as yet been definitely determined. Another unknown toxicity hazard was faced in several experiments which were carried out simultaneously and which in volved the use of formaldehyde and certain other chemicals in water solution. One afternoon during the experiments, the chem ist's assistant noticed pain in his side. The next day second degree bums were found on his abdomen and thigh. Conjecture cen tered on the formaldehyde, although the burns appeared to be too vicious for that, and also on the possibility that some hydro chloric acid was mixed unintentionally with thiodiglycol, one of the other materials used, resulting in the formation of mustard gas. 274 T7i\'Hty-jsivth National Safely Congress Tin- Jativr ci.nld have occurred if thiodiglyn,f had Ik in spilled on his clothe* ami later hydrochloric acid u:u spilled on them. or if ili- Umi mauriaL had been spilled on lh< Iwm'Jl !(}, An i<i utikinmu personal equation hazards, it would not Ik at all difficult to give numerous example*. ()iic occurred during tlie di'iillaliun of 2li alroliol. *l*hc setup omNi'icd nf a lla>k in a water l*ath heated in lauling l*y a gas flame. The alcohol humped and 1*oilcd nonunifornily. To correel the uneven Imiling and humping, the chcmi-1 removed the ihermomvlcr and im mediately UrojijH'd into the superheated flask a piece of cold inwhus plate. A geyser of hot alcohol shot out. reached the gas flame ami ;o i-tnlcd. In another. lu>> Irrakers were placed side l>t -oile on a lal**ratnry l>mch. One con tain* <1 it hoi molten resin on the surface which a ilm skin lu*d formed and the ilit i tin njiiu kniii tn a cukL solid 'late. The i i<'>>-t v j- |'Us,in tlw cold resin vs till In. |. Oimuilr tlw tailiih>s uhei' li`- i h |h 'ah*: \tur Uk iuter- luptitii!, h< pick'd up th hot. instead ol lkjL,i jo.I pi.'Ntil tin surface. Hot it*sii ^o%Iu.1 ..ut and liuriit his hand. Knell of the example' wa* chosen to il lustrate only one unknown liarard. llv no means does each new dangerous event in volve just one ha/anl. Examples involving cnmhinulkms of unknown hazard* wore omitted because they would nut add csjK1cial value. How may die chemist anticipate or avoid the unknown dangers? Jn searching for practical volutions, c submit a simple questioo--lias imagination any use in chemistry? As >oti know, the answer is, yes. A second question--Which is more effective, con trolled or uncontrolled imagination?* VVc know the answer is controlled imagination. Chemists apply effectively their controlled imaginations to work iu the unknown. It may take weeks, months, or even years, of imagination, study, nttd work to arrive at an effective use ol methods, materials, and apparatus Hut a point wc wish to stress is die further application of controlled imagi nation t*> avoid injury from unknown haz ards. The explanation of unknown hazards vs ill define the control for the chemist's imagination. The diemi^l should let bis imagination enter these channels and pro vide adequate protection in turn for each unknown hazard. When a chemist directs his imagination into these fields, lie should think in the orderly fashion he follows on unknown chemical phases of his work. This orderly thinking should lead him to provide for an important aid which can Ikt used frequently. This aid is the use of adequately guarded miniature tests immediately preceding the work in which an unknown hazard may l>c involved. It may be necessary* al times, tor some one iu higher authority to point out clearly insufficiencies hi imagination, study, and work on unknown chemical problems. Like wise, insufficiencies in imagination on un known hazards and in provision therefor of adequate protection may have to lie called to the attention of the research chemist. What protection is adequate for the un known hazards? Adequate protection can fie obtained provided the preqxr soarces of information arc canvassed. The Safe Prac tices Pamphlet entitled "Chemical Labora tories" published by the National Safety Council is particularly valuable. Assistance can also he obtained from the Council's Safe Practices and Health Practices Pam phlets. from U. S. Government publications, front (he regulations of the National Fire Protection Association, from the codes and regulations of the several States, from the safety codes and rules of the American Standards Association, and from the books and periodicals of the International Labour Office of Switzerland. Our list does not in clude all of the many excellent reference sources available. The manufacturers and distributors of safety equipment ami materials can render valuable service by designing their products in conformity with the latest safety infor mation, by furnishing specific direction* for the operation and handling thereof, and by sljariog'their experiences with tlie industrial chemical laboratories. How will the chemist provide tor the personal equation hazard? He will apply his controlled imagination to tlie possibilities in this field and will be satisfied to go abend only when convinced his planned procedure warrants. Chemical Section 27 b Chemical Section Safety Contest The high lights of the 1937 Chemical Sec tion Safety Contest were reviewed by Keitel C. Stratton, Supervising Chemical Engineer. The Travelers Insurance Co.. Hartford, Conn. Of the 75 units registered in the contest, 20 finished without a single disabling injury. All competing units averaged a frequency rate of 6.985, or 32 per cent less than the average frequency rate for the entire chem ical industry'm 1936. Employees of aJl par ticipating plants worked 35,073.740 man hours. Of the various division* in the contest, the 20 largest unit* composing Group A of Division l had the lowest frequency rates, averaging 6.04. Twenty plaques and une certificate were awarded in the contest. Tbe trophies were presented by Walter G. King, Safety l>ircctor. American Optical Co., New York City, and Past President, National Safety Council. The recipients of plaques were: Division f. Croup A--Two tied for first place--Canadian Industries. Ltd., Dominion Ammunition Ifiv- Brown-burg, Quebec; Canadian Industrie*. Ltd.. Beloci) Works. McMasterville, Quebec; Charles Lenning & Co., Inc., Philadelphia. Pa. Diririwi I, Group B--Eight tied for first place--Canadian Industrie*. Ltd, General Chemical Div., Hamilton, Ontario; Canadian Industries, Ltd., Explosives Div., Nobel, Ontario; American Cyananml & Chemical Corp., Explosive* Div.. New Castle, Pa.; Ansul Chemical Co.. Marinette, Wis.; Canadian Industries, Ltd.. Plastics Div., Brownsburg, Quebec; Cbilhoucc Co., New port. Tenn.; Canadian Industries, Ltd., General Chemical Div., Copper CHIT, On tario; American Cvanamid Jfc Chemical Corp, Chattanooga, Tcnn. Division It--Four tied for first place-- Lambert Pharmacal Co, St. Louis, Mo.; Lambert Pharmacal Co., Jersey City, N. J.; Canadian Industries. Ltd, Paint & Varnish lHv, Montreal. Quebec; Canadian Indus tries, Ltd., Fertilizer Div., New Westminster, B. C Division ///--Six tied for first place-- National Carbon Co.. Inc., Niagara Works, Niagara Falls, N. Y.; Whitall Tatum Co., Lpprr Plant, Millville. X. J.; Canadian Industrie*. Ltd. Salt Div., Windsor, Out.; The Carey Salt Co- Hutchinson, Kan.; Canadian Industries. Lid.. General Chcntio.il l>iv., Cornwall, Ont.; The Mountain Copjwr Co.. Ltd, Martinez Plant, Martinez, Calif. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Safety in Chemical Pilot Plants By P. V. TILDEN E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., Wilmington, Del. At first glance, it might seem that safety in tlrc chemical laboratory, in the chemical pilot plant and in the chemical production plant would present problems of marked similarity. While this is true to a certain extent, the wide difference between operating personnel, processes and equipment in each of the three units makes a general common basis for safety work impractical. The pilot plant lias a much mure varied per sonnel than the laboratory, wheic the per sonnel is u( it uniformly high type and well- educated, and (ban the production plant where the personnel is selected for ability to produce and operate the plant. The pilot plant is operated by a personnel ranging from highly educated, carefully trained em ployees to laborers, most of the time work ing side by side. The pilot plant also differs from the laboratory* and from the production plant in the type of materials handled, the buildings, 276 Tivcnty-sirth National Safety Congress tJjo guarding, the safety committees and par* limlarly in regard to the new methods and iit.*w materials. These differences require that all <>f these items !* carefully considered be* fore any safety program can Ik used effec tively. Personnel The (Krrsomtcl of pilot plants must be given serious consideration. The control of the pilot plant is usually in the hands of men who arc technically trainrd and who have had consid erable experience. Often, there is a tendency on tlx part of this type of supervisor to ttevomc so engrossed in the products or proc esses being handled tliat safety unconsciously Ihtcouics a secondary consideration. Working with these men are laborers who arc not sufficiently educated to recognize hazardous nmditions and to detect unsafe practices and eliminate them. The temU-my in general is to produce a satisfactory product at any cost, to establish a manufacturing procedure, and to take care oi safety when the process lias readied a m.'tiHn.icuiring point. The management oi pilot plants, as a result, places the establish ment of the process ahead of the safe inami- iauuring of it. I'irst oi all, safety in methods and practices shoo'd lx* impressed on the control personnel ami then tin- workmen and laltorers should be educated along safety lines. This wilt be found to li- more difficult in pilot plants because there is mu always the decided line and staff urganiziiiimi tliat exists tit an operating plant; that is, (|)4.> general flow or dissemination of safety from the manager In the supervisor, down through tite foremen to the older employees, am] finally. to the new man. In pilot plants the line of demarcation is more abrupt, usual ly mnsiMing of a direct tic between the 'Ui|HTvi*nr .nicl the workman; and consider able clTorl must l*e cxjxiwlcd to teach safety work pro|KTlv in >ikI> an environment* New Methods The pilot plant is the true testing ground of a new material or process. If a new material is being perfected, it moves from tl>c )a)x>ralory into the pilot plant, ami then out to tlx* pTixluction plant. si that different processes--each of which has its own characteristics, ami there fore. il> individual Itazanh--are being moved through the pilot plant continuously. The sniNTviston should recognize jx>*!U>le hazards ami eliminate and safeguard them while in the pilot plants and at the same time educate the men to work safely. Often the materials being handled arc known to be dangerous--at other times the hazards arc not known. The known hazards must be guarded against, and the men must lx suffi ciently trained to appreciate any unlookedfor occurrences that may indicate danger. Ordinary guarding of machinery, and protec tive equipment such as gloves, clothing and respiratory devices tliat are used to protect workers in an operating plant, must be used in pilot plants, but beyond this, the workers must be trained to realize that they may encounter unlookcd for hazards, and they must be alert. Material Handling The handling of materials throughout a production plant is, in most cases, according to a prearranged plan or scheme formulated by those who have made a careful study of the entire situation. Materials are handled in more or lets the same manner in the same equipment and by the same workers day after day. This set procedure does not exist in pilot plants, since different materials from various sources are being handled, introducing the probability that hazards may increase in material handling, which is a constant source of danger. Personal injuries in pilot plants frequently occur because of improperly or poorly de signed equipment for handling materials. Often it is necessary to handle small quanti ties of dangerous material in pilot plants quite differently from metltods followed in operating plants, thereby more acutely ex posing workmen to their dangers. Available conveyors or machines in tlx pilot plant will be used, even though nut the proper design for the manufacturing operation. Materials that should lx manufactured in a closed sys tem arc sometimes handled in open systems. At times it is necessary lo handle materials, Iho exact reactions of which have not been fully determined in the laboratory, and tlx men are unknowingly exposed to toxic vapors or fumes. Tlx supervision and ll\c men must understand that safely work in the pilot plant is as important as safety in tlx laboratory or in the production plant. Buildings In large plants a certain number of buildings arc usually set aside or provided for pilot plant operation. These buildings may not Chemical Section 277 be suited to the occupancies, resulting in congestion, lack of important exit facilities, inadequate separation of hazardous processes, etc. Pilot plant operations have been known to be set up in old garages or out-of-the-way buildings, without consideration for the pre vention of personal injuries. Buildings of adequate size, proper design and construction should be available for pilot plant operation. Quarding In most production plants well guarded machines are purchased, or if a new machiix is built or purchased, it is gone over by the mechanical division and every moving part is carefully guarded. In pilot plant practice it is often necessary to place a ma chine in operation in order not to delay the development process. The problem of guard ing machinery is therefore more difficult in pilot plants than in production plants and sltould be frequently cheeked, continuously supervised and given attention. Where iiarmful dust or fumes arc being encountered, adequate exhaust or ventilating systems should be installed. Machines should be of the latest type, and fully guarded. The employees should be adequately protected with suitable clothing--aprons, rubber gloves, hoots, etc.--and provided with other neces sary personal safety equipment, such as goggles, respirators and gas masks. Every precaution should be taken to make the operation of a pilot plant as safe as the operation of a production plant should be. Safety Committees It has been jointed out that the personnel, the new methods Iicing constantly employed, material handling problems, plant buildings and safeguards, alt aggravate tlx usual causes of possible personal injuries in pilot plants. To eliminate hazards each member of tlx personnel must be constantly on guard to recognize unsafe practices and unsafe conditions so that they may be corrected. The recognized method of properly training and educating the employee is the establish ment of safety committees similar to those used in production plants. The following lilan has proved practical ht a number of operating pilot plants: A departmental safety committee was or ganized by selecting a chairman and assistant chairman for each committee, together with two members consisting of a salaried mem ber and a payroll member. Each committee acted for a period of one month, at the end of which time the chairman retired, and the assistant chairman automatically took his place. His successor was then appointed for the following month, as well as the two additional members for that mouth. In this way, each chairman became thoroughly acquainted with his duties hy virtue of having acted as assistant chairman, ami the changing of three members of the committee each month during the year presented an oppor tunity to drill most of the personnel of the department in the fundamentals of safety work. Each department of the pilot plant slioulO have a safety committee organized along these or similar lines. During the time in which each chairman is serving on the com mittee his duties with regard to safety come first, and his usual departmental duties arc considered of secondary imi>ortancc. During the mouth at lefts! one of the buildings or operations in the area is thoroughly inspected each day until the whole area has been cov ered, and a report is prepared covering changes of recommendations for the beixfit of the succeeding committees. This com mittee also considers all safety requirements coming from outside inspection bureaus. State officials, etc. In organizing in this manner fur safety it has been found beneficial to hold periodical meetings of the entire department to impress upon all the seriousness of safety work, and the absolute necessity for individual and col lective cooperation. In large pilot plants the chairmen uf the various safety committees should meet at least once a month with the plant central safety committee and discuss the various recommendations of their commit tees. All recommendations should receive consideration, and the items corrected. If any suggestions are found impractical, the reason should be given in full ami the recom mendation should be returned to the com mittee originating it. The value of such a system can be seen from the following recommendations that arc typical of those submitted in a pilot plant where such a system was in use. I. A certain chemical is handled in drums, and since there is a liability of developing a considerable pressure on standing in the hut sunshine, a study should lx made as to 278 Twenty-sixth National Safety Conyress the correct procedure (ir l^mKing these materials. 2. Spark-proof wrenches arc requested for opening drums of flammable materials. 3. The operator should wear a mask dur ing the cleaning oi the **;* filter press, also consideration should l*c given to some type of ventilation of this filter press, If any type of hood is adopted, it must l>c certain tint its adoption docs not increase the hazard. Perhaps some form of down draft ventilation, which will in tm way interfere with tlie operator. could lc devised. 4. Since a flame of any kind in this build ing represents a hazard, it is recommended that the gas to the lalmraiory trenches be cut off. 5. An attempt has been made to repair the catch on the saicl.v door of the locker room. However, it is nut retired and might give trouble in case <>t an atlemptctl emergency exit. 6. The committee was unsuccessful in locating an outside safety vent on the ***** storage tank, and the installation of such a vent uf a pr|M,T flame-proof type is highly desirable. Tin* present method of venting, we are told, is t let lic inlet valve or line ojhmi wImmi tin.* material is 1>cing pumped into the tank through one oi tlc other lines. 7. 'Hie committee perhaps ovcrzcalously discarded iwcitty-vighl nr>ty 5-galloti cans which were stored on one of the shelves in this building. Kach can was carefully opened before being discarded ami three of tltem were definitely found to contain 12% pyroxylin of the I`>27 vintage, in a more or less dry cunditinn. and in one case fermented. Four others were shown to contain 11% pyroxylin in the same condition. The re maining cans were not marked with Cite name ot the owner, ami in Minw of tire cases, were not event laltclcd. Thu* they were considered an immediate fire hazard amt were sent to (he burning grounds. It later appeared that some of these samples may have been of value, and the committee wishes to a|>olngizc for having acted in such a high-handed (auliiun, but they felt at (tot time such a summary action was necessary. This incident at least shows the necessity for an imme diate. ami thorough houscclcatiing of the storage vaults. ft. The steam hotplate in the roll room is clangorous. A simple guard uf mesh wire. raised an inch nr so almvc tire hot surface, to be put in place when the plate is not being used will constitute a sufficiently safe arrangement. 9. The boards laid between the rails in front of the oven constitute a slightly raised platform of w'hich the edge forms a tripping hazard. It is recommended that ramps be placed around this platform. 10. We question the safely of storing solvent bottles, usually of 5-pint size, on the soapstone ledges behind the laboratory benclics in view of (he use of the lops of the benches for Bunsen flames and electric heat ers. It is frequently necessary to reach over other apparatus which may include a Bunsen flame, in order to remove and replace these clumsy bottles on the (edge. 11. In practically all of the pilot plants' operations and even in some offices objects of various kinds arc being stored on cabinets ami shelves overhead. This is definitely con trary to good safety practice. The committee recommends that a drive be instituted against this particular hazard, even to the extent of liaving all such objects removed periodically and thrown out. 12. The committee recommends that in lire future, any hazardous tools or other pieces of equipment found during a safety inspec tion he collected at once and not returned to the owner until they have Ikcii put in shape. 13. A general survey should be made of all the walks around buildings occupied by the research department. Tltcse should be made, then the walks repaired and replaced where necessary. The walks in front of certain vaults arc in very poor shape and represent bad hazards, both in respect to tripping, turned ankles and overstraining with liandtrucks. Since we go to great lengths to eliminate even suggestions of such (wizards inside our buildings, we should do the same for the real hazards outside. 14. Til some of our buildings, pipe used for different materials arc |iaintcd with respect to the definite code developed for this pur pose. In other buildings, no attempt lias licen made wliatcvcr to do this. The com mittee recommends that this practice lie extended to all buildings occupied by the research department, since it not only makes for efficient operation, hut is also a definite safety aid in case a line must le quickly traced for a leak. Chemical Section 279 15. In lalMjratorics ami pilot plant operadons. a uumljcr of nitrogen and otlier gas tanks were found tied up ineffectively with wire or cord. It was reported that the ap proved type safety clamps are beng loaned from one detriment to another and are not always available when required. It is recom mended tiiat a number of additional clamps be made tip at once so that tlierc always will be a sufficient quantity on hand. It is also suggested that the social roller carriage used for handling gas tanks be investigated. Tins carriage simplifies the transportation of tanks and also holds them in place after they have reached their des tination. The alwtvc recommendations show the kiutl of liaz.nrds that arc being uncovered and eliminated by safety committees and indicate the excellent results that can be obtained through the proper training and education of the personnel. Supervision must recognise its responsibility if such a program is to be successful. Responsibility for making the changes in equipment or apparatus, in line with the suggestions of the safety committee, rests with the division head under wltom the supervision of the particular operation comes. It ^houkl not be the intention of de safety committee to inflict hardships uixm the opera tion. or to interfere in any way with its efficiency. but safety and production can go hand in hand, and every precaution should lie taken to sec that the safety committee operates efficiently and is given 100 per cent cooperation on the part of the management. Safety Rules It is particularly important in the chemical pik>t plant that safety rules be carefully prcjiarctl and explicitly followed. It is obvjntts that the necessity for such rules is tar greater in the pilot plant than in tlw lalmramry or in the production plant, due to type { personnel, untried methods of manu facturing and usually inadequate guarding. Rules should be conspicuously posted so that all employees can become tlioroughly familiar with them. 'Che following are typical of the 35 safety rules which were jtosted on August l **u one of our own pilot plants: 1. KemonbcT this area is devoted mainly t, pioneer work on chemical process aiul that we arc dealing with new hazards. Safety ami cleanliness must be observed on all operations. Keep all buildings and equip ment dean. 2. All employees must wear protective spectacles wherever any chemical work i> being done, laboratory or Semi-Works. The regular safety goggle must be worn when handling acids, caustic or other hazardous chemicals. Cheek with supervisor ns lo the need for safety goggles on new ojicrattons or in ease of doubt. 3. Keep space about emergency showers clear of obstructions at all times. Each em ployee must familiarize himself with the location of showers and how to operate them. 4. Goggles, respirators and rubber gloves must be worn where required. Specific eases will be indicated by your Supervisor or Foreman. 5. No person shall enter a tank or similar equipment without the approval of the House Foreman. In tire ease of agitated equipment, (Ik tight pulley must be chained or the con necting pin in tltc licit lace be removed and the bell removed entirely from the equip ment. Blank off all lines into equipment lyefure entering. 6. Employees wlten in doubt on any writ ten or verbal instmclions given them re garding materials to be used in operation, should not proceed until tlonbt is cleared by someone competent to do so. Do not trust to hearsay or the word of someone else that gas, vent or pressure lines or valves arc open or closed whatsoever the condition desired where the safety of yourself is concerned. You must check these conditions and make sure to your own satisfaction. Careful attention to the fundamental prin ciples of safety must he given in the chem ical pilot plant if the safety program is in Ik effective. The new methods, processes, ami new materials being handled in Imilding* which in most cases may not be designed for the operation, requires careful selection and adequate safety training of the personnel from the management to the last worker, and strict adherence to the safely rules. But most important of all arc ihc active wide awake live-wire safety committees, with departmental sujwrvisor* as cliairincn, who should l>e inspired and backed up by ihc pilot plant manager himself. 280 Twenty-sixth National Safety Conyress Safety in the Chemical Production Plant By A.S. ZOERB Director of Training, Tenne&tee Eastman Corp., Kingsport, Term. All clicmicat plant hazards fall into two general classes: First, physical or material hazards, which include the building, process equipment, the machinery, etc. Second, and perhaps the more important class is that of human or employee hazards- The physical hazards are by far the easier to identify and correct, whereas the human element is always unpredictable. Let us consider what our superintendent should do to minimize the physical hazards of his new plant- If the superintendent is not already familiar with the hazards that developed in the research stages of his proc ess, he should consult freely with the re search men who have had this experience. The place for him to begin to eliminate the liazards is on the engineers' drawings. We lave all found from experience that it is far cheaper and always more satisfac tory to provide all of* the special safety features while the plant is still on paper than to wait until after it is built. Usually the special construction necessary for safe design and operation costs no more than ordinary construction on which no con sideration has heen given to these features. The built-in safety features almost inVariably produce economies that more than pay for themselves. It would be desirable if the superintendent would develop for himself a sort of a check list of all conceivable items which should be considered while the plant is still on paper. Xaturally the items will vary with different plants and different processes. The following are some of the features that should be on such a list; What about the location of the building? Consideration should be given to whether you arc ''putting all your eggs in one basket" by concentrating hazardous processes in buildings too close together. In ease of a serious fire or explosiou in one building, will it involve all those nearby or possibly shut them down? After locating the building, what type of construction should it be? If there are spe cial fume or gas hazards perliaps portions of the building wall should be left open. If heavy fumes or toxic vapors are present, there should be ventilation openings in the walls at all floor levels. Also all pits or ditches in the floor should be avoided where heavy vapors arc present. Should special vent sash or wall panels be included which would blow out in case of an explosion? Special sewers or disposal means may be necessary if there are dangerous chemicals or gases to be disposed of as waste. Where there is a possibility of chemical reaction of these wastes with other things that may be encountered in the sewer, there is a serious hazard. Are any special exits needed so that the men can get out in case of an emergency? Thought should be given to the arrangement of rooms so as to mini mize the handling of materials, particularly lifting by*hand. Is an elevator needed? Is there ample storage capacity for incoming and finished materials? Should certain ma terials be stored separately because they may present an additional hazard if they come in contact with each other? This list could go on indefinitely. Let us consider some of the hazards with relation to the process equipment. Is it made of strong enough material as indi cated by experience in the pilot plant? In many cases, this will involve the choice of special corrosion resistant materials such as stainless steel, glass, rubber, or other special construction materials which will withstand corrosion and prevent possible future failure of the equipment. Unforeseen failure due to corrosion or any other cause is always extremely dangerous. The best available materials should be used. If pressure or vacuum vessels arc used they should be amply protected with relief devices. In that connection, we might in clude the installation of all necessary indi cating and recording instruments both for operating control and for safety which will show the presence of dangerous conditions. Of course, all open mechanical moving parts should be guarded. Special thought should be given to the plans for tanks and piping. Where there is a possibility of running tanks over, arc there adequate overflow pipes ? In case safety pop valves are used, are they di$- Chemical Section 281 charged into the room where they may cre ate a hazard, or to some safe place outside? Are all regularly used valves in the piping system located where they can be con veniently operated? This item is frequently neglected because much piping on engineers' drawings is shown schematically and pipe fitters are always prone tn use straight runs of pipe. As a result, important valves may be located near the ceiling, behind equipment, or in other inaccessible places. It should be just as easy to run these pipes so that the valves can be conveniently reached from the floor, ft may be necessary to distinguish by painting them different colors or by labeling the valves. If flammable liquids or gases are present, special consideration should be given to the equipment used for handling them. Are the vessels properly vented? If common vents to many tanks or vessels are used, ate they separated from each other by flame arresters in the vent pipe to isolate a tire in the one vessel in which it originates? Are all possi ble sources of ignition of flammable ma terials eliminated? Those include open flames, sparking electrical equipment such as motors, starters, pushbuttons, circuit break ers, etc. What about the possibility of igni tion by static sparks? Is all of the equip ment properly grounded ? Is it necessary to maintain high humidity to decrease (he possibility of static sparks? Where there is a possibility of explosion, arc there adequate explosion relief vents? Where is the best place to store dangerous flammable ma terials? How far from the building should they be kept? Should they be stored under ground ? ProviMon should never be made for trans ferring flammable liquids with air pressure; they slurttkl always be pumped. There is always a hazard with remotely controlled apparatus because of the possibility of one employee operating it when another em ployee docs not expect it. Where such re motely controlled apparatus is used, the valves, switches or other controls should be capable of being locked Now let us turn to consideration of spe cial protective devices in the building. Under these must be included emergency showers for the immediate washing off of chemical burns and extinguishment of ftve if the clothing is ignited. Are gas masks needed for operating or emergency purposes? Per haps special detecting instruments should be provided for some dangerous materials which will indicate their presence. This is particularly needed for invisible gases that have no odor or taste. Perhaps remote con trolled switches and valves are needed for shutting down the process from the outside of the building in case of emergency. These arc particularly valuable in case of a serious leak or fire that would make it impossible for men to get into the building. For in stance, a solvent pipe from a stcant driven solvent pump may be broken, if the solvent spills out and catches fire where will the operator have to go to shut the steam off to stop the pump to keep it from pumping more fuel on the fire? Arc special ventilating ducts needed to eliminate dangerous fumes that may be flammable or toxic? Perhaps (he most important of all items in chemical process buildings is the fire pro tection system. Is any special type of sprinkler system needed? Are the hazards localized by adequate Arc walls and fire doors? Arc there sufficient portable extin guishers of the right type readily available? Are hose lines needed? For special hazards, consideration might be given to piping foam or carbon dioxide to the vessels where the fire might occur. Should some of the opera tions be carried on in an atmosphere of inert gas? Also, under protective devices should be included warning signs of many kinds. The usual Signs prohibiting smoking or open lights should be conspicuous at the entrance to the plant or building. Any special haz ardous controls may require special signs. Many hazards are created by the serv ices supplying the process, including steam, electricity, water refrigeration, vacuum, compressed air, gas and other services nec essary to the operation. Special considera tion should be given to proper insulation of exposed steam lines to prevent burns and, of course, an unnecessary loss of heat. Do steam traps discharge to a safe place? Where several steam pressure supplies arc used, are they identifiable so that high pres sure steam is not accidentally connected to a low pressure vessel? On the electric current supply there is almost invariably, in chemical plants, fail ure to anticipate future increases in loads that are often added. All of the wiring and equipment sliould be of ample size to carry future loads. If it is decided to use ex 282 Txeenty-si.vth National Safety Congress plosion proof electrical equipment, the in stallation should be consistent throughout nn<l should include every conceivable item of electrical equipment that might create a >park. Some items frequently forgotten arc telephones, elevators with interlocking door switches, pushbuttons, clocks and electric drinking fountains. To prevent the possi bility of electric shock from defective equipment special attention should be given to proper grounding of all motors, conduit, and portable electric devices. Now as to tlie water supply. Arc the pipe sizes provided for the water large enough? Particularly, cooling water supplies to sol vent condensers, where water failure might be disastrous, should he of ample size. In some plants there arc several water systems, some of which arc not suitable for drinking water. Make sure tliat only drinking water is available for drinking purposes. Usually on the consideration of refrigera tion some thought should he given to whether a safe refrigerant can he substituted for a dangerous one. Pcrliaps the cooling medium at the process equipment can be brine or cold water instead of the dangerous refrigerant itself. Where possible, it is de sirable to hare ammonia condensers located outside buildings, where the release of a large amount of ammonia will not be as dangerous as it would be inside. Since every process will be diffevent, the superintendent should make his own list of important safety features which may differ widely from the ones given. He should *l>cnd much time studying his flow sheets and drawings, particularly drawings of pip ing. in this study it is always enlightening to arbitrarily point to a spot on a drawing and say, "If this piping should break,.what would happen?" or "If ibis pump stops, what unusual circumstances, with their at tendant hazards, will arise?" Also, what if the power fails or the water fails? In looking at his floor plans and equip ment layout, the superintendent should look for spots where an employee might possibly be trapped in ease of a fire or serious chemical leak. These emergencies do occur and it is far better to flunk of them and their solution before they actually happen. You may say (hat all of this is the engi neer's job, or the safety department's job, or the management's job, but is it ? The superintendent knows his hazards and is re sponsible for the safely of his men. so it is certainly his first concern to see that safe features arc built into his plant. Of course, many of his desires along this line will result in compromise, but he should always keep foremost in his mind the safety fea tures he knows he wilt need. It is his job to sell them to the management and to the engineers. It is quite possible that he will not think of all of the hazards or the best means of overcoming them. For that reason, he should seek additional advice. He should consult freely with his safety department or with his insurance company's safety en gineer. All available information on the properties of the Chemicals and the limita tions of his equipment should be obtained. Usually the supplier is a good source of information on these special problems. Ad vantage should be taken of the consultation services of the National Safety Council. Their engineers have accumulated a wealth of information on the proper safeguarding to be applied to almost every conceivable situation. Now, suppose we have this ideal physical plant with all of the safety features built in tliat can possibly be useful. Will that mean there will be no accidents? We all know the answer to that. Tlie elimination of the physical hazards is really a simple job compared to making our employees completely safety conscious so they them selves are no hazard. In the foregoing, alt responsibility has been considered as resting upon the super intendent. In the matter of employees' safety, it still rests upon him, but neces sarily he must usually delegate much of the responsibility to his foremen who liave di rect daily contacts with the men. That does not lessen the superintendent's responsibility in the least. Id the last analysis the safely record of his department is going to be a direct result of his own influence in seeing that his men, as supervised by hi& foremen, go about their tasks in a safe manner. His superiors and the management wiU hold him accountable for his record and for any ac cidents that occur. With a new process, it is probable that a superintendent will inherit a few key men who worked with the development of the process in the pilot plant stage. These men may become his foremen, or lie may get his foremen from some other department. In either case, a superintendent must impress Chemical Section 283 upon them the importance of their leader ship in the proper training of his workers. Most of the operators who will man the new plant may have had no previous indus trial experience or at least no chemical experience. Even if they are not perfectly green they have a great deal to learn before they can be considered safe workers. With a new process the teaching of each employee should begin as soon as he is em ployed, whether he has been previously employed in other departments or is new from the outside. A good way to start this teaching is for the superintendent to liave a serious private talk with each man before he begins work. The superintendent should discuss only the importance of safe working and should not try to explain the process or a lot of other things that the man is going lo have to learn gradually. The object of this talk should be to outline definitely the general hazards of the work and to con vince the new man that safe work is a part of his policy. Above all, the superintendent should im press upon the man the importance of asking questions of the foreman on everything that he does not understand. This is worth while not only from a safety standpoint, but from the standpoint of efficient operation as well. A simple mistake due to ignorance may be costly in many ways. Some men, particularly the older ones, might be reluc tant to ask questions or may feel they must not ask too many questions because they think it will indicate ignorance on their part. The superintendent should head off this at titude in the beginning. There should be a definite program of employee education of which safety train ing is a most important part. It must be carried on continuously with the foreman acting as the key man. Perhaps the first instruction by the foreman should be on the fundamental safety rules; such as re porting all injuries immediately for treat ment wearing goggles where required, rules against smoking, horseplay and any special rules applicable to the particular process. In conducting his training work it is basic that the foreman should observe all rules him self so that he will be an example for the men. A rule that does apply to everyone alike should not be considered a rule. If possible, new men should he assigned to work along -with men already experienced who can show them many of the details of the work and point out what the particular danger points arc. Tfic objective of all educational safety work is to instill in the man a safety con sciousness that becomes a permanent part of his diameter. When properly itequired this attitude results in a state of rniml uhich makes the man inquire, w hether consciously or not, if there are any elements of danger in every* task he performs whether it !>c on the job, at home, or elsewhere. It finally becomes a habit tliat is of inestimable value. Several systems are being used in this educational work. Perhaps (he most im portant one is that of holding foremen conferences. In these conferences, the fore men arc able to swap ideas, tell of experi ences which their men have had that involve special hazards, analyze and discuss acci dents and ncar-accidents, receive informa tion from the management as in safety policies, etc. Another worth while educational feature is the inspection of the plant by the foremen and also by the men themselves. The In spection reports of the safety engineer are usually very informative. The inspector's recommendations should be considered very seriously. The men should learn to look upon the inspector and his work as a serv ice that is for their personal benefit. The use of demonstrations to show by actual cases what certain hazards arc is of great value. Demonstrations are particularly con vincing to men who have little technical background. If the men have a chance to see miniature explosions, chemical reactions and fires, using- the materials with which they are working in their plant they will be much more convinced as to their hazards and properties than they would be by years of talking. As in all mass education a certain amount of advertising is necessary to keep the sub ject constantly alive. Most chemical plants do this through circulars and bulletin boards, Another means is through inter-depart mental and inter-plant safety contests in which the spirit of rivalry is the basis of interest. All of these programs are worth while, but in using them - one should not lose sight of the primary fact that safety is an everyday requirement of ordinary op eration and that it is not some new idea that somebody is trying lo put across with spasmodic propaganda schemes at various intervals. Basically, the maintenance of 284 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress safe working conditions and safe attitude on the part of all employees i s a cold bosiness proposition. It is a means of increasing efficiency and reducing costs, By costs we mean not only money saved on insurance and disability payments to injured workers, but the even more real cost which is the suffering, pain and anxiety that results from injury for which no amount of money can ever compensate. ADJOURNMENT Construction Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--W. A. Snow, Associated General Contractors of America, Inc., Wash ingion, D. C. Vicc-Chairmun for Heavy Construction--R. J. Rricp.lutm, C. \V. Blakcslce & Sons. New Haven, Conn. Vice-Chairman for Highway Construction --F. I. Rowe, W. L. Johnson Construction Co., Hicksvillc, Ohio. Vice-Chairman for U. S. Engineer Department--Major Elljott Vandevanter, C. of E., Office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington, L). C. Vice-Chairman for Building Construction--Chester W. Wright, Wright & Kremers. Inc., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Secretary--RouEkr McKinley, Genera) Accident, Fire & Life Assurance Corp., Detroit, Mich. -Yi'xi'r Letter Editor--G. O. Griffin, Dravo Corp., Neville Island, Pittsburgh, Pa. Engineering Committee Chairman--Thomas Soule, Industrial Indemnity Exchange, San Francisco, Calif. Membership Cowfr'//cc C/mirui--F. J. Crandeix, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.. Boston, Muss. Poster Committee Chairman--S. M. Laldf.koai.e, Civilian Conservation Corps, Washing ton, D. C. Program Committee Chairman--V. P. Aheakv, National Sand & Gravel Assn., Washing ton, D. C. Publicity Committee Chairman--W. P. Conn, "The Constructor" Washington, D. C.4 Statistics Committee Chairman--C. H. Black, Slone & Webster Engineering Corp., Boston, Mass. Past General Chairmen-- W. F. Austin, W. E. Wood Co., Detroit, Mich. Edgar N. Goldstim-., Consulting Safety Engineer, San Francisco, Calif. John Russell, Jk.. Public Service Electric & Gas Co., Newark, N. 1. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--W. A. Snow, Associated General Contractors of America, Inc., Wash ington, D. C. Vice-Chairman for Heavy Construction--R. J. Kkigei.utii, C. W. Blakcslce & Sons. New Haven, Conn Pice-Chairman for Highway Construction--H. G. Cami'Bfxi., Harry T. Campbell Sons Co., Towson, Mtl. Vice-Chairman for U. S. Engineer Department--Major It. 13. Vaughan, Jr., Corps of Engineer*, War Dept., Washington, L>. C. 285 286 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Vice-Chairman for BnUdwg Construction--C. H. Black. Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Boston, Mass. Secretary--Koh&mt McKinlky, General Accident, Fire & Life A->urarwc Corji.. Detroit, Midi. Nexus Letter Editor--L. K. kniMiAKUT. Industrial Accident CunmLiioct, San Francisco, Calif. Engineering Commit tec Chairman--Thomas Sot i-L Industrial Indemnity Exchange. San Francisco. Calif. Membership Committee Chairman--F. I. Ckamj, IJWrtv Mutual Insurance Co_ Boston. Mass. I'roj/rmu Committee Chairman--John Hlssoj. Jiu I'ubfic Service Electric & Gas Con Newark. .\. J. Statistics Committee Chairman--E. X. (joi.ostjat, 332 Fumtun A ve. San Francisco, Calif. Visual Education Com miller Chairman--S. M. LaL'imlIiijaie. Civilian Conservation Corps, Washington, D. C. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12. 1937 The first session was called to order by Francisco, who acted at chairman in the Edgar X. Cioldsline. consulting engineer. Szrit absence of W. A. Snow. Awards for No Lost Time Accident Record By R. J. REIOELUTH Vice President, C. W. Blakeslee & Sons, New Haven, Conn. >ur company lias always maintained the policy of trying In make its employees into one large family. We liavc about forty men who have been in our organization over twenty-five years, and a large number who have been with us over fifteen years, some of these men growing up from water boy* to superintendents. As all contractors today arc seeking means to check the increasing costs of material and labor, we were concerned about a further increase in the cost of our compen sation insurance. While the insurance costs are only a part of the cost of a high accident record, they arc an indication of how those costs are running. Most of us construction men do not record all of the costs of an accident in our cost books and do not know the cost involved in lime lost by the associ ated workers of the injured man, the cost involved in replacing the injured man with another workman, the cost involved in replacing a broken machine or damaged piece of work; still we all know these costs exist and when our insurance rates increase, we get an idea of how those other costs arc mounting op. We made a thorough study of what was involved in our accident records and had conferences with two insurance companies who carry our compensation insurance. There were several jobs in our record which had operated without a Inst time accident, including various typical kinds of construe' lion work from operating a crushed stone quarry to reconstructing a bridge on which a pier had failed. We determined xvhat the saving in in surance costs would have been on the jobs which had a record of no lost time accident Construction Section 287 if we liitd been carrying lire Retrospective plan of insurance on those jobs. This study showed (hat a job operating lor a period of one year with no lost time accidents re sults in a saving of between $2.50 and $5 per $100 of payroll, the saving being deter mined by the type of work. Six men work ing with one loreman -10 hours per week for 40 weeks amount approximately to 10.000 hours. If these men averaged 50c per hour the annual payroll for this crew would be $5,000. If this crew operated through the >ear with no lost time accident, the saving at $2.50 per $100 of payroll would result in a saving of $125 in the insurance for that period of time. It is obvious that with a foreman having a larger crew of men, the saving would be considerably more, and also that the saving would be considerably more on a hazardous piece of work where the compensation rate was high. We decided to share tliat saving with our men. We set up for this first year the following plan of awards for a No Lost Time Acci dent Record: \Yc olTcr cash prizes of $50 and $25 to each foreman attaining the requirements lor the award. The $50 prize is awarded to any foreman who carries his gang through the calendar year witlt no lost time accident, amt the $25 prize is awarded to any foreman who carries his gang through the calendar year with no more Ilian one lost time acci dent resulting in no more than one week of lost time. We established the second prize of $25 to meet the possible situation of a foreman almost making the grade of a no accident record only to liavc it shot the last week by one accident. We wanted the men to feel that their honest efforts at safety had recognition even though they did not have a perfect score. Tp qualify for these awards a foreman must be a man regularly employed on oor payroll at least 40 weeks in one year. We place no requirement for a minimum amount uf lime that a foreman must work as a foreman in any one year. We figure each foreman's record on the same basis dial the baseball leagues figure a player's batting average. We want results and if a man who gets to "bat" only once makes a "bit," lie has a perfect score. If a foreman has a job for only one month or less and has a no accident record he has done the best that lie could for the time we called upon him lor performance. 1 want to make that poini plain. .All cun slrticiioii men are fared with a problem of keeping their key men working all the lime, and from time to time demote key men from positions as foremen to jobs in a gang when there is not work fui the men a- foremen. We have carried on work sometimes in periods of depression when almost every man on the job was of foremanship ma terial. So that in an effort to avoid impos ing any hardships on our men we classify those men as foremen and available for the awards who have been in our employ for n period of 40 weeks in a calendar year anti used by us as foremen any time during dial year. We classify as a lost time accident any accident where the injured man is unable to return to work on the shift following the shift in which he was injured. An injured man may receive first aid treatment on the job or at a physician's office and may be olf the job the larger part of the day in which the injury occurs, but if he is able to return lo work on the next shift, we do not classify that accident as a lost lime accident. We put this plan into operation at one of the meetings of <nir superintendents and foremen. Our plan for meetings of this nature is to have n private dining room in the best hotel in otir city to which we call lire superintendents and first-class foremen from their jobs, wherever they may be lo cated. In eases of jobs remote from our city, it is necessary for these key men to leave a job in the middle of the day to get to the meeting; but we consider these meetings of sufficient importance to warrant the elTort and cost about once a month. It has always 1en difficult to induce the foreman on a job to consider safety from a humanitarian point of view, and it is also difficult to get him to realize fully the costs involved in accidents to the company. Out it is comparatively easy with a foreman, as with anybody else in the world, to point out the value of safely when it means $50 in his own pocket The foremen arc showing a keener interest in safety than they ever have before, and have come to look upon an accident as a direct loss to themselves. Throughout the competition for these awards we have not abated our efforts to assist otir foremen and superintendents to secure ns safe conditions as possible on our work. We have had meetings, not only of the foremen and superintendents, but also 288 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress of the men themselves on some of the jobs, ami have pointed out to litem in mandator)* language the necessity for safety. I use the term "mandatory'* because lfiat is exactly tlte position of our firm with our men on safely today. We have claimed the right at all times to demand proper performance and low costs of our men, and in recent years have taken the position that we also liavc a right to demand and require safe conduct inasmuch as this is one of our great costs. We constantly remind our foremen that they must conduct themselves, and plan their work in such a safe way as to secure the confidence of the men who arc working with them. A notable ease of this kind occurred in our organization a few years ago when three men refused to work with a foreman because they said he did not plan his work .-ately. We did not take their objections as seriously as we should, thinking that there might have been personal feeling on their jart; but within a couple of weeks after their refusal to work for him lie lutd a fail ure of some of his rigging, which cost us a man's life. Another factor which we stress with our foremen is the contented human element. So much of our work depends upon the human factor tliat it becomes highly importanl that each human factor in our or ganization has his mind free from worries over family affairs or his own physical con dition. Each foreman should know his men more intimately than the superintendent can know them; they should be constantly on the watch for any indication iltat any work man is not up to 100 per cent efficiency. A physically fit man is always much safer on the job. The condition of the men immedi ately after pay day should be watched par ticularly closely, and no man who shows aijy effects of intemperance should be pillowed to work. In the last analysis the responsibility for ail of this safety program rests with the employer himself. Every executive should have some way of obtaining a bird's-eye view of the accident experience of his or ganization. In our organization we use what we call tally sheets for each job. As the accident reports come from the jobs into the main office they 'are recorded on job tally sheets, so Iltat our executives have a cumulative statement of the accident record on each job. A glance at a tally sheet shows instantly how effective the safety work is on each job and enables each execu tive to criticize his superintendents intelli gently and effectually. These tally sheets arc used very effectively at superintendents' and foremen's meetings as a directing influence and a guide in the conduct of those meet ings. Keeping a Record of Accident Costs By EDGAR N. GOLDSTINE Consulting Safety Engineer, San Francisco Accident costs may cover a wide held or may lie restricted to a few elementary facts. The nature and extent of these costs, and the uses to which they arc to be put will determine how they should be kepi. The insurance manager may want no more in formation than the figures for medical ex pense and compensation awards for the policy year, so that he can compare them with the insurance premiums lo determine the loss ratio and its probable effect on future insurance rates. The annual report -to the National Safety Council on the acci dent experience requires data on man hours of exposure, the number ot lost time in juries, and the days of time lost from work. Management should be concerned about the hidden costs of accidents, as well as the insurance expenditures. The safety engineer may want to go into the greatest detail to obtain a comprehensive analysis. Certain primary records arc accessible for all reported accidents. The First l<c|*ort of Injury provides for these facts; TIME and PLACE of accident, including day of week and hour of day WHEN FIRST REPORTED Dale of BEGINNING OF DISABILITY, and estimate of EXTENT OF DISA BILITY Name of FOREMAN NAME, AGE, OCCUPATION OF IN JURED Consiruf tit/n Section 2S0 Whether it was his regular work, length geon's First and Final Reports, with the of time employed, wages earned data on the amount of compensation paid, CAUSE of Injury. NATURE of Injun'. and possibly complemented by the Supple MAXNEk OF OCCURRENCE mentary' Investigation Report will supply the Name of Physician, etc. basic information required to maintain a Mit First Report of Injury recurd* lack vital information necessary to determine basic causes of accidents, and omit desirable data on just what occurred. The probable record of accident costs. Much remains ti be done in the extraction of the vital facts, and their proper assembly in a manner that will provide tielplul presentation of them. length of disability, information obtainable While it is possible to work directly from from the physician treating the case, is the original records, it is usually much more seldom recorded. The first step in keeping convenient to place the pertinent data in a a record of accident costs is to inaugurate more accessible form. Safe Practice Pam the mcasuro required to have these forms filled out m accordance with an acceptable xta/xla/d of accuracy and completeness. The i'ofvnjo'ri First Report gives data concernox the patient, (be accident, the in jury, the treatment, and the estimated extent of disability and treatment. The Surgetn*> Final Report lists the number of treatments, detailed expense of treatment, nature of treatment, date of ability to return to work, any stoppage or refusal of treatment, and date of discharge. In addition to these three primary records, it is desirable to use a Supplementary Acci dent Investigation Report which may take a number of forms. One of the simplest asks five vital questions: Exactly what happened? phlet No. 21, "Standard Industrial Injury Reporting System," published by the Na tional Safety Council, suggest* a number of ways in which this can be done. I prefer to use a form 22 inches by 11 inches in size, ruled off into 25 lines ami 22 columns. Each line lists the essential data for a single acci dent. Estimates of days of time lost, medi cal expense, and compensation awards arc noted in pencil until the final figures are available, when they are then entered in ink. Tabulation sheets may be used tor listing and summarizing the data in various ways. Where the number of eases runs up into the thousands, the use of cards and mechanical tabulation may lie justified. A limited num ber of industrial organization*, state indus trial accident commissions, and insurance companies make their analyses through Who was directly responsible? punched cards passing through electrical What unsafe condition or practice caused equipment. this accident? Standard nomenclature, modified to fit What should have been done to prevent special needs, is desirable. The United it? States Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin What are you going to do to prevent a repetition ? No. 276, "Standardization of Industrial Ac cident Statistics," will be helpful as a guide. This may be supplemented by classifying the accident according to a basic cause analysis which is outlined in various forms in Heinrich's book, "Industrial Accident Prevention.** These supplementary forms arc much more analytical and critically frank, as a rule, than the First Report of Injury record, and may place responsibility in a manner that might not be good policy on a stale record. The proper and intelli gent use of a Supplementary Investigation Report is highly commendable, and is an almost indispensable element of an inte grated, effective safety program. Without it, accident record:! will not l>e as informa tive as they need to be. The First Report of Injury, and the Sur The use of graphical charts, supplemented by statistical data presents the facts so that they will practically tell their own story. Various refinement* in presentation may he made so that both severity and frequency will be indicated in the same chart, will) blocks of various shadings or colors to designate individual eases or groups of eases. Among the accident tabulations that might be helpful, the following are sug gested : By Nature of Employment By Age Group By Years of Experience By Length of Employment By Calendar Years liy Months of the Year By Days of the Week 290 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress By Hours of the Day By Body Part Injured By Nature of Injury By General Cause By major mb-classifications un<ler Gen- . '"-isc By Pnmjiy Basic Causes By Secondary Contributing Causes By Foremen in Charge By Manner of Performance By Agency (Machine, Material, etc.) By Part of Agency By Method of Contact The figures may be summarized using days of lime lost, medical expense, compen sation awards, or other associated data. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Methods for Protection Against Silicosis, and When They Are Justified1 By DANIEL HARRINGTON Chief, Health and Safety Branch, IT. S, Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C. While the hysteria with regard to silicosis and other occupational diseases has largely sulfided and thi -subject is being more care fully considered and soberly judged, it would Itc jMNir policy for any employer to maintain that the storm has ended and that he c relax and revert to conditions as they were *omc years* ago. The fact is that the plan of paying occupational-disease compen sation i> now iu its infancy and ran be ex pected to grow rapidly. At present while all the States of the I'uion. including the District of Columbia and excepting only Arkansas and Missis sippi, have compensation acts, only the fol lowing make provision for occupational dis ease** to Mtmc extent: California. Delaware, Connecticut. District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana. Kentucky. Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota. Missouri. Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina. North l>akoia. Ohio. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washing ton. West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Silicosis is compensable in one way or an other in California, Connecticut, District of Columbia. Illinois. Kentucky. Massachusetts, Missouri. New York, North Carolina, North Dakota. Ohio. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and possibly in other States. It.will lie surprising if comparatively com prehensive occupational-disease legislation is I. Published Uy i*erniiuon of the Director, U. S. Bureau of Mines. (Not subject to copyright ) not on the statute books of nearly every state in iltc Union w-ithin the next five years. With this situation confronting him, the farsighted industrialist who lias the interest of his organization at heart will immediately start to "put his house in order" by studying possible occupational disease hazards to his employees ami promptly applying known remedial measures or attempting to devise such measures if none exist. Unquestionably, one of the most important of the surveys to be made relates to dust occurrence. While the stale dust lu s and regulations apply primarily to silica dust and resultant silicosis insofar ;is the health hazard is con cerned. those most familiar with dust occur rence anil its possible hazards recognize not only that the lircatbing of large quantities of dust of free silica (SiO) is probably the greatest hazard to health likely to be found where dust is involved, but that not even silica dust is harmful In health unless it occurs in very finely divided form and is breathed iu relatively large quantities more or less continuously for n considerable length of time. Moreover, many thoughtful experts on dust harmfulness arc now becom ing convinced it is to lie expected that health will* be harmed when human beings arc obliged to breathe high concentrations of any kind of dust more or less continuously. Pro fessor Philip Drinker, of Harvard, as chair man of the Preventive Engineering Com mittee of the Air Hygiene Foundation, Pitts- Construction Section 291 trtjich. cxprc-xl the considered opinion i.i a bi*d\ of outstanding dust experts ns follow*: "There i* r* *ati>iactory medical answer at promt to thi* question, hut the engineer is making a bad mistake if he lets men breathe heavy du>t concentrations of any material. If no oilier reason for dust control can be found, then one should read tran scripts of some of the recent suits at com mon law in which fantastic damages for alleged silicosis were granted to men who breathed dust containing little or no silica. The courts and compensation boards are not impressed with subtle distinctions between dusts with 10 per cent and 40 per cent quartz, especially u-hen medical experts are reluctant to make definite statements as to the com parative significance of such differences. "It would be well to realize that men working in dusty trades suffer far more from respiratory troubles of all kinds than do men who work in clean air. The evideucc that excessive dustiness of any kind is harm ful is beyond argument." It should also be remembered that the inhaling of dust is by no means its only hazard in industrial work that may require compensation payment; and even here the harmful effect of breathing dust is not nec essarily confined to the lungs, as some kinds of dust are known to have detrimental health effect on the nose, throat, and bronchial passages as well as (indirectly) on the heart, stomach, and possibly other internal organs. Externally, dust may cause injury to the eyes. cars, and skin; and some dusts, in con tact with the perspiration, arc al>$ort>ed with definite harm to the health of the victim. Duat Cuts Visibility Moreover, heavy concentrations of dust in the air reduce visibility materially. Obvi ously, in industrial occupations in which but limited amounts of natural light are avail able or in which artificial light is used entirely, any decrease in visibility due to air-dust concentrations (and the decrease iu visibility may, under some circumstances, amount to 73 per cent or more) is likely to result in materially reducing efficiency and also in the more frequent occurrence of ac cidents accompanied by an increase in com pensation commitments. Some dusts (coal, zinc, aluminum, and scores of others, min eral and nrminineral) are explosive and many arc subject lo spontaneous combustion with consequent hazards to health, safety, and property. Many dusts have detrimental cfcct$ ot various kinds on property us distin guished from persons. Machinery, growing vegetation, animals, dwelling houses, and other types of property are damaged by dusts, and compensation of some kind oitcu is obtained from industrial concerns through damage suits or otherwise. From the viewpoint of respirator)* harmfulness, it is generally slated (though actu ally knowledge on this point is by no means certain) that the particle sizes of dust (such as that of free silica) that affect health ad versely upon entering the lungs aic those that arc less titan 10 microns in size, different persons Iiaving different ideas as to what the maximum may be--10 intcrous or 8 or 6, and some say that the harm really is done hy particles less than 2 microns in size. As against this, it is stated that fibers of as bestos dust as long as 200 microns have been found in the lungs of men, and that undoubt edly these long asbestos fibers exerted at lea11 some detrimental effect. . ince a micron is only about one twentyfive-thousandth of an inch, or much smaller than the naked eye can sec, it is usually as sumed that the larger dust particles that can be secu floating in air, ami which settle out relatively fast arc not harmful lo health. Certainly, this is not so. as the larger par ticles that float in the air (some of them 100 or more microns in size), if present in considerable quantities clog the air passages to the lungs, some of which have agencies that under ordinary* conditions intercept dust fxirticlcs before they can reach the lungs ami this dogging then allows the smaller and probably most dangerous dust to enter the lungs unimpeded. A common-sense opinion as to what con stitutor un atmosphere so dusty that Hustprevention action should he taken is that any atntospherc in which dust can be seen by the naked eye is too dusty, not only for health but also, at least in many eases, for safety and efficiency. If the visible dust is eliminated, much of the invisible or probably most dangerous dust will unquestionably have also been removed and very likely the health as well as other hazards much mini mized or even removed. After the visible dust has been removed, it may he necessary, under sonic conditions or with some types of dust, to make more in- 292 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress tricatc investigations as to the occurrence of invisible dust, using the impingcr, konimetcr, or other instruments; but unless litigation is in effect or threatened, those intricate studies arc relatively unimportant if the visible dust is eliminated from the air of working places. Prcvcntlon Ift Best Manifestly, if dust is not produced, it can't get into the air or become harmful other wise; and some relief from dust troubles in industry can lc achieved by using con struction, practices, processes, or equipment that tend to eliminate dust formation. In designing and equipping the places in which employees must work, the forwardlooking industrialist will be wise to prevent the making of dust or to control it if it niu>l !>c made, by using machinery, methods, processes and construction with dust-elimi nating characteristics rather than those that produce or spread dust, even though some additional expense in construction or opera tion may attach to the dust-prevention fea tures. 'Die emphasis now being placed on dust in its various phases and the expense which dust may cause make it almost im perative that in the future much more thought be given to dust prevention and handling than has been given in the past. For instance, processes or practices that produce excessive dust should be discarded for others that produce less dust, or they should lc isolated somehow, such as by (musing them tightly in a separate part of the plant or using them at times when the least number of persons would be exposed to them or when there is ample time to remove the dust from the atmosphere of the working places. Such installations or practices must be operated efficiently at all times, however. Common sense should be used in handling a dust control device or method; certainly it is foolish to use an elaborate exhaust system to take the dust out of part u an establish ment and then exhaust the dust-laden air at uch point or in such manner that it will be taken into the same or some other part of the establishment or into an adjacent one through doors and windows. It dust must be formed, several effective methods are available to-prevent the dissem ination of dust into the air or into places where it.may cause trouble. Among these arc wet methods, such as wet drilling in stead of dry drilling, wet crushing instead of dry crushing, wetting or washing down floors, walls, and rock faces. In gencial the use of water in industrial processes and otherwise is one of the most effective avail able aids in the prevention of air dustiness, even though in some cases wet drilling does give off some dust. Notwithstanding a growing tendency in some quarters to decry the effectiveness of wet methods, up to now thf use of water is probably our best defense qgainst dust dissemination, especially in min ing and tunneling. Dust-exhaust devices, such as hoods, traps for drilling, etc., have a definite place in dust control, particularly in surface plants and operations. Under some conditions exhaust systems, when well installed and kept in re pair and operation, not only remove dust but also more than pay for themselves in dollars and cents value of recovered dust. It costs approximately $7,000 to install such a device in a snrfacc plant processing one of the metals, and the value of the dust recovered daily averaged about $25. In addition, the device kept the air of the plant as well as the surrounding walls and nther surfaces practically free of dust. On the other hand, the use of dust traps in dry drilling, while definitely applicable to certain types of surface or near-surface rock-excavation work, has not been found applicable to general rock-drilling practice in underground work. There are several rea sons for this, some of which may be over come in time. Some types of rock cannot be drilled dry with any degree of effectiveness, and as yet the available types of rock-drilling traps arc not workable with wet drilling; if dry drill ing can be douc, the traps ordinarily will do a good job of icmoving the dust from drill ing, but this will leave the rock surfaces (top, sides, and floor in many cases) dry, and subsequent operations (blasting, mucking, timbering, hauling, etc.) will throw into the air dust certain to be created in large quanti ties by the other processes. The dust thus thrown into the air will settle on dry sur faces, ready to be (brown into suspension subsequently by any or all activities. Dust traps are somewhat cumbersome, especially when used in the more or less confined places in mining and tunneling. However, dust traps with dry drilling have definite applicability for use in surface or near-surfacc operations where dry drilling Construction Section 292 can be done, and hare numerous advantages over wet drilling, especially in very cold weather. Good Ventilation Needed Ventilation is probably the most effective dust-control practice available for many in dustries, though it ranks second to wet methods in others. Where ventilation can be applied effectively, dust can be removed from the air or its concentration can be kept so diluted as to render it practically harmless to workers; ventilation can mini mize dust hazards of almost all kinds, in cluding spontaneous combustion, though it may enhance hazards of dust cxplosibility in some instances. In some cases ventilation should be induced by exhaust methods, but in others forced or blowing systems arc the more effective, (his being particularly true in underground work in places having hightemperature air due to rock or dripping water or other condition, such as rapid oxi dation of surrounding rock or timber. To obtain realty effective ventilation in such work as tunneling and metal mining is difficult usually because ordinarily but one opening is driven instead of having workings in pairs as in coal mining, where fresh air flows in one opening and return or contami nated air in the other. Conditions brought about by dust may force the use of parallel openings in many tunneling and metal-min ing operations ot the future, and, notwith standing the violent objections this suggestion will rai>e, there are good reasons for believing that in many cases there would be definite dollars and cents savings if the parallel-opening system, with its numerous ventilation, health, drainage, and other ad vantages, were used instead of the present one-opening system, with numerous disad vantages and hazards and with about its onlyreal advantage the fact that its use is and has been customary*. Dry drilling is unquestionably the dustiest work in mining, tunneling and quarry ing, and it continues to l>e used far too much in the United Stales; certainly, if dry drilling is allowed at alt. it should be done only with anger twist drills or with the simultaneous use of up-to-date dust traps. Wet drilling as practiced in the United States, vcith water forced or drawn through the drill steel by means of compressed air. is now under fire as producing relatively large quantities of dust even (hough the ma terial floating in the air usually is wet; some of this criticism is undeserved but, some of it is legitimate. The trouble is due largely to the fact that the holes arc collared or started dry and, in some cases at least, arc drilled dry for several inches alter starling, and the dust created by this dry starting im pregnates the usually stagnant air of the ordinary underground-tunnel or metal-mine working place for much if not most of the working shift. In some cases the driller drastically limits the amount of water sent through the drill steal and, while nominally drilling wet, the actual practice is closely analogous to dry drilling with compressed air, which flows through the drill steel and forces nut of the drill hole and into the air of the working place undue quantities of waler-enirainrd dust or particles. In some cases when the drill is out of repair, the driller allows far too much compressed air to How through the drill steel. When present types of wet drills are used properly, the dust from drilling can be kept within reasonable limits, and this is actually being done by numerous alert and conscien tious mining and tunneling companies. Some companies in the United States and Canada are experimenting with rock drills that do not allow compressed air to go through the drill steel hut require the water to be forced through the steel by its own pressure; such drills are said to produce less dust than the usual types in which water is sent through the steel hy compressed air. but the practica bility of the newer type of drill is question able and it has been used relatively little in the United States or Canada. Must Use Judgment However, air dustiness can be kept well within safe limits if modern types of wet drills are operated with care and judgment in collaring wet with plenty of clean dirtfree water; if the drills are kept in good re pair; if the proportion of water and compressed air flowing through the drill steel are adequately regulated; if (he ex haust from the drift is prevented from im pinging on nearby dusty surfaces of muck piles, floors, walls, or timbers thereby throw ing dust into the air; and, if, insofar as feasible, the drilling of upper holes is re duced to a minimum, as upper holes, whether 294 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress drilled dry or wet, arc relatively heavy pro ducers of dost in the air of working places. Next to dry drilling, blasting causes more finely divided dust to be thrown into work ing places than anything else; and, in addi tion to throwing violently into the surround ing air immense quantities of finely divided dust, blasting with the heavy charges of ex* plosive required in many mining and tunnel ing operations also impregnates the surrounding air as well as the muck piles with considerable quantities of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and, in some kinds of rock, hydro gen sulphate and other dangerous sulphurous fumes, practically all ol which occur in such quantities and iR;rccntages under suinc circumstances as to asphyxiate persons who may breathe them or to cause serious illness, often of a more or less permanent character. Many persons who have studied the inci dence of dust disease arc of the opinion that the breathing of even small quantities or I>crccntagc4 of extraneous or hamful gases, such ns carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide, etc., inflames or other wise adversely affects the respiratory organs, especially the lungs, and makes them much more easily and readily susceptible to harm from the breathing of dust particles. Past blasting practice most certainly must be modified and reformed if the employer t> to avoid heavy penalties in compensation and other charges due to the inclusion of Icgii-laltun on occupational diseases (one be ing <lut disease) in the laws of the various Slate*. If at all feasible, blasting should be done at the end of the working shift or on an off shift, and the dust- and gas-laden air should be removed or thoroughly diluted before the men return to work. Ventilation is, of course, an csseutinl agency in cleansing the air w-herc blasting lias been done, but in addition to ventilating the place it should be thoroughly wetted (walls, floors, roof or lop, timbers, etc.) be fore blasting is done, and a water blast should he kept in effect during and after the blasting; the region should be thoroughly wetted upon return to the face region after Masting, am! the muck pile should be kepi well welled at all times while loading it out. a* (he water not only tends to allay Ihc dust hut also either absorbs or otherwise aids in the dilution or elimination of harmful or poisonous gases from blasting, which usually cling to Ihc blasted material. In genera! the larger the quantity of ex plosive used, the more finely divided the blasted material, the more heavily the air is impregnated with dust and smoke, and the greater the quantity of poisonous gases left at the places; hence, methods should be used which will lend to reduce the quantity of explosives used and of gases and dust pro duced. In this it will he found that the use of stemming or of some types of blasting plugs now available will more definitely con fine the explosive; hence, increase its effi ciency and reduce the quantity uf explosive used and also reduce the amount of poison ous gas produced and possibly reduce the violence of the blast and its tendency to produce dust and disseminate it into the surrounding air. And it would be well for liters of explo sives to investigate types of explosives that are known lo give off minimum quantities of liarmfui gases on detonation and to use (hem; also the elimination of the use of fue and the substitution of electric blasting would aid in reducing the amount of poison ous gases from blasting. Explosives that have been held in storage too long or that have been stored under unfavorable con ditions as to moisture and temperature, arc likely to give off maximum quantities of harmful gases if they detonate at all; hence, utmost care should be taken in the storage of explosives and to see that they arc not held in storage too long before being used. Respirators Available Dust respirators of various types are now available for use in excessively dusty atmos pheres, and while they are cumbersome and have numerous features that make them undesirable for constant wear throughout a working shift (though they can be worn readily for several minutes at a time), tbey do give adequate protection to wearers against dust but give essentially no protec tion against cither poisonous or asphyxiating gases. Dust respirators should be regarded as being temporarily useful for emergencies only, whereas protection for workers against dust should he more substantial. What might be designated "good house keeping" has a definite place in dust pre vention. Dusty materials should be stored in dust-tiglil containers or bins; dusty proc esses, including the handling of dusty ma teria), should be carried on, as far as Construction Section 295 feasible, t* due)cht compartments or structure*, tW feckm*** of which should be maintamed; lcl<ci or surfaces on which dost nay lodhpe *ud accumulate, to be thrown ts*u the at* by *ocne shock or move ment. should be changed to prevent oppor tunity for %mck utiwihtion. or. if this cannot be door. ocb surfaces should be cleaned prriodkafly by vacuum process, by washing demit, ue by weeping (the latter being a retatrvety puur method, and should be employed ooly when a* few of other workers as po^nUc are present); floors should he kept as free ot ds*f zs possible preferably by withng them with water; and, certainly, air tor the working places >hould not come frota dusty sources. Physical examinations sliuuld play an im portant part m the drive to minimize health harm from dust in industry, but so much controversy has been aroused because of them that their effectiveness has been largely nullified. Unquestionably, every person em ployed in an industry where considerable dust may be found in the air should be rig idly examined by a competent doctor pre vious to employment, and if the examination reveals the presence of respiratory trouble, the person should not be employed; this is especially true if tuberculosis is indicated. At six- or twelve-month intervals every per son in dusty industry should submit to a rigid physical examination; and if disease is shown lo be developing, the victim should be transferred to nondusty employment if such is available- Handling physical examinations in a manner fair to the worker as well as to the employer should be worked out, and it must be admitted that to date this has not been done at all adequately. Prevention of dust disease is chiefly an employer responsibility he should shoulder willingly, not only to safeguard the health of persons in his employ but also to relieve his firm of the heavy financial burden likely to be thrust upon it by compensation or legal authorities, should employees become af flicted with dust disease; and when one takes into account how tittle is known as lo the cause of the disease and how to relieve it if it Is incurred, it would seem lo be the acme of common sense to do anything practicable to reduce the dust content of the air of places where employees must work. This docs not mean that the employee should not help himself, as it is manifestly as much to the interest of ttic employee In avoid dust or any other occupational disease as to avoid having accidents. However, information ns to occupational disease (including dust dis ease) is not readily available to the worker in understandable form, and the employer should carry* on an educational campaign to inform his safety and operating officials about occupational disease matter* and m have them transmit llie information lo the workers so the latter can cooperate whole heartedly in trying to eradicate these dread diseases from industry or at least control them lo a far greater extent than has been done. Safe Practices in Use of Heavy Construction Equipment By E. A. BLANPIED Safety Engineer of Kansas City Bridge Co., Kansas City, Mo. My personal experience has been confined mainly to work of river improvement and bridge building. Our records are divided into these two classes. River work consists of driving pile dikes and rip-rapping river banks, generally for the V. S. Government. Bridge classification covers railroad and highway bridges of the heavier type includ ing their foundations, both "pneumatic" ami "o(en dredged " River work, being mainly done by floating plant and with a large percentage ol un skilled labor, differs greatly from the more complicated bridge work which uses mostly skilled and semi-skilled labor under greater hazards. The bridge classification is sub-divided into erection and foundation as each has its own special hazards and treatment. River work has been the subject of ex tensive research along accident prevention lines by the U. S. Corps of Engineers and most of the fatalities are due to drowning. Special safety requirements to lessen this hazard have been compulsory by being 296 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress placet} in (lie contract specifications or by orders of the engineer officers in charge of the work. These items include: 1. Safety skiff and its equipment to accom pany each piece of floating plant. 2. Life lines to be festooned along ends and sides of barges and stretched along tops of dikes. 3. (Jang plank to be wide aiul guardrailed. I. Life preservers to be worn by deck hands ami boatmen during working hours. 5. Extensive hist aid kits to he kept with each gang. Some of these requirements arc cominciulahlc and others may ltc of doubtful value, but alt arc well-intentioned and serve to keep (he men safety-minded at all times. The labor used ou river improvement work has lccn a continual source of trouble. Of late most of the men have been procured through ihe local re-employment offices and the relief rolls. A careful physical examination by a local physician acquainted with most of the local lalor has been a good preventive of acci dents; and an organization of safety-minded foremen and overseers has held down the number of injuries. Safe-guarding of hoists, pile drivers and other mechanical equipment has also cut down the number of serious injuries and the >evcrity rate, but the prevention of injuries to, and by, the careless unskilled laborer is the same difficult struggle in construction as in every other type of work using human labor. bridge foundation work has two main sources of accidents: namely, the carpenter force, building forms ami setting reinforc ing; and the workers, known as saudhogs, who sink the compressed air caissons. The form-builder is exposed tq many minor dangers and a few major ones. Nail injuries, falling objects, slipping and' striking against objects, and hand tool injuries are the most prevalent, and serious falls are not unusual in spite of scaffolds and safety ficfts. The accidents arc kept down as far as po$ibtc bv tiding good ladders, railed scaf folds and lineman's safety belts for work on outside of forms and the waste is cleaned up to prevent (tail injuries. The compressed air worker is a special problem to the safety engineer. The sand- hog is given an especially rigorous medical examination and an age limit of 50 years is required, a decompressing lock maintained on each job. and regulations enforced as to time of decompressing when coming out of the caisson. Few accidents occur in the ac tual work of sinking. Most of the trouble comes from the release of pressure in the lock, when the men go off shift, and the greater the pressure drop between caisson and the outside air, the more cases of bends and paralysis will occur. 1 Steel bridge erection is the other classifi cation and under that head we have the iron worker who erects and bolts together the superstructure; the iron workers who place the rivets and the painters who sand blast and paint the structure. The men who follow this type of work arc probably the best paid and most efficient workmen on the construction field. The hazards encountered are appalling to the safety-minded observer. Both the iron worker and the painter must be a combina tion of tight-ropc walker, trapeze acrobat, human fly and juggler to be able to fill all of the requirements of the job, and must have good eyesight, steady nerves ami strong limbs. There scents to be a division of opinion as to bale practice for erection work. One com pany pins its faith to safely helmets, safety belts, goggles and safety shoes with non-slip soles and such mechanical aids as railed scaf folds, both swinging and fixed, safety nets to catch the unwary, and so on. This system seems to he based on the idea that mechanical safeguards will decrease the hazards at tendant on this class of work. On the other hand, we have erecting com panies who consider these items of equip ment as increasing the hazard; with possible exception of the hard hats or helmets and the non-slip shoes. They explain their attitude by saying that the men arc, in fact, acrobats, ami any safety items like belt lines, guarded scaffolds and nets give the men a false sense of security and lead to carelessness on the part of the individual and almost certain disaster when on duty in places which cannot be guarded. Thev claim (with good safety records to back them) that they want their men to be continually conscious that a misstep means death or serious injury so that they will never relax their vigilance for a moment. Construction Section 297 One painter boss uses 8-inch boards for suspended scaffolds with no guards, as, he says, a wider scaffold would allow the painter too free a movement while the nar row plank keeps his feet still and his body in balance. His sandblasters swing by one hand am) one leg from diagonals, handling the hose with the other hand, and slide down the diagonal as the blast steams its way without any safeguard but a sandblaster's helmet to protect his eyes and head. This painl gang lias a six-year record without a fatality and only a few lost lime injuries of minor nature. One steel election gang, using this method, if I may call it so, has erected tlncc or four major steel bridges and dismantled aunthet large bridge with but one fatality, and it was one which safety equipment would not have prevented. Construction work, either light or heavy. embraces practically all the other divisions of industry. The scope of its safety prac tice extends from the chcmtstiy of water treatment lor drinking or fitting builds to the physics of guarding off the aclinic rays from the electric arc welder; from the grovelling toil of the sandhog a hundred feel below, to the aerial gyrations of the raising gang on steel erection 200 feet above, the water level. What arc its safety practices? You know --and f know--just the same one place as another. Trite, shopworn platitudes, old stud, but true as the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. Safety is attained only through training of the individual worker in safe habits by a foreman who believes in ami practices safety, and who is directed |>y n superintendent who tvaut.t safety on his job and who is backed by a company which de mands SAFETY. "When yon have that com bination you will get safe practices and real safety in construction. Safety Training for the Construction Foreman By M. L. CURTIS Assistant State Supervisor, State Department of Vocational Ttaining, Stillwater, Okla. Ninety-five per cent of the actions of men arc results of habits. When you get up from bed each morning, you pick up the same shoe first- You always put on the same garment first, and you put it on in exactly the same manner. Your habits are fixed. You have the habit of going to work by the same route. Accidents arc symptoms of a mental de ficiency! No man deliberately hurts Inmsclf. Sihce habits are fixed in the early experi ences of job learning, and, since 95 per cent of our acts are a result of tins early (mbit formation, it necessitates our looking into the minds of the men whom we arc to train in safety. This I choose to call safety training in the coordination of the mind and muscle, or muscular coordination. But. fir-t, why train construction foremen in safety? (Chart 1) The location of the cause of most acci dents (aside from "natural1' causes over which man has no control) being thus estab lished, and just and sufficient reasons for eliminating accidents stated, let us look further into the mind for a solution to the CHART I OBJECTIVES Safety Training for Construction Foremen ]. To Eliminate Money Waste in the Form of Insurance Premiums Loss of Time Loss of Job Progress Reduced Volume of Work Output 2. To Raise Efficiency by Improved Living Conditions Steadier Employment Better Wages Lower Prices for Necessities of Life i. To Reduce Human Suffering in the Form of Bodily Harm Mental Anxiety 298 Ttvcniy-sixih National Safety Congress problem of safely training for construction foremen. If we would change a man, we must first change his mind. Attitudes, morale, actions, and the like originate first in his mind. This being true then, our training program is one of correct habit formation. The greatest cause of accidents is ignorance, and ignor ance is a condition of the mind. We must, therefore, in order to make an experienced man a safe worker change those habits which arc apt to cause accidents and form new safe habits. (Chart II) CHART II CORRECT HABIT FORMATION The Greatest Cause of Accidents Is Ignorance Ignorance Is a Condition of the Mind | DOING | APPRECIATION ] IM-'OK.U.VJION NOTHING Education Is the Training of the Mind How are men trained in industry? A man on a new job In.-gnis with nothing. The instructor gives some information regarding operations of the job, and then expects the man o step up to tin- doing level, where he repeats tltosc operations day after day uiul year after year. Instead of forty years of experience, lm often the man has had one vcar`> experience forty times. The trainer lias eliminated the third and most important lrp in the corn-el liabit formation, that of appreciation level. In altogether too many cases the man is told il'hot to do without being given any m/ormefioit regarding how to do it. This is a fault of industry. Safety training is the appreciation step in habit formation. By appreciation we mean an appreciation of all phase* of the responsibilities of the construction foreman: appreciation of work well done; appreciation of correct work habits: appreciation of men anti their inner most thoughts which affect their actions on tlivir job; appreciation ol safety of men in all of its complication*; appreciation of joh pride: appreciation of other foremens jobs : and almvc all the ability of a man to appre ciate what 1ii> employer is doing fur him. It is this step, the appreciation level, which includes the different types of minds. Safety training of construction foremen, therefore, deals with mind types and the ability of the foremen to deal with these types of minds. (Chart III) chart m TYPES OF MINDS The Bewildered Mind The Insubordinate Mind The Unwilling Mind The Uncontrolled Mind The Misinformed Mind The Uninformed Mind The physical body is made to react to sensation before we are conscious of Ihosc sensations This is known as re flex action. Some of the factors of reflex action are rhythm, reaction time, and the rate of reflex movement. In other words, we run and then get seared; rather than get scaled and then run. We remove our finger from a hot stove before we actually feel the burn. Men with slow reflex action have no place in industry. Reflex action is all right under ordinary circumstances, but it cannot be de pended upon in ease of an emergency. Let the mind be master of habits and not let habits master the mind. I. The Bewildered Mind Too often the trainer "lakes for granted" that the men know the why and how of the job. Some men catch on more easily, while others must be sliown and taught. A few minutes of instruction to this mind type may save a life. II. The Insubordinate Mind This may be a nation heritage. This type demands more direction possibly Ilian any other type. One cannot develop safety in men by merely putting up safety signs, or by telling them to wear goggles or safety shoes. Many men have their minds made up as to how they will react to a stimulus, mid they just react without thinking. All this must be recognized by the trainer in order that he will know how to correct these defects. III. The Unwilling Mind This type of mind is one which thinks that the way he was shown to do the work in the beginning is the correct and only way to do it. He is satisfied with the habits which he has formed. In other Construction Section 299 words, he believes in "status quo." To change him would be to change his world, his ideals, his all. IV. Tlic Uncontrolled Mind This type might well be called tlic wan dering mind. Any uncommon noise or movement is distracting to the person. He is fliiiiLing about (he movie he saw last night, the cross wife he left at the breakfast table this morning, or a bill that is overdue. He becomes a victim of the results of a worry which is generally needless. His mind is seldom on his work ; he cannot concentrate. V. The Misinformed Mind One who has been accustomed to doing work by the use of old established habits, which habits arc wrong because of misin`"rmation, will possibly be the hardest type of person to correct. It is harder to change habits formed in this way than to develop habits in the beginning. VI. Tlic Uninformed Mind The person who does not have the in formation necessary for the job will do the tvork the way tic thinks it should be done, whether if be right or wrong. He Icarus by (he pick-up method, gathering information as he goes. It is my opinion that a larger per cent of laborers in in dustry have accumulated their informa tion by this manner than by any other. Quite often (hey develop into the misin formed type because of lack of guidance and direction. The solution of the problem of training these several types of minds may be found only after the individual type is recognized. The person with a bewildered mind needs information. He needs to know the why of the job as well as the how. Tn the con struction of an oil derrick, lh* construction foreman need* to know that by adding more "lines to a string" for pulling tubing, he decreases the stress on the derrick. The foreman can erect a derrick without this information, but having this information may eliminate his erecting a second derrick in the same place. This kind of informa tion is necessary for correct habit formation. The man with the insubordinate mind needs sjiccial attention to overcome iiiMibordination. He must )*e shown the why of The job ami must be made to believe in (be right way ol doing the job. His ideas must be disapproved with reasons to justify the disapproval. The man with the unwilling mind mav become willing or be dismissed. He lacks loyalty; he lacks interest. These two thing*, loyalty and interest. mu*t he Inculcated in his mind. The uncontrolled mind may lo controlled by tlic elimination of worry. Give him spe cial kinds of work which will demand con tinued concentration. If po*>iblc, let limi work alone so that no one vbe will bother him. He can develop the habit of concentra tion provided his habit of not concentrating is properly eliminated. The misinformed mind must have all misinformation removed, and correct infor mation and habits replacing it. The person with the uninformed mind must have instruction, individual help ti possible. Again we find that safely training ibased upon correct habit formation. Good habits, ability, mid information are not coni plete unless the worker is able to do his task in a safe way so that he might protect himself and other*. To readjust and adapt construction fore men in safety consciousness require* c*nstantly the elTort of safety director* in a safely training program. The essentials t such a safety training program are: (Chart IV) CHART IV ESSENTIALS OF A TRAINING PROGRAM The foreman must realise an immedi ate need for the training (or the need must be instilled in the minds of the foremen). The training must be so planned as to meet this immediate need, to be effec tive. The training must be on the level (edu cationally) with the trainee. When industry ax a whole is willing to admit that there are training method* about which it knows little or nothing, and when industry is willing to begin its training pro gram at the 1*4 tom and work lip, then and only (hen will it he ready for such a safeU training program as will accomplish the desired results. When this is accomplished, the mental cause of accidents, which in my way of 300 Twenty-sixth National Safely ^Congress thinking is the greatest cause of all accidents over which man has control, will be elimi nated, and the greatest of all results of accidents, human misery, will end. Safety training is an insurance policy for the woikcr, the cheapest that money can buy. THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 Interesting Phases of Construction Safety Code Work By CYRIL AINSWORTH Associated Secretary. American Standards Association, New York City The Const ruction Safety Code project is iwm a going concent. Four im|>nrtant sec tions on Demolition, Kxcavatinn, Blasting and Compressed Air Work have passed through the preliminary stages and are now being prc|ared for final consideration by the committee. The clue! function of any safety code is to serve as a means of furnishing the in dustry specific suggestions for removing ac cident hazards and carrying on particular jobs without exposing workmen to the |K>*ihility of injury. The Associated Gen eral Contractors of America have already produced a Manual of Accident Prevention in Construction. This excellent piece of work has been approved by the American Standards Association as American Recom mended Practice. This action was taken during the NRA days when the American Standards Association was being called upon hy many industries to provide safety codes to which they could refer in their NKA codes. American Standard Safety Codes were also referred to in PWA contracts al though this was later changed as far as the Construction Code is concerned, to a direct reference to the Manual of the Contractors Association. The safety code now under development is therefore actually a revision of the pres ent American Recommended Practice and will furnish the industry concrete sugges tions for carrying on construction work with as few accidents as possible. The Construction Safety Code will also serve as the basis for the recommendations made by insurance groups to their assured. For many years insurance companies, both stock and mutual, have been committed to the use of American Standard Safety Codes in their accident prevention work and efforts have !>een made to bring the compensation rating schedule into harmony with the American Standard Safety Codes which have been developed. This work had pro ceeded to the point where the schedule was about 90 per cent in harmony with the var ious national code rcquiicmerils. In those sections of the country where the schedule no longer applies, national safety codes wilt Ik* used by insurance groups as the basis of their recommendations for the prevention of accidents in all industries, and it seems safe to assume tliat this same pro cedure will apply to the Construction Safely Code. The opportunity afforded the con struction industry* to confer with insurance groups through the sectional committee which ts developing the Construction Safety Code is therefore a very important one. Another important use of the Construc tion Safety Code will be its stabilizing effect on the various rules and regulations which Itavc been and which may be instituted by regulatory authorities having jurisdiction over the accident prevention work of the industry. I have mentioned this point last because 1 do not want you to feel that those who have advocated the development of the code believe this is the most impor- Construction Section 301 tant use Cor the code. Unfortunately (here are those who believe that American Stand ard Safely Codes arc intended primarily for use in making recommendations to regu latory bodies for the development of new safety regulations. As tremendously im portant as it is for any industry* to lake steps to remove the inequalities that may exist in the rules and regulations enforced against it, it is of far greater importance that industry lend every possible effort to so conduct its establishments and operations that accidents to employees will not occur. American Standard Safety Codes are de veloped primarily for the purpose of assist ing industry* to accomplish this end. There is no question that all the Ameri can Standard Safety Codes have been extremely valuable in presenting govern mental agencies with concrete suggestions for the development of practical, reasonable rules and regulations for the prevention of accidents in the various industries. You would not have to look back many years to find a most confusing picture of the tech nical requirements being enforced by the various regulatory bodies throughout the country on any particular phase of accident prevention work that you might care to in vestigate. No two states seemed to agree on the proper way of guarding such a simple piece of mechanism as a gear. Of course, when the many complications incident to construction work are intro duced, the picture becomes even more con fusing. Not all of these recommendations ot the various governmental agencies coutd be technically sound. There certainly could not be so many correct methods of remov ing a single accident hazard. The gathering together of technical information and ex pert opinion, through the use of the national safety code committees affording complete cooperation between industry' and govern ment, has produced a series of safety codes having the support of both industry and government, and has gone a long way toward removing confusion and providing some de cree of harmony in the various rules and regulations enforced by governmental agen cies throughout the country- The enforcement and administrative work of governmental agencies is constantly be coming more valuable to industries coming under the jurisdiction of such agencies be cause of improvement in administrative techniques; recognition of the fact that the fundamental conception of enforcement F education; improvement in the qualifications of personnel: and more adequate appropria tions with which to carry on the wurk All of these conditions arc making it possible for regulatory bodies to apply the rules and regulations, which they put into effect with a degree of intelligence which permits cleaning up soie spots within (lie industry'- A contractor whose bid on a par ticular job docs not include any expense item for the erection of safeguards and pro vision for proper working conditions in general, is forced, through this intelligent government education and pressure, to change his methods of operation so that he will engage in fair competition with other contractors. Every industry contains groups which approach the accident problem in a fair and intelligent manner. These groups arc thrown into competition with other elements whose sole interest in accident prevention work is to lei the insurance group take rare of all such problems. Case after case could prob ably be brought forward to point out tliat proper cooperation between regulatory bodies and industry as a whole, through a reasonable and intelligent enforcement of rules and regulations contained in safely codes, has been of tremendous value in eliminating ucii unfair and improper condi tions. From this point of view your industry has a definite interest in securing the enupcration of those governmental groups which desire the help of the construction industry and all other groups involved in the devel opment of proper and reasonable rules anti regulations which they can put into effect. Such cooperation will assist in improving the accident record of the industry as a whole. These governmental groups are now participating, through the American Stand ards Association, with the construction in dustry, insurance groups, employees, and technical experts in providing a code which will accomplish these purposes. During the past year considerable prog ress has been made on the code. The drafts which have been prepared have been circu lated to the committee for comment and criticism. It is possible that there are some representatives of the construction group present who are serving as members of the construction code committee. If so, I urge them to review, at the earliest possible date, 302 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the draft-. of (lie section* of this code which they have already received, discuss them mill other jRjixms active in (lie work of the Construction Section of the National Safety Council ami oilier construction safety groups, and forward any criticisms they may have to the chairman of (he sectional commiltcc for his use in revising the drafts. The chairman of this committee lias only one objective in mind--namely--turning nut the best possible code that can he de veloped. Additional drafts of new sections will be forthcoming during the coming winter months and these too should lie carefully reviewed in order that your points of view can lie incorporated. The time already spent in jiast years in getting this project started would be incomparable to the loss of time which would ensue should this code ap proach completion and reach the final stages of approval, only to find that those groups who should have been participating in its development request that the code not be approved because it docs not incorporate their points of view. The officers of the committee and sponsors for the project would very greatly welcome any suggestions which the Construction Section may have to insure adequate con sideration of the code provisions. If such suggestions should be forthcoming in the near future, 1 urge that you convey them at the earliest possible date to Mr. W. D. Keefer as .secretary of the committee, and they will be fully considered. Methods Used to Present Safety Movement to Employees By GEORGE P. JESSUP Construction Superintendent, Guntersville Dam, Alabama During the early jiarl of this century the great number of men Itcing injured annually on construction work attracted my attention. I romcmlier discussing with my superintendcut whether something could be done to re duce the time lost hy employees due to accidents and sickness. We came to the con clusion that it would pay lo employ a doctor tu look after the men. as our veterinary had greatly reduced the in>n-produeti\e time of nor mules. Today to emphasize to our employees that we arc really in earnest in seeing that the job ir> a safe place to work, we insist that housekeeping conditions be good, all litter removed at once, slock kept in orderly shape, ami equipment in repair. During planning of layout amt sequence ot work much llmughl has Irtii given to`safe working conditions: all machines welt guarded; such equipment as safety harnesses, goggles, respirators and the like readily ob tainable by employees; walkways and stag ing well designed with capacities marked upon them; working area well lighted; and pipe lines and electrical wiring so placed that they do not present hazards. This shows our employees that the management wishes the job (o be a safe place to work. Since the superintendent's many duties will not allow him sufficient time lo attend personally to the necessary details of the safety program, we have a safety engineer to head this department. Great care was taken in selecting this assistant to see that he had construction experience, was well acquainted with accepted safely methods, physically able to carry out the program, and had a personality that would gain the con fidence of employees and ability to instruct men without offending them. That employees and management might work closely together, a safety committee was established, composed of superintendent, safety engineer, and representatives from labor, mechanic, and foreman groups. The craft members serve for three meetings, onethird retiring each meeting and being re placed by other employees. These meetings are held once a week during working hours. A definite order of business is followed, a precaution taken so that they do not become gossip or grievance clubs. The new members are taken on a tour of (lit job. previous to the meeting, at which lime the safety engineer explains the object ive of the safety program, discussing correct and incorrect methods of performing work and placing protection about hazards as they encounter them during the tour. At the com mittee meeting the patrol makes verba! re port* of conditions of the job from the safety viewpoint. Construction Section 303 After this report, the meeting is open for a few minutes to discussion ami recommen dations from other members. At the com pletion of discussion, the superintendent or safety engineer gives a talk, choosing a topic of safety interest, after winch the retiring members arc presented with a job safely emblem and letter ot appreciation for serv ice on the committee. Every endeavor is made to interest the members in safety work and impress upon them that they will be expected to help re duce job accidents during their employment. Minutes of these meetings are distributed to present and past members, to all foremen, and are posted on the bulletin boards. Keep Complete Records That the causes of accidents may be studied, the safety engineer investigates all accidents, making a report to the superin tendent on all loht time injuries. He, keeps a record by gangs so that he may discuss the accidents with gang foremen. Foremen arc judged by their gang accident records as well as by cost records. The safety engineer makes a tour of the complete job at least once a day, on the alert to discover hazards overlooked by foremen and men, to observe methods and equipment being used, assisting the foremen to instruct individuals in the proper way to perform assigned tasks, advising foremen of hazards that sliould Ire removed or pro tected. Training employees to l>ccomc safety con scious requires a most carefully planned program. This will include personal, group, and mass instruction. Since the nature of construction work causes continual change of personnel, of whom a large percentage arc green hands, it is important that the individual's educa tion start before or not later than his first check-in. We have prepared a short pam phtet, explaining the type of work being per formed and equipment used, emphasizing that the individual must keep clear of swing ing booms, rnck blasting, and so forth in Ins assigned working area. This bulletin is ex plained lo each new employee by the em ployment man so that he will be alert to new conditions. When the new employee reports to work, the foremau carefully instructs him in the sale way to perform his task, pointing out local hazards, and emphasizing that he will be required to work safely. Realizing that new men must not' lie made lo feel that they arc lo work on an extremely hazardous job, the -nifcij engineer makes contact in an informal manner when on hi' daily inflection ot Die job. explaining our safely policies and the necessity of working safely. Group meetings, held during olT shift periods, composed of a few men engaged in similar work arc conducted hy the safety engineer, so that lie ami the employees may discuss the safety problems of their partic ular ta&ks. Care is taken that groups arc complimented on good practices as well as criticized for wrong methods. Camera Is Useful We have provided a postcard-size camera and projecting machine, so that snapshots of actual job conditions may be taken and shown on the screen, the points of merit or defect being pointed out to the group. In showing these pictures, caution is used to sec that no one is ridiculed. These group meetings arc of great value in gaining the cooperation of employees and in promoting the safety program. At intervals of about six months we hold a mass meeting of all the job personnel, at which time the past record and future pro gram arc outlined and someone well ac quainted with our job gives a safety talk. To reach tho$c whom we have not con tacted personally and to keep safety fresh in everyone's mind, the extensive use of bulletins and signs has been adopted. On bulletin boards erected near checking win dows and oilier places of prominence, Na tional Safety Council posters, home-made cartoons, and job pictures arc posted. Bill board* in attractive colors upon which snappy slogans arc painted help impress tire necessity of working safely. Signs warning of danger, designating location of safety equipment, and giving instructions arc used about the job. Upon a large blackboard in front of the time checking window all accidents, except very minor ones, are posted and the causes of them given so that other employees may be warned to prevent repetition of such in juries. 304 Twenty-sixth Nuiionut Safety Congress To reduce lost time and accidents caused l>y ill health, otir employees are required to have a thorough physical examination. They must he vaccinated for smallpox, be given typhoid shots, a Wassermanu test, and have malaria smears taken. If. upon examination, the employee is found in need of medical at tention, he is so advised by the physician. Periodic reexaminations arc made to note progress in eliminating defects. That our methods are helping the general safely cause is shown by desire of men to serve on the safety committee, the pride with which they wear their safely emblems, and the repeated invitations to have some one address their gatherings on safety. Practical Engineering as Applied to Safety in Construction By F. J. CRANDELL Civil Engineer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.f Boston. Mass. There arc only two fundamental causes of accidents in the construction industry. The lir.-t is structural failure, which invariably produces catastrophes and fatalities. The vrind is inefficiency in operation. For years the construction industry has been loath to ucccpt suggestions of the <afctv men. To a large extent they have been justified. Too long the safety question has uit Utii attacked from an engineering si;ux!j*oint. The past method of attack has not cii one to command (lie respect of the construction industry'. There is a definite need and place in the industry for safety work, hut it nuit come from scientific engi neering analyst* of operation. Engineering properly applied will control llic two fundamentals of accident causes. An example is the analysis of the collapse of wooden forms under a working load during the pouring of the roof concrete slab of a reservoir. The collapse of these forms caused 17 men to fall 27 feet to the concrete fluor slab of the reservoir already poured. Conference* with the contractor brought out that these columns and forms liad not twcti designed, but had been put up on the aoumption dial they were of sufficient" size. The posts shown had an intermediate sup port 7 feet front the top and from that point to the concrete support of the post there was a dear, unsupported distance of 20 feeL A calculation of the dead and live load supported by the form gave it a total of 219 pounds per square foot. Further calculation showed that each column must take a load of 2,680 pounds. An analysis of these columns, 4 inches x A inches in cross sectional size, showed that their slenderness ratio was equal to 60. This value definitely took the column out of the short column class which depends for its strength on crushing in direction of its length, and brought the column into the long column class, which depends on stiffness or resistanco to lateral deflection or buckling for its strength and behaves essentially as the Euler column. Calculation of the Euler formula with a factor of safety of three showred the safe working load for these columns under these conditions to be 1,000 pounds. These calculations show that the columns were sustaining a load of 1,680 pounds above their safe working load. The safety engineer's job in this case was one of structural analysis, and it was nec essary that he have a fundamental engineer ing knowledge of design if he were to over come this hazard. The prevention of this accident could have hecn accomplished very* simply. An intermediate tie of 1 x 6 loards rigidly connected to all columns would have reduced the slenderness ratio sufficiently so that the load would not have exceeded the safe working load of the column. This example definitely shows that the safety engineer of today, whether working for the contractor or the contractor's in surance carrier, must have a fundamental Itaste knowledge of engineering. The day of the safety inspector who would submit recommendations^ on safety after reviewing the ojrcrations for ooe day. or one hour, is gone. The rapidity of con struction operation is so great that inspec tion or criticism of an existing operation i of little or no consequence because tomor row the same conditions will not mia Tbc engineer of today must make an analyses at tlie beginning of the operation and set up Construction Section 305 the proper regulatory conditions to produce an adequate factor of safety. How shall the engineer control the second fundamental of inefficiency in operation? He must first familiarize himself with the plans and sjiccifications of the operation. After this analysis the next step is to discuss what methods of operation the superintend ent intends to use. The engineer should then be able to pick out the hazards and >uggest necessary remedies. The safety engineer's recommendation submitted before the job is started will al low the superintendent time either to work the recommendation into his operation or to offer his objections to the engineer. In the latter case the engineer must submit alter native recommendations. Here is an example of engineering analy sis as it was used in driving a 16 foot diameter tunnel under the River Rouge at Dearborn, Mich. The steps were: 1. Analyzing plans and specifications. 2. Investigating borings. 3. Checking design of temporary struc tures to be used in operation. 4. Establishing of code for compressed air work. 5. Setting up regulatory methods for routine working conditions. The first step informed the engineer of the location, the depth and possible pres sures that might be encountered during the sinking of the caisson and driving of the tunnel. The tabulated borings, as shown on the plans, and also the samples taken from the borings, were investigated. The borings indicated the stratification of the ground through which the tunnel was to be driven and informed the engineer of approxi mately the type of soil that was to be en countered. To get a complete picture and profit from the experience encountered by other con tractors in this territory, a geologist's re port was obtained which indicated the actual constituents of the soil. Analyzing the ge ologist's report, the engineer felt that there was a possibility of explosive and toxic gases in this vicinity. The contractor had no means of detecting their presence. It was therefore necessary for the engineer to determine some practical means of detec tion. The geologist's report indicated that the greatest possibility of an explosion was from methane gas whose explosive range was between 5 per cent and 15 per cent by volume of the surrounding atmosphere Furthermore, hydrogen sulphite was amici paled, and the toxicity of this gas \vn> determined. An instrument was obtained from the Mine Safety Appliance Company, a ''Continuous Combustible Gas Alarm," which satisfied (he requirements and calibrated for 3 per cent methane. A hydrogen sulphite gas indicator was also obtained. These instruments were exhibited and ex plained to the contractor, and with his co operation they were worked in with the method to be used in driving the tunnel. The continuous gas alarm was carried along with the heading. The next step was to determine a practical means of getting rid of the gas alter it was encountered. With the assistance of the contractor, a ventilating system was de signed which consisted merely of a single pipeline with a valve at its end located at the heading in the tunnel. The pressure in the tunnel was to be used to force the con taminated air out through the pipeline. This line, of course, was run from the tunnel heading all the way to the grade level, and the valve was operated by the shift fore man whenever the combustible gas alarm went off. All temporary structures tliat were to he used in the operation were next cheeked for structural errors. The New York State Compressed Air Code was used for the regulation of this work. The engineer had now readied his fifth step. He discussed with the superintendent the locations where the material would he received, the loading and unloading of same, am) set up with the assistance of the superintendent regulations for the proper methods of handling all material and equip ment. Regulatory methods were determined to cover such items as welding, compressor plan operations, sinking of the caisson, low ering of shield into the hole, shoving of the shield, setting the steel, bolting the steel, etc. Carrying out these regulatory methods and enforcing them came tinder the juris diction of the superintendent. Without hi* assistance the whole analysis would have been of no consequence. All explosive gases were detected and the 306 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress tunnel properly ventilated, and no explo sion occurred. The method used to control the ordinary functions of the operation was so carried out that again no interruption occurred, allowing the contractor through out the whole job to produce an extremely efficient and economical operation, finishing the job ahead of schedule, and guaranteeing the original estimated profits for the work. A safety engineer, to be of assistance to a contractor, must be continuously posting himself on the latest methods of the in dustry and the engineering profession. An example of this need is indicated by the losses in operation that occur through fail ure in trench ami colTerdam work. The cause of these failures in the majority of cases is lack of knowledge of the stresses and strains in soils and the distribution of pressures. lor years the theory of the pressure of soil on the back nf any lateral support, the timbering of cuts included, has been that it increases like hydrostatic pressure, in direct proportion to the depth. Rankme's earth pressure theory was the basis of this as sumption. This theory is still being followed by many contractors, although we liave direct evidence that this is not wholly true. We have practical data which is the result of direct measurements made by Mr. Miller, of New York, in 1910. The lateral pressure wa> computed from the defection of ranges over a bank area measuring 22 feet hori zontally and m feet vertically. Below the depth of 00 feet the cut was occupied by the completed structure. The width of the cut was 8S feet and the soil was coarse sand mixed with 20 per cent to 30 per cent clay and some gravel. The dif ference between the hydrostatic and the observed pressure distribution was far too important to be ignored. Experimental data concerning the relation between the lateral unit of wall, the location of ,thc center of pressure, and the hydro static pressure ratio, were obtained by Dr. K*rl Von Terzaghi in connection with large-scale earth pressure tests at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1929, and his observed distribution of pres sures approximately confirms those meas ured by Miller. Terzaghi further states the fundamental assumptions of Kankme's earth pressure theory are incompatible with the known relation between stress and strain in soils, including sand. Therefore, the use of this theory should be discontinued. For identical soil conditions and equal yield of the lateral support, the total lateral pressure on the support is the same. Yet the distribution of the pressure over this support varies enormously according to the distribution of the yield over the face of the Itank. The more this distribution departs from a straight line through the foot of the (tank, the more important the departure from the hydrostatic pressure distribution is likely to be. APJOURNMENT Food Section Officers 1936-37 tlcncrul CVfOiVwnu--C. W. De.mi'ESY, Liquid Carbonic Corp., Chicago, 111. Vice-Chairman in Churyc of Program--S. B. Morrell, The Carey Salt Co., Hutchinson, Kansas. Vice-Chairman in Charge nf Membership--I-'kku A. Weim, Borden-Wiclaml, Inc., Chicago, ill Secretary--D. M. Clark, Society of Grain Elevator Superintendents of North America, Chicago, III. Xezus Letter Editor---C. W. Turning, Goddard & Heinsdman, Minneapolis. Minn. Engineering Committee Chairman--G. L. Gore, Bruce Dodson and Co., Kansas City. Mo. Health Committee Chairman--Dr. Wilmeh H. Schulzl, Director, Bureau of Environ mental Hygiene, Health Dept.. City of Baltimore, Md. Posted Committee Ctuiinnun--F. A. Hasse, Corn Products Refining Co., Chicago, III. Publicity Committee Chairman--Wli.nuft Thomas, Hage's, Limited, San Diego, Calif. Slides and Safety Kinks Committee Chairman--H. J. Aldrich, Spencer Kellogg ami Sons, Jnc., Buffalo, N. Y. Statistics Committee Chairman--Hay M. Seeker, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., St. Louis, Mo. Directors-- Fred Anderson, Ady & Crowe Mercantile Co., Denver, Colo. H, A. Barker, Hotel New Yorker, National Hotel Management, litc.. New York, N\ Y. A. L. Brown, Post Products Div., General Foods Corp., Battle Creek, Mich. Ruth E. Cade, A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co., Decatur, 111. K. R. Chaney, Coffee Products of America, Inc., LuL Los Angeles, Calif. Kay J. Cui.KiN, Koekwood & Co., Brooklyn, N. Y. A. B. Dean, Commander-Larabce Corp., Minneapolis, Minn. E. E. Drews, Libby, McNeil & Libby, Chicago, 111. J. T. Farrell, Waldorf System, litc., Boston, Mass. A. D. Ferrari, Bohemian Distributing Co., Ltd., Los Angeles, Calii. Paul C Goounough, The Quaker Oats Co.. Chicago. HI. I). R. Grant. Beechnut Packing Co., Canajoharic. N. Y. L. O. Green, Wilson & Co., Inc., Chicago, III. K. C. Haven, Continental Baking Co., New York, N. Y. C. \Y. Ksowi.es, El Dorado Oil Mills & Fertilizer Co., El Dorado, Ark. L. K. McCash, Hemrich Brewing Co,, Seattle, Wash. \V. J. Maze, Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, Honolulu, Hawaii. I. H. Morgan, Morgan Packing Co., Austin, Ind. Jamil-* L. Oliver, American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages, Washington, D. C. Douglas Prawn, Walgreen Drug Stores, Chicago, 111. George T. Peckham, Jr., Clinton Co., Clinton, Iowa. G. F. Prarrek, Moorman Manufacturing Co., Quincy, 111. C. L. Rhys, John Morrell & Co., Ottumwa, Iowa. A. C. Schroedek, Church & Dwight Co., Syracuse, N. Y. John R. Sellers, Joseph S. Finch St Co., Schcnlcy, Pa. G. H. StfM.LY, Jewel Tea Co., Inc., Barrington, III. W. W. Smith, Smith Brothers, Inc., Pougkeepsie, N. Y. V\\ A. Sullivan, Looe-Wiles Biscuit Co., Kansas City, Mo. 307 308 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress I..eon G. TujaCue, National Foo<l Products Co., New Orleans, La. Lionel VV. Udell, United Fruit Co., Boston, Mass. II. K. Wheeler. Jr., Henry Heide, Inc., New York, N. Y. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--S. B. Horrell, Tlie Carey Salt Co., Hutchinson, Kansas. Tice-Chairmatt for Promotion--C. \V. Desii*5Y; Liquid Carbonic Corp., Chicago, III. Letter Committee--- Secretary--D. M, G-akk, Society of Crain Elector Superintendents of North America. Chicago, 1)1. A> Letter Committee-- K. k. Kampk (Chairman), Kraft-Phcnix Cheese Corp., Chicago, III. C. J. WhatiiLKSToN, Washburn Crosby Co., UufTalo, N. Y. II. I). LlMar, P. F. Peterson Baking Co., Omaha, Nebr. J ames L. Oliver. American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages, Washington, I). C. iintfineeruty Committee-- H. J. Aioxticu (Chairman), Spcuccr Kellogg & Sons, Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. A. L. Brown, Post Products Div. of General Foods Corp., Battle Creek, Mich. Paul C. (Iuounough, The Quaker Oats Co., Chicago, III. G. I'. PrciEFEK, Moorman Manufacturing Co., Quincy, 111. Health Committee--I>k. Wii.mkh H. Schulze (Chairman), Bureau of Environmental lk'i>t-, Baltimore. Md. Ki th E. Cape* A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co., Decatur, 111. O. Gkke.v, Wilson & Co., Inc., Union Stock Yards, Chicago, Hi. I. II. Morgax, Morgan Packing Co., Austin, Tml. Hygiene. Health Membership Committee-- II. E. WilKKMSlt, J*. (Chairman). Henry Heide, Inc., New York, N. Y. J. J. Lyons John F. jelke Co., Chicago, III. \Y. W. Smith. Smith Brothers, Inc., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. W iijiuh Thomas, Hagc's Ltd., San Diego, Calif. Lui.n G. Tujacue, National Food Products Co., New Orleans, La. Poster Committee-- Kay H. Culkim (Chairman), Rockwood St Co.. Brooklyn, N. Y. ti. L. Cow:, Bruce Dodson & Co., Kansas City, Mo. C. A. Linder, Booth Fisheries Corp., Qticago, lib Program Committee-- 1'keii A. Wtnn (Chairman), Borden-Wicland, Inc.. Chicago, III. ('red Anderson, Ady & Crowe-Mercantile Co., Denver, Colo. 1>. K. Grant, Beechnut Packing Co., Canajolaric, N. Y. M. K. Maule, PfcIIcr kicc Milling Co., Houston, Texas. Gkokgc Pkcnham, Clinton Co., Clinton, Iowa. Publicity Committee-- Kay M. Skkkek (Chairman), Anheuser-Busch, Inc., St. Louis, Mo. W. O. Ham, Southern Ice & Utilities Co., Dallas, Texas. L. C. Quf.snel, The Borden Co., New York, N. Y. "A. C. ScilROEPKR, Church & Dwight Co., Syracuse, N. Y. H. B. Taylor, Northwestern Yeast Co., Chicago, III. Statistics Committee-- Douclas Pearn (Chairman), W'atgrccn Drug Stores, Chicago, lit. Food Section A. B. Dean, Commandcr-Larabee Corp., Minneapolis, Minn. C. W. Knowles, El Dorado Oil Mills & Fertilizer Co., El Dorado, Ark. John R. Sellers, Joseph S. Finch & Co., Schenley, Pa. yisual Education Committee-- G. H. Sibley (Chairman), Jewel Tea Co., Inc, Barrington, III. R. R. Chaney, Coffee Products of America, Inc., Ltd., Los Angtlcs, Calif. E. E. Drews, Libby, McNeil & Libby, Union Stock Yards, Chicago, 111. W. J. Maze, Hawaiian Sugar Planters* Assn., Honolulu, Hawaii. Members at Large-- F. A. Hasse, Corn Products Refining Co., Chicago, HI. W. A. Sullivan, Loose-Wiles Biscuit Co., Kansas City, Mo. 300 TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 The first session was called to order by Carbonic Corp., Chicago, who introduced the General Chairman C W. Dempesy, Liquid speakers and directed the discussion. Proper Safety Training in Maintenance Departments By ANDREW J. PERCIVAL Personnel Officer, Westclox Division, General Time Instruments Corp., Peru, 111. To my notion this is one of the most confusing ages since the industrial revolu tion. So confusing that the leadership of most industrial groups, both of labor and management, have such differences of opin ion that it is most difficult to tell where wc arc and whither wc are bound. An ever increasing mass production is necessary, and this, coupled with the technological changes to complete it, will come so fast tliat most of us will not be prepared for the transi tion. Safety, the fore-runner of good personnel practices, can lead the way in our constant changing positions of thinking and doing. We can solve these varied problems if we start with the philosophy that safety and personnel are not exact sciences but are inexact arts. The by-products of energized safety programs have taught us in the past and should continue to teach us in these new and different ways of doing things. Maintenance groups should carry', as the radiating center of good safety practices, these new burdens, if management but gives them the opportunity. Standard safety measures known to Ific industry arc known to you, therefore safety resolves itself down, to my way of thinking, at this time to the human relationship and its reaction. Let us go back into the history of the safety movement- for some of this human reaction. The National Safety News of March, 1922, carried a then astounding arti cle. A concern of some national importance went two years without a single lost lime accident. The writer of the article asked the question, "How was it accomplished?** And the answer, every man from the top down--not from the bottom up--spreads and practices the gospel of safety. In a 1924 issue of the Nexvs an article ap peared on the study of fatal accidents in maintenance material handling. In sub stantially these words was the summary of the article--"The outstanding feature of these fatal accidents is the human element.'' Let me stress again that the psychology of accidents must be given consideration. In this same issue of the Nexas the human fac tor was discussed and out of some fifteen 310 Txventy-sixth National Safety Congress 'Major mental causes of accidents these were the outstanding; predisposition, inattention, preoccupation and depression. Hasn't the hysterical period we have just passed through given birth to just such accident hugs, and may we not expect more of them in the changing future? We should profit materially from the last eight years expert* cnees in this respect. These time worn, yet ever important, slogans and expressions of safety campaigns arc always with us: Work with us, not for us. Accidents don't happen--they arccnu>cd. Safety and efficiency should be twins, and dozens of others. We have had the three Ms--Men, Ma chinery and Methods. We now have the three Es--Education, Engineering and En forcement. These, of course, are a part of the sales of safety. But we must have anchorage if we are to succeed --- that anchorage is the hub of the safety wheel and that hub is the maintenance group. Safety education is a problem of keeping eternally at it, and the gospel center, the safety ad dress system of a plant, lies with the maintenance group. The maintenance group should be a defi nite form of organization, where officers aiul committees function, where minutes of meetings arc carefully recorded, with rec ommendations followed through to a con clusion. The form of the organization may l>c one of many and varied and still accom plish the desired results. The whole essence that lies behind this maintenance safety organization group suc cess can he put in one question--Is manage ment primarily interested in safety? If the answer is yes. you succeed and have fun doing it. If the answer is no, or if only passive interest is shown, then all of the slogans, organization work and tireless ef forts are in vain--you can't succeed. This brings up a question of management: Should management take a primary interest in safety as it usually docs in production, finance, sales, etc.? My feeling is it should for a very selfish reason--indirect profits and the training field for good personnel practices. Increased compensation awards are being demanded before the legislatures of the several states. In a certain state full wage compensation is being demanded and tliat the state become the insuring carrier. It has keen cited that $22,000,000 was paid for coverage in the last year and only $7,000,000 of this sum expended in awrards. These ever increasing legislative demands stress the social obligation more and more. Better prevention pto&rams will be the answer. This trend leads us to further obli gations, teaching men how to live as well as how to make a living. Accident Reduction with a Planned Maintenance System By H. E. HILDEBRAND Director of Engineering, Continental Baking Co., New York City My earliest recollection of the food'indus try dates back to 1904. I remember a-bakery* one of the largest in this country, operating 18 ovens and employing some 200 men. The bake shop was in the basement, and (lie 1torses were stalled on the second floor. The floor was of wood, and as I remember, was wot entirely uatcrju-nof. The plant was considered modern; iliv layout had been well engineered. The ovens had to be in the basemeut un der the sidewalk because Mother Earth was the best and cheapest insulation available at that time. The stable on the second floor was considered well located from a ventila tion standpoint. In the basement shop flickering gas jets revealed pale faces of bakers who seldom saw the light of day. Miners' lamps in front of their white caps would have been more in keeping and certainly more useful in their subterranean occupation. Accidents, ill health and foreign substance hazards must have been extremely high. People didn't seem to pay so very much attention to those things until something happened to them person- Food Section 311 ally. Then they consoled themselves with the old slogan, "Accidents will happen." Since tliat time a lot of improvements have been accepted by industry. To me it seems that the one outstanding development which has done more to im prove maintenance, reduce accidents and bring industry out of the dark ages, and bakeries out of the cellar, has been the per fection of the electric lamp and the estab lishment of a definite science of illumination. Illumination, good maintenance and safety go hand in hand. Proper illumination must be engineered by men who understand this science. The pro miscuous hanging of lights from the ceiling is not illumination. Screwing a 50 watt lamp into a 150 watt reflector of a well designed lighting system isn't illumination cither. It's lamp switching. Lamp switching isn't good economy, no matter what oilier reasons may be behind this practice, because speed, accuracy and the morale of the working man is decreased; equipment is neglected and a general unsan itary condition develops. With proper illumination 10 to 15 per per cent more production can be turned out by a workman, and he suffers less eye strain and is not subjected to nervous fatigue. In the food industry there is no place for localized lighting. Localized lighting throws shadows and leaves dark places; places where things are thrown to be tripped over; places where the janitor forgets to clean; where foreign substances originate and mould and bacteria grow. As a general guide to the proper degree on intensity of illumination recommended for various types of food factories, any good Irandbook can be consulted. For bakeries we use the following system: Intensity of illumination for : Storage Rooms--2 to 3 foot candles. Ingredient Weighing Rooms---8 to 10 foot candles. Bake Shop--5 to 8 foot candles. Offices--10 foot caudles. Shipping Rooms--4 to 0 foot candles. To obtain a high reflection factor the walls arc either |>aimcd white with oil paint or else light colored tile is used. (Aluminum is never used on walls, because after a while the walls begin to have a (early, depressing appearance. Cold water paints arc not rec ommended, because they have a tendency tu peel off and drop into food products; espe cially alter several coats have been applied.) To reduce the possibility of foreign sub stance from shattered light globes, the light ing fixtures are of the dome type with a heavy glass globe screwed into the fixture over the bulb (similar to tlie vapor-proof fixture). The reflectors are cleaned at defi nite intervals to insure maximum efficiency. I have gone into some detail on the sub ject of lighting because a plant mainte nance system dejicnds almost entirely upon proper illumination. Some years ago every factory had a "handy man"--a fixer--a man who waited for things to break down. A number of factories Mill liave such an individual and still operate on a fixing system. Scientific methods of production have been introduced in most industries, but scientific maintenance lias not kept pace with the development of manufacturing methods. How often have we seen well designed buildings and machines under the care of a "handy man." In the same spirit with which an engineer lays out his plans on a drafting board should the manufacturer plan and design the main tenance system in his factory. The same manufacturer who tried to save money by economizing on illumination aKo thinks that he is saving money by not main taining his buildings and equipment, although the experiences of most successful comitauies prove conclusively that organized main tenance is a most profitable investment. With a planned maintenance system in operation the benefits which ate almost im mediately apparent to tlie manufacturer are the increase in and continuity of production. Later lie becomes conscious of a decrease in accidents and also becomes aware that his machines last longer and his buildings re quire fewer major repairs. Things arc in better order. His investment in the main tenance organization. I>c it one man nr more, is beginning to pay for itself. Let us now consider a maintenance system which has been in operation fur a number of years and has proved itself successful. Ii is in operation in small plants with one main tenance man and in larger plants employing twenty men or more. This system is based on the following principles: 312 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress 1. The lighting system shall be main tained at its designed intensity. 2. The entire building and each operating machine shall be inspected daily. 3. The building and equipment shall always be kept in the same condition as when new. 4. No machine, machine parts, tools or other materials or equipment not used cur rently for manufacture shall be kept or stored in the manufacturing area. Such tools and equipment which are used for manufacturing shall have a definite storage place. 5. The entire plant shall be cleaned on a prearranged janitors' or porters' schedule with a definite time allotment for each area or machine. 6. A maintenance engineer's chief duties will consist of maintaining a plant and not of building new equipment and carrying on other major construction or installation work. The operation of this system is as follows : Titc chief maintenance engineer makes an inspection trip once each day and takes with him what may be called "The Engineer's Daily t.og Sheet." Ou this sheet arc printed (he mines of the various machines in the plant as well as various building parts, such as Aoors, windows, walls, lights, plumbing. A space is left after each primed item for him to designate whether the equipment requires repairs. Minor repairs or adjustments are made hy the engineer on his trip. Upon the completion of his trip such major repairs as are necessary arc made either by him or by those working under his supervision. The "log sheet" is posted in the plant sii|>erintetK)em's or foreman's office, so that if any trouble develops while the engineer is nut mi duty, a note is made by Hie super intendent or foreman in a space provided on the sheet. This eliminates the possibility of the Mi|ierimcndcut forgetting to tell the en gineer about difficulties Ivc has Itad. .The sheet al*o indicates to the superintendent that all machines have been inspected that day. The superintendent signs the log sheet, and it is brought to the manager by the engineer just before he makes his inspection the following day. If anything unusual arises, it is discussed between the manager and engineer at that lime. This system of maintenance stresses order liness. and orderliness breeds safety. The re sults obtained by this system may best be demonstrated by a typical example: A food plant in which the maintenance system was recently reorganized was oper ating with six engineers or mechanics and 12 janitors or porters. The engineers' job* may best be briefly explained by stating tint they repaired things when they broke down and fired the boilers. The porters cleaned the plant when they weren't unloading material and doing other odd jobs. The plant had been a show place when it was built but a lack of understanding of the meaning of maintenance had created a general disorderlincss. Wood floor boards were coming loose, and splintered and concrete floors had developed holes and ruts. The paint on walls and ceiling had become dingy and was peeling in places, dropping ou food products--creating foreign substance hazards. Low wattage globes had replaced the proi>er size lamps, and several extension lights were used permanently for local illumination. Evidences of temporary repairs were prev alent throughout the plant. Cleanliness had been neglected in comers, underneath equip ment and above the eye level of the janitors. Roaches were in evidence. The production organization had adapted itself to its sur roundings and dressed am! acted accordingly. A planned maintenance and porterage sys tem was installed with the result tliat within two mouths the maintenance force was reduced from six men to four and the janitor porterage crew CrOm 12 men to eight. Today this plant is bright, clean and well maintained throughout, and the entire or ganization lias reacted to its more pleasant surroundings. The first step in the reorganization was the installation of proper size electric lamps in shatter-proof globes. The floors have been r epaired, ami the wood floors are now being maintained with an oil treatment and buffing system instead of the old water scrubbing method which hud a tendency to deteriorate and splinter wood floors quickly and never kept them altogether clean and sanitary. Uniformed porters and janitors work on a time schedule posted in each working area ami now clean the entire plant regularly. Accident hazards, which now stand out more clearly, are more readily eliminated. Vermin have been exterminated, and all small outside openings through which they might enter the plant lave been dused up. Food Section 313 A paint washing and painting schedule has brightened the walls and ceilings. Haphazard ''fixing" has been replaced with a definite maintenance policy Breakdowns arc not allowed to happen. Foreign substance claim* have been mate rially reduced. What Accident Prevention Means to the Flour Milling Industry By C. B. WARKENT1N President, The Midland Flour Milling Co., Kansas City, Mo. Accident prevention in the flour milling industry means saving the lives arid limbs of men who arc not only our employees but also our friends, often of a lifetime. This is true in other industries, but pecu liarly so in flour milling. Because machinery does much of the work, the proportionate number of employees is small, and we can--if we will--know them all. In the second place, this oldest of alt industries has from earliest days been carried on in certain communities and in certain families, from generation to generation. So it is traditional in our indus try' for tlic miller and Ills men to be old friends and often relatives. Next, accident prevention means conserva tion of property and profits. Safe operation is always more economical than unsafe oper ation. If you clean up a plant from the safety angle you also improve it from the produc tion standpoint. 'Hie insurance carrier pays the direct cost of accidents to employees and members of the public, but does not pay the heavy loss to tlie owners on Account of con fusion and disorganization that always fol low au accident. An intangible thing that accident preven tion means to thefflour milling industry, or any industry, is the opportunity to improve morale by a cooperative enterprise. Safety is for the mutual good of all concerned-- the flour miller and his stockholders, the employees and their families. It is an under taking in which they can whole-heartedly join hands, without misunderstanding, with out conflicting motives. A safely campaign is a splendid way to line up the whole crowd, from laborer to president, with a united front and common objective. Such a cam paign will not only save lives and property, hut it will also build lasting good will, to the profit of all concerned. In our own flour mills, investigating acci dents when they do occur is considered just as important as buying wheat, selling flour, iu&tallmg new machinery, or building an addition. We do not just leave it up to the insur ance company to investigate and pay the loss. We investigate personally, and we stay with the investigation until the cause of the acrident las been established. Then we sec that everyone concerned is suitably instructed to prevent repetition, and that any physical conditions at fault are corrected. By the application of safely measures we have effected in our flour mill plant at New ton, Kan., a most enviable record of 1,697 consecutive days without a lost time acci dent for a period ending May 31, 1937. For that record we were furnished au appropriate certificate from our insurance carrier com mending all of the employees and the indi vidual in charge of safety activities. The certificate also expressed the management's appreciation for the efforts made to eliminate accidents. It has been conspicuously posted in the plant and not only serves as an incen tive to continue all safety measures but is called to the attention of visitors by the em ployees themselves. This kind of interest shown by the man agement is essential to the success of any safety campaign. Employees' safety commit tees. which arc a vital part of a successful accident prevention campaign, depend for their results upon such support. If the rank and file know that the executives are backing the plant safety committee, its recommenda tions will be followed and preventable acci- 314 I'jecnty-sLvth National Safely Congress dents will Ik avoided. Without such back ing. the committee will he badly handi capped. The chairniati nf the committee should he an employee respected by his co-workcr because o( Ills thorough practical knowledge of the business. Tltc rest of the personnel should he representative of all departments of the plant--mill, elevator, warehouse. It is often a good idea to put on the committee one or more men who have previously ridi culed or scoffed at tin: idea of organized accident prevention work. When liiey learn wlut it is all alxmt and become sold on safety, they arc likely to be among the best and most enthusiastic workers on the com mittee. Must Know Causes Accident prevention demands that we know more than we do about the basic causes and sources of accident* in our mills. We must Iuve such iiuoriiution to remove or remedy tltosc causes to die fullest ixjssildc extent. It is necessary tu keep up to date in our analysis of flour mill accident causes. Con ditions affecting accidents rliange the same as conditions affecting buying, maimiacturiug and selling. For instance. I tow ninny of us. with buyers, salesmen and truck drivers engaged in our work on die public highways, realize that upwards of one-sixth of fatal accidents to men in industry arc caused by motor vehi cles? The employer who is hchiwl-liaud in Ids thinking niay confine accident prevention activities to his premises, without realizing tliat die scene lias shifted ami a large part of the tragedy is goiiig on nut on tltc high way. This mean* to the flour milling industry that we imi>t schedule the* work of our outsiile iiK-u so dial excessive speed or x>thcr unsafe driving practices will not be encour aged; that vve must huild up the personnel among mir truck drivers to employ only driver?, oi known ability and good judgment; and that we must join with our neighbors and our fellow citizens in continuous cam|aigns to make mir high ways k<* hazardous. I am told by officials *f the "Not Over Fifty Club" that in I'btd there were 2U.IW0,000 automobile accidents Large and small among the 28,000.000 cars licensed in this country. In these accidents 37,800 oi our people were kilted and it is estimated that we suffered an economic loss of $2,000,000,000. Every accident prevented may mean a life saved and certainly means an economic saving of at least $100, averaging all acci dents, large and small. Keep Down Speed The most effective means of reducing vehicle accidents is by reducing speed. By "speed" as an accident cause we usually mean "excessive*' speed, and by "excessive speed" we seem by common consent to mean "any speed too fast for conditions and a speed of otcr 50 mites jicr hour at any time." It is my ani'ilioo to secure from every member of our organization, including those who come under our contingent liability coverage, their membership in a "Not Over Fifty Club," the purpose of which is to lutve aulotnofjires and trucks driven at not more than 50 miles per hour. In tl*c discussion of accident prevention at one of our recent milling conventions some interesting data were mealed on the causes if accidents in flour mills. One of the liability insurance carriers, the Lumber mens Mutual, presented a chart analyzing 1.000 accidents hi the floor milling industry. No less tlian 123 oi these were classified as "falls of persons.** This puzzled me iur a minute. I could not lielicvc that we were stumbling around at our work to such an extent. Then it came to me that we must realize ours is a vertical industry, with the elevat ing of grain upward and the grinding proc esses downward constantly exposing our employees to accidents front stairways, lad ders. elevators and conveyors. We cannot wash our hands of accident prcvcmimi on nur premises by buying and installing guards atul guarded machinery. We have a problem of upkeep and super vision flint does not rely upon more capital expenditure so much as it relies on constant expenditure of rare and foresight. Many fit tim e 123 accident* coukl have liccn prevented by removal of obstacles, bet ter lighting, repair of stair treads and rails, discarding oi rickety ladders, and so on. Pro]>cr guarding of machinery is essential, l>ut what appears as a spectacular hazard in Pood Section 315 an industry too often gets all tlte attention, white innocent appearing conditions tlmt really cause more accidents are neglected. It reminds ntte of the old proverb about saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung-hole. For instance, we have in the grain elevator and flour milling industry a device not corn moti to other industries, known as the manlift. We have it because, as I have pointed out, ours is a vertical industry. In various forms it is used to carry our men up and down, and to save the time and labor other wise required to climb stairs and ladders. Matilifts can and do cause accidents, but I believe tlcy are over-rated in that respect in proportion to other causes simply because they arc more spectacular and the hazard is more obvious. State safety inspectors that conic into our plants are apt to raise a line and cry aliout the inaulift* while paying less attention to stairs and ladders. We in industry must not make the same mistake. Occident prevention to us means constant vigilance to detect ami correct the little things that can cause big accidents. One means of doing this is through pos ters. The bulletins and safety literature of your casualty insurance carrier and of the National Safety Council should be promi nently displayed on bulletin boards provided for that purpose. Don't ever doubt that these graphic safety messages do good. The re sults of any one can seldom be seen, but we know that tlierc is a cumulative result, like the continual dripping of water that wears away stone. In our own plant we continuously call attention to the following few simple rules, which we keep posted in the mill over our own signature: J. To clear a choke-up in spouts or ele vators use a stick. Never place your hands in a dangerous position. 2. \V1k throwing a switch for adjust ments or cleaning, either pull a (vise or place warning sign on switch so another employee will not accidentally start machinery. 3. Inducing of rolls must lx done very carefully to avoid hand or finger amputa tion*. throw off drive l>elt at the machine ami never attempt to clean at top of rolls WITH YOUR HANDS while machine is in motion. 4. To avoid serious falls report defective ladders or step.s at once and make certain of secure footing when it is necessary to climb on machine frames. 5. Many exposed machine hazards can he effectively protected; report such conditions to the superintendent. Also report defective guards or machine equipment promptly. 6. AH minor cuts, scratches, bruises, etc., MUST be immediately reported for proper first aid treatment to avoid serious infec tions. Those in other lines of business may not catch the full significance of these rules, but any millers will appreciate them and also the following that we have posted in the packing room and warehouse: 1. To avoid injury take a comfortable j>osition before lifting and lift with legs to prevent strain on your back. Do not under take to lift too licavv objects alone--ask foreman for help. 2. Make certain loads arc prujierly placed when using hand trucks and take corners and other turns carefully to prevent tipping. 3. Runways between freight cars and dockmust be fastened or clcalcd to avoid slip ping. Never step from car to dock without runway in place. 4. Pile sacks properly ami avoid piling too high. When necessary to climb on a pile be careful not to dislodge. Be alert and ready to step hack if pile sIkhiUI slide or fall. 5. Take down sacks from top of pile only ami leave remainder of pile in safe condition. 0. Report defective floors at once, espe cially slippery conditions or holes which may tip loads. 7. All minor cuts, scratches, bruises, etc., must be immediately reported fur proper first aid treatment to avoid serious infections. Accident prevention in the flour mill is usually considered as referring to accidents to employees. It should always go further and refer also to the safety of the (xiblic. These tuny include customers, salesmen, in spectors, auditors, sight-seers--visitors of all kinds, even trespassers. For all of these uion the premises tl>e owners l*ave the respon- 316 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Mbility of providing safe surroundings. Otherwise, the owners may liave heavy legal liability for negligence. in the warehouse and 39 elsewhere. Con veyors. belts and pulleys were responsible for half of the machinery accidents. At a recent trade convention a miller told of a bakery driver, waiting for a load of Hour, who stepped on the manlift for a ride, found the well narrowed to a very small oiicniiiK at the top (to show' it was the top) hut. being a thin man, made himself as com* lct as possible, squeezed through, went over the top, and suffered several broken bones. Several other circumstances are peculiar t our industry in comparison with many others. For instance, a flour mill is set up to oj*cratc 24 hours a day, with the conse quent daugcr of adjusting and oiling machin ery in motion. And the process of milling is mi nearly automatic that a workman alone oti an upper floor might be injured without anybody being near to help him. Thinking tltesc things out to coutrol them properly is what accident prevention means in the flour milling industry, or any industry. We hIkiuM never miss a ciiancc to analyze and study accidents and their prevention. Referring to my mention of an analysis of | .000 accklents in (lour mills, I believe any Hour miller would get constructive ideas for accident prevention at hi* own plant by a study of the following divi>iiHi of these acci dent* hy causes: Handling objects Particles in eye Palls oi persons Machinery Striking objects Hand trucks Falling objects Infections Miscellaneous Total 318 133 ' 123 143 70 SI 46 34 82 1,000 Oi (he 318 accidents in connection .with handling object*. 147 earned strains, includ ing hernia as well as less serious injuries. The bulk of die strains were suffered while handling sack* of flour. There were 106 such rases compared with 41 "all other." As might further be exiccted, 87 of the accident* resulting in strums occurred in the warehouse, compared with 41 in the mill and 10 elsewhere. Of 143 machinery accidents tlc majority or 82 were in the mill, as compared with 22 I have so far said nothing about dust, which is one oi the most important topics of all. But I can do litUc more than mention it. I>ecause it is a vast subject in itself, to which justice could not be done if I devoted this entire taper to it. Tlig fire prevention engineers frequently discuss dust with us. and to all that they say I will add "amen." Dust is the great catas trophe hazard in the mill and elevator indus try. Example* arc the Milwaukee mill ex plosion in 1937 and the Omaha elevator explosion in 1934 Infrequent as these ter rible catastrophe* arc. their severity is such as to justify incessant efforts in our industry to prevent tltcm. And in a broad sense the answer lies simply in good housekeeping. Altliotigh diseases arc not accidents, men tion of occupational diseases sliould be made at this time for the reason that one state after another is passing acts designed to compensate employees for occupational dis eases in somewhat the same way that the workmen's compensation act covers occupa tional accidents. Good housekeeping here again is the best answer to the question of preventing occujiational disease claims among flour mills em ployees. and particularly dust coutrol. For tunately. while the organic dust from grain and flour is annoying, it is not serious like the inorganic dust that causes silicosis, about which we ha%c heard so much In the past few years in quarries, foundries ami dry paint manufactories. There are certain fun gus spores in some grain dust that may cause disease, but not to a serious extent. Of course, any dusty condition may be harmful, especially to persons subject to pulmonary diseases. So far the hazard in flour mills is consid ered comparatively light, as evidenced by the insurance rate. Blit the presence of dust, even though believed to be of a compar atively harmless variety so far as human health is concerned, is an ever-present poten tial cause of claims. Control of dust now will yield dividends to the far-sighted miller through prevention of disease claims as well as prevention of loss of property and life by fire and explosion. Food Section THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 317 Safety and Sanitation and Its Relation to Food Products By R. R. KAMPE Director of Safety and Manager of Insurance, Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corporation, Chicago Much of the success of uur safely pro gram has been due to the active interest of our executives. Numerous letters arc writ ten hy the executives to superintendents of plants and to employees, including drivers. Plaques and certificates of merit are fre quently issued by our president, Mr. }. L. Kraft, and letters signed by other executives arc sent to employees who do outstanding safety work. hi our analysts of an injury we naturally search lor the true cause. When we find it, we try to correct or remove it. Frequently it is reported that some physical object caused an injury, such as a nail or a knife or faulty brakes. But more mature thinking points out that physical causes arc seldom the real causes. What we look for iu nearly every* case is the man failure that brought about the injury. Ten years ago l was given the task of curtailing injuries to Kraft employees. We first organized safety* committees through out the hundreds of Kraft plants in this country. Canada, South America and Europe. These committees, as they function today, arc human machines that contribute a great deal toward definite reductions in severity and frequency. The safety committees prepare injury and investigation reports to which we refer as supervisors* reports. To do this they must investigate each injury and determine its underlying cause. Tiiesc groups usually include the chief plant executive and foremen, supervisors and maintenance men, all of whom are fa miliar with the operations of the respective, plants. These safety committees deal nor only with injuries but also with the prob lems of salutation and fire prevention. We have a standard foremen's reporting form which each foreman must complete every month, setting forth the condition of his de partment, before he reports to the safety committee meeting. The safety committee also has an inspector who makes weekly surveys of the plants and turns in reports (o the committee chairman. At the cud of the month, when the safely meeting is held, there may be as many as four or five weekly reports of inspectors. However, many of the recommendations submitted after ihe weekly inspection arc carried out immediately ami arc merely reported to the safety committee so that the activities of the inspector may lx: checked. In addition we Itavea monthly fire brigade report. Copies of the foremen's reports and fire brigade reports arc sent, with the min ulcs of each meeting, to headquarters in Chicago. Contests Give Results We have found it worth while to conduct an annual inter-plant safety contest. The con test is divided into three classes--for A. It and C plants--and it creates a good deal of friendly rivalry. At the end of the contest year beautiful engraved silver plaques arc awarded to the winners, ami it is interesting to note what efforts arc made to win these plaques. In addition we have awards for the ac complishment of units of 100,000 man-hours without a chargeable injury'. I say "charge able injury" because we grade our injuries according to severity, classifying them as either reportable or chargeable. Any injury, regardless of severity (except simple first aid cases) is classed as a reportable injury. Any injury where the employee docs not return to work the same day or the follow ing morning, or an injury involving amputa tion or fracture, is regarded os chargeable. We classify our injuries this way because wC want every employee to have proper -M Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress medical aiUnliuii. Tin** snif'ht lie denied him it all injuries were regarded as chargeable. We tried the latter plan for a year and found that in many instances injured em ployees had been denied the privilege of going to see the doctor because (his might affect the injury record. L'ndcr the present plan an employee may get medical attention and, if he returns to work the same day or the following morning, it still is not counted a* a chargeable injury. In addition to the inter-plant safety con test each plant carries on an iulcr-depart- mcntal contest also lused upon an incentive plan. ployees in watching cadi other to keep tlic umd intact. By means of bulletins wt remind the safety committee that it is not always sufficient merely to issue instructions. \Vc insist that some active follow-up be made to see that they are carried out. Further, we caution against misinterpretation of in structions. In addition we have manv in spectors of the insurance company making frcqpcnt visits to our plants and submitting recommendations regarding injury expo sures found. These reports are made not onlv to the local plants but also to Chicago lieadquarters. VVe follow them carefully. Safety Courts In some of our plants we have safely courts. Summonses are issued to employees who perform unsafe acts. They' need not he involved in an injury ; the mere fact that they perform their work unsafely is sufficient reason for the foreman to issue a summons. Subpoenaed employees must appear before ihe court and explain why they performed in a negligent manner. The courts arc usually selected from (he employee group, ami the employees themselves decide on the iwnalty to lie imposed. The safety courts have proved lioih instructive and effective. In plants which seem to have considerable difficulty in keeping up with other plants in the safety control, we institute what we call a sweepstakes plan. The company appropri ates a sum of money which may range from $10 to $25, depending uikki the size of the plant. If the plant operates an entire month without a chargeable injury, this sum is split into two or three prizes, for which lots arc draw'n. If, in the course of the month, a chargeable injury lias taken place, the. fund is reduced by $5 and the person involved in the injury* is forbidden to participate in the sweepstakes for three consecutive drawings, although he must attend (lie drawings.' In otic of our plants in Chicago an em ployee who lrad won the first prize one mouth was involved in an injury during the following month. The employee u*hn won in the latter month received a lesser amount ot money because of his co-worker's care lessness. He approached the injured em ployee and criticized him severely for causing a reduction in the sw eepstakes draw. This incentive plan seems more effective than any other plan we have yet used. It brings alroul a definite interest among em Letters from our chief executives to those in charge of plants are supplemented by short bulletins which J issue to the safety committees.' 1 try to make these bulletins short, usually confining (hem to one page and trying to say something interesting and significant. Bulletins that are too Jong lose their effectiveness. A valuable asset to our safetv program is our house-organ, ^heesekraft.*' Although our safety program is backed up by disci pline, we try to avoid force. The attitude of hoCh employees and management must be right. About a year ago. in a safety con ference session. I asked, "How does one normally get his employees, particularly in a machine shop, to wear respirators when needed?" One individual answered, "That's easy. All you have to do is fire them." Now, that isn't the answer to the question. The answ'cr, as we see it, is education. Of course, we don't believe in tolerating definite violations of rules. VVe feel that a safety program should be carried on firmly hut not harshly. When a new employee comes into our organization, he is taken in hand by the safety committee. He is given a safety handbook containing several hun dred rules and is asked to read and learn the rules pertaining to hi* particular opera tion. Further, he is asked to sign for these rules so that he cannot deny at a later date that lie received (hem. For several months, at intervals, he is asked what he knows about the safety handbook and about our safety program. In all of our sales, auditors* and produc tion conventions a certain amount of time is allotted to the subject of safety. This is another way in which we popularize the work. Safety work is tied in closely with Food Section .MO promotions. VVe emphasize that no employee who is conlinualK involved in injuries is eligible for advancement. An educational program similar to that used in safety work, together with an efficient medical program, is carried on to promote sanitation and hygiene. The same committees supervise Iioth the safety and the sanitation programs. In each of our mau> plants we have a nurse on duty to look after the physical welfare of the employees ami instruct them in matters of personal hygiene. These nurses also make inspection* of the plants and report any conditions which arc not up to standard. All employees aic examined when they come into the organization and arc re-ex amined annually. They arc urged to go to their physician for medical attention for any ailments found. Xo employee is ever dis charged on the basis of the findings in ;ui examination unless he bus some communica ble disease. Naturally, in the dairy industry, such n condition cannot be tolerated. Most of our employees today welcome (he physical examination because it is a certain protection lo them. It gives them a degree of assurance that those working beside them tire in the same physical condition. Our physical examination also helps tis in ilic allocation of employees. We do not as a rule turn down applicants for employment Itccause ot physical disability. Iml we try to assign them lo tasks which they can cany on without iinparing then health or tile safely of other employers. We give considerable thought lo lighting and ventilation and air conditioning in our plants. In many of these plants lotlay even our lockers arc air conditioned. An em ployee coming to w'ork takes off his street clothes, places them in his locker ami puts on a company uniform. At the end of the day, when lie makes his change after taking his shower, he finds his clothing well aired nut. This adds to lii.s feeling of well-being. In addition lo our sanitation proyium we arc carrying on an educational program among utir fanners. VVe make suggestions for die cleanliness of their dairies and milk ing equipment. This promote* protection for Ihe consumer. Eliminating Accidents Peculiar to Women in the Food Industry By ELLEN D. McKEON Assistant to District Engineering Manager, American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., New York City Within the last few months 1 have re viewed approximately four hundred acci dents tn women in your industry. As is always the ease when reviewing accidents to women, falls predominated as the major cause (falls on stairs, from slippery floors, on the level, from platform*). Striking against objects, cuts, machine accidents, handling material, strains and sprains from constant action, falling material, hums, der matitis, and stepping on glass and nails fol lowed in the order mentioned. Falls, han dling material, and falling material caused sprains and strains which should be kept in mind when considering accidents pe culiar lo women in your business. Poor footwear and clothing, pooi physical control, spilled material, unsuitable employ ment, poor discipline, inadequate supervi sion, careless foremanship. inadequate pro tective equipment, fatigue and jnior house keeping come to'notice immediately when the factors behind these accidents are sought for. An arcidctil occurred recently to a woman in a fruit emigrating and preserv ing plant, when site fell while carrying glass, and laceralcd iter hand. The report on (he accident developed that syrup was on the lloor, causing a slipping hazard. Tlic -man agcntcitl's contribution to the investigation was an insistence that they were exerting a good quality of effort to keep floors par ticularly clean, especially in departments where spillage of materia) was practical!) unavoidable. They seemed proud of that and satisfied with their situation. I have used that accident to illustrate a poor example of accident analysis. The true Cause had not been determined; we knew 320 7 wmly-sixth National Safety Congress nothing of the actual manner of carrying the glabi or Ute characteristics of the woman, the condition of tier footwear, or the exact reason for the spillage at this part of the plant. In the face of the alleged organized purpose throughout the plant, tltcy had not attacked their accident analy sis in scientific manner. Another preserving plant was very poorly arranged, and as a consequence, had a very poor accident record. Following a confer ence, the management attacked the problem of' accidents to their women in a basic manner. Today they have a very fine ari -nt, good housekeeping, clearly de fined .. .. space, brick floors properly slo|>ed for drainage; each girl working on wet floors is provided with rubber boots. A first class dispensary has been installed, and each accident is fully investigated and analyzed at a subsequent safety organization meeting. As illustrating basic defects, T should like to touch on the following cases: A girl while peeling potatoes, in a food products plant, blistered her fingers. She did not report for hospital treatment with the result that infection developed. A girl, in a large candy factory, was cleaning a machine which was in motion. She caught her right hand in the machine and crushed the tack of it, breaking three tx>nc.*. The plant was in good condition from a physical standpoint; it was probably one of the best guarded plants in the vi cinity. This particular girl had been in>tructcd against the practice of cleaning machines while in motion. The accident was the result of direct violation of her instruc tions. As illustrating the need to give serious consideration to female psychology, let me give you the following from an engineer's notelook. The engineer misnames it "A Comedy." The scene is a candy factory in the ILnsr. The characters are the company manage ment and 300 women employees. A woman employee, an enrobing machine operator, is descending in the elevator. She is alone, which is contrary to company regulations as is shown hy a sign in the elevator. The woman utter.* a scream which runs from end to end of the factory. She falls to the floor of the elevator. The car reaches the bottom floor where it stops automatically. Foremen lift the unconscious form of the woman to the factory entrance. A few min utes later an ambulance dashes away to the hospital. The factory employees, however, do nol return to work. Throughout the plant they gather in buzzing groups. Some laugh shrilly; others weep. The foremen say to ro back to work. Gradually most of the women return to their work! but they can not sit still. They drink water; they go to the rest room. The management announces that the hospital has been called and the woman is wltolly uninjured. She fainted ' when her dress caught on something in the shaftway. That is the truth, but the em ployees do not believe it. The final curtain does not fall until the third day. The elevator rider has relumed to work and confirmed the management's announcement. Production that has been interfered with gets rolling again. The Moral: The shaftway should not have been unprotected; but had the manage ment enforced safety rules, the enrobing machine operator would not have been on the freight elevator. Dislocation of work should not have occurred. If I were a member of a food plant, I would not attack this accident problem on the basis of accidents which happen only to women. Just as the science of operation within your plan has regard for types of people, however, if you wish successfully to cope with your problem as respects acci dents which seem peculiar to yonr women folks, you must make provision in your plan so your approach to the question will have a regard for those differences of tempera ment, nervous and physical balance, per sonal habits, and natural expectation which rest on the average between male and fe male employees. That is something to be superimposed on your broad treatment of types. My suggestion, therefore, is not for an attack on the basis of women in your industry, but for an attack on the basis of people in your industry, with provisions or sciences of treatment that will meet the needs of female physique and psychology. Women, like men, have to be painstakingly made safety conscious. A careful analysis of the accidents in general which have occurred to women in your industry docs not reveal that the same result could not have occurred to men. If accidents occurred more to women than to Food Section 321 men, they arc to be interpreted broadly as being peculiar to women only because you employ women in those places, or because in certain respects women arc more prone than men arc. Defects of management, such as arc shown by analysis treatment of the record, do not relate less to men than to women. When managerial neglect permits of spilled material, poor discipline, inade quate supervision, careless foremanship, in adequate provision of protective equipment and poor housekeeping, the fact of the em ployee being a woman has no direct bearing on the question, but when we study the woman as such, we get the answer. In an organized way you should include in your plan the necessary ways and means of reducing the number of injuries caused by falls. That has been the leading cause of accidents to women in the food industry for some time. At the Twenty-Fourth Na tional Safety Congress a "Call to Arms" was sounded by Governor Hoffman of New Jersey for a 35 per cent reduction in traffic accidents to be achieved by the end of 1940. Why should you not definitely attack "Falls to Women" accidents in a similar fashion? Concentrate oil them; correct the conditions which the management can correct, such as, slippery floors, unsafe aisles, improper equipment, careless or incomplete supervi sion, etc. Do not overlook proper choice of super visors -- people who understand and can handle women with the science that the problem demands. Bring the subject to the foreground in the minds of your -women employees by friendly advice, constant vigi lance, posters and signs conspicuously posted, but above all by proper instructions, and then, when an accident does occur, make it a constructive factor through an illuminating investigation. So' very often you read a cause of an accident which stales something like this: "Tripped and fell at work---injured left arm and knee," "Fell by radiator--burning arm and injuring knee," "Fell on floor--burned arm," "Fell down steps--hurt her back." No constructive mention is made of the reason for the fall, and still that is the one solid contribution which hindsight can offer to foresight--the one grain of knowledge through which to help create a science. We have found that sprinkling china clay on oily floors and then sweeping it up with a push broom, leaving just a light film on the floor, is a good satetj measure to eliminate slipping and falling. Try this mi greasy Roots in the food industry. U is evident that if safety progress is t> be made, the choice of women is very im portant. Your personnel division lias an interest in this question. Excitability, age, health, intelligence, and strength arc factors on which the employer can have an opinion, and it should be exercised. In the long run, a careful ctioice should bear in on (lie acci dent record. It is an axiom in a liability phase of the insurance business that even though accidents can and do occur on stairs of excellent design, construction, and main tenance, and on floor ami walkways of equal quality, the expectation and occurrences arc greatest on stairs, floors, and walkways of poorer quality. The same axiom applies to individuals. It should be a responsible func tion with someone in your plant to sec that "hand-to-mouth" hiring is not substituted for careful and intelligent choice of em ployees. Women do stip and fall more readily than men. They have, on the aver age, less sense of physical control than men have. It is a point peculiar to them, ami it is important in your accident record. Just as it is important to hiic men uho can deal with and handle men successfully, it is cardinal to have supervision by women who understand, have sympathy for, can freely deal with, and successfully handle women. Women, singly or in the aggregate, ar sometimes a puzzle to men, so choose women supervisors with judgment and on a plan. Accidents are peculiar to many women because many women are peculiar themselves. That is why they wear peculiar footwear and clothing, and are hard to wheedle or guide away from the habit. Only good female psychology will make progress. Women, too, sometimes impose on men; they hide behind their sex; and discipline is just as needed with them ax anyone else. They must be understood to be disarmed and led. Fatigue affects women more quickly as a rule, that is why you must consider rest periods, fatigue-reducing seats, and allied details. Any old seat won't do. A tired woman with a lame back may be a costly question in your hands. Footwear also plays a part in fatigue. Supervision, among other things, should see that women arc not unduly rushed, and do not carry loads beyond their capacities. 322 Txi'cnty-sixth National Safety Congress The age of the woman is a factor to be considered. Younger women arc steadier on ihcir feet, while older women are more reliable and stable on dangerous machinery As a business question, a Safety Organi zation should be an operating function of your plant. Women should be represented on your Safety Committee. Safety Kinks in the Food Industry By H. J. ALDRICH Secretary and Assistant Treasurer, Spencer,Kellogg & Sons, Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. The strength of any organization depends upon the strength of its discipline. The best safety kink ( know is a safety minded execu tive. We arc often told that safe practices depend upon the foreman. This is only jiartiaily true. Foremen are mostly negative characters wlm approach a little nearer the dividing line between the negative and posi tive. but never get into the sphere of the IMisilivc. Hence, the foreman, like the moon, only reflects the leadership of his >uieriors. We meet many difficult problems iu the field of safety engineering. In twenty years' experience I have not found a single one unsolvahlc. I have seen those who have given up the solution, some even declaring, "It can't Ik: done." These are negative char acters and approach the matter with mis givings and doubts. They are licked before they start. A positive attitude is the solution. Here the foreman problem comes to the fore again. There is much hue and cry about training the foreman, and 1 would not dis courage the effort, but you cannot train into a man what he docs not possess. Being of n negative frame o mind, lie only sees the apparent obstacles--"ft can't be done," "I never did that way," "The men won't stand for it," etc. Here the positive character of the executive enters. His foreman training consists in eliminating the "can't"--leading another "way"--and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the men will accept it. . There is a little sketch in the May 1937 News Letter (Food Section) "Do You Be lieve in Signs?" It states: "You can tell a man any fantastic story about the universe and he wilt believe it. But if you put up a sign 'Fresh Paint' he will have to find oat for himself." .lust like a small boy with a new toy,-he wants to see the inside. The toy is ruined but he has the experience. It appears much the same with our bulletin boards. Our workers seem like ft lot of small boys-- curious--want the experience---to their sor row. Lick this problem---It tan be done. Tn the same News Letter is stated that there have been approximately 400 dust ex plosions in the United States in the past twenty years, with property and stock losses amounting to over $35,000,000. It is also stated there has been a marked reduction in dust explosion losses in recent years. This is due to the fact that the problem has been fearlessly approached. Formerly little was known concerning dust explosions, many were attributed to spon taneous combustion and forgotten. As new facilities and methods developed dust ex plosions became more frequent and were not so readily passed unnoticed. While we do not know all there is to know about dust explosion causes, advantage has been taken of knowledge sained, and safety kinks, both in unit and in construction, have been applied until now this hazard is being controlled. A dust explosion occurred recently in a Buffalo, New York concrete elevator. It was of unknown origin, but due to the pres sure outlets and construction of the roof being of weaker material than the concrete tanks the force of the explosion was re leased through the roof with no damage to the concrete tanks or structure, and no per sonal injury or loss of life. Among the many problems we cannot go into at this time is the serious ladder situa tion. There are many safety kinks to lake care of this, but neglect to use them properly is the sad story. Whenever possible the portable ladder should be replaced by the permanently anchored ladder and properly guarded cat walk. ADJOURNMENT Industrial Nursing WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 The opening session was called to order by Chairman Joanna M. Johnson. R.X, director of nursing service. Employers Mutuals, Mil waukee. and Vice-Chairman, Industrial Xurging Section, Xational Organization for l'uldic Health \ur-ing. Inc. The Nurse's Part in Getting Injured Men Back cn the Job By LA VONA BABB, R.N. Quaker Oats Company, St. Joseph. Mo. The dudes of a nurse in industry demand that she be a graduate Registered Nurse. If she has post-graduate public health training and education, so much the better. If the nurse is to keep pace with the prog ress being made in public health nursing, it is important not only that she belong to her local, state and national nursing organiza tions, hut also that she contribute to their programs and share her experiences with her co-workers. The nurse in izidu'itry profits by the stimulation that comes from discussing her problems with other workers in the public health field. One in this field would do well to posse** many outstanding qualities. Two of the most essential arc versatility and common sense. Our title takes US at this point to the field of reconstruction and start* us will* a pa tient who has already been injured. Even though his injury does not appear serious, the patient reports immediately to the medical department, because he has been taught the importance of early treatment. The nurse will recognize indicative symp toms and treat them according to the stand ing orders which have been signed by the plant physician. She must use her intelli gence and resourcefulness in her first aid treatment as well as later. Even in the great est emergency, the desired healing of trauma must be kept in mind and the treatment administered accordingly. She will avoid the application of over-potent antiseptics which injure tissues or retard or inhibit healing processes. She will make herself acquainted with the mure effective, less destructive or painful treatment to use for prophylaxis. Action in the face of emergency shows the >kill ami training of a nurse. Will she handle the case intelligently and calmly or will site be unprepared and show inefficiency, possibly causing costly delay in recovery or even more serious losses? All cases requiring the attendance of a doctor should have it as soon as possible'. Delays are expensive lo both employer and employee. The nurse who docs not have the full or pari time physician in the plant is entirely responsible in deciding whether a patient should be seen by the company doc tor. If there is the least doubt of the ad visability of calling the doctor on the case, he sliould be consulted for order* The nurse cannot take the place of the physician in industry, but should l*c regarded as an aide to die physician in both the preventive and curative phases of indu>trial medicine. Available transportation is a great asset to the nurse In taking injured iiaticnt* to the doctor or patients who are ill home and in doing visiting nurse work and follow-up calls on Ihc injured, a nurse with an auto ran accomplish much. Many companies pro vide this transportation or make allowance for it. As most plants have only out patient facilities iu the plant hospital, major injuries must be properly transported to an outside hospital as quickly as possible. While await- 323 .124 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress mg an ambulance, lime is usually sufficient lor necessary first aid to be administered. The attitude of the nurse when a patient reports for treatment is most important. In fact, her reception of the patient on his first visit is influential throughout the entire case. First impressions are hard to change. He is an individual who has been injured or is ill. He is probably in pain or shock. At this first contact with the injured, the nurse must establish a friendly, helpful atmosphere if ihc is to maintain a cooperative spirit and gain the confidence of her patient, which are necessities in early recovery' of health and early return to the job. Make the patient know that you are anxious to help him in every possible way. If he believes this, he will follow orders and his return to normal is greatly speeded. The nurse must be reassuring in her actions as well as her conversation, for the element of fear is ever present. The fear of economic insecurity and possibly lack of confidence in the medical profession arc alt factors which a nurse must some time face. Management and treatment of the in jured worker should be directed to avoid or minimize these factors. At the very first contnct with the injured, the nurse should have this in mind and continue to practice l>sychological treatment throughout. The skill of taking histories must be well understood by the industrial nurse. She should never allow an employee to be cross examined or abused by severe criticism or sarcasm. The investigation of the accident must be carried on not when a patient is semi-conscious or in severe shock or pain, hut when he is more quiet and can think clearly enough to understand the objective of the questioning. He is then in a much more receptive mood for instruction and correction also, and if properly approached will give a clear history and cooperate in prevention of a recurrence of the accident. It is the duty of the nurse to sec that-such n procedure is adhered to as long as the patient is under her care. On less serious injuries it is often possible for the nurse to obtain a history and get a dear picture of the accident while doing a first dressing. With tact she may quietly talk with the patient and learn the entire cir cumstances. Whether or not she tries this method is governed by the attitude of the patient. If it is a negative one she concen trates Iter attention on changing it to a co operative one. She may explain that if she is to successfully treat the injury it is nec essary to understand the conditions under which it was inflicted. This gives the man the responsibility' of helpiog her and is many times effective. Let us assume that our patient has had a complete, careful diagnosis, with the maxi mum of medical care. Everything has been done to assure him of proper diagnosis and what the expected results of his injury* Arc to be, so that the fear of consequences of his injury lias been partially overcome. If he is in an outside hospital the nurse will call on him there and through her his fellow workmen may learn of his condition. The injured person's own family and his industrial family should interfere as little as possible with the doctor's and nurse's management of the case. Many recoveries have been retarded by many calls by a loo solicitous foreman or a too "hard boiled" foreman. The nurse should be able to give intelligent information to foremen and they should feel free to talk with her concerning the prognosis of the case. When the patient is sufficiently recovered to be removed to his home, the nurse will then perhaps personally supervise his care and under the doctor's orders she may do dressings or other treatments necessary, if the plant provides this visiting nurse service. Even in a small plant the nurse should de vote an hour or two daily to making these calls. At any rate she should sec that the doctor's orders arc properly carried out. She will check temperatures, etc, leaving a com plete report for the doctor. She will recog nize important symptoms and report them immediately. During these visits she becomes a friend of the employee's family, if she has not met them before, and has unlimited opportunities for teaching public health. She may be able to give advice for other members of the family. Johnny may need his tonsils out. Phoebe may have symptoms of rickets. The grandmother may have a suspicious cough. Any number of observations may be made and by advice serious consequences, which might later endanger the happiness and well being of the employee, may be avoided. Through the convalescent period it may l>e necessary to stimulate the desire to re turn to work. There may be resentment or misunderstanding of the legal conduction of Industrial Nursing Section 325 his case, which creates a hesitancy to resume work or make final settlement of his claim. This uncertainty coupled with a possible fear of subsequent incapacity, due to his injury, which would cause him economic insecurity, may make him cautious and indefinitely pro long recovery. Whereas, if he can be made to understand his condition and be relieved of these doubts, bis frame of mind aids him in making that recovery more quickly. The nurse, in her close association with him and his family, can do much to roll away these doubts and make explanations which are clear to him and readily accepted. From the beginning of the treatment the individual should he studied, observed and prepared for some occupation commensu rate with his subsequent physical condition. If this is done often, by the time he has been released from the hospital he has become reconciled to a different program and a new field of endeavor. On the other hand, there are injuries which probably, to the average layman, appear to be permanently disabling, but which we know from experience eventu ally result in no disability whatever. In this type of case reassurance, patience and gradual realization that he will recover com pletely must be developed in the patient's mind at the outset. If there is no physician in the plant and an outside company doctor cares for accident cases, it will probably be the duly of the nurse to consult with the foreman concern ing placement of the injured as soon as he is capable of light work. Assuming lighter jobs before he is capable of resuming his regular occupation is many times an appreciated privilege, not only from a financial standpoint but front that of main taining the healthy work habit and diminish ing time for worry and pity for himself. The doctor will not permit muscular activity for cved light duties until the patient's condition warrants it. He will then instruct the pa tient and the nurse of his ability and give permission to return to work. The nurse should have a form for dis missal of a patient indicating the type of work he is permitted to do, which she sends to his foreman as soon as she has a permit to work from the doctor. The N.O.P.H.N. have various suggestions as to the forms for industrial work. I believe the more simple type of form is more satisfactory, more easily filled out and more definite in instruc tion. The nurse will coulinuc to observe the patient, do dressings and treatments per doctor's orders, or assist the plant physician with them, until the permission to resume regular work has been given, and the pulicul has been given final dismissal by the doctor as completely recovered. This refers, of course, only to the group who have no permanent disability which will prevent them from resuming their regular jobs. It does not include the rehabilitation of the partial permanent disability case who cannot perforin his regular occupation. This discussion cannot include in detail the explanation of the Federal Industrial Rehabilitation Law passed in 1920. How ever. it is well for the nurse to know where to refer a permanent partially disabled per son for Vocational Rehabilitation training. Almost all states (44) have plans and aid from the Federal funds. The industrial com missions work together with the vocational Rehabilitations Board and cases arc referred by them for correction and training. To obtain the service men or women incapaci tated for gainful employment, and who de sire Ihc service of rehabilitation, should be instructed to report to the Board of Voca tional Education, Division of Rehabilitation, on application blanks which are furnished upon request. This will take care of the person who, because of physical disability, cannot be rehabilitated with his old firm .satisfactorily. In many cases, however, a partial per manently disabled employee may prefer to be given some work which he can do by his employer, rather than to live on his compen sation and be idle or apply for the heretofore mentioned training. In such cases the nurse may play an important part in placing him satisfactorily as she has a knowledge of his physical condition. In consideration of this problem there are several factors which must be kept in mind: Can he be placed where he can produce sufficiently to support hs family ? Will he be a liability to the company? Will he be contented with a demotion and complete change of work environment? The employer shares responsibility with Ihc doctor and nurse in the process of rc habilitation. The major question is "Is (here a suitable job for him which he can do and enjoy?" If so, there is no problem. 326 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress It not it will probably be best for him to be advised of this fact at (he outset and given assistance in securing rehabilitation voca tional training; after which he may return to his former place of employment qualified to do some special work. In this case he should be given consideration for reemployment. He will be happy because he well have overcome a handicap and learned that he can still be independent. Industrial Tuberculosis-- A Public Health Factor By H. J. SPECTQR, B.S.. M.D. Assistant Health Commissioner and Chief of Medical Section, St. Louis Health Division, St. Louis, Mo, The term industrial tuberculosis is some what misleading because it may be thought that industry is the direct causative factor in the production of tuberculosis. But tuber culosis is a germ disease, directly caused by the tubercle bacillus. No industry, no mat ter how harmful it mat' be to the human l*xly in general, is capable of directly pro ducing the disease tuberculosis without the presence of tubercle bacilli. How can we explain then the high mor tality rate from tuberculosis in certain industries ? To sck an answer to this question, one uuHt consider the subject of so-called in dustrial tuberculosis from the broader aspect in general, but especially from the viewpoint of possible existing predisposing factors in cidental to certain industries. The contribu tory factors which may play a role in the development of tuberculosis arc many in number, but for the sake of clarity may be classified under two main headings, (1) environmental, and (2) social and economic. Environmental Factors ImluMrial environment has long been rec ognised as a most important contributory actor in the causation of upper respiratory diseases. For instance it is known that em ployees in dusty trades, and those usually exposed to high temperatures, excessive moisture, to bad wuathcr conditions gen erally, and lo noxious fumes arc among the workers who frequently arc forced to abseut themselves from their employment because .f sickness. 1. Inorganic Dost One of (lie most serious environmental factors existing, especially in (he mining and some abrasive industries, is the presence of inorganic dust in concentrated form con taining abnormal amounts of pure silicaindustries like hard rock mining, quarrying, grinding and sand blasting have a high morbidity and mortality rate from tuber culosis attributable to this cause. Employees exposed to such an atmosphere over a pro longed period of time will develop silicosis and the latter will lead to the development of tuberculosis in many instances. Asbestosis is a disease similar to silicosis which may contribute to the morbidity of tuberculosis. However the evidence at pres ent in this direction is not convincing. 2. Organic Dust There has been considerable discussion as to the role of organic dust in the production of tuberculosis. The high mortality rate from tuberculosis in tobacco workers, sJtoc workers and tailors was responsible for the early belief that organic dust was a con tributory factor in the production of tuber culosis. The work of Landis of Philadelphia, which is based on autopsy studies of the lungs of 50 patients who had bepn exposed for many years to organic dusts, disproved this concept since none of these patients showed evidence in their lungs of active tuberculosis. At the present time it is gen erally held that organic dusts do not produce disabling disease of the lungs and are not predisposing factors in the development of lulierculosis. 3. Noxious Fumes The effect of noxious fumes on the body and their relation to tuberculosis has been studied by Winlcniitz of Yale, Metz of the U. S. Veterans Bureau and others. The Industrial Nursing Section 327 findings of these investigators seem to point to the fact that noxious fames in great concentration will produce immediate irrita tive reactions in the upper respiratory tract leading to such serious complications of the lungs as edema, pneumonia and in some cases death of the patient. Observations on oI4tcr- mho were gwd during the world war. made by Metz, indi cate further that noxious fame*, when inbaled into the lung-, do not lead to the development of either acute or chronic pul monary tuberculosis in mo*t instances. From personal observations the writer is inclined to agree with this viewpoint. 4. Improper Sanitation and Ventilation Employees exposed to changeable temper atures, to excessive moistures and working in ao improperly ventilated and unsanitary room will expose themselves to the risk of lowering their resistance, thus predisposing themselves to the development of tubercu losis as welt as other respiratory diseases. Social and Economic Factors It is an accepted fact that tuberculosis, being an infectious disease, is capable of producing and actually does produce active tuberculosis in people regardless of their social and economic rank. It is also true that poverty goes hand in hand with tuber culosis and dial most tuberculosis will be found in underprivileged people. This fact has recently been confirmed statistically by Miss Whitney, who in a study of death rates by occupation reveals that the unskilled worker, the one w ho usually works long hours and most often in an unventilated and unsanitary environment, the one who usually receives meagre compensation for hSs services, lx a very high mortality rate from tuberculosis. On the other Iiand, the policeman who receives a fair salary* and who is usually out of doors with little physi cal exertion has a comparatively low death rate; while the lawyers, the judges, the bunkers, and the manufacturer*, representa tives of the higher economic bracket of so ciety, have the lowest death rates as seen in the accompanying table. Of great public health iutercst is the fact that the servant, the cook and the waiter, representatives of the lower economic rank, have unusually high mortality rate*. Since these people represent frequent sources of infection to the community, the control of TABLE t Drub nee* frm wbirmli' III per ]00.009 gainfully oku|ih< *!* tS to V* nvi < itr in circled rtun KtwdlH to Unix group*. (1930) Tuberculofti* (Respiratory Form) Arrr|T, all connn Avenge, pvofgviif 1 <n*t> Arrritf. Uvjm A |xl|r- *7. t *S.J J1.J Diywctan* sad Mirr*n< Average, proprietor*. DUSMvr, A oA^ul Btnkrrv. tiraber*. Bumylrolm ,*,J 4a. A 2*. ? Monger* and oActaN Builder*, building tooinetun 27.0 nt Average, clerk* A kindred worker* *2. i Real ciate umt Average, agricultural worker- Average, killed worker A foremen Moulders, founder*, ta.-un Policemen Average, uni-killed worker* S 44.7 (1,1 15v> 46141.1 Factory A building ronMtuitiun laborer* 1' Average, servant rlaue* 175.1 Servants A cooks 156- Waiters 169.(1 tuberculosis in this economic group hccoines a major public health problem. Miss Whitney's Study was based oil mor tality statistics of males only. Some insight into the morbidity according lo occupation can be had from a recent study that we have made in the Sf. Louis Health Depart ment on 31,990 reported case.- of tubercu losis male and female as seen from the viewpoint of occupation. We found in Table II that the occupations of 19,439 or 00 per cent could be classified under 10 major heads, while the remaining 12,551 could be classified under C05 occupa tions. It is interesting to note that "house- TABLE II Showing occupations of 31.090 reported t-m.* of tuberculous in city of St. Uui* (1909-1934 (UCl.) Total No. of Tuberculosis Cases 31.990 Total No. of Occupation* 60% of Cases in 0 major occupanu ns 40 of Cose* in 695 remaining occupations. 7651 *1 3. Unskilled labor 5119 3. Clerical work 2111 4. Shoe workers 883 8791 or 4S% of S. Porters 661 people in the ten 6. Waiters A Cooks 660 ,, major occupation* 619 either did house- 8. Salesmen 519 work or handled 9. Student* S16 food. 10. launilrciMt 480 Toial 19.439 J 328 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress work" heads the list of the major 10 occupa tions. since 7,651 women, slightly less than 24 per cent of total, did this work before becoming ill. Here should be noted unavoidable inac curacies. First, the data go back 26 years when we were not solicitous about the details of occupations as we arc today; second, the term '`housework** misleads for it includes housewives, maids and women who stayed at home most of the time but did not do housework. Despite these discrepancies the chart contains pointed information since "housework" in these instances connotes that during the development of active disease these patients spent most of the time at home, living intimately with their families, eating at the same table and affording op portunities for infection. It is of interest in this connection to con trast the usual environment of the cook, the waiter, the housemaid and the ordinary en vironment uf the industrial worker. The former group arc not exposed to silicious tlusts or fumes but in most instances to inod--the builder of body and maintainer of life. It seems illogical to slate that food predisposes to tuberculosis despite the high incidence rate and death rate from this dis ease in these people. It becomes evident that we must look for other causes to explain the high rate. What are the responsible factors? A definite answer cannot be given. One can only speculate in attempting to find an answer. Is the high death rate due to the long hours of work? To the physical strain? To the mode of life that these people lead? To the fact that the opportunities for in fection are great in tins occupation? Or to the |K>ssibility tliat these people represent the physically inferior group who are drawn t> ttiii^ type of selected employment sub consciously Itt'causc they arc educationally unprepared to he employed in ullicr occupa tions; second, because of the availability of this form of employment; and third, because of the apparent misconception that this class of work is comparatively easy to do. On summarizing the thoughts expressed in this paper, I again wish to emphasize that there is no evidence that industry directly causes tuberculosis. There is an abundance of evidence however that, indirectly, in dustry shortens the life of the industrial worker, and that some occupations in industry definitely predispose to Ihe develop ment of tuberculosis. Of all occupations, the ones that permit the inhalation of dust containing an abnormal percentage of silica, contribute most to the development of tuberculosis. Possible remedial measures for the con trol of tuberculosis in industry are: 1. Removing or controlling existing en vironmental factors that are hazardous to the health of the workers, such as a dusty atmosphere, poor ventilation and sanitation. 2. Granting employees a wage which will permit a standard of living commen surate with modern economic needs for a healthy family life. 3. Removing every possible existing haz ard in industry' that affects the health of the worker in general, leading to a lowered resistance and indirectly lo the development of tuberculosis. 4. Encouraging periodic health examina tions of emp'. *ees to detect active cases of tuberculosis m the early stage and by isolating them prevent infection to the other employees, to the immediate family and to the community in general. Jt is only in this way that the indirect Contribution of industry to the morbidity and mortality statistics front tuberculosis will be mitigated and the public health improved. How Can the Industrial Nurse Help Maintain Employee Interest in the Safety Program? By ERNEST AUGUSTUS Safety Director, The Mead Corporation, ChilticotHe, Ohio Given a management thoroughly in symp.ilhy with and lending its active support to a well-organized safely program, and blessed with the proper personality, an enthusiastic interest in her work, sound technical train- ing and ability to perform her duties prop- Industrial Nursing Section 329 erly, plus a generous supply of initiative and originality, there is practically no limit to the ways in which an industrial nurse can be of very great help in arousing and main taining employee interest in a plant safety program. As each one, or all, of these essential qualifications may be lacking, to the same extent must it become increasingly difficult for the nurse to fit into the safety picture properly. In the first place, it u absolutely essential that the nurse be sold 100 per cent on safety and the safety program. A Job of Selling Attracting attention to. arou&iug interest in and creating a de-ire tor a particular thing or objective, to that point where the pros pective customer or porcha-er i- stimulated to take positive action in trying to obtain the thing desired, are the fundamental principles of good advertising and swfriol sales manship. Promoting employee interest in safety is primarily the job of advertising and selling an idea. To intere-t other* we must first be interested oarsetve*. Interest in safety is like a contagious dis ease. It spreads by contact. The industrial nurse, perhaps more than anyone ct*c m the organization, can help insure uniform and effective spreading of interot. She should have sales ability of the high est order. To create and help maintain interest in safety, she must first create and sell goodwill. Her most effective selling attribute is her personality. She must be temperamentally fitted for her work. She should be slow to anger, assuming almost the hotel attitude that 'Tin* guest is always right." Site must not close her cars to constructive criticism. Imt must let ordinary "motithmgs" go over her head unnoticed. The industrial nurse must no longer be looked upon as a person lo be tolerated rather than welcomed. It should be considered a privilege rather than a duty for men to seek her assistance and advice. When self bobs up ahead of service the nurse is ofT on the wrong foot. The employee must be the final judge of her ability to render service, and he is frequently a hard task-master. He is not easily fooled. He has a way of knowing whether sincerity prompts her actions. Psychological Ability Tlie industrial nurse should be able to diagnose and understand the psychology of each employee who comes to her for treat ment or who comes merely to seek advice or ask for information. Site must never show any bias, and above all she must rcincm her that each employee is different, psycho logically, and that it is essential for her to change her approach and observation of each case upon its merits and upon the reactions of the employee toward his particular prob lem. The nurse contacts the employee m a manner no one else in the organization i> able to do, and frequently she may In.- ahh* to give him bits of advice that will help him solve some of his most perplexing prob lems. By advising ami reassuring the em ployee who has sought her assistance she can frequently relieve a worried mind; and putting a troubled mind at case is often worth more than physical remedies. Through her keen observation and sincere personal interest in the employee, she can gradually build up a feeling of confidence and good will which will go a long way in interesting the employee in her and in the safety program of which she is such an im portant part. The employee will be encour aged to return for further treatment or to seek further advice and information, or per haps to report some unsafe practice or con dition which lie has noticed. A sure way to kill the employee's interest in safety is to "bawl him out" for having become the victim of some unnecessary hurt, or to fail to listen to, or scorn, some com plaint or suggestion having to do with Safely and accident-prevention. Mannerisms The industrial nurse must lie a very differ ent woman than that which the hospital graduated. She must forget her aloofness and become, instead, a friendly member of a happy family. She must have a sincere in terest in her fellow men, a willingness to work among alt classes and treat all alike. She should have professional dignity and at the same lime a tolerance toward (ho workers which will not permit pettiness or gossip. She can retain this dignity and still be friendly and sympathetic, but not intimate. She should have i sense of humor and 3 i30 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress keen understanding of human nature. She should he eager lu leant and to leach. Ex pressed in another way, she should he one qualified in all respects to join the personnel director, the safety director, the company doctor and the various supervisors and fore men. as a mcmltcr of the teaching faculty in the M'lion) of `'human engineering." Prompt Attention the idea that carelessness does not pay, either in dollars or pain. She cut also draw from him his idea of what actually caused the accident and how similar accidents might be avoided in the future. The fact that some one has time to listen to his side of the story, and is apparently interested in having his suggestions as to l>ow a recurrence can be avoided, is bound to instill safety- interest. It t* important that the wants of the cmplovee be attended to as promptly ami as gently as possible. Employees sliouUt never In.- kept wailing lor treatment or interview .my hNiucr than is absolutely necessary. Five minutes, to ihe man waiting to have a cut finger or mashed toe dressed and bandaged, ran seem like an hour. The longer he waits tIh* more will lie lie likely to doubt the 'inreritv of the nurse's interest in his per sonal welfare and comfort, and the less likely will lie lie inclined to follow her advice or seek her assistance the next time. The nurse must impress upon every em ployee with whom she comes in contact the tact that small so-called trivial injuries must he cared for immediately. She should con stantly stress (he fact that the smallest wounds arc large enough for thousands of germs to enter, and that infections can start within a very short time. Another important point is in connection with people who suiTer slight injuries shortly before quitting time. These employees should be made to understand tliat they arc to visit ihe first aid room and receive treatincut before going home. Since men arc more likely lu talk about an accident and tell the real facts at the time (he nurse is treating them than two hours alter it has happened, the nurse lias aii ex cellent opportunity while giving a man first aid to get his story of how he was hurt. She may not learn from him the fundamental or underlying causes of the accident, but she can get a much better story from the injured worker's viewpoint than any other person in the plain. The very nature of her job in- 'Piris Ins confidence. He will talk more freely to her than to the foreman whose job it i' to criticize him for participating iti an accident; or to the safety engineer, who has an interval equal to tliat of the foreman and who likewise may he prejudiced. While getting the employee's story, tlve nurc can diplomatically impress upon him Using Information The nurse, without violating the confidence of the employee or involving him in any manner, can tactfully and diplomatically pass along the information thus gained to the safety director and others for further in vestigation and action. The nurse shoutd keep the foremen in formed of the psychological condition of those coming to her for attention. In this manner the foremen may better know how to treat and 'handle certain employees under certain conditions. Likewise, she should as sist the company doctor in making physical examinations and know the peculiarities found in each employee; then using her in fluence in getting employees to follow the doctor's advice in having some condition cor rected. The safety director should keep the nurse informed of his program and aims, so that she may assist him in his plans. In reality the nurse should be looked upon as an assist ant to the safety director. Safety Posters Many nurses have found it to be advan tageous to have a bulletin board in the treatment room, on which are displayed fre quent changes of safety posters. A man looking at a bulletin board poster in the first aid department is likely tn he in a more re ceptive mood than when looking at it on any other board in the plant. Many nurses have found it worthwhile to call the employee's attention to particular posters which they have selected for their bulletin board. In many plants, and particularly in many first-aid rooms, it is the policy of the nurse to select for display certain posters dealing with the types of injury most frequently treated by her. In this manner the safety poster campaign is tied in directly with her work. imdustrut! \ursi**j Station 331 Keeping Records The keeping of record* i* amtfbrr im portant function of (be piam msr^c. Aa accurate and complete record should he kept of every injury reported, when, where and how it happened, and the treatment rendered, including redressings. The employee who has been trained to realize the advantage of visiting the first aid room and who knows a record is being kept of all such visits, cannot help showing a greater interest in safety than the employee who has not been so trained. His desire is to keep his record commendable. Records kept by the nurse can also be used by the safety director and department super visors in helping reduce certain types of in juries. Each minor injuiy should be looked upon as an accident. The>c should all be classified by types and causes for the use of the safety department, in helping formulate new rules and general safety policies. First aid records kept by the nurse might well be used as the basis for a systematic accident prevention program. In this connection, the nurse should be familiar with the various departmental rec ords and should diplomatically call em ployees' attention, at the proper times, to either good or bad records Similarly, if other forms of inter-departmental competi tion are fostered in the plant as a part of the regular safety' program, the nurse should be familiar with the relative standings of vari ous groups and should use her ingenuity in keeping tlic men interested in this competi tion. Because she is constantly contacting so many different individuals, the nurse should be thoroughly conversant with general com pany policies, and more particularly with those having to do with doctor treatment, compensation, insurance. She is then in a position to answer employees* questions so that her answers will not be misleading or offending. The New Employee Another way in which employee interest in safety can be aroused is by showing the new employee through the hospital, pointing out various pieces of equipment and explain ing briefly their purpose*. She should also briefly explain the set-up of the hospital, the safety department, and the close relationship between the two; making mention of the methods used and the part the employee will be expected to play in helping the whole to function smoothly and efficiently. The nurse can gain confidence and good will by familiarizing herself with the general layout of the plant, its principal operations, manufacturing methods employed, products manufactured. She should have a working knowledge of the more important and haz ardous pieces of equipment, processes used and hazards involved, so that she may be able to talk the language of those who seek her assistance. To acquire this knowledge the nurse, ac companied by the superintendent, safety di rector or company doctor, might well pay an occasional visit to each of the various de partments of the plant, contacting the fore men or operators and asking questions. When appropriate, both while going tluough the plant and when treating injured employees in Lhe first aid room, the nurse might well make inquiry as to whether ad vantage is being taken of the various safety devices provided, such as goggles, safety shoes, respirators, protective aprons, etc. By knowing the plant, its processes and prod ucts, she cau call the employee's attention lo the importance of using the various safe guards. The organization and conducting of first aid training classes among employees by the nurse cannot help stimulating interest in safety. Some experienced safety men arc of the opinion that the plant nurse should serve on the plant safety committee, or at least that she should attend committee meetings. It is contended that in this manner she serves as an advocate of the injured worker's point of view during an accident analysis. It has also been suggested that because she is good natured and may be better quali fied to keep records than the others, she should serve as secretary' of the committee. Regardless of the merit of these suggestions, it is agreed tliat the nurse should be kept closely informed of the activities of the safety committee, so that she may be able to discuss them intelligently with employee*. Community Activities The nurse's influence can even be extended to the community life of the town in which 332 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the plant is located, depending upon her will ingness to participate in community activi ties, such as Parent-Teacher Associations, community safety councils and safety groups in the public schools. If there is a plant publication, the nurse might prepare occasional articles dealing with safetj* and health. She should also keep posted on the latest developments in industrial nursing tactics by reading nursing magazines and other literature on the subject. She should attend nurses' meetings when ever possible, as welt as state and national safety congresses, thus keeping in touch with what others arc doing in her field and getting a broader vision of her work and its possibilities. THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October M, 1937 The Industrial Nurse as an Aid to the Safety Department By J. H. HOLZBOG Personnel Director, Chain Belt Company, Milwaukee, Wis. Broadly speaking, there arc three ways in which the nurse can be of assistance to the safety department in detecting unsafe acts ami conditions: 1. By keeping accurate and complete record*. 2. By being a careful observer, a shrewd analyst, and a keen interpreter of the things she sees and hears. .1. By helping to educate the men who come to the department for treatment in the wavs of safety. In safety work statistics arc very impor tant. We will start with the original report of the accident, as this report is used as the basis for nil other statistics and records. This report usually contains a brief descrip tion of the injury and also a brief history of how the accident occurred. Quite often we have cases where a man is unable to express himself clearly in English, and in other eases the man is trying to cover up some mistake on his own part and may not tell a true story. The nurse must get the correct facts, and she may have to call in witnesses to substantiate the story. 1'roiu these original reports it is possible to develop additional data that will prove of value to ilic safety department: such as the total number of injuries occurring; in large plants this might lie reported daily; in others weekly, and in some monthly. This report should be tabulated by departments so that when the safety department com pares the number of accidents with the num ber of men employed and the man Iiuurs of exposure, as well as the hazard involved, they can determine whether the department involved is having an undue number of cases. It is also well to show the number of lost time accidents by departments and also the number of days lost by departments, be cause this will enable the safety department to judge the severity of the accidents oc curring. In our plant we also keep a record of the type of injuries and differentiate according to lacerations, burns, eye injuries, slivers, bruises, fractures, etc. This also helps to determine whether there is any particular type of injury which is causing us a great deal of difficulty. Charting and graphing of this information will often reveal some very interesting facts. In our plant our nurse also keeps track of the cost of injuries. In our case, our insurance company has been requested to furnish us each month wilii the actual amount of money expended on each open case so that we arc able to determine in dollars and cents the exact cost in medical expense and also in compensation payments. These figures arc tabulated and separated ac cording to departments and a monthly re port is issued showing the cost per month, Industrial Nursing Section 333 the totai cost to date for the year, the total man hours, and the cost per thousand man hours for each department. The figures arc used by the safety department in conducting au annual safety* contest and are very help ful in presenting the picture. The nurse must be a careful observer, a shrewd analyst, and a keen interpreter of the things she sees and hears. She must be a psychologist, and to some extent even sus picious ; in other words, she must not take too many things for granted. It is very easy to accept the story of an accident as given by the injured man and let it go at that *. how ever, this may not always be the true story and may lead to serious results if accepted verbatim. We believe that it is a good policy for our nurses to know something about the operations of the shop and one of the first things we do with a new nurse is to take her through the entire plant and explain the processes. Naturally, she will not remember all about it, but she will learn some things about certain machines and processes and later can make another tour of the plant. We also encourage our nurses to go out into the shop and personally investigate accidents when they do not understand the entire cir cumstances. This helps them to get a belter picture of the machine or process involved and they will he able to write up an intelli gent and helpful report. After a period nf time they will become mechanically minded enough to be able to detect flaws in state ments and thus get a true report. The nurse must be a psychologist. Now psychology may sound like a big word, but psychology* is nothing more nor less than the handling of human beings in a sensible way. The first aid department can be of real value to the safety department if it follows this axiom. The nurse must be a shrewd analyst and-a keen interpreter, in other words, she must analyze every situation as it is pre sented and look beyond what appears on the surface. It might seem that this would be placing a great burden on the nurse and adding work to her already many duties; however, the eases which are involved and deserve a great deal of attention do not or.rur very often and it is just a matter of practice before the nurse is able to detect them more or less automatically. When a ease looks suspicious, she will then analyze it at some length and will try to get to the bottom of it. The nurse must have the confidence of the men in the shop and if she has, she has an opportunity to detect many unsafe acts and conditions. Very often men will cnine into the first aid room and in the course of their conversation will make remarks, such as 'this thing would not have liappencd if that machine had been taken care of," or "if Bill had done what lie was supposed to do " Shop men will often say things at a time like that, that they would not say otherwise, and if the nurse catches these remarks and interprets them properly they may lead to the cause of some certain type of injury. Of course, the uursc must report these instances to the safety de partment and give a clear story ami tinsafety department can then take action. A third way in which the nurse rnn he of assistance to the safety department is in tinprogram of safety education. A nurse has an excellent opportunity to talk safety ami safe practices when the men report with injuries. Very often by questioning the man regarding the cause of the accident am! discussing the situation with him, it is j^ossible to bring out the fact that there arc certain hazards and practices cxisiiug which have not been given particular attention. She may be able to sell the man on the idea that he has been doing the particular job in an unsafe manner and that to change his method would result in a safer way of dolin' the work. If the practice is one which ap plies to more than one main, she would, uaturally, report it to the safety department and they would take further action to sec that the practice was discontinued by those involved. Very often it is also possible for her to determine that there is an unsafe condition existing because of the type of injury coming from a certain department. Whenever she finds these conditions, she must take the opportunity* of getting tire basic information regarding them from the men reporting from that department. Some times these unsafe conditions can be cor rected in the same manner as the unsafe practices, merely by carrying on an educa tional program with the men. There is no better time to talk to a man about safety than just after he has had an accident,--I do not mean while he is suffer ing or still excited, but when lie has had a chance to think it over a little. He has seen the results of careless or thoughtless work manship, and he is very easily impressed with good advice on safety. 33-1 Tii'cnty-si.rtlt National Safety Congress We also encourage our nurses to talk lo the safety groups in the plant from time to time- la our plant we hare 25 different safety committees and every man in the sltop belongs to the committee for his particular department. These committees meet for onehalf hour each month on company time and discuss safely problems |KTtincnt to their own division. By having the nurse appear occasionally at their meetings, we find that it gives the men a much better idea of the services that can be rendered through the first aid department. It also helps to indicate that safety and first aid go hand in hand, and that the nurse is &9 much inter ested in preventing accidents as in taking care of the injured men after an accident. There is one other way in which the nurse may be of assistance to the safety depart ment and may at the same time uncover some unsafe practices; that is to issue all goggles and safety shoes. In many plants such a set-up might lie impractical, but we find it works out very well in our plant. We have three nurses and the)' are alt trained to properly fit goggles and safely shoes. We feel that by doing this job in the first aid room, we have an additional opportunity to sell Safety to the men, not only that, but if he has any complaints to make on the equip ment, he can make them there. It takes extra time on the part of the nurses to do thi*. but we believe It is well worthwhile. What the Industrial Nurse Should Know About Occupational Diseases By A. L. BROOKS, M.D. Medical Director, Fisher Body Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit In discussing what the industrial nurse should know about occupational diseases, it is im|urtant tltat we have a clear under standing of what Kt consider occupational diseases to be. For convenience we may accept a defini tion of the term used by several states in "citing up legislation providing compensation lor disability arising from such disease. The k-rm is defined as "a disease which is due lo causes and conditions which arc character istic of, and peculiar to a particular trade, <cu|tation, process, or employment/' Willi tins definition as a starting point, we are able to separate diseases of employees into two groups, occupational diseases and n -occupational diseases, and further. to clarify occupational discaKit as specific and general. The fact that some diseases are due to causes and conditions characteristic of cer tain trades was known to physicians 2,000 years ago. The effect of certain poisonous metals ami of dust from stone cutting liad Ireen noted and ascribed to occupation long before much was known of physiology or the logical use of drugs. There was a vast amount of ignorance and superstition associated with early findings, but as time went on, this gave way as an effort was made to associate cause and effect. Specific Diseases There arc certain diseases now about which there is little doubt in the majority of cases. These are the ones u*c hear most about. They arc specifically mentioned in the schedules of compensation acts. They occur following definite, known exposure, they present dear ml signs, and as a rule, they respond lo treatment. We refer to such diseases as lead and mercury poisoning, infections such as an thrax and glanders, and the pneumonoconioscs. These diseases we may term spec-ilk-, and there can now be little doubt of the obliga tion upon the employer lo prevent them, or Itaving failed ii this, to cure the condition and to compensate for disability arising therefrom, provided it be possible definitely to assign the responsibility to the right em ployer. General Diseases There arc other diseases which may be termed general because they are not limited to people engaged in certain trades or occu- Industrial Nursing Section 335 patterns. They may be encountered among the general population. Examples arc pneu monia, arthritis, tuberculosis. These may be claimed as the result of working conditions, exposures, etc., but it is extremely difficult to state that they would not have occurred had the subject not been employed. The question of what types of disability to compensate has long been a matter of dis pute. In this country, each state has its own legislation on the subject. In some there is general coverage for alt conditions which produce disability and arise out of employ ment. or which conform in general lo our definitiun of occupational diseases. In others there is a definite list or schedule which mentions specifically each disease or injury. At present this seems to he the preferred plan. As an example of such a schedule we may name a list of occupational diseases which has been included in legislative acts in Michi gan. Ohio. Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, and to a greater or lesser extent in other states. These in general fail into the category of diseases due to microbic infection, poisoning by the heavy metals and other inorganic sub stances, by organic compounds like alcohol, petroleum products, and coal tnr products, the effects of change in air pressure and of various noxious gases in the atmosphere, and to some extent such mechanical effects as hernia not caused by accident, synovitis, nnd friction blisters, and exposures to extremes of temperature. The infectious diseases usually referred to are anthrax from contact with hides, glan ders from horses, and tuberculosis from the usual sources. Poisoning may be systemic or local, pro ducing such diseases as toxemia from lead, arsenic, mercury, which are systemic; or there may be the effects of petroleum, which usually result in skin involvement only. Chrome sores of the skin are characteristic effects of chromic ncid exposure, and the nasal perforations of chrome poisoning are easy for the nurse to discover and diagnose in most cases. Various gases and fumes, such as nitrous fumes, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sul fide. may cause illness or dead), but here it is difficult for the industrial nurse to afford much assistance, except to learn as much as possible about the exposure so that she may aid the doctor in arriving at an early ding IIOSH. Compensate for Disability In all eases, in connection with a work man's right to compensation, it should be remembered that it is never the purpose of legislation to compensate for the disease, hut for the disability arising therefrom. Statistics apparently prove that the life of industrial employees is shorter than that of the general population. But thus far it has been impossible to state how much this has been contributed to by living in large indus trial centers, by improper housing, improper food, bad habits, the choice of certain trades by people who arc mentally or physically not adapted to such occupations. Certainly some of the latter factors can hardly be charged to industry's neglect. Nevertheless, whether specific or non-i-pccific, compensable or non-compcnsahlc, these diseases are the interest of the industrial nurse. It is her business to look impartially upon these conditions, to discover significant signs, to give aid and comfort in minor eases and to bring to the attention of the plant physi cian anything she sees which requires more than she can offer. There arc many diseases which definitely have no relation to employment. We may mention such contagious diseases as the acute exanthemata, syphilis, various con genital conditions, and degenerative diseases of old age. Here again, we may find that some of the above mentioned, non-specific occupational conditions arc intimately con nected with employment environment, hut the degree of responsibility if any will have to be determined by someone other than the nurse. Must Know Plant The industrial nurse will be an important aid in the management of occupational dis eases if she has the industrial point of view. She should know what diseases might rea sonably be expected to occur in tier plant. It is true here as elsewhere that we find what we look for. The man with a sallow com plexion, complaint of chronic constipation, weakness or soreness in the forearms, with occasional abdominal cramps will suggest plumbism to the nurse who knows that lead is used in his department. This means that 336 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress >Ijc slxjuld lc as familiar as possible with |iri<cssc> in manufacture*. (.MiivcTsation with men. and well directed quc'iinus concerning the work are welcomed liy the men, as tiicy indicate interest on (lie l*art of the nurse. The nurse is clever, in* deed, who will notice cliaraclcristic khs of diMSKc winch might have originated else* where, but which could hardly be expected in his present occupation. Equally clever is the nurse who is aide to judge the nature of the employee so well that she is able to differ entiate the sufferer from the chronic complaincr wlto lias an honest face ami a good line. She may even have to bring into play thal intuition which all women arc said to Thus far we have spoken of the nurse largely as a ease finder. She is valuable in this role because she will sec a greater mon itor of eases than the physician. Having had complaints, or having had her suspicions aroused, it becomes her duty to transmit employee anil (acts to the plant physician who will make the necessary investigation. This may require n special effort, and may occasion some expense its eases where there in not a full time plant physician, hut it is time and money well silent. Should Keep Records A very important part of the nurse'* work is the keeping of adequate records. This applies particularly where there is a possi bility of lost time and compensation. The nurse should have the whole story from the time the employee first presents himself tmtil he lias been cleared, including the doc tor's finding and treatment, so that it may In? used at any time in the future for the benefit of both employee and employer.* Tlic industrial nurse will handle occupaliixial diseases more successfully still if she is acquainted with the management and. the foremen. She will recognize supervision as a source of reliable information and will be able to utilize information from these men in building up material for a diagnosis. Her interest ami sympathy for the workmen will encourage foremen to make greater efforts In protect their men. The duties of the industrial nurse Jwv/og tnx*u Outlined in general, lei us lake a hypo thetical case which will illustrate lio>v the nurse may function who lias a knowledge of the essentials of occupational diseases: John Brown, handy man alxmi the draft ing rooms, comes into the dispensary one day complaining of a fine itching rash on l*oth arms. The nurse notes the condition, and inquires about the work. He state* lie has worked here two years and has been doing the same kind of work. He has been out in. the country week ends, but does not think he has been exposed to poison ivy, although he admits lie docs not know what it looks like. The doctor is out at present but will be back in ih'c afternoon. The nurse knows the superintendent of the drafting room. She calls him and upon inquiry finds that a part of John's work is to carry* blue prints to the mailing room. A new* process has been developed in blue printing within the last week. The man is given routine preliminary' treatment. This information is submitted to the doc tor upon his arrival, and when, next day. the condition seems much worse, the diagnosis is fairly well clinched. The doctor makes a p..tch test, changes the man's job, the con dition clears up. and the nurse deserves credit for helping to steer the ease into the proper channels. Had she not known some thing of the nature of contact dermatitis, or the nature of the work, and had she not contacted the proper authorities in the draft ing room, the ease might Iiave become serious before the doctor saw* it, and it might have run into disability and compen sation. The importance of occupational diseases is not likely to he overlooked now that so much is appearing in the press on the subject. There arc approximately 50 million people gainfully employed in Ihc U. S. at the pres ent time. Of these, about 15 million arc engaged in industry. A statement is made in a recent U. S. Public Health report that it is estimated w*c arc spending five billion dollars annually fnr compensation and otlicr costs due to injuries and occupational dis eases. To be sure, only a small percentage of this outlay goes for occupational diseases, while accidents claim a much higher figure. But the trend is toward n reversal of this. Acci dents have keen controlled to a great extent so that their cost is decreasing, while occu pational diseases, though probably not in creasing are certainly receiving a great deal more attention than heretofore. One hesitates to state how* many states now* /ffi/ttjfriu/ Nursing Section 337 provide compensation for industrial disease disability at a time when new legislation is l>cing enacted so rapidly, but most of the im portant industrial slates now compensate for .some or alt of the conditions which can be attributed to occupational diseases. Some Iiave blanket coverage for ail such condi tions. while others name specific diseases or specific occupations. There have been in justices to both employee and employer, but with time and increased study of conditions we shall eventually arrive at fairer, more equable adjustments. The Industrial Nurse finds herself today in this arena of changing policies and evolu tionary social adjustment. It is her privilege to he one of the connecting links between employee and employer. If she is the type that commands the respect and trust of the men and realizes her responsibility to them, she will likewise be most valuable to her employer. The Nurse's Part in the Sickness Prevention Program By PHOEBE BROWN, R.N. Consolidated Water Power & Paper Co., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. The extent to which the nurse enters into the sickness prevention program depends upon the type of industrial medical service maintained. Some industrial plants maintain a nurse primarily for their Employees' Benefit Asso ciation, and thus her work is chiefly that of welfare. She administers not only to the members, but to their families as well. What a fine opportunity she has to influence such employees and their families to a keener understanding of good health and better living. For after all, the problem of sickness prevention concerns not only the in dividual employee, but also his family. To fill her place successfully in such a program the nurse nuts! recognize one basic principle--she must be a humanitarian, and regardless of the problem confronting her she must give relief through aid or counsel, whichever the case may be. She must have knowledge of the personnel she serves, their modes of living, their idiosyncrasies, their families and environments. By keeping her car lo the ground constantly she learns of their problems so that she may then solve them. Naturally a knowledge of the community served is vital, for often through construc tive criticism she is able to elevate the health standards through better sanitation and civic pride. Perhaps a better conception of the sickness prevention program in connection with wel fare work may be had hv actual ease anal ysis : Not long ago J was called to the home of ait employee who liari been reported sick at frequent intervals during the past two years. He was underweight, nervous, and irritable. On my first visit he was confined to bed and vomiting excessively. His wife informed me that he had attacks of this type periodically. He would not have a doctor because his doctor did nothing for him except give him a prescription that cost too much and tell him to be careful what he ate. While in the attack he wax careful enough, for he ate nothing for two or three days; but as soon as the illness was over he went back to his old diet of meat, potatoes, plenty of spices and relishes, copious amounts of coffee, two packages of cigarettes a day, plus a goodly amount of beer each week-end. At one time the doctor had said lie should have an X-ray of the stomach, but he com plained that this would cost him $40 which lie couldn't afford, and anyway he couldn't get away from work when he wasn't sick. I finally made him realize that he was losing much more time and money being ill every two or three months, losing four or five days at a time, than if he were to find out just what did ail him amt then do some thing about it. I took him lo a dime which was conducted on a part-payment basis, and complete ex amination was made with X-rays and blood work. After he was convinced of the neces sity of a proper diet, his attacks became less frequent, lie gained weight and was a much pleasanter fellow at work. .1*8 J'teeniy-si.vtJt National Safety Congress in another instance an employee's wife had undergone an operation at a local hospital. Visiting her later at home, I learned that she was recovering satisfactorily but that there were desperate financial troubles. The buskind earned 92 dollars a month. There were seven boys in the family, the oldest 18 and unemployed. Questioning the children, I dis covered that one. aged 12. was graduating front school but did not even lave a gradua tion suit. His father couldn't afford it be cause he was paying $5 weekly on his wife's $90 hospital hill. He was taking care of the doctor's hill by doing some repairing and cleaning in Ills office. After discussing the problem with the em ployee, I visited the liospital authorities. Hearing the story anil realizing the effort the man was making, the hospital gladly discounted $50 from the hill. Payment of the remaining $30 was made by the Em ployees* Welfare I.nan Fund. and this is turn was deducted from the employee's pay check at the rate of $2 a week. The total cost to the Welfare Association was slight, hut the assistance and feeling ol security given this employee was immeasurable. But let us (cave this lyj>c of program and turn to the imluHriat nurse who serves clncily in a first-aid department and very seldom contacts the family or the home of the employee. How docs she best serve in a sickness prevention program? attention through bulletin boards, mass meetings, news items and personal con tacts. 3. By advising and assisting the em ployee in securing correction of physical defects and social maladjustment. The following ease is an example: An employee had rc|>calcd attacks of rheumatism and had l>ccn advised by the faintly physician to have his teeth extracted, but he did not know where he would get the necessary dental fee. We had introduced a plan whereby our employees were allowed denial services, in special cases, through the Welfare Associa tion. If an employee were a reliable work man and had been with us for more than six months, we had an opportunity to investi gate his financial condition. If he were hon est hut having a difficult time establishing his credit, he was given an order to one of three dentists whom we were assured were giving our employees fine dental care at a minimum charge. The demists were glad to render this service, for they were not only sure of their accounts but were also increas ing their practice by developing new contacts. This employee as well as many others profited by the plan. The following arc only a few examples of a nurse's function in an industrial health program: Here, again, her knowledge of the person nel is indispensable. She should review the j>cr*oii;d record of the employee with the employment manager to obtain a better un derstanding of the individual. This should l*c followed hy a study of the employee's job; where he works and under what con ditions, especially sanitation; the product manufactured ami the raw materials it is made of. There the nurse may obtain valu able information ns to latent hazards that eventually may affect the health of (lift em ployee. oftentimes recognized too late to cure effectively. From this and a study of past sickness she map> her program of prevention as follows: 1. Ity suggesting better working condiiiuns. sucli as improved illumination, sanitation, housekeeping, ventilation, ami use of projior and adequate protective equipment. 2. Education of the employee to higher health standards. This requires constant A sudden increase in the number of ath lete's foot cases indicated tliat someone was a carrier and was spreading |lie germs in the shower rooms. A suggestion tu the sweeper brought the condition under control when proper spray and foot baths were installed. The use of comers by employees as a place to expectorate was effectively solved by painting white triangular areas in the corners and providing cuspidors contain ing a disinfectant, thus reducing the spread of diseases from respiratory infections. In another instance three employees from the same department made regular trips to the first-aid station for aspirins each week Reviewing their personal record cards in dicated normal health and habits. A trip to the department revealed inadequate and glar ing lights. A proper survey not only cor rected the condition from a physical standpoint but likewise increased production to such an extent that a similar survey was made throughout the plant. Industrial Nursing Section 339 A high frequency of indigestion, nausea ami fatigue is often traceable to improper ventilation, suggesting proper air-condition ing or protective equipment to eliminate tins hazard. It is quite true that such n program pre sents a real problem in selling the idea of sickness prevention to executives--but |>a~ lienee and frequent reference to the time lost through sickucss will eventually bring results. I wish to quote a few paragraphs irom the reports of disabling illness among industrial employees in 1936 as compared with cailier years. This report was released by the Di vision of Industrial Hygiene of the National Institute of Health and compiled by Dean K. itroodage. Respiratory Diseases Tbc respiratory group of diseases acctjosted for mo*t of the increase in the incidroor of ilinc** in 1936. With the exception of tubrrnaiou4 of the respirator)' system and diOM, oi the pharynx and tonsils, each rrvpiratory d*ea*e sub-group occurred at a higher incidence rate in 1936 than in 1934 or 1935 The frc^wnC}' of influenza and grippe in 1936 (15.1 czc> per 1.000 men), was 19 per cent higher than the rate for 1935 (12.7 cases per 1.000 mm) and 50 per cent greater than for 1934 (10.1 ca*cs per 1,000 men). Never theless, the rate for 1936 was 4 per cent be low the average rale (I5.S) l.: (lie preceding five-year period." "Another development o' an unfavorable nature wa- an increase in the number of ca'cs of bronchitis, acute and chronic, hi 1936 thi- di-ease occurred at a rale of 4.8 ra.-4.-s per 1.000 men which was 41 per cent alwivc it- average incidence during the years 1931-1935. The incidence of diseases of the pharynx and tonsils in 1936, although 4 per cent higher than in the preceding five-year period, was below the rate for 1935. The rate for pneumonia (all forms) in 1936 (2.6 eases per 1,000 men) was 13 per cent above the rale for 1935 (2J cases per 1,000 men), anti in turn exceeded the rate for any year since 1929. Among the industrial policy holders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the death rate from this disease in 1936 as compared with 1935 increased 5 per cent." "Other diseases of (lie respiratory system, including diseases of the upper ropirntory tract, showed a sizeable increase in fre quency in 1936 us compared with all the former years. Most noteworthy in the rec ord since 1921 is the downward trend in the new eases of tuberculosis of the respiratory system. The incidence has dcci eased iium 1.9 eases per 1,000 in 1921 and 1922 to .8 ca.-cs in 1936." This is an excellent indication of (he effectiveness of educating the child and the adult. "Rheumatism, acute and chronic, which showed definite improvement in 1934 and 1935 (4.0 eases per 1,000 men) as compared with earlier years increased to 4.2 cases per 1,000 in 1936. This rate was below the five year average. Diseases of the organs of locomotion, except diseases of the joints, oc curred at a rate of 3.2 eases per 1,000 men in 1936, which exceeded the rates for 1933. 1934, and 1935, as well as the average for 1931-1935." How frequently and to what extent sick ness among employees is n factor in causing lost time accidents is often revealed when a thorough investigation is made of all inci dents leading up to the accident; such facts properly presented enable one to improve plant conditions for better health. A good share of the sickness prevention program is education. Few employees, for example, realize that they have more leisure time than they have ever had before. The Li)iplo)cc should be taught to use this with discretion. Today we practically have a na tional 40-hour work week, and allowing at least 56 hours for sleep, we find the employee has 72 hours left out of every week to use as he wishes. Does he spend his idle time disastrously, thus adding fatigue to an already fatigued body? To safeguard against this you may find it worthwhile to afford him recreational facilities, stimulating in him a desire for hobbies, home ownership, or any other activities that may enable him to spend his time more profitably. Plan a definite program of Better Health talks during the winter months. The National Safety Council and leading insurance companies can provide excellent material for these discussions. Your stale and national health departments arc glad to furnish valuable information free of charge. 3-10 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress One of your local physicians will be pleased to talk to the employees on sickness prevention. Carefully located bulletin boards with timely health topics are useful. Articles in plant magazine* are far reaching, and pay- envelope inserts discussing health topics have proved beneficial. ADJOURNMENT Marine Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--E. C. Holden, Jk., United States P. & J. Ageno, Inc., New York, \\ Y. Vice-Chairman (fti Charge of Posters and Slides)--Ruhlkt F. Hand, Slandatd Oil (_>. of X. J., Marine Dept., New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman (In Charge of Publicity)--W. E. Stewardson, Colombian Steamship Co.. New' York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman (For the Pacific Coast)--Albert O. Pegc, Union Oil Company of Calif., Wilmington, Calif. Secretary--Carl F. VandeR Cl.UTE, Admiralty Attorney, New York, N. Y. Ne7vs Letter Editor--Henry Blackstone, United States P. & I. Agency, Inc., San Fran cisco, Calif. Engineering Committee Chairman--B. C. Edwards, Atlantic Ciulf and West Indies Steam ship Co., New York, N. Y. Membership Committee Chairman--E. W. Fiske, Jk., Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., New York, N. Y. Program Committee Chairman--Bvkon O. Pickard, Pacific Coast Marine Association, San Francisco, Calif. Statistics Committee Chairman--Benjamin H. Sei.f, Travelers Insurance Company, New- York, N. Y. Stevedoring Committee Chuirmau--F. C. Gregory, Waterfront Employers Association, San Francisco, Calif. Members at Large-- Frank E. Ames, Lykes Bros.-Kiplcy Steamship Co., New Orleans, La. W. P. Biggs, Navy Department Safety Engineer, Washington, D. C. C F. Black-ion, Erie Railroad Co., Jersey, City, N. J. Frank H. Cocan, The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Co., New York, N. Y. J. M. Grisek. Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., Mobile, Ala. Henry J. Heiuokn, Standard 0*1 Co. of N. J , Marine Department, New York, N. Y. John S. Hunter, The Atlantic Refining Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Willard F. Jones, Gulf Oil Corp., New York, N, Y. T. F. Kavanagh, Grace Line, Inc., New York, N. Y. Frank C. Laurie, Lago Petroleum Corp., Maracaibo, Venezuela. J. L. Luckenbach, American Bureau of Shipping, New York, N`. Y. John McGrath, John W. McGrath Corp., New York, N. Y. Carl. E. Petersen, Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., New York, N. Y. H. W. Pkooii, 1 Broadway, New York, N- Y. J. K. Robison, Sinclair Navigation Co., New York, N. Y. J. A. Rumsf.y, Standard Oil Co. of Calif., Richmond, Calif. S. A. Schramm, Black Diamond Steamship Co., Pier K, Weehawken, N. J. 341 342 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress H. L. .Seward. Yale University. New Haven, Conn. A. J. Sm:th. Marine Office of America, New York, N. Y. AKTtlUK XI. Tooe, Consulting Marine Engineer, New York, N. Y. G. E. Tayij>m, Federal Marge Lines, New Orleans, La. J. H. Tu.utt. New York State Merchant Marine Academy, New York, N. Y. h,i,uoTT \ andkvantck, OlKcc of the Chief of Engineers, Munitions Bldg., Washington, L. H. WhSTu.un.. Dollar Steamship Lines, San Francisco. Calif. A O. W'ot.i., General Petroleum Corp. of Calit., Terminal Island, Calif. .foilS' Wright, American Export Lines, New York, N. Y. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--E. C. Hoi.uek, Jk., United States P. & I. Agency, Inc., New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman (In Charge of Fosters and Slides)--Roulht F. Hand, Standard Oil Co. of N. J. Marine Dept., New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman (in Charge of Publicity)--Harold J. Hardinc, Marine Progress, New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman (For the Pacific Coast)--Ai.pert O. Pegg, Union Oil Company of Calif., Wilmington, Calif. Secretary--C vttJ- I* \'axikr Ci.utk, Admiraltj* Attorney. New York, N. Y. S'c-.es Letter Editor--Hkxkv Blackstonf, United States P. & I. Agency. Inc., San Fran cisco. Calif. Engineering Committee Chairman--Frank H. Cogax, The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Co.. New York, N. Y. Membership Committee Chairman--E. W. Fjskr. Jr., Sucuny-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., New York, W Y. Program Committee Chairman--W. P. I3ICCS, Navy Department Safety Eug., Washington. IX C Statistics Committee Chairman--Benjamin H. Self, Travelers Insurance Company, New York, N. Y. Stevedoring Committee Chairman--Frank E. Amk$, Lykes Bros.-Ripley Steamship Co., New Orleans. Ia. Members at Cirge-- C. F. Hi.mkro.v. Eric Railroad Co.. Jersey, City, N. J. Timtus Grace Line, New York, N. Y. L*m;.\.x Ckfsai*, Isthmian Steamship Co., New York, N. Y. W. C. Gakwh. Pittsburgh Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio. F. C. Gkkgomv. Waterfront Emploj'crs Assn., San Francisco, Calif. .1. M. Guiskh, Alal>aina Dry IX>ek and Shipbuilding Co., Mobile, Ala. Hkxkv J. Hkihokx. Standard Oil Co., of N. J., New York, N. Y. Jnnx S. Huntkk. The Atlantic Refining Co., Philadelphia, Pa. L G. Johnson', Sinclair Navigation Co., New York, N. Y. Wii.i.ard F. Joxks. Gull Oil Corp., New York, N. Y. Frank C. Laukik, Lago Petroleum Corp., Maracaibo, Venezuela. J. H. Lo\% Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.r Kearny, N. J. Murine Section 34,3 J. L. Luckknrach, American Bureau of Shipping, New York. X. Y. John McGrath, John W. McGrath Corp., New York, N. Y*. Byron O. Pickard, Pacific Coast Marine Associations. San Francisco. Calif J. P. ko.Ntv, The Texas Co., New York. N. Y. J. A. Rumsey, Standard Oil Co. of Calif., Richmond, Calii. S. A. Schramm, Black Diamond Steamship Co., Pier K, Weehawken, X. J. H. L. Seward, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. A. J. Smith, Marine Office of America, New York, N. Y. L k. Sohknsom, Newport New:; Shipbuilding & Dry I>ock Co.. Newport i\lau, \ a. YV. E. StkwaKDson, Colombian Steamship Co., New York, N. Y. Arthur M. Took, Consulting Marine Engineer, New York, N. Y. J. H. Toiiu, New York Slate Merchant Marine Academy. New York, N Y. Major H. H. Vaughan, Jk., Corps of Engineers, War Dept.. Wasliiugiim. D. <\ L. H. Weatdahl, Dollar Steamship Lines, San Francisco, Calif. A. O. Won, General Petroleum Corp. of Calif., Terminal Island, Calif. John Wnicut, American Export Lines, New York. N. Y. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 The opening session was called to order by Byron 0. Pickard, Pacific American Steamship Assn., San Francisco, Catif., pro gram chairman of the section. Captain E. C. Holden, Jr., United States P. and I. Agency, Inc., New York City, general chair man of the section, submitted a review of the year's activities. The Advancement of Safety in the American Steamship Industry By R. J. BAKER President, American Steamship Owners' Association, New York City The advancement of safety at sea is the result of an endless process of trial and error. It is amusing to compare the present day attitude toward safety witli the one of some eighty years ago, as indicated in an article published in the "Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle" of London in 1856, in which it was declared that the chief causes for loss of ships at sea are: 1. Teetotalism--the serving of coffee in stead of rum; 2. The presence of the captain's wife and ether women; 3. Insanity; 4. Drunkenness and revelry; 5. Mutiny and insubordination; 6. Discord and dissension ; 7. No devil being on board ; 8. The devil having been let loose. Today our reliance on safety at sen is placed in the results of the navigation laws of the country; the ice patrol; study of ire and current conditions; toad tine and stow age regulations; removal of derelicts; in stallation of safety devices which provide the best available fire detection and extinc tion apparatus; constructive requirements which will enable an endangered ship to 344 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress remain afloat until help arrives, require ment of life-saving appliances which are adequate in number and easily available to all; the use of navigational instruments which will reduce operating risks; the quality* of Governmental inspection service; the high efficiency of ship operating person nel. In all of these factors the United Stales lias kept pace with the rest of the world. W hen in 1929 the nations of the world met in London to attempt to agree upon stand ards of safety for vessels operating in for eign trade, the American delegation found itself out in front, fighting to have other nations agree to adopt the high standards already in effect here. Our delegation can take the credit for the high standards set by the Safety of Life at Sea Convention which resulted from that meeting. And afterward, it was the shipowners who con sistently urged ratification of the Conven tion by the United States. As a matter of fact, practically all Ameri can sbi|n> to which the Convention would apply were voluntarily equipped in accord ance with its provisions long before the Convention was ratified by this country. By working constantly with Congress and the executive departments of the Government the shipowner* liavc aided in (he develop ment of regulations covering every ptia.se of ship operation. While they must at times temper theory and idealism with practica bility, they arc at all times eager to estab lish standards which must be uniformly observed. Shipowners realize tiiat it is a tragedy to adopt a standard tiiat docs not equal the danger. On the other hand, in fairness I must point out that it is equally objection able to adopt standards that arc excessive ami unnecessary, that do not afford the increased safety supposed, and that add ma terially to the cost of the construction and operation of ships witlmut gain In safety. Frankly, lire addition of such standards de feats their purpose. About 70 per cent of the American passenger traffic is enjoyed hy ships of foreign flags. To set standards that will make commercially impossible the rofolructimi nf American ships, or their "Iteration under the American (lag, will drive all our pa*ctigcr traffic to ships not governed by tlte same stringent law's. With rc*|K*ct lo loss of life at sea I do not wish lo make comparisons with vessels of other countries, but reports of the United States Department of Commerce indicate that the average loss of life at sea on Ameri can vessels during the past fen years is one passenger lost for every 3,500,000 passengers carried, and the American record is as good as, if not better than, that of foreign ships engaged in similar trades and services. Safe vessels are of little avail unless manned by trained and disciplined crews. The shipowners have been continually be hind every constructive movement for the training of men to man our ships. They have taken great interest in (he four school ships for officers which are maintained, and their graduates are eagerly employed. In the var ious shipping associations standing com mittees are constantly working over the problem of a proper personnel for the ships. Contrary to the belief of some people, ship owners do not go out and pick up officers for a ship on the curb. These men are all li censed by the Government after examination. No one without such a license can serve. Ship officers, therefore, who fail in an emer gency are as much of a surprise to the owner as to the public. American officers and seamen arc the equal of any in the world. The minimum training and manning requirements for officers ou American vessels as a whole arc stiffer than those of most other countries, and the per formance record of American crews in emergencies is excellent. Another phase of safety which is but little appreciated by the public but which is of relatively greater importance than the dan ger of loss of life by accident, is that which concerns health. Disease is (he cause of more deaths at sea than marine accidents. About 98 per cent of the world's total passenger deaths at sea arc due to diseases, contracted ashore, not on the ships. The progress made in modern times in this field, as compared with conditions which existed in the days of sailing ships and the first steamships, is remarkable. In the United States we have the. Public Hcatlh Service with its highly efficient force and stringent regulations to prevent the spread of disease. Aboard ship all operations involving handling of food, passenger accommodations, and sanitation arc maintained at a high standard. All pas senger ships carry physicians, and the larger ones have well-equipped hospitals. In addition the shipowners arc carrying on an organized drive of their own to still Marine Section 345 further reduce (tie chance uf injury to cmployees, passengers, and others through man failure or equipment failure This work is carried on by the various shipping associa lions and individual companies by men trained in the best known methods. Aside from its direct purpose this work furnishes a fine example of the practical cuopciation possible between employers ami employ- ces. What Is the Next Step in Controlling Accidents To Longshoremen? By ASH PI ELD E. STOW District Manager, Araerican-Hawaiian Steamship Co., Baltimore, Md. The Pacific Coast employers had an in spired vision when the)' realized that a safety campaign in the highly casual longshore Industry must be standardized and unified to be effective. Standardized at least in policy and rules; unified as to minimum standards of working conditions, safe gear, safe stowage, proper lighting, statistics, first aid instructions and safety lessons, posters and all the other numerous and well-known tools whereby industrial accidents are pre vented. This inspired vision and the arts nf the Prevention Bureau have achieved uni fication of accident prevention work among the companies on all the water fronts on th? Pacific Coast. The results prove the soundness of this program. Unified accident prevention should be worked and can be worked on a national scale. The next step is for the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to realize the efficiency and efficacy of a unified group movement and start it right now I The place to start is New York Harbor, and in the City of New York, where the poxver is concentrated. Realizing the difficulty of conquering New York, why insist on starting there? Because when New York makes the effort and subscribes to a unified program for New York, I know lhat all other ports on the Atlantic and Gulf will fall in line over night. Briefly, I prove it in this way: The Pacific Coast--the whole Marine Safety movement affecting longshore labor --took its first toddling step in Seattle and got nowhere very fast. Why ? With all respect for the great and courageous Puget Sound Port, the poiver is in San Francisco, aixl San Francisco and its executives were too busy In tackle the problem. Then some flicker of light percolated to San Francisco --struggles--a survey--meetings--a safety engineer--a small appropriation---the hiring of Mr. Pickard--a year's effort, six months of which produced a slogan and the first poster. Los Angeles, only 40(I miles away, heard what was going on--got jealous and demanded service. Then an authorization to try to bring in the other ports on the Pacific Coast. Pickard and I hoped to do it in a year. We took a trip and were home ir a week--the other ports were in. The power had been educated. The child was horn, has grown rapidly in strength, and the member com panies of the Association support it with enthusiasm. Furthermore, Labor---conservative when the Bureau was started, frightfully radical of late--recognizes and trusts the Bureau. The Bureau is not regarded as an "em ployer'' institution; it is apart, beneficent, not paternal, but sincere and true to its sole purpose of preventing accidents. There, gentlemen, is my message. The simple way to take the next step to save lives, suffering and expense, by reducing your accident frequency and exposures, is to unify and standardize your efforts so that your casual labor is de-casualizcd. so far as their safety consciousness, safety training and working conditions arc con cerned. And New York is the place to start it, liecausc there is where the power lies. The tremendous size of New York Har bor, the magnitude of the duties of an ex ecutive in New York make the problem most difficult. 7n the smaller ports--even in San Francisco--economy demands that the expensive outlay for starting an accident prevention bureau be spread beyond one company; in New York, a small company-- according to New York's standards--is plenty large enough to employ a safety engineer and staff of its own. 346 Tiocnfy-six/lt National Safety Congress This produces certain natural jealousies, and as rutted individualists, each companyfeels its methods are best, and jealously competes in safely, as in other lines. To cover New York Harl>or alone, an accident prevention bureau with as large a staff as the whole bureau on the Pacific Coast would l*c needed, and would cost more. I venture to make one further assertion. The Longshoremen and Harbor Workers Compensation Act empowers the Federal Employees Compensation Commission to study safety and make recommendations to employers utnt % Congress. They lave stud ied and ire studying and arc compiling statis tics, and if you do something, as lias the Pacific Ihc Commission may perhaps continue to let you run your own affairs. Put if you do not do something concrete, l>y way of unified accident prevention, and standardize, as the Pacific Coast--ami do it soon--I fear, and predict, the Commis sion will take from you your opportunity of doing your own work for yourselves. The present Commission, under the chair manship of Mrs. Jewel! W. SwofTord, has shown great intelligence and cooperation. and has led, but not driven, the employer and the employee. We have an obligation to justify the Commission's faith and for bearance, and I Itope that the Commission will remain as presently constituted for many years, and that the Commission, how ever constituted, will feel justified in re taining its present attitude. But we must realize the possibility that even this Com mission may decide (hat the employers arc not making sufficient effort; even this Com mission, and possibly one not so able in the future, might deem it expedient to recom mend to Congress a Safety Code, which if passed by Congress, would have the force of law and which would have as one unde sirable feature the impossibility of change or amendment except by Congress itself. Your safely rules would then be frozen. Certainly our opportunity is to do as was done on the Pacific Coast, frame our Safety Code with the advice ot our own practical superintendents and practical representatives of our Labor and the Union delegates; then the finished code is a voluntary code and is observed without driving and penalty, and hard feelings. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13. 1937 What Insurance Carriers Can Do to Prevent Accidents in Maritime Trades By CAPT. EDW. C. HOLDEN. JR. Manager, Safety Department, United States P. & I. Agency, Inc., New York City Although industry ashore has been study ing and applying technical measures to solve the accident problem, the steamship industry of all nationalities, until recent years, has lagged far behind hi these mailer 4. The American steamship industry has Ik'cii the pioneer in development of safely engineering as applied to ship operations, largely through the instrumentality of marine insurance safety leadership which has promulgated safe practices among their as sureds. We are faring a new era through the medium of safety education in overcoming reactionary traditions of the sea, with their unsafe practices. Steamship men who op posed anything and everything new are now endeavoring to coo|>erate so that their ship operations will be safely and efficiently con ducted. The persistent endeavors and mani festation* of good faith on the part of the Marine Section 347 American marine insurance institution have been responsible lor this successful accom plishment. We must also extend the indus try's appreciation to the excellent work of the Accident Prevention Bureau on the Pacific Coast. Through the medium of the National Safety Council we have been able better to coordinate our activities. Purposes and Policies It should be the purpose and policy of an insurance carrier to furnish its assureds a safety engineering service which will scien tifically develop and establish safety educa tion principles, safe practice standards, health data, and information pertaining to living and safe working conditions. These measures arc accomplished through study and analysis of assureds' operations. It is a highly developed consulting service in safety engineering and a practical guide toward safe and efficient operations. But the service provided by the insurance carrier can only make recommendations; application is entirely the responsibility of the steamship managerial organization. The effectiveness of a safety program, therefore, is proportionate to the ability of steamship management and the extent to which they give it their attention. In all the details of an insurance carrier's procedure in providing assureds with safety engineer ing service, the position of an interested consultant for efficient management is main tained. Three factors are involved in steamship accident prevention -- safe ship-equipment, safe methods, and safety-minded men These factors are functions of steamship manage ment and are factors in efficiency as well as safety. Management Responsibility "safety" goggles of the five and ten cent store variety. In such eases, the safety re quirement that men wear goggles when chip ping and scaling or working at the emery wheel, has been largely disregarded, and continued eye injuries have resulted. This is but one of many cases at point. It calls for better coordination between the opetMing and purchasing depat intents ashore. Management achieves the best results hy anticipating accidents and by removing haz ards before injuries occur; this is accom plished by installation of mechanical safeguards and by directing the accident prevention program in cooperation with the insurance carrier. Management should rec ognize that the insurance carriers have a broad experience among many lleets and their safety engineering service can provide information for anticipating conditions m advance of accidents. How many limes do we hear the old story "what yon say is probably true, but it has never happened here." Consequently practical safety meas ures are not taken until accidents occur. We found this situation, for instance, when we first recommended the adoption of safety belts for men working overside or at hazard ous elevations. Some operating department heads (deck, engine and stewards) have fnlsc ideas on economy. Supplying new and safe working equipment or mechanical safeguards is charged directly against their department, hence their opposition to safety--it costs money. If an accident occurs as the result of their operating inefficiencies, it is simply a matter for the claims department to handle with the insurance company, and the operat ing department slips out from under. The solution to this problem is for steam ship management to charge the cost of all accident claims to the operating department concerned. Safety Engineering Service We emphasize the psychological factor in connection with these elements. Unless men aboard ship are convinced of the sincerity of the steamship company's top-management in their safety welfare, by their providing safe equipment, it is impracticable to enforce safe working practices. For example, we have found that some ship purchasing agents in order to keep ex penses down, have, furnished vessels with The insurance carrier's safety engineers become acquainted with problems confront ing not only the shore operating staff hut with department heads aboard ship and with officers. They become familiar with the char acteristics of the management, the vessels, and the personnel. No two ships are alike. Safety engineers develop as full an under standing of each situation as is possible. Systematic ship inspections by the insur- 348 Txventy-sixtk National Safety Congress uncc carrier's safety engineers arc a great incentive toward creating ship safety effi ciency. Periodical clicck-ups have the effect of keeping all concerned on their toes for the removal of accident hazards. The ship inspector must not only be thor ough but also tlioroughly trained in detecting unsafe conditions and unsafe practices; such training is acquired only by experience in many different operations. Far too often, we find marine superintendents, port1, cap* tains, superintendent engineers, and port stewards overlooking ship hazards due to concentration on other problems; they may know of the hazards but have not been trained to recognize them. This is often equally true of shipmasters and officers con fined to hut one field of operation for many' year*. Ship inspections must cover hazards in volved in rigging and handling cargo gear, condition of ship's equipment, hatch covers, ladder rungs, standing- and running gear, gangway*; in oiling winches, electrical haz ards. fire hazards, maintenance operations, e of boatswain's chairs, stagings, deck conditions, engine and steward's department conditions. machinery guards; and in other sources of danger. It is desirable to know not only the con ditions existing at the moment of inspection Imt to form a judgment as to probability of their continued effectiveness and use when the vessel is away on a voyage and removed from the eyes of a safety engineer. Ship housekeeping conditions receive particular attention. The attitude of the master and his officers relative to safety problems is studied and noted. Officers are given a libera! course in safety education through cultivation of their confidence and interest in safety engi neering. Of course, there are often (imita tions as to such efforts. The safety knowledge qf a department head aboard ship and his ability Co control subordinates is most essential; these requirements are met by trained safety engineers. Safety recommendations provided by in surance carrier* arc the result of coordinated study by the inspecting safety engineer. Tims, the complete experience of an insur ance carrier is applied to each situation. Recommendations arc kept within bounds of practicability and nlso take into account llic i;ill!t)ilitv of l>umn nature. Safety Organizations To attain ship safety efficiency, each vessel .should have a safety committee which meets regularly to consider safety problems and make recommendations to the management. The insurance carrier should establish uni form standards for these safety committees and the minutes of each meeting should be prepared in conformity with these standards An example which we have established is as foHows; (a) Chairman---master. Secretary--Selected by master. Members--All officers who are off watch. Members--Boats*.'gin and selected crew representatives. (b) Read and approve, or amend, minutes of previous meeting. (c) Unfinished business: Note action taken or recommendations made at previous meeting. (Follow up details.) (d) New business: Discuss and analyze each accident which has occurred since previous meeting, taking sucli action to prevent a recurrence as seem* proper to the Committee, both by way of remedying physical conditions and by instructing the crew in the avoid ance of hazards. (c) Discuss and analyze "near accidents." (f) Bring up, discuss and act upon any safety suggestions, recommendations or new ideas for educating the crew in the safety program. (g) Hold a genera) discussion of ways and means for accident prevention. (It) Make a general safety inspection of deck, engine and stewards' depart ments periodically, especially covering conditions of working places and of gear and equipment. (i) Cheek up on any slackening in use of safety measures by the crew. (j) Enter into the minutes any sugges tions and ideas that have proved effec tive in the ship and which may be of value to other ships in the fleet. Marine Section 349 This procedure has been put into effect by many shipowners with unquestionable suc cess. Similar attention to employer-employee relations may disclose to each employer im; portant opportunities for progress, mutual understanding, confidence, loyalty and good will. It is a proper question how tar to go in thrusting information about the business upon the workers. There is a risk that the agitator will misinterpret. The greater risk, however, is lack of reliable information in the hands of workers. With facts, they tlicmsclves may combat irresponsible or selfseeking agitators. The employer is the only one who can ensure correct information reaching his workers as an antidote for misin formation. Indifference on the part of management usually encourages men to combine against it and to make unreasonable demands. A company's efficiency and prosperity* are best evidenced by the instant and sincere cooperation between employees and manage ment. Organizations Ashore In order that safety organizations aboard ships may be properly directed, it is neces sary that a shore safety organization be established to pass on all ship safety min utes, taking action on all recommendations and advising ship organizations relative thereto. We have found this plan successful. The shore organization should consist of the following members: (a) Vice-president in charge of operations. (Chairman) (b) Marine superintendent and port cap tain. (c) Superintendent engineer and his as sistants. (d) Port steward. (e) Pier superintendent. (f) Secretary to keep the minutes. Some apparently unsound recommenda tions may be made by ship Committees. However, each ease should be thoroughly discussed and explanation made. This will insure confidence in the inaiiaKcnictii by (lie men afloat. Safety Posters To reduce frequency of accidents caused primarily by the men themselves -by care lessness, heedlessncss, and inexperience--it is necessary to acquaint them with the haz ards they encounter, instruct them thor oughly in the best methods of performing their job*, exercise piopcr supervision over their work, and especially to create a >afcty consciousness. An educational program of this kind in volves many factors both because of the diversified nature of the jobs which the men perform and because of the variety of minds and temperaments. One of the most im portant factors is the safety bulletin board for safely posters. The marine insurance carrier should sup ply a monthly safety po&ler-bulleliu service. Posters should be original in design and be prepared by safety experts The master, department heads and ship safety committee should see that bulletin boards are placed where they will receive the most attention, and that the safety |>osicr* are changed regularly. To attract attention to the bulletin boards, the insurance carrier should also furnish current news poster*, These safety principles, procedures, ntul practices have passed the experimental stage and can be regarded as tried and established doctrines for the practical advancement of safety of life at sea. They furnish a safe medium for protection of passengers, crew, cargo, and the ship itself. They have brought the problem of safely out of theory and speculation into reality. Safety engineering, apart from the hu manitarian interest, means increased profits. Continued progress in ship safety must lie regarded as the key to success in operations, in development of proper employer-em ployee relationship, and in the achievement of public confidence. 350 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress A Plan to Create Interest of Seamen in Prevention of Accidents By A. O. WOLL Manager. Pacific Coast Marine Department, General Petroleum Corporation, Terminal Island, Calif. Organization is the first essential of any ordered safety program. In our company there is a central safety committee, com* prised of all operating department heads of the company, dealing with every phase of the petroleum industry- A port safety commit* tee handles marine department safety. Ship safety committees are t)ie media for reach ing the ships' personnel. A high degree of enthusiasm of the man agement in accident prevention work (which is a vital essential) sets the pace. Pride or shanm in results of continuous record corn* petith.a ' -partments is usually sufficient "needle'1 to inspire men of the calibre of department heads to their best performance. Marine management is directly responsible for its departmental results. It functions through the jmrt safety committee comprised of practical port engineer, port captain and representative operating personnel. The port safety committee is responsible for the sustained enthusiasm of every ship safety committee and utilizes most of the tried practices or devices of accident prevention applying to ship ami (particularly tanker) operation and maintenance. The ship safety committees arc the real Uickbonc of the marine safety movement. They have proven so successful that their activities have Ireen allowed and even en couraged to spread from purely safely mat ters to matters of general o|ieratiiig practice. The ship safety committee existing on each of our ships as presently constituted embraces only the officer jtcrsonncl but alt officer personnel participates. Tlic second and third mates and assistant engineers ro tate necessarily as meetings arc held af sea. This gives all officers the benefits of inspira tion and discussion to be derived from the meetings. The unlicensed personnel arc not included in the ship committee. (This is a controversial jioint. Much practical good would no doubt issue from attendance of unlicensed men but we decided against it lor tiie reason that their attendance might serve to restrict frank discussions whete ship's liability possibly was involved and all are agreed that frankness is essential to ar rive at accident causation.) Officers are expected by constant contact to bring to the meetings the ideas ami reactions of the un licensed men. Moreover, calculated to minimize loss from the absence of unlicensed men from the committee, a $5 award is made monthly for the best safety suggestion received during the month. Our program starts when new employees are hired. To impress tlicni with the impor tance of accident prevention in our fleet and give them some immediate groundwork in Safety, they are required to sign a safely declaration or pledge to abide by a very definite set of smoking rules posted aboard our taukships, to familiarize themselves w ith and obey our general rules of safe practice, to act as ''their brother's keeper" where nec essary in matters ot safety, to think before they act, and otherwise to conduct them selves iu a manner that will contribute to the safety standing of the ship. Next it becomes the duty of ihe officer under whom the new employee i* assigned to work, to sell lire new man upon the idea that safety work is essentially in the interest of the worker aud lor him is common sense and simple good business. The more general precautions directly connected with the par ticular worker's immediate duties arc out lined and the officer then takes particular care for the necessary time to observe the new* worker's aptitude for safe practice and to guide him away from any bad practices. In laic years of our accident prevention work we concentrate chiefly on training the individual, having gleaned from the records which are essential to any imelligem pro gram. that the great preponderance of acci dents result from human frailly. Many years age the prelude of our safety campaign was to make the ships sale--to give the men a safe place in which to work--by providing all reasonable mechanical guards, devices and equipment for safely preforming their duties. Occasionally we still find minor conditions which require mechanical correc tion but by and large results are now chiefly to be attained through education of the worker in safe practices. As a vehicle for this education, the ships' officers, it themselves sold, educated and Marine Section 351 trained in safety, are naturally the most effective. But as a supplement to this means of educating the worker, complete practical and effective Safe Practice Pamphlets and instruction hooks are invaluable, and there is a dearth of such literature in the marine industry. Two such outstanding contributions how ever were made during the past year by the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. They are entitled "Manual for Lifeboatmen and Able Seamen" and "A Manual for the Safe Han dling of Inflammable and Combustible Liquids." The Marine Section, N.SC-, might well officially commend the Depart ment and Bureau for these manuals. They serve the manifold purposes of manuals or instruction books, cause desirable familiarity with the laws relating to seamen, and very definitely are real safe practice pamphlets. Two other outstanding conlribuitions of this character that have come to my notice were by the Union Oil Company of Cali fornia. These are two illustrated pamphlets pertaining to the oil tanker field entitled "Tanker Safety" and "Barge and Motorship Safety." Unfortunately, so far they have been employed only in a limited maimer, their use being confined to the Union Oil tanker fleet. This however, is not because of any selfishness on the part of the sponsors who have long since announced their witliugncss to donate their work to the general cause of safety. Besides the direct educational benefit of definite printed rules, they often aid in fixing responsibility for accidents caused by gross carelessness or deliberate disregard of rules. We believe in a measure of penalty for acci dents from such causes, severity of the pen alty ranging from dismissal to suspension lor varying periods of time, depending upon all of the circumstances involved, but particularl}' the past record of the offender. To be effective, punishment must be meted out as quickly as possible before the remorse occasioned by responsibility for the accident disappears. It must be impartial and consist ent. On the other hand, we advocate certain forms of recognition or reward for outstand ing safety performance, not to the extent of buying Safety but to spur it on. The ship safety committee is lequired to report on every accident occurring on the ship. For personal injuries a searching form is provided which insures that all the factors usually contributing to injuries have been explored. The injured's version is given, followed by the version of his superior, alter which the ship committee is required to make definite analysis as l<> cause and recommendations to the Fori Committee as to remedial action. R. H. Dana wiote of the sailing ship days --"If a man comes within an acc of break ing his neck and escapes, it is made a joke of, aud no notice must be taken of a bruise or cut." Our policy is the other extreme from this state of affairs; near accidents are treated like real accidents lor they are often potential of more serious consequences ' than many a real accident. Tlic dilTcrcncc be tween near accidents and real accidents is usually simple LUCK, an element not to be reckoned with iu accident prevention work. Meetings conducted as forums (having as signed a subject to an individual officer some time previously for research and study) often stimulate real thought by individuals especially when there arc signs of lag for lack of immediate business to transact. While the ship safety committee is con ceded to be the backbone of any accident prevention program, tlic Fort Committee is required to inspire and assist the ship com mittees to attain maximum productiveness by appeals, education, contests, discipline, responsibilities, rewards. Some of the de vices employed arc: Prompt disposition of recommendations received from the ship committees with sympathetic treatment. Circulation to the entire fleet of a con densed analysis of all suggestions, the ship committee's recommendations and the pent c< nmittee's action and instructions for the treatment of the particular condition on the entire fleet. Insistence upon a monthly meeting and report from each ship. Condemnation of bar ren reports as indicative of lack of interest or observation, or both. Where a barren report is made, suggestions are conveyed to the Ship Committee calculated to revitalize their activity. On the other hand, upon re ceiving minutes of a ship committee's meet ing which indicate unusual interest and activity, immediately address a commenda tory letter to the ship committee. Supply current poster material and safely literature. Publish a house or department organ dis seminating general safety hints and inspira- 352 Tweniy-sixth National Safety Congress tional and educational matter, analysis of accidents, standing in inter-ship record con(c>t* (a paper can tic frollni out surprisingly cheap it mrcc'san ). Awanl card certificate* of safety to ships' olViccrs (foremen) attesting the completion of various goals of man-hours worked by employees under their immediate supervi sion. These card certificates are signed by corjKiration officials of rank depending on the number of man-hours so reached. They aptical to the pride of the officer and inspire him to greater effort. Their value is en hanced by making the award an occasion of praise at the current ship committee meeting. These attestations of actual satety perform ance have come to be valued and prized by the officers as supporting recommendations for any future employment. Furnish records and analyses indicating the causes contributing to injuries and urging sustained concentration on them. Furnish statistics sliowing what sum of money both the employees and die employer lo-t and waster) a* the result of accidents. Inspire them to vigorous and sustained action by an appreciation of the personal gratification to lie derived from the con sciousness of life, pain and money saved their fcllowmcn; and IIk pride to he derived from a job will done instead of sloppily per formed. I'rgc them constructively to destroy fatalism in old-timers, to discourage con tempt of risk growing out of intimacy with hazards and derision of accident prevention efforts, pointing out the inexorable law of averages. Bear down on officer* who practice un safe or sloppy habits. Advertise the safety cause by making the most of outstanding individual performances or suggestions. Spotlight a glaring and common unsafe habit occasionally by causing a conspicuous momentary cessation of operations and capi talize it by brief instructive explanation or demonstration. Obviously, contentment of men induces the best mental condition for the elimination of accidents and their reasonable physical com forts should be guaranteed. The measure of results obtained from any o these instrumentalities is directly related to the amount of intelligent and persistent effort exerted in their application. One fre quently hears complaint that such and such a scheme was barren of results. Often it isn't the scheme of things so much as the "follow through." To illustrate, the ship safety committee idea is often tried and only desultory results arc obtained because the management is indifferent about barren reports received from the ship safety com mittees. Atul so we find, with usual excep tions, that results reflect the management. Building Safety in Ships By L. WESTLING Assistant Manager, Engineering Department, Matson Navigation Co., San Francisco, Calif. The modern vessel has become a compli cated assembly of an endless number of details, most of which have in their develop ment been subject to influences which are primarily economic in nature. Through ex tensive research we have developed hull forms of high propulsive efficiencies, power plant of high thermal efficiencies, vessels of excellent structural efficiency, and all man ner of means have been forthcoming for providing effective service to the passenger. But details which involve safe conditions for the individual passenger, seaman or longshoreman have been somewhat restricted in their development because of the tradi tional manner in which such things arc done by the industry. The proposed United States Merchant Marine, if it becomes a reality, should be made the safest on the seven seas. Such a vessel as we hope to sec developed will have little difference in appearance to other modem ships, and the arrangement cannot differ greatly. But closer study should show new details which will reduce accident hazards to a minimum. Like all vessels it will be a unit composed of a steel Structure enveloping fuel tanks, water tanks, cargo spaces, machinery, and living quarters, Marine Section 353 each division having its peculiar type of ac cident hazard. Tank space* for example generally repre sent dangers peculiar to repair work, particularly those in which the fuel i* bunkered. Inner bottom tanks represent small hazards in falling because of their small vertical dimension. But there are dan gers within which can be minimized princi pally through the precautions of those who work in or near them. Tanks which have contained oil are not easily made gas free, due to the difficulty in adequately cleaning and due lo the tenden y of the gases to lie in pockets. Access to such spaces is through a man hole, and the location and number of these openings should be the result of some study of interior and cxterior arrangements. A manhole should be of ample size to give easy access to a large man, its dimensions should be not less than 14 x 18 inches. There should be a sufficient number and in such locations that ventilation of the complete tank is possi ble. Where practical the o]>enings through the interior structure and framing sltotild be so arranged to provide easy access and permit active air movements. Limber holes should be so located to pro vide quick and effective drainage. Where hinged manhole covers arc installed they should be so located that they lay horizon tally when in the open position, precluding the possibility of their being accidentally closed. When possible and practical, guards should be provided for temporary erection about an open manhole. So-called deep tanks are more easily freed of gases, but the falling hazard is greater. Access is generally through manhules lo cated on the tank top, and the location of the ladder underneath should be such that one who enters should not have to hunt for the rungs nor affect any contortions to negotiate his entry or exit. The ladders should be fuot-surc, even when oil coated. When it becomes necessary to install ac cess openings in the bulkhead of a tank, its location should be such as to preclude possi bility of anyone standing upon makeshift ladders or boxes. Where such heights are necessary access platforms should be pro vided of a permanent type. Fresh water tanks are subject to the same rules, particularly ballast water tanks where the air may become too foul for safety. Access openings of any descript'on >n decks or tank tops should be carefully located with respect to deck ladders, pas sageways. and where possible with respect lo adequate illumination. Closely associated with the manhole are the expansion and access trunks, which usually terminate in a deck coaming. Trunk coamings should never be less than 36 inches in height, which will minimize the hazard of one losing his balance when working in way of such an opening. The cover should be subject to the same rule ait the manhole cover to prevent accidental closing. When the covers are too large for ease of handling, stanchions and rigging should be provided for opening and closing with tackle. A trunk meant for access of men should be not less than 24 x 24 inches, unless piping or other obstructions should require larger dimen sions, to permit free movement of arms and legs. The ladders in such trunks should be foot-sure and ample toe space should he provided. In close relation to the tank structure we find the anchor chain locker, which is a danger spot on many ships. Chain lockers of excessive width, or of inadequate depth, require that the seaman must go below to stow the heavy chain as it is brought in. The tipping of piles of chain, the jumping of the chain over the wildcat with the resulting sudden out-rushing of the stowed chain, arc not uncommon hazards aboard ship. Such a danger can be completely elimi nated by the construction of a locker of proper dimensions and capacity. A locker should have not less than ISO per cent capacity for the -chain which the vessel is required to carry. Access to such a Space should be through a generously sized hinged manhole. The ladder should l>e of the plate type with half-moon foot openings to pre vent damage by the heavy chain. The man hole should be equipped with a protecting rail or guard. Other spaces which are often accessible only by means of access trunks are steering gear and pump rooms. These trunks gen erally should always be of such a dimension that a proper arrangement of sloping ladders and gratings can be installed. The ladders should not exceed two decks in length, and they should not be of greater slope than can be safely negotiated hy a man who may have in one hand tools or supplies. The trunk should have adequate illumination ami lifting gear should be installed overhead for 354 Th't'in v-.ri.i7/< National Safely Congress handling of tiic heavier pieces of machinery. Dock openings arc necessary evils aboard >hip, not ilie least of which is the cargo lialcli. These opening?, arc rcs|K>nsiblc for many scriou* accidents. Much study has been given to this item in hopes of reducing its hazards but little improvement has been lortheoming due to its particular function umI |ui|hmc. The depth of the weather deck hatch coaming, and its height above deck, liavc ininiinums set up liy strength requircmeuts and by load line regulation The hatch coamings in 'tween dock spaces represent a somewhat different problem, in that with limited head room the coaming must he low to permit free movement of cargo to the hatch way. Consequently, when such a height is not possible the other extreme must lie attained to minimize tripping hazards. Where possible 'tween deck coaming should tic flush with the ceiling (planking) wlicre laid; or, where the steel deck is bare, a low pitch ramp of steel should top the hatch angle. When it lievoincs necessary to work cargo from lower levels and to leave the 'tween deck hatches open, tltcrc should be stretched tightly around the open hatches, guards 01 chain well secured to the ship's structure. Where hatchways must lie trunked through one or more decks, and where hatch cvwers are used at its lower levels, the trunk -hotild lie stopped in way of the covered level with siuhcient walkway to iHrrinil a mail to handle strongbacks or boards with out danger of falling. Should conditions make a slvp|xd trunk imjiossible a strong di>up|K>aring walk-way should be installed, tu either ease recessed liand-ltolc* should Ik* provided around the sides of the trunk. The development of improved hatch cov ering- has been a problem not easy of .solu tion. and has in general been stalemated by practical barrier*. While weather deck cov erings have seen some recent improvements in the form of steel panels, the 'tween deck hatches arc almost universally equipped with the conventional strongback and hatchboard assembly. Strongbacks, because of the loads and abuses to which they arc exposed, arc of heavy structure, and as they make the com plete span of the hatch, prove to be difficult to handle. Whim properly built and maintained they mul fit neatly into the coaming sockets and provide ample load bearing surface*. The iorket* should he so designed that it is not necessary for the strongback to be dropi>cd into the slots to obtain full bearing. Strong backs should lie equipped with web openings and winch bridles of chain, which will pre vent tipping when suspended, and a lanyard should be attached for safe control of the piece. The ends should be fitted with pro tected sliding bolts which will prevent the strongback from being lifted by a draft of cargo when the hatch is worked in sections. Many attempts have Jiccn made to improve upon the hatch covering board, but little success has been made, except perhaps in minor detail. The use of pressed inctul in lieu of wood, and the capping of the ends of wood boards with iron or steel have pro duced liatchboards wliich arc easily main tained and lltc ends of which insure good, full bearing surfaces. When practical the strongbacks should be so spaced through out the ship's hatchways that all liatchboards will be of the same dimension and will fit in tiny assembly. Where hatch lengths willnot easily provide this, one row of boards should be of such extreme difference that a partial landing of the ends will not be possible. Heavy responsibility lies upon the ship's officers in the pro|>cr maintenance and use of hatch boards and chain guards, for neg ligence in tlicir placement lias caused many a serious and fatal accident. Since time immemorial access to cargo spares has )>ccn by means of hntchwny lad ders. and despite the obvious hazards it represents we find them in general use. These ladders, arc frequently difficult lo negotiate because of offsets at the coamings and being exposed arc generally distorted or damaged by cargo, thus magnifying their dangers. Access to cargo spaces should be gained liy means of well protected manholes and ladders, offset at each deck level. They should he arranged to permit one to face the hatch, if it be nearby, and designed to pre vent fouling of ladder or rungs by stowed or shifted cargo. When access is gained through bulkhead doors, the sills should be as low as is con sistent with regulations or local conditions and ample head room should be provided. Doors not having high coamings should have permanently built non-slip ramps. Of all hazards found on deck, cargo gear is the most serious and the most difficult of solution. It lias been subject to the "rule of thumb" more than any other equipment Marine Scclion 355 aboard ship. The original lay-out for cargo gear should be the result of extensive and accurate calculations and observations. Over loading. and poor control of hoisting ma chinery. subjects cargo gear to excessive and incalculable stresses and it behooves the de signer to employ generous factors of safely in his calculations. Precedent should have little influence upon design. Since the invention of methods of pro ducing tubular steel booms, there has been little justification for the existence of the wooden boom. The strength of wooden booms can be approximated when new, hut when age, weather, and stresses have had effect, their strength becomes an unknown factor. The success of the wooden boom has been largely due to a great but unknown factor of safety which experience lias dic tated. Steel booms have known and calcula ble strengths, and their failure through stressing is slow enough to permit all hands to clear. Cargo boom fittings should be forged Troin an approved alloy steel, and subjected to severe tests for flaws. Links, padeyes and similar rigging fittings should be oversized to permit a safe reduction of section due to wear. Standing rigging wire should be carefully selected with respect to strength and flexi bility. It should be expertly spliced in lieu of the use of seizing, or damps. All thimbles iiikI fittings should have proper radii to pre vent stressing. While not pleasing to the eye, we can look forward to the general acceptance of self-supporting structure which will practically eliminate the use of standing rigging. Cargo falls should be rove through blocks whose sheaves are of ample diameter to pre vent fatigue of strands, and patent heel blocks which do not whip in service should always be used. Cargo falls should be pro tected from the edge of hatch coamings by hatch rollers, which equipment should be so designed that falls or cargo cannot Ik: fouled, endangering those working belou. Cleats, pads, bitts and other deck fittings should be placed where they give the best and safest results in working cargo, but when practicable they should be kept clear of walk ways and mounted on bulkheads or bulwarks. When mounted on deck thev should he painted white lo make them more visible in the darkness, Cargo hoists arc subject to Considerable refinement, and where possible they should he electrically driven. The clcitrir controls should have sufficient number of .slops to simulate the desirable characteristics of the steam hoist. Steam hoists should Drive re ciprocaling parts under guards, and like the electric unit, the gears should be enclosed. Lubrication should be possible without at tendant hazard. The controls should he so located that a single operator should have absolnte control over the movement of the cargo hook, and the load should Ik* wiiliin his sight as much as is practical. The hazards to wliich crew ami passengers arc exposed are by no means confined to weather decks, the living quarters contribut ing heavily to the accident lecords. Fortu nately they yield more easily to solution (linn do those outside. The most common acci dents are slipping or tripping with conse quent falling. This type of accident seriously involves the passengers, many of whom arc not familiar with peculiarities of ship con struction or with the action of a vessel in a sea way. The entrance doorways from weather decks arc responsible for many accidents. Their sill heights are usually high, lu meet regulatory or practical requirements, and to one not familiar with such construction it represent* a tripping and falling hazard. Inside entrances lo staterooms or public rooms should have little or no threshold. It is not uncommon to find high sills in these doorways, their existence being due more to tradition than to necessity. For convenience in housekeeping a small raised sill is desirable at the door uf a bath room or todet. A cudi is a necessary part ot a shower hath compartment; such a curb or coaming must not present a sharp edge, but may he topped with slutted pipe, a flange or with tiling. All door treads should be of dis tinctive color for the sake of visibility and of course adequately illuminated. Not unlike the high door sill, the coaming usually found at the top of weather deck ladders or stairs represents the same dan gers. These can usually be cut flush to the deck level l>y compensating for strength under deck. When such a procedure is not possible a low pitch non-slip ramp should provide equivalent safety. The ever present slipping hazard is one that, reflects upon the character of deck coverings, as far as construction is con 35A Twenty-sixth National Safety Cotigress cerned. No passenger and where avoidable no crew member should have need to trav erse a bare deck plate. Such a surface Incomes polished and slippery when worn or wet and becomes particularly dangerous to the wearer of rubber heeled sliocs. Weather doors should liavc non-slip treads or deck coverings on either side. Ladder treads should be similarly equipped. Peck coverings of rubber or linoleum are very desirable for decorative features and the designer must depend upon the operator to provide reasonable safety in preventing coatings of wax polish. Ceramic unglazed tiling for baths, wash rooms, etc., provides a safe deck covering, which can be improved upon only through the addition of abrasives to their composi tion. Galley and pantry deck coverings arc subject to an accumulation of cooking fats and other materials, which add dangers to the other natural hazards of such a place. Tiling with small and sharp grooves are satisfactory from a safety point of view, but difficult to keep clean. Terrazzo decking with a liberal content of abrasive or scoria presents the best compromise between safety and sanitation, but il docs take heavy toll of kettle bottoms--a lesser evil. Maintenance of a vessel is a continuous ami ofuimes a hazardous procedure, partic ularly the work that must be done overside or from elevated positions. Safe means for reaching >>urli places should be provided when the ship is built. Steel mast ladders should displace the shroud ratlines which are notoriously neglected. Inside ladders and v\alkuays should provide safe access to slack tups, and dips, sockets, and grab rails >limUI lie installed in way of bridge fronts, superstructure. light and air trunks, to which the maintenance nun can secure his staging, U>n'> chair or safety belt. The iliNtrs ladders and gratings which provide access to machinery spaces represent the same ly]*e of liazards as similar equip ment elsew here atmard ship and they yield to the same solutions in prodding safety. However the dangers are magnified due to the proximity of moving machinery and to the presence of lubricating oil which makes surfaces slippery. Ready and sale access should lx provided to all parts of the machinery spaces, includ ing the different working levels altout the 'main and auxiliary machinery, to various control valves and equipment, to boiler drums, stop valves and gauge glass fittings. Floor plates in machinery spaces should have a non-slip surface even when coated with oil. This is difficult of solution, al though recent attempts have been made to improve upon the diamond plate, which has been a notable failure in providing safe walking surfaces. Floor plates should be well secured and supported, and if conditions make necessary that sections be portable, they should not be too large in section. How ever, the concealed piping systems should be equipped with accessible valves or stems which would make frequent plate removals unnecessary. Guards should be provided for such openings and they should be well lighted. Shaft alley walkways should be of steel with flanged edges, and hand rails and shaft coupling guards should be installed. Like the mainshaft couplings all moving machinery should have guards which will prevent one from being struck by or thrown into machinery, which is a very real hazard when the vessel is in a seaway. Such guards must be designed with the thought that they may be frequently removed and replaced to facilitate repairs. Machinery spaces should not be crowded even though revenue spaee is sacrificed. Spacious engine rooms arc invariably safe engine rooms, and loss of revenue is largely compensated in the reduced costs of making repairs in uncramped quarters. Fortunately, progression in machinery development has been in the direction of enclosed moving or revolving parts, and the engine rooms are rapidly becoming one of the safest places on shipboard. Nut with this development higher pres sures and temperatures have become com monplace, and with these we find great possibilities of serious accidents. Regulations point the way to safe design, but thoughtful details will make safe operations more easily attained. Tlte provision of locking devices for boiler and other stop valves, the proper labeling of all valves, the marking of pipe lines with distinctive colors, stencils or symbols, contribute to safe procedure. Care should be exercised in the properly insulating of hot pipes and surfaces, and pressure relieving devices are essential .to ah operations. There should be provided also proper ventilation of spaces which might accumulate vapors or gases from fuel oil, lubricating oil, or that might become too heated for safe occupancy. Marine Section 35 7 Refrigeration machinery spaces sliould have adequate safeguards against the dan gers of leaking refrigerant. Where possible on freight ships, and always on pasenger vessels, tlte refrigerant should be nontoxic. Ammonia as a refrigerant has very desirable characteristics, particularly in tropic waters, and when employed, the refrigeration ma chinery rooms should be enclosed and sepa rated from other spaces. It should be equipped with a sprinkling system which may be operated from without the space. Regu lations and good judgment demand that gas masks be kept near at hand. Electric generating and distributing sys tems when installed according to the rules and regulations set up by the various agen cies represent small hazards, but when po tentials of 230 volts or more are employed, special care must be provided to insure the safety of operating personnel. Dead front switchboard panels are desirable and there should be adequate space behind the board for repairs and trouble-shooting. The area back of the switchboard should be enclosed by mesh guards and provided with locks. When livefront switchboards are installed a guard rail should be placed to support the operator, and an insulated grating should cover the deck. Lights should be installed over the boards which are supplied by cur rent from an independent source. Illumination of all parts of the ship should be in accordance with the accepted standards, and upon completion of the vessel, a thor ough study on conditions should be made of the efficiency of the lighting arrangements, and alterations artd corrections, which arc not apparent on the plans, should be made. Adequate light is perhaps the greatest of safeguards. Machine tools and other similar equip ment throughout the ship should be driven by direct connected and independent electric motors. Drive belts have no place aboard ship. Safety in machinery spaces is not possible without adequate and well located lifting gear. The store or tool room should have tackle and hoists capable of *up]>ortmg the heavier pieces of equipment during repair and proper connections to the ship's structure should be provided which will support and steady these pieces during repairs at sea as well as in port. For purposes of regular maintenance duties, in the engine casings, ship's side or at boiler fronts, there should be installed pads, sockets and other facilities which wilt support stagings designed for (lie operations. The Value of Safety Posters in Accident Prevention By FRANK E. AMES Manager, Safety Department, Lykem Bros.-Riplcy S. S. Co., New Orleans, La. We are reminded of the old adage that a picture is as good as ten thousand words, and undoubtedly this is true; however, in the case of accident prevention, it is also true that there is no way of knowing just how much good safety posters do ur how many accidents they prevent. They have be come an accepted and necessary part in ac cident prevention propaganda, and to dis continue their use in any commercial activity would, without doubt, create a void which would gradually become apparent in the frequency record. You Will agree with me that posters de picting traffic accidents arc of little value in the safety education of seamen. Posters of this nature certainly do not assist in training the seaman to beware of the various hazards peculiar to his calling. Neither do traffic posters or those illustrative of hazards in machine shops appeal to the longshoreman whose work and surroundings arc vastly different from any other industry with which I am acquainted. The Poster Committee of the Marine Sec tion has accomplished much in cooperation with the National Safely Council in supply ing a series of posters applicable to the marine industry, but the supply of those which present an appeal to both the floating and shore personnel is limited. Therefore, those of us who carry the responsibility of safely education and accident prevention in our resjKjctive spheres are handicapped for 358 Tuvutyjixth National Safety Congress material ot a type that will convey a mental jolt to our mot in a visual language they undcrstatMl. The illustration sltould present a subject or hazard familiar to them in their everyday work ami surroundings. In our operations. c lay great stress on the use of posters on each ship of flic fleet, anti with frequent changes are satisfied that this policy lias Ix-cn productive of much good in the safety education of our floating per* >on/icJ. 1 ionever, with the menial altitude displayed by American seamen folh as re* ganls discipline and safety, we arc faced with the problem of providing inodcr* which pre* -cut a safely ap|*nl and, at the same time, endeavor to awaken n sense of respect for discipline. ilovv can this Ire accomplished? The same type uf imster in vogue for (he past several years will not sntliec to meet the situation. Wliatcvcr (lie cost may be. we should change our jtattcfu, dispose of (lie simp-worn gKnl> and start over, realizing that safety up|>eal must Ik* lilted from drnh surroundings ami presented in a more striking manner, Itccausc the worker of today, especially the younger generation, is not the serious-minded indi vidual of the past decade. For several months during 1936 (lie Travelers' Insurance Company provided is with cuts of "OY.y.1K,'^ a character featured by their safely department, ami we published them in our monthly house paper, "Lyke* l;leel Flashes." Likewise, a nationally known soap manufacturer has provided us with setni-comic posters advertising tlicir product which we have mailed to the drips of onr Fleet. It is my conviction that these two comics have accomplished more in the cause of safely on our ships than any of the old line lyi>e of posters. I Itavc reached this conclu sion Ivenusc of the many comments made by seamen, these comic pictures having appealed to them to the extent (hat certain careless Maincn have been nicknamed "OZZIIL" (let the point? The absurd actions of ibis O/.ZIE iKirson. strikingly true in everyday industrial life, has made such a mental im pression on the men that they were con stantly on guard lest they handle tlicir work in a Minilnr careless and ridiculous manner. Likewise, the soap posters with their crude characters aided in awakening safety con sciousness to a greater degree than the ordi nal type ot >h>gan safety posters. Now Id's consider the longshoremen, the men who realty pile up frequency, severity and compensation, and give us a first-class financial headache. How about posters ap pealing directly to the men of that craft? Where arc they? I have searched high and low without results, and yet there are some thing like 350,000 men employed in this activity. Ask the Underwriters whether they are sitting on anyone'* door step for ttie purpose of writing coverage on ibis industry? Ask them concerning tlicir rate* in comparison with the coverage of other industries, and your reaction to their answ ers will indicate whether or not you have high blood pressure. And why is this? Simply liecausc the industry front a safety standitoint has been neglected in the sense that posters, appealing to the type of man employed, are not obtain able for the purpose of supplementing ver bal appeal* and other methods designed to awaken their safety consciousness. We have an elaborate system of bulletin boards at the eight ports in the Gulf at which our ships call, and subscribe to two poster services, but the type of poster provided dues not carry the appeal necessary to reach the type of labor employed. Longshoremen, as a class, arc distinct from the types of men found in other industry. The majority of them have had no special training and, aside from the proper stowage of cargo in a ship's hold, tlicir job is (hat of handling material; al most every kind and class of material known to the commerce of the world. Their work presents many hazards which would not be apparent were they to become expert in the handling of a certain commodity. The safety education of longsiiorcmcn therefore re quires special effort, and ) know of no better way than to appeal to them in a striking manner through illustrated posters that will stop them in tlicir tracks. Give us a one quarter size bill board type of i>ostcr about 30 x 45 incites illustrating in colors the usual type of accidents and unsafe practices duriug the loading ami discharge of cargo, and one poster per week at each loading berth will, in my opinion, do more actual good than 20 small size poster* illustrating subjects en tirely foreign to longshoremen and safety slogans that 50 per cent of them can neither read nor understand. When we consider the millions of dollars expended annually on ships and stevedore Murine Section 3sy payrolls and the percentage of these .sums that go for !*&l coverage, an economic waste is presented which demands a con certed move toward curtailment. We all agree that safety is an individual proposition and that it must be sold to our employees. Imagine a manufacturer attempt- ing to sell his product by the use of 17 x 23 inch or 9 x 12 inch posters. He would get nowhere; and although we arc selling a limited amount of safety ideas by the uc of the posters presently available, the sur face of our opportunity has not been scratched. Investigation of Personal Injuries Involving Seamen By GILBERT R. JOHNSON Secretary, Lake Carrier's Association, Cleveland O. Obviously, the fust step in the investiga tion of a seaman's accident is an inquiry into the fact*. The investigator should be no novice, lor it will l#e dillicnlt, if not imIxjssiblc, for him to get at the real facts in every case unless he lias a pretty good work ing knowledge of the parts of a ship and the work of sentnen. No investigation should be taken lightly. It is the facts in every ease which determine the rights of the in jured person and in my judgment it is the responsibility of the employer to have de veloped during the investigation the I ruth regarding (he maimer in which the seaman was injured and this responsibility should not be avoided where (he facts arc unfavor able to the employer's interests. In many eases of injury the manner in which accidents occur i* readily apparent to the investigator. There will be a failure ot some appliance by reason of wear or con cealed defect, and the rights of the seaman under the law will be very easily ascertained. However, there arc numerous cases not in volving the failure of equipment, but the act or acts of sume other person, or the failure of such other person to do that which he should have done to avoid accident. t refer to those numerous eases hr which there js negligence of officers and members of the crew, and it is with particular respect to those eases that I believe the inquiring person should have a knowledge both of the work aboard ship and the maritime law establishing die rights and liabilities of the parties. The problem with respect to the investiga tion <>l accidents involving conduct of other members of the crew, may be illustrated by a review of some of the cases which have been adjudicated in tbe courts. In the AntinoHS, (C.C A.5) -19 F. (2d) 762, a libel wa* filed lo recover damages lor the wrong ful death of a seaman, one Boykin, who was washed overboard during a storm. The vessel, having a cargo of wheal and a deck load of heavy timbers, was caught off the coast ot Florida in a hurricane ami duriug the night she was swept by seas which car ried away (lie plugs and canvas covers with which the ventilator drums had been covered. They were all replaced except fr one ven tilator on the port side, located immediately forward of the bridge. The carpenter made a new plug ami the boatswain called Boykin and two other* to go with the lioatswuin out ui)oii the deck load to insert the plujJ and to make fast the cover over it. The seas were high and breaking in spray over the vessel. There were no life lines strung along tiie center of the ship or across' the deck cargo and as the men were performing this work neither the course of the ship nor her speed was altered. While Boykin was assisting in this work, a very high sea washed over the deck of the vessel and he was carried over board. The sole question in the ease was whether or not there was negligence on the part of the officer* of the ship in requiring Boykin to go onto the deck cargo and perform this work without the speed of the ship lx:ing checked and her course altered, so that she would meet the sea* and weather under more favorable conditions. The court ruled with the estate of Boykin. In Harris, /idtninislralri.v, vs. Pennsyl vania Railroad, (C.C.A.4) 50 F. (2d) 866, an action at law was brought to recover dam ages for the death of a seaman, one Harris, who had fallen overboard by his own mis fortune or carelessness. Harris was a mem ber of tbe crew of a tug which had a car Hoat in tow. It was Ins duty to cast off the 360 Tivcnty-sixlh National Safety Congress hawser between the float and the bow of the tug and then walk aft along the deck of the tug and make the low line fast to a towing post or cleat on that end of the tug. When Harris reached the stern of the tug, lie fell between the tug and the car float through no fault on the part of the tug. While he was in the water, Harris called several times for a line. One of the members of the crew* of the tug threw Harris a haw ser but no other effort was made to rescue him, notwithstanding the availability of life buoys and other equipment aboard the tug. The question raided In the case was whether or not, in view of the admitted fact that Harris had fallen overboard without any fault on tlic part of the tug, there was any duty on the part of her officers and crew to use ordinary care and skill in rescuing Harris. The court hekl that it is the obliga tion of a ship "to save the life nf a sailor who falls overboard through a misadventure not uncommon in his dangerous calling.'' The court stated, in effect, that it was the universal custom of the sea for a ship to put forth her best efforts in rescuing the life of a member of her crew, who, through inad vertence or misadventure, falls overboard. A novel question was presented in Jamison vs. Encamacion, 281 U. S. 635. An action was brought by Encamacion, a member of a crew* engaged in the loading of a barge at Brooklyn, against Jamison for the negligence of his foreman in assaulting Encamacion. The facts were that, while the foreman was directing the crew in the performance of their work, he became angered with Encarnacion and struck him. The question was whether or not the employer, Jamison, was lo be held negligent for Hie assault of the foreman. Jamison contended that the fore man's act was in excess of the authority which was conferred upon him as a foreman. The court, however, held that the assault was committed in the course of the fore man's duties and in the furllteranre of Jami son's business; that the assault was a negli gent act on the part of the foreman and that, therefore, Jamison was liable in damages for the act of his foreman. Cories VS. Baltimore insular iSne, 287 LI. S. 358. defines when illness becomes in jury within the meaning of the maritime law* entitling seamen lo compensation for injuries caused by negligence of their employers. In that case a deceased seaman, one Santiago, became ill with pneumonia while the vessel on which he was employed was on a voyage from Florida to New York City. The ship was not put into port to place Santiago ashore; nor was effort made to obtain medi cal assistance from shore for the seaman. Upon the arrival of the ship at New York Santiago was placed in a hospital, where shortly thereafter he died from pneumonia. The question was whether or not the failure of the master to obtain medical treatment for the til seaman constituted negligence for the cohscquences of which the shipowner was dbliged to respond with damages. It was the Opinion of the Supreme Court that the act oX the master constituted negli gence which resulted in injury to the seaman within the meaning of the act entitling a seaman or his representatives to recover damages for injury occasioned by negligence of the shipowner. In each of the foregoing cases the investi gator should have possessed training in the character of the work of the ship involved and the duties and obligations of the em ployer or shipowner to the injured seaman. I would not go so far as to say that no one but a person trained in the law is capable of rendering any service in connection with investigation of accidents to seamen. Ex perience on the Great Lakes has demon strated that among themselves members of the crew of a ship can do a very good job of investigating accidents. About twenty years ago the Welfare Plan of Lake Carriers' Association recommended to member shipowners that a Safety Com mittee be organized on each ship. These committees consist of six members, three from the deck department and three from the engine department. With the exception of two licensed officers, including the one lowest in rank from the two departments, the personnel of the committees consists en tirely of unlicensed men. Originally it was proposed that these committees meet once each month for the purpose of discussing ways and means of making the work of the ship safer for the men who perform it. and promulgating suggestions or rules for the benefit of the entire industry. Jn later years some of the shipowners have made the Ship Safety Committees investigating bodies. When an accident occurs on board ship, the committee is immediately convened. They visit the scene where the accident oc curred. examine the equipment, interview the eye witnesses and, based on this investiga- Marinc Section 361 tion, submit a written report to the master, who in turn submits the report to the ship owner. This method of investigation serves the useful purpose of presenting the factual situation as it existed at the time of the acci dent. The observations of eye witnesses are related as of a time when the facU-are fresh in their minds. Where a case, which has been investigated in this manner, is turned over to a trained investigator or lawyer, he has the benefit of a fairly comprehensive presentation of the facts, and it has been our experience, that in handling these cases, wc often need only make some further inquiry to develop some phase which the ship investigating committee has not considered. Valuable as these in vestigations may be, however, they arc at best, in my opinion, only preliminary in quiries and ,thcy cannot be relied upon as a complete substitute for the work of the trained investigator. THURSDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 14, 1937 The joint luncheon session of the Marine and Petroleum Sections was called to order hy John E. Long, superintendent of safety. The Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corp., Albany, N. Y., and past president of the National Safety Council. Government Aid in Preventing Injuries to Longshoremen and Harbor Workers By JEWELL W. SWOFFORD Chairman, U. S. Employees' Compensation Commission, Washington, D. C. The Marine Section of the National Safety Council is particularly concerned with the problem of safety as it affects different in dustrial operations, maritime in character. Included are stevedoring and ship repair work upon the navigable waters of the United States. Many thousands of workers arc engaged in these employments and more than 40.000 of these employees were reported injured during the 12 months ended June 30, 1937. As chairman of the United States Em ployees* Compensation Commission during the past four years, I have noted with in creasing concern the number of injuries re ported to the Commission annually under the Longshoremen and Harbor Workers' Com pensation Act. It is difficult to believe that so many men should be needlessly disabled for life or killed as a part of the everyday routine of such industrial operations. But the records are available, and in all loo many instances the reported cause of injury is also a cause for astonishment. Many of those charged with the responsibility for directing these large industrial operations seem indif ferent to the tremendous increase added to operating costs by industrial accidents. There is also another side lo the picture. The workers themselves seemingly have been content to risk life and limb day after day with little regard for their own safely, for they have contributed little to promote safe working practices. Here is a situation diffi cult to understand. There appears lo he but one tenable ex planation. Apparently wc must charge the responsibility for it lo an indifference on the part of a great number of employers and employees lo circumstauces affecting their own best interests. The industrial operations, like other com- 362 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress mcrcial enterprises, arc operated for profit. Tlie employer is in business to make money, ami )is employees give tlicir skill and labor tor the same purpose. Alertness to reduce operating costs and to develop new methods and procedures that promise greater profits i< the mark of an intelligent employer. And at the same time the intelligent employee is eager to increase his annual income and to provide security for his family. There is a mutual interest involved be tween these (wo in all matters of common concern, and certainly a business is neither directed rightly nor o|>cratcd intelligently when either employer or employee is apa thetic towards the development of accident prevention methods for the industry in which l*>th arc engaged. Such an employer fails to take advantage of the opportunity to reduce operating ro-ts and to increase profits di rectly through savings in compensation costs and indirectly through greater efficiency on the pari of his operating personnel. Such ait employee fails to take advantage of the opIKirtunity to increase his earning power di rectly by escaping periods of incapacity for work due to injury. The proof of possible profit through accident prevention in indus trial operations is so overwhelming that it should he one of (lie first considerations of every Imsincss executive ami every wage- earner. The employment* ue arc discussing arc within the scope of Federal authority, and within the purview of The Longshoremen and liarhnr Workers* Compensation Act. The thousands of industrial workers en gaged in these enterprises arc confronted daily with the possibility ol accident while at work, 'flic Federal Government must assume responsibility for protecting tltc physical well-living of these workers since this rc>|H>iiiliihly may not Ik: exercised by the respective stales. It is my conviction, there fore, that it i- clearly the duly of the Fed eral (tovcriinieut to aid actively in the pre vention of accidents in these industries. There ap|>car to he two methods by which the Federal Government may discharge this obligation. It may be able to do *o by co operation or, this method failing, it ap parently must do so by compulsion. The first method is preferable if it enn be made to work successfully. I make this observa tion conditionally, and I raise the question as to die clTcolivctiCss of this method because the answer rests entirely upon the willing ness of industry to extend its full coopera tion to the Government by undertaking to accept and enforce suitable safety regula tions. If the industry as a whole extends this measure of cooperation and will unite in adopting and enforcing approved safety standards and practices in all of its opera tions, the cooperative method can be made to work in an acceptable manner. Under this plan of cooperation the Gov ernment must do its part. In bclutlf of the industry it must determine the cause of ac cidents, prepare safety standards and develop methods and practices for making them ef fective. The United States Employees' Com pensation Commission, under the authority conferred upon it by the Longshoremen and Harbor Workers' Act, apparently is author ized to render this asMtdancc. The law au thorizes the Commission to study and inves tigate safety provisions and tltc causes of accidents, and to make to the Congress of the United States and to employers and in surance carriers recommendations for pre venting such accidents. Acting pursuant to this authority and sub ject to the limited financial resources avail able to it, tltc Commission has endeavored to sell the idea of safety to employers engaged in longshore and harbor work and to assist tlte industry in making voluntary safety plans effective. It is a regrettable fact that the response of the industry as a whole to this proffer of assistance has proved disappoint ing. For some reason not apparent, the in dustry has failed to unite for the purpose of cooperating in the development of accident prevention methods. On the Pacific Coast and in certain ports of the Gulf Coast a keen interest has been *hown. and employer and employee organizations liave cooperated in developing safe working practices and in providing methods for the voluntary en forcement of approved safety codes. The Accident Prevention Bureau or ganized by Marine Associations on the Pa cific Coast furnishes an example of success ful cooperative effort in formulating and ad ministering a voluntary safety code for the prevention of accidents in maritime employ ments. The form uf organization and the methods of enforcement that have operated there with such marked success appear equal!}' appropriate for other sections of the country. It requires only the sincere desire of employers and their willingness to cooper ate with one another to make similar assoeia- Ajarine Section 363 tions equally effective in other localities. However, the industry as a whole lias been apathetic and the sections which have re sponded favorably represent only a minority of the industry- The ports on the Atlantic Coast liave not undertaken similar safety programs, it is from these ports that nearly 54 per cent of the injuries vere reported under the Longshoremen and Harbor Work ers* Compensation Act during the year ended June 30, 1935. Some of the more progressive employers in these ports, acting individually, have installed safety departments and have established excellent safety records, but in stances of this kind arc the exception. There must be a decided increase in in terest shown by the industry as a whole be fore programs for voluntary accident pre vention can be made to function properly. From contacts with leading employers T liave gained the impression that the industn' would not welcome statutory regulations of its operations for the purpose of bringing about greater safety in such employments. But what other alternative is there if the voluntary method fails ? As I have pointed out, this voluntary method lias proved effective wherever a gen uine attempt has been made to apply it to individual purts. It has proved equally suit able for a sectional safety program, and there appears to be no good reason why it could not be made to operate effectively upon a national scale, provided the industry actually wants it to operate. The development of this voluntary method will continue to have the practical assistance of the U. S. Employees' Compensation Com mission. Careful studies of the causes of ac cidents comprise, of course, one of the first essentials in devising plans for preventing them. These studies have Irecn made regu larly by the Commission and they may now he compiled to cover nine years' experience under the Longshoremen and Harbor Work ers' Act, and will be made available to the industry. The Commission is also conducting investigations of all fatal injuries as they oc cur, and special reports of such cases will be made available from mouth to month. The operations of employers with poor safety records will be studied with a view of urging such employers to adopt safer working prac tices. During the past year the Commission be gan the publication of a monthly safety bulle tin to be utilized as far as practicable for the promotion oi safety in this emplox muiit. 'Die facilities of this publications arc available to all employers within the purview of the Longshoremen and Haiboi Workers' Act and youi suggestions a* to how it can be used to the best advantage in promoting safer practices are earnestly requested. The Commission will assist further in the formation ol additional local, state, and re gional committees for this industry, and will supply to such committee? available material relating to the cause of injuries and sugges tions for preventing them. The Commission can and will do these things and will aid in such other ways as may be proper to help the industry prevent accidents l*y voluntary regu lation. However, more than this is necessary to insure a fair trial of voluntary safety code enforcement. Coordination of the work ami cooperation on a national scale arc essential. The Commission lias encouraged this for some time, but with little success due to the apathy of important sections of the industry. There should f>c a national safety code for stevedoring operations that will at least pro vide minimum standard requirements oi safety for this employment, and there should be appropriate facilities for the voluntary en forcement of this code. It is not my pur|K>sc to discuss the provisions of a code of this kind or the manner of its enforcement. These may be worked out with comparatively little difficulty if the industry will evidence a real desire to make this voluntary plan ojKratc successfully. The second method by which the Govern ment may aid in preventing injuries in this employment is the compulsory system. The Federal Government tnay by law provide for the safety of workers in this industry and prescribe penalties for failure to conform to such standards as may be established. A safety law of this kind might he in the form of a statutory code of safety regulations, or it might confer upon a Federal administra tive agency authority to presrrilic an admin istrative code, which when promulgated, would have the full force and effect of law. Such a compulsory system would un doubtedly make it possible to eliminate un safe working practices, hut it would be more costly to the industry than voluntary regu lation. It would necessarily entail consider able expense for administration, which in my opinion should properly be charged against the industry. The enforcement of a cotn- 364 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress puLory code, either statutory or administra tive, would present certain complex adminis trative problems, particularly in connection with the servicing of vessels of foreign regis try*. Among some groups in the industry there apparently is considerable sentiment in favor of the compulsory system for the pre vention of accidents; but I cannot escape the feeling that the industry as a whole is un sympathetic to it. Following a brief address by Governor Harold G. Hoffman, of New Jersey, a sta tistical review and forecast of the petroleum industry was presented by H. N. Blakeslee, Director, Department of Accident Preven tion, American Petroleum Institute. Presentation of awards in the 1937 Petro leum Section Safety Contest were made by Mr. Long. Details of the contest and the names of the winners will be found in the record of the Petroleum Section starting on page 489. THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14,1937 Eliminating Dangers of Cargo Hazards By BILLINGS WILSON Assistant General Manager, Port of New York Authority, New York City The port interests of this country have invested upwards of one billion dollars in harbur facilities which provide employment to more than 300,000 men. Experience has shown that waterfront fire losses usually run into six or seven figures, and we are con stantly seeking ways and means of reducing this risk. When several cargo fires and ex plosions occurred on ships in our harbors, with heavy loss in property and life,-we undertook, to find out who was responsible. The burning and sinking of the steamship "Muenchen'* at her pier in New York harbor in February 1930 provided the initial impetus for our activities. This was a passenger'and general cargo carrier in part loaded with bags of potash (or nitrates) stowed on top of peat moss and rolls of print paper. A few hours after discharging commenced a small fire developed in the peat mots. An explo sion occurred blowing plates off her bottom and site settled in the mud over one of our Imsint rapid transit tunnels. We opened up tlic subject of marine rules with the Interstate Commerce Commission and at once encountered opposition from the steamship fraternity who inferred that they were fully competent to run their ships and did not need any suggestions on stowing cargo, hazardous or otherwise. Admitting their many capabilities we offered a few pointed examples, and things got going in the Commission with the result that their rules covering the packing, mark ing, stowing and handling of explosives and other dangerous cargo finally became effec tive on April 1, 1935. These rules are bind ing upon all common carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce by water within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States and upon all shippers making shipments via such common carriers. It might be well at this point to have a clearer picture of what is meant by the general term "Hazardous Cargo." The Marine Rules of the Interstate Commerce Commission recognize some II groupings and specify precisely how each dangerous commodity shall be packed, what kind of a special colored label it shall carry, if any. and how and where it shall be stowed in the ship. These groups arc as follows . Marine Section 365 1. FORBIDDEN ARTICLES, such as nitro glycerin, dry fulminates, wet rags, oily waste, dry fish scrap, and many others--not permitted to be carried at all as ship's cargo on account of great risk of explosion or spontaneous igni tion. 2. EXPLOSIVES--substances capable of conversion with great rapidity into gaseous form with evolution of heat, of which there are three sub-classifica tions : (a) Dangerous explosives such as dynamite and all high explosives. (b) Less dangerous explosives such as fireworks and smokeless powder, and (c) Relatively safe explosives such as small arms ammunition. 3. INFLAMMABLE LIQUIDS (Red Label) are those having a flash point of 80* F. or less. They give off inflamma ble vapors at ordinary temperatures which when mixed with air in an in closed space can be exploded with violence. Examples are gasoline, alco hol, ether. 4 INFLAMMABLE SOLIDS (Yellow Label) are those solids other than ex plosives which are liable to cause fires by ignition through friction, through ab sorption of moisture, or through spon taneous chemical changes. Examples are matches, celluloid scrap, charcoal. 5. OXIDIZING MATERIALS (Yellow Labe!) include all commodities that yield oxygen regularly to stimulate combustion of organic matter. Ex amples are nitrates and chlorates. 6. CORROSIVE LIQUIDS (Whit* La bel) include the strong mineral acids and other strongly corrosive liquids that are liable to cause fires when mixed with chemicals or organic matter, or to dam age other cargo in case of leakage. Ex amples are nitric add, sulphuric acid, caustic soda. 7. POISONOUS ARTICLES (Poison Label) include three groups: (a) Poison gases or volatile liquids which are highly poisonous when present in the air even in small proportions, such as hydrocyanic acid, phosgene, etc. (b) Poisonous liquids or solids chiefly dangerous by the actual contact with the body or by contamination of foods and feeds. The vapors of some of this class are also of fensive or dangerous. Examples arc carbolic acid, arsenic and the cyanides. (c) Tear gas, which is intensely irri tating to the eyes, nose, or throat but not dangerously poisonous in normal concentrations. 8. COMPRESSED GASES, with two sub groups: (a) Inflammable (Red Label) such as acetylene and hydrogen. (b) Non-inflammable (Green Label) such as helium or compressed air. Compressed gases are commonly shipped in steel cylinders at pressures varying from 50 to 1800 pounds per square inch. The inflammable gases aie liable to be ignited if they escape, while any of them may burst theic cylinder through internal pressure such as expo sure to a fire in a ship's hold. These cylinders have exploded when dropped or exposed to external violence, such as could occur by dropping down a hatch or out of a sling. 9. COMBUSTIBLE LIQUIDS arc those having a flash point above 80* F. and be low 150*F., such as turpentine, whiskey, tar oil. 10. ODOROUS ARTICLES arc those which have strong or . offensive odors, such as sheep dip, aniline oil, bleaching powders. 11. SEMI-HAZARDOUS ARTICLES are those which have some properties which will under some conditions cause igni tion, such as sulphur, oakum, rags, jute, sawdust, calcium carbide. Gasoline is a hazardous commodity in a class by itself. Almost any land of an acci dent, where it is present, can be counted upon to produce at least a serious flash fire. Most of the gasoline in the marine trade moves in bulk in tankers whose fires are always news because they are so spectacular. But large quantities of gasoline arc also handled in drums and cases on general cargo ships, such as the "Fijian." which burned and sank in mid-Pacific last March after reporting by wireless that gasoline had exploded in hc< forward hold. Most big tanker operators preach and practice safety for their own self-protection. Their ships are well built and their crews are well trained. Unfortunately regulations 366 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress cannot be written to make a big hole for (lie bit' cat ami a little hole for the little cal. and there arc some small operators, particularly on our Atlantic scnl>oard, who do not main tain high standards of equipment or opera- lit HI. Coming now 10 the general or package cargo field, the new Interstate Commerce Commission rules are at present the best insurance against hazardous cargo accidents providing vessel operators will require their employees to be familiar with and conform to them. Tle.sc rules start right at the fac tory and require that hazardous commodities must be ]>ackcd, described, and labeled in a verv precise manner and a series of colored lal>cls is mandatory for certain of the more hazardous classifications to facilitate identi fication. The stowage rules, if followed, greatly reduce the risk of spontaneous comiiusiinn. explosions and asphyxiation. The Steaml>oal Inspection Service lias been backward with respect to promulgating general stun age rules but 1 am informed ibai they will shortly adopt the Interstate Commerce Commission rules In toto and make them applicable to all vessels whether common carriers or otherwise. Even though vmi may not he operating as a common car rier you should voluntarily-observe the In terstate Commerce Commission rules for the sake of your passengers and crew as well as your ship. In the general cargo field cotton and ni trate cargoes arc the outstanding fire risks. The hazard with cotton is spontaneous cumhii'tiou. A nitrate cargo possesses the unholy faculty of generating its own oxygen in ease of trouble, and there is no known mctluul oi itt|pitg a nitrate fire in the holt) ot a ship once it lias a good start, except hv scuttling the ship. Explosives themselves, strange as it may Him. arc the least troublesome, This is largely liccausc of their limited volume ;`thc fear that all regulatory authorities liave ot diem, and the fact tliat they are always given >|H:cial handling by (rained men. The red llag. red paint, and the word "DANGER" are all over the place. In this connection I commend a copy oi the Interstate Commerce Commission roles to c\cry pier superintend ent. master and mate. Do not worry about the men not reading this booklet as it is much too interesting and w ill answer their hazard ous cargo questions in a very practical way. Our Federal Steamboat Inspection Serv ice (Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navi gation) should he the last word in the matter of maritime safely from hazardous cargo risks and their rules and their enforcement procedure should command the respect of business men and the investing public. The cargo rules so far promulgated have been formulated for the most part by members of the trade, working in close cooperation with officials of tlic Department of Commerce. The ijalion is gradually getting a fine set ot maritime safety rules drafted, in large part, bv the industry itself. Let's give them a chance, including the men wlto enforce tliein. Don't condone any of your captains offering a steamboat inspector $20 to facili tate an inspection. We all know the Curse and the temptations of the gratuity system and how seriously it can be abused, and the potential consequences where safety is in volved are more thau criminal.. Changes in ilic rules w ill, of course, be'necessary' from time to time and can be made in the proper manner, as experience indicates, but in the meantime local inspectors must not be en couraged to violate or ignore the rules. And lastly a word in recognition of the crews of the vessels. The)' give their best uHoat or ashore and accept the risks allotted to them without question. Even (hough he carry no passengers and hull and cargo arc insured to the limit, an operator should not trillc with the lives of his crew. Don't fire a mate who reports unsafe conditions on your ship. Don't ask your captains to forego repairs or replacements of equipment which they feel arc necessary for the ship's safety just Idealise you can get some other master, who needs the job, to take her out for you. It might open your eyes to sit where I liave sat in this work for several years and read the hundreds of letters and reports that liave come to me; desperate cries from men on ships and their relatives ashore about conditions that should be remedied. .Some of them possibly were from malcontents hut others were obviously genuine in their con cern. 1 considered passing some of them along to the vessel owners involved but abandoned the idea when there appeared to be more interest in locating the complainant than the complaint. In closing 1 leave with you six suggestions lor reducing (though not guaranteeing to eliminate) the dangers of cargo hazards: 1. Educate your men to understand, and require them to follow without excuses, the Marine Section 367 Federal regulation* which have been drafted for your guidance. Z. Make certain that your manifests and -towage plans indicate ah hazardous com modities including any gas producing refrig erants. 3. Require your ship masters to notify the I'nitcd States Coast Guard by radio at the immediate outbreak of any fire on board a ship carrying any hazardous commodities, and give the name of the United States port which the vessel intends to enter while afire and the approximate time of arrival. (Of 18 vessels arriving on fire in U. S. ports since 1030, of which I have a record, only 11 gave advance information.) 4. Modify the enforcement procedure of the Steainlxi.it Inspection Service as to put the burden of correcting unsafe conditions squarely on the owner tl the vessel I))' re quiring immediate removal of the vessel's certificate by the inspector, lur any serious violation of the safety law*--same to l>c re turned on application to local inspectors after compliance with the law. 5. Require the Coast Guard to seize and impound all vessels without certificates. 6. Provide the marine industry with a joint, privately supported technical agency for dealing with hazardous cargo problems, investigating accidents, studeiug causes and advising on improved technique. Creating a Sense of Responsibility in the Individual Seaman By ALBERT O. PEGQ Superintending Engineer, Union Oil Co. of Calif., Los Angelei All steamship companies who are inter ested in safety have established on board tltcir vessels a safety committee whose func tion it is to investigate all accidents and make recommendations to avoid a recurrence. The findings of these committees, as a rule, indi cate that something was wrong mechani cally. with recommendations for mechanical corrective measures, and the company may -pend a large sum of money to correct a seemingly hazardous condition which in all probability existed for many years without causing an accident. Very seldom do these reports give any history* of, or recommendations about the man. The man usually gels well again and returns to the job, or if permanently dis abled, he will most likely sue for damages. If he return* to work he will do so with the thought in mind that, "Well, I should worry; they will fix that condition so I won't get hurt like that again." And the company usually docs just that thing, thus leaving the man in a stale of mental laziness regarding his responsibly towards safe practices. If he is permanently injured and sues for damages, the first and paramount issue made by his lawyer will he the responsibility of the company for his injuries, and in nine out of ten cases the company will be found fully responsible and pays heavy damages. This responsibility must be divided. Why should the employer carry all of it? For the present v>e should at tempt to obtain a 50-50 division and watch results. It is my suggestion to give consideration to the certificating of llir unlicensed person nel aboard ship with reference to their knowledge of safe practices. Establish in each steamship company a committee of at least three niemlwrs whose knowledge of safe practices in the marine held would make them competent to ex amine the applicant and issue a certificate indicating that he was found to possess com petent knowledge of safe marine practices. The certificate would in no way indicate the examining committee declared the ap plicant a safe worker. It would merely state that lie was examined and found to have a knowledge of what safely meant. The certificate would he designed to indi cate an accident by punching a hole in the margin. As time goes on and sufficient certificates arc issued, the employer will give preference to holders of unblemished certificates. The certificate could be issued by the Na tional Safety Council in suitable engraved form and worded to indicate tliat the Council considers the bearer to have good common knowledge of what safe practices are. 368 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Training of Officers By CAPT. W. o. BOWEN Manager, Safety Department, United States P. A I. Agency. Inc., New Orleans When wc commenced safety training of officers, it was found that there was a minority of keen alert.officers who strive for an ideal and take every opportunity to keep themselves well informed of new* develop ments. The majority of officers seemed mainly concerned with their everyday work--navi gation--cargo handling, stowage, etc., with but little serious thought or consideration given to the application of safe practice principles so as to prevent accidents cither to themselves or their men. This state of affairs was analyzed and it was determined this apparent indifference and lack of safety consciousness were due to deficiencies in the officers' safety educa tion and training. They did not wish to be victims of an accident nor did they wish to see their men injured; they simply had not been trained to recognize accident hazards or to administer safe practices. And the accident toll had become staggering. Oper ating profits were being greatly reduced due to the cost of accident plaints to the steam ship owners. expected that the unlicensed personnel will perform their work and function in an efficient and safe manner. Training of Officers T^e safety training of officers is a matter that cannot be performed except through a course of systematic instruction by experi enced safety engineers. Haphazard methods become dangerous. The best results in officer safety training are derived through the medium of ship safety meetings in port. The Masters and officers are thereby trained in safety princi ples, practices and in how to conduct their own safety meetings at sea. Three safety fundamentals are taught as follows: 1. Proper instruction. 2. Proper supervision. 3. Safe methods. Instruction Object of Training We always endeavor to explain that the object of all training is skill and efficiency. To be efficient, it is essential that all members of our merchant marine should have pride, ambition, and loyally. To be well trained and skilled, it is necessary that all officers must possess qualities of courage, resourcefulness, leadership, safety activity and sufficient moral fiber to require that none but safe practices should exist aboard any vessel on which they serve. Wc must all recognize that the licensed and unlicensed personnel are complements of each other; each lias its important duties; each must have thorough safety training; each depends upon the other; safety ineffi ciency on either part would lessen or destroy the efficiency* of the ship. Therefore, it is a corollary that unless the officers possess proper safety training and require the ex ercise of proper safe practices in the con duct of ship affairs, it cannot lie reasonably By proper instruction wc mean that ex perience should always demonstrate that the safe way of doing work is the best way. Therefore, the department head or subordi nate officer in direct charge of men should always think ahead for safety before giving an order. See that reasonably safe working conditions exist and explain in each order what safety precautions arc necessary. Give definite instructions so that safe methods wilt be used. Make certain that the man to whom the orders are given understands their nature; if there is any* doubt make the man repeat the order in detail. Supervision By "proper supervision" we mean that no officer should give an order and then proceed to forget about it; every* officer who issues an order has the status and responsibility of a supervisor--he must see that the instruc tions previously given arc properly executed. Marine Section 369 The supervisor must understand the haz ards involved and should make sure that the necessary safety precautions are em ployed. Xo master, department head, or other officer ever acquires real proficiency in his work unless he religiously observes and practices these fundamental safety doctrines at all times. The old practice of resorting to lame excuses and alibis in the eveut of ptevenlabtc accidents must be thrown over board. Each officer must be held responsible for the safety of each man working under him. The issuance of proper safety instructions and check-ups through supervision are but efficient methods; it is but plain, ordinary common sense--thcie are no secrets to acci dent prevention. When it is considered that a large majority of all ship accidents are preventable, then the problem is clearly one of operating efficiency. steps may be taken to avoid a serious acci dent later. Provision should always be made for the mechanical safeguarding of every hazard of a physical or mechanical nature. Although accident statistics may indicate that not more than 15 per cent of accidents can be prevented by mechanical safeguards, the fact is that the psychological effect of complete mechanical safeguarding goes a long way toward establishing the idea among all hands that the company is sincerely inter ested in safety. Complete meclianical safeguarding helps greatly to get all concerned to appreciate the importance of safe work. To neglect obvious means for safeguarding is to set up a tre mendous handicap in developing the neces sary cooperation to prevent the other 85 per cent of accidents which can only be pre vented by safety education--proper instruc tions and proper supervision. Safe Methods Inspections To train officer personnel in the art of preventing accidents, they must be taught to think out safe methods. As a guide in the development of safe working methods aboard ship, a manual or handbook covering the subject of accident prevention and safe practices has been pub lished and is available without cost. In order that the greatest benefit may be obtained, it is necessary that frequent references be made to safe practices--it is never enough to speak casually of them. When this man ual is studied, read and reviewed at ships' safety meetings, all officers Income indoc trinated with the spirit of safety and in the actual practice of safety measures. Herein one will find the most practical accident prevention technique ever devised for safe ship operations. Mechanical Safeguards As a part of the officers' training course, wc point out that preventive work is much better than to lock the door after the horse is stolen. We instruct that every near acci dent is a warning which should initiate care ful investigation on the part of the Master and Department Head so that preventive Too many officers circulate about a ship seeing nothing. We instruct officers in the inspection tech nique---how to see and recognize accident hazards and unsafe working practices. We emphasize that regular and systematic inspection on the part of the master and department heads is an essential factor in keeping each department safe.. Crew's quarters should be inspected daily for cleanliness, ventilation, hazards, etc. Accident Investigation It is surprising how few* officers have ever shown any genuine interest in protecting (he interests of the owner relative to procuring accurate accident data. A department head will casually write out a personal injury report as stated by an injured man, pass the report on to the Master, and the latter merely forwards it to the office. Due to these lax methods, steamship owners have been mulcted for years by false and fraudu lent claims. In many cases, minor accidents have later been magnified into cases of major degree. The entire system has been loosely administered and lias been inefficient. Instructions should be given as to how to 370 Twcutysixth Notional Safety Congress involute accidents. Emphasize that inves tigations should not l>e confined merely to apparently >crion.< accidents, hut should apply to minor accidents as well because every minor accident lias the possibility of licing a major accident the next time it happens, or it not investigated, it may be manufactured into a major case. The same causes which result in a minor injury might just as well result in a major injury. I! a master is guilty of sending a slovenly personal injury report through to the office, the claim's manager should provide the marine- superintendent with a copy, and the latter should jack up the master in no un certain terms. Such detrimental coopera tion will tend toward increased efficiency in this respect. A well trained officer is a great asset to his employer--the shipowner. The coopera tion that is developed in the prevention of accidents is easily transferred to cooperation in all of the activities of the departments aboard ship. Furthermore, tliere has never Itccn any lime in 'industrial relations when factors which build goodwill are more valuable than today. Marine Section Safety Contest The high lights of the 1937 Marine Sec tion Safely Contest were reviewed by Cap tain I [olden. Ninety-one units were entered in the Sixth Annual Contest of the Marine Section. Kcptcsuiicd in tlic content were 83,331 men who worked 8,820,852 man-hours, with 1.005 disabling injuries. The average fre<(iich"\ rate was 13.016. The average rate in the 1936 contest was 12.629. .Seven contestants finished without a single disabling injury. Twelve plaques were pre sented to first place winners; ten certificates were awarded to winners of second and third places. Awards were presented by Harry Guilbert, Director, Bureau of Safety and Compensa tion, The Pullman Co., Chicago. Winners of phupies were as follows; Liners Division--The New England Steamship Co., New York City. Tunkers Division--Lago Shipping Co., Ltd., Aruba, i\r. \V. I. Harbor Equipment Division, Croup A-- U. S. Engineer Dept., South Pacific Div., San Francisco, Calif. Harbor Equipment Division, Group If-- Three lied for first place--Standard Oil Co. of Louisiana. Baton Rouge; Tide Water Associated Oil Co., Associated Div., San Francisco, Calif.; Atlantic Coast Line K. K. Co., Port Tampa, Fla. Stevedoring Division--Lago Oil & Trans port Co., Ltd,, Aruba, N. W. I. Shipbuilding ami Repair Division, Group A--U. S. Navy Yard, Mare Island, Calif. Shipbuilding uud Repair Division, Croup B--Four tied for first place--Erie Railroad Co., Weehawken, N. The New York Central Railroad Co., New- York City; U. S. Engineer Department, Soutli Atlantic Div., Richmond, Va ; Mystic Steamship Co., Boston, Mass. ADJOURNMENT Meat Packing, Tanning and Leather Industries Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman---Wilson P.aj.mkr, United Shoe Machinery Corp., Beverly, Mas*. Vice-Chairman--Phii.ii* G. Rhoads, J. E. Rhoads & Sons, Wilmington. Del. Secretary--A. A. Sieheveld, The E. Kahn's Sons Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. .Vetvs Letter Editor--Walter Weno, Armour & Company, Chicago, 111. Engineering Committee Chairman--Hamoi.d M. Toombs, Armour and Company, Chicagu, 111. Membership Committee Chairman---H. G. Schakknkm, Schaffner Brothers Co., Erie, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--A. E. Sinclair, Kingan & Company, Indianapolis. 1ml. Program Committee Chairman--Henry I). Tefft, Institute of American Meal Packers, Chicago. 111. Publicity Committee Chuirtnau--H. F. Wiu.HITR, Brown Shoe Co., St. Louis, Mo. Statistics Committee Chairman--Howard V. E. Huntkk, Hunter Packing Co.. East St. Louis, III. Members at Large-- Glenn U. Bonsem, Elk Tanning Co., Ridgway, Pa. N. L. Ukai.nakd, Swift & Company, Chicago, III. H. L. Clover, International Shoe Co., St. Louis, Mo. E. E. Drews. Libby. McNeil & Libby, Oiicago, III. Maury Hopkins, Wilson & Company. Chicago, III. T. H. Jones. American Hair and Felt Co, Chicago, III. John Lauehman, Armour and Company, National Stock Yards. 111. E. J. McCann, Jacob E. Decker & Sous, Mason City, Iowa. W. F. McClellan, Armour and Company, Chicago, III. A. C. Micheneh, John Morrell and Co., Ottumwa, Iowa. Dean Moneymaker, International Shoe Co., St. Louis, Mo. R. R. Roach, Geo. A. Hormel & Co., Austin, Minn. Epcak K. Ruth, The American Oak Leather Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Officers Elected for 1937-38 Genera/ Chairman--A. E. Sinclair, Kingan & Co., Indianapolis, lmi Vice-Chairman--Philip G. Rhoads, J. E. Rhoads & Sons, Wilmington, Del. Secretary--A. A. Sieheveld, The E. Kahn's Sons Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Xeses Letter Editor--John McArdle, Annum & Co., Kansas City, Kansas. Engineering Committee Chairman--C. W. Sloan, Swift & Co., Chicago, III. 371 372 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Membership Committee Chairman--H. G. Schafpner, Schaffner Brothers Co., Erie, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--A. C Michenek, John Morrell and Co., Ottumwa, Iowa. Program Committee Chairman--E. J. McCann, Jacob E. Decker &' Sous, Mason City, I owa. f'nl'ticity Committee Chairman -- Hi.nky J). Tekft, Institute of American Meat Packers, Chicago. HI. Statistics Committee CAmrnmn---Wai.tkk Weim, Aimour it Co., Chicago, Ml. Members at Lann -- (ij.kvn L*. I 1on.sk*, Elk Tanning Co., Ridgway, Pa. X. I.. ilkAi.NAKi), Swift & Company, Chicago, III; ' H. I. Ci.oyku. International Shoe Co., St. Louis, Mo. E. \i. Drews, Libby, McNeil & Libby, Chicago, III. M.\i;hy Hiu'kjns, Wilson & Comimtiy, Chicago. III. T. M. Junks, American Hair ami Felt Co., Chicago, III. W. I*. McOkij.ax, Armour and Company, Chicago. 111. \Yii.nmn I'ai.mem. I'nitcd Shoe Machinery Corp., Beverly, Mass. K. K. Kn.u'it. Geo. A. Hormcl it Co., Austin, Minn. Kih;\r K. Rutii. The American Oak Leather Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. W. K. Tknnf.kv, Armour & Co., Oklahoma City, Okla. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 The opening so^-ion wa> called to order and Co., Chicago, wliu presided in the als by X. L. Kraitard, IVrsnimcl Dirertor, Swift xcncc of General Chairman Wilson Palmer. Personal Protective Equipment in Meat Packing Plants By E. J. McCANN Employment Manager and Safety Director, Jacob E. Decker A Sons Division of Armour A Co., Mason City, Iowa In October. 19J3, our company was pur chased by Armour it Company. This allitialion gave us the benefit of a very complete safely program. While we had Itad our machinery guarded and Ixul used some per sonal protective equipment, yet this was not to be compared with om* new setup. W. F\ McCIvllan, safety supervisor lor Armour & C ompany, visited our plant shortly after (he transfer and talked to our employees. He outlined the safety program in oi*cration throughout the Armour organizations and instructed our people in the value of per sonal protective equipment. Our employees entered wholeheartedly in to this program and arc notv using the fol lowing safety devices to prevent injuries to themselves and their fellow workers. Wire mesh Anger guards arc used through out our industry and have saved the em ployees numberless knife cuts and lost time. This guard is made to cover the thumb and index huger, which takes care of the major ity of the operations. This guard has been a big boon to our industry, as about 70 per cent of our men are employed in work that requires the use of knives or other sharp cutting tools. Meat Packing, Tanning and Leather Industries Section 373 Knife guards placed on the handles of knives prevent the man's hands from slipping over the blade, when the point of the knife strikes an object. There arc various types of these guards. A metal guard used on the side of the knife at the heel or underneath is very successful. The leather strap or thong used by the sticker works out satis factorily and in some operations the chain swivel guard fastened to the end of the knife handle can be used advantageously. Knife pouches are very essential to butchers for transporting their knives to and from work. They prevent injuries to the men and also fellow* workers. Abdominal protectors or leather aprons arc used on all operations where it is neces sary for a butcher to pull his knife towards him. Abdominal injuries often prove fatal. This brings to mind a ease we had in our plant five years ago. We had difficulty in con verting one of our old butchers to our safety program. He was the type that scoffed at new methods and believed in the old tobacco cud for knife cuts, until one day while boning hams his knife slipped and in flicted a flesh wound in his abdomen. He turned white, said lie knew he would die. After a thorough examination we were con vinced this wound was slight, yet it took considerable time to convince this man, as he was completely unnerved. This man walked into the office the next morning and said he was sold on our safety program and told me lie would wear a suit of armor if we advised it. Skull guards arc worn by employees in our hog coolers, beef coolers, ice storage, by beef luggers, beef dropper, and floor men on the hog kill, and all employees that find it neces sary to do work where there is danger of head injuries. Wire mesh guards have reduced the haz ard of knife cuts caused while steeling knives, nevertheless we insist on a leather guard pulled down over the steel. It is in expensive and takes care of the employee that might by chance attempt to steel his knife while not wearing the finger guard. Goggles protect one of (itc most vital parts of a man's body and we are fortunate today in being able to purchase goggles for every type of work in our industry. We fully real ize that bones can he set and in a given time the employee can return to work in a normal condition. Tendons can be sutured with ex cellent results in 80 per cent of the cases. In fection can be combatted, hernias can be fixed, but a lost eye is gone forever. There fore, goggles arc very essential to every em ployee that is exposed to eye hazards. We have just gone through the experience of a lost eye, the first one in the history of our plant. I would like to tell you the cir cumstances surruunding this injury, as I feel we all learn from the experiences of others. Our construction foreman pot several of our employees to work tearing down a ce ment tower. He equipped each man on (lie job with a pair of goggles with instructions to wear them while engaged in this work. Everything progressed smoothly until the second day when the man oj>eraling the air hammer got the drill stuck between some concrete and reinforcing rods. Being unable to pull the hammer loose he Un>k a sledge hammer, raised the goggles upon his foic- liead and proceeded to drive the point of the hammer backwards. A sliver from the sledge or hammer struck him in the left eye and penetrated the pupil. In order to protect the other eye, the doctors deemed it advisable to remove the injured one. This man suf fered severe pain for several days and is now trying to become accustomed to wearing a glass eye. Safety toe shoes ami hoots arc (wo more items that have played an iiufiortant rule in preventing injuries in our industry. There arc several loc hazards in packing plants that can be eliminated through the use of these items. I want to congratulate the shoe and l>oot manufacturers for their untiring efforts and the progress they liavc made on this protection. Arm guards prevent injuries to the work men's forearm and arc used by hog headers, shoulder boners, ham boners, fat back trimmers, plate trimmers and all other opera tions that bring the workman's knife close to the forearm. Safety belts arc provided to employees working on our electrical equipment in the ice storage tanks and any operations that ne cessitate men working above the ground where it is difficult to build platforms. There arc various safety belts on the market today ami there is no reason why the pro|>cr belt cannot he secured for any operation in our industry. The switch boards and transformers are protected with an iron fence. The gate is locked and the keys arc retained by the head electrician and our chief engineer. This per- 374 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress mils only those with authority to enter. The floors arc covered with 1 inch rubber mattine which will withstand 5.000 volts. Elec tricians working on switch lajards and oil circuit breakers arc equipped with rubber blankets to prevent contacting the opposite phase. The late type switches arc built to disconnect all working jwrts from the line and can be locked in an open position while men arc working. Other type switches in use arc equipped with doors that cannot be opened until the switch lias Itcen pulled. Kitsc pullers, safety pliers, blue point handle screw drivers, safety ladders, safety toe shots with sewed soles, rubber gloves and belts for tine work are oilier safety devices licit will prevent injuries. Safety ladders arc furnished all workers ami hav e reduced injuries by preventing falls ami fallen tools. They also avoid delay to the worker, as the present tyic ladder is built with recesses in the top which enable the workman to keep all his tools at his finger tips. Safety shoes on bottom of ladders and non-skid safety scaffolds arc essential. Respirators are worn by spray painters, rail cleaners, and on grinding operations in ihc machine shop by employees spraying in sect powder, and any operations that may arise where dust causes a hazard. We maintain two masks at our machine shop and two at the power house. The masks at the power house arc kept in metal con tainers on the outside wall at the south and cast entrance. This gives the worker an op portunity to don the mask in the open air and makes it convenient ns invariably men will leave the building when ammonia is escaping and attempt to go back for a mask. Rubber hoods, gloves, and aprons are used while spraying caustic during the process of washing smoke houses. Hog shacklcrs wear padded shingtiards to prevent hog bites and back .slap of shackle chains. In the wool house 50 millimeter spectacles with rubber frames, also rubber gloves arc used during the process of depilation. Salt tablets cannot be classed directly as protective safety equipment, nevertheless I feel they play an indirect part in the safety program, as they protect the employees' health in avoiding cramps, dizziness, and fatigue on hot days. An illustrated talk on "Safeguards Used ments" was given by H. L. Clover. Safety in I.ealher ke-Mauutucturing K*lahlixh- Director, International Shoe Co., St, Louis. THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 4 Why the Employer Is Not Responsible By CLAYTON C. KELLER Claims Department, Wilson & Co., Kansas City, Kan. It is my job |u prove to you that the employer is not responsible for accident.*. All large employer* of nun nuiu act through agent*, servants, and employers. They arc member* of national, state, and local safety organization*. They receive help from these agencies through bulletins, safety meetings, classes on various phases of the safely inurement arc attended by llictr men in a constant endeavor to learn more from the other fellow, as well as to help the oilier fellow by relating his experiences. The employer hires safely supervisors because of a genuine desire that everything Meat Packing, Tanning and Leather industries Section 375 possible shall he done to bring about a safe place to work. NTo better advertisement for any industry can be had than that it's a Safe Place to Work. The safety supervisor attends to the details of education along safety hues. He superv ises the selection and erection of bulletin boards, provides suitable motion pictures, directs safety contests. He studies particular hazards, investigates ac cidents, should one occur, thus preventing recurrence by removing the cause. Safety appliances arc recommended, such as guards, goggles, warning signs, booklets, containing safety rules and safe practice instructions arc issued. The responsibility for a continuous cam paign of accident prevention rests on the employer. But that does not mean that an employer should be held lesponsible for the accident, should one occur. Under the common law an employer in an action for damages in a personal injury suit had three defenses: the doctrine of assumption of risk; the fellow servant rule; or contributory negligence. In the old days an employee assummed the risk naturally incident to his employ ment. If, due to the carelessness of a fellow servant, a man was injured, no responsi bility fell on the employer. II a man, then, due to livs own carelessness, became injured, the employer was sorry, but that was about all. Workmen's compensation laws have brought about an economic awakening to the value of safety, and the employers every where are beginning to see the light. One cement company close io Kansas City lias gone over ten years without a lost time accident. This is a splendid record, but it can't go on forever. Some day they too will have an accident, but who is it that will hold tins company responsible? No one, of course, because such a record can not be obtained except through strict ad herence to safe rules and practices brought about by a continuous campaign of educa tion ntid supervision, the cost of which has nil been l>ornc by the employer. Responsibility for Accidents Responsibility means the obligation to answer lor an act done, and to repair any injury it may have caused, in other words, answerable, accountable or liable. If a man is hurt arising out of and in the course of his employment due to an accident under statutory law only is the employer held answerable, accountable or liable. So that the employer may lie responsible but onlv because the state legislature passed the law that made him so. Therefore, it seems foolish for one to try to prove an employer Is not responsible for accidents when every one knows the work men's compensation act makes him so. Let's for the sake of argument substitute another word which I think is really (lie word the sponsors of this program had in mind. The Word Blame Blame, according to Webster, means im putation of fault. An employer may hire a one legged man who because of his disability falls and breaks his neck. The employer may be responsible but certainly is not to blame. He may hire a man with a hernia that becomes strangulated so that the man dies. The employer is rcs]>onsibtc, but surely there is no imputation of fault. A one-eyed man may become involved in an accident that but for his disability lie could have avoided; of course, the employer is responsible, but injuslifiably so, and certainly not to blame. Out of an experience of over twenty' year* as manager of the casualty department of my company, l can not recall a single accident to an employee that was caused by the negligence of the employer alone. An efficient surgical and nursing staff approved by the American College of Sur gcons serves to effectually reduce the period of disability in those infrequent cases of lost time accidents. ^ Industry everywhere is going the limit In reduce accidents. Workmen's compensation laws have taken away the old defenses, so that now* it is not only the humane thing to do, but accident prevention actually pays dividends. Your very presence nt this meet ing indicates that your employer is not merely interested but anxious (bat you ac quire all the knowledge possible of the many safely problem* common to our in dustry, SO that you may return to your rc- spcctive plants with a sincere determination to stamp out forever this wholly unneces sary loss of life and suffering. 370 T-Menty-sixth National Safety Congress Why the Supervisor Is Not Responsible By CURTIS W. SLOAN Master Mechanic and Chief Engineer, Swift & Co., Kansas City, Kansas The supervisor* or foremen in an organ isation are undoubtedly largely responsible for the success or failure of a safely move* ment and are now commonly recognized as the key men in such work. But this is true only when certain other conditions are ful filled. If wc get the idea that the foreman is responsible for all work in his department and therefore i$ responsible for safety, wc will not have any degree of success with a safety movement. Wc must realize that this foreman got his job because he had been trained ha the duties and responsibilities of the department over a long period of lime. He is. therefore, quite capable of handling all ordinary dttt*r of the job. When, however. r aUo give lua the rcsiKMisibilitv fur rite aim of km. dr partment. wc mu-1, if me want good reuilth, give him the nece**r> ttamtag wd MHurtts tion that he la* been guru *m Ut* utWv duties. ()lhcTwi*r hr OHWnri k held rr>|Kintblr fir vlV\ >mm In m fitted to cx.jk' with tUr training or cAiennwr 4wr U* In Itandlmg hi* tliianmnii *> -wttw-t vi*ur or furnnsn find* iMtt. Muni'fN W yund live s<xj*c > hu authorh> .ludt mmoh l>c handled lw other* So rtulA irntf h- |u ducc result* m hi* detartawwi TU*.> u> aJm true of the foreman'* atn> w*4, K*- not responsible for tin- iiaqaiij > .u safely, hut can ml> elui th* (wlw>. whatever it max k, i* made r^wtnr m h* department. Thus if tlu* compam ptdwx i> ud> a hali- hcarted effort toward **irf\ tlu* will un. douhtedlv he reflected In file foreman in hi* department. I f the comiony policy is a strung effort toward safely. *o also xvill be ihc polio* followed by tlie foreman in his dciortmem, with correspondingly better re sult*. In other words, he is responsible only to the extent that lie is Larked up by those having authority over hint. The foreman must lc supjorlc<l liv the eom|>any in promptly making repairs to cor rect hazards. Tin* dors not mean ibat tlie foreman has no responsibility xvith regard to correction of liazards. it is decidedly his duty to discover hazards requiring attention, to place orders for their proper handling, and to make every effort to see that (hose-in charge of repairs complete his orders promptly. After the foreman ha.* handled matters within the limits of his authority he cannot be held to answer for accidents re sulting f tom these hazards. In addition to repairs there arc such mat ters as the physical condition of buildings, arrangement of space for various operations, placing mechanical equipment, proper and adequate guards on equipment, layout of equipment, adequate and proper lighting, and general condition of floors, all of which arc beyond control of the foreman and re- ab wt hazards for which Ihc foreman cannot W cxawudcrrd responsible. h ha* atm become generally recognized that thr effective safety activity is *dcatwm. It i* questionable if the super- vtMir* or foremen can be responsible for tbs* work The training of workmen to ton* pritpcr working habits or safety liabiis u. au t-Ktrcuarly difficult task. It inx'olvcs the act m> teaK'kma. which in itself requires more ^wt'kafiaed ability titan we have a right to rx|Nn*i iron* the general run of supervisors. \ lineman may be an expert in his line of wurk ami m all respects known as a good *M$M*rvinoT, bat in all probability his teach ing ability will be quite limited. It is true tiutf he mtt*t have some teaching ability in in l*e a gt*od supervisor, but very* likely whm link ability he las along this line, is the result of his rather hit or miss experterne oxer a period of years. In all prob ability he does not know any of the fundamentals of teaching, and his results arc tnmnd to be very limited when he attempts to leach his men safety habits. As an example, the first element of (cach ing is that the teacher should know what is to be taught. In most instances, as far as safety education is concerned, the foremen have at hesl only a hazy idea of what is to l*c taught their men. Under these conditions it is hardly to be ex|>ectcd that holding the *U|ervi*ors responsible for safety education could produce any effective results. Some one must first teach the supervisor and defi nitely organize the plan to be followed. A/co/ Packing, Tanning and Leather Industries Section X77 Another very important factor affecting the responsibility of foremen for accidents is the workers themselves. Some people seem to have a mental makeup tliat makes them prone to accidents. It cannot be said that they do not care whether or not they get hurt, as after ail no sane person enjoys pain, but they do not seem to have sullicicnt mental perspective to realize what actions are productive of accident and injury. There are also man3' reasons xvhy other wise normal, alert, workmen lapse into a stwte of mind where they become accident prone. Among these are worry; sickness; outside interests causing day-dreaming; fatigue, both mental and physical; over anxiety to excel in the work, which leads to hurry. Sometimes men are not physically in condition to work. Often they know this, hut as they are aiutioas to earn their wage* they do not lay off. Sometimes the men are not aware of their ova physical deficiencies. and this also leads to injuries. Then, too, there is the inherent gambling instinct, stronger in some than in others, that causes people to take a chance on using some faulty piece uf equipment, such a* a patched ladder. Often they win the gamble, and all too often they do not. All of these things are decidedly not under the supervisor's direct control, and he can not be properly held responsible for them, since they respond only to medical and edu cational treatment. If and when all of tlic.sc factor* affecting the discharge of a foreman's duties arc prop erly handled ill line with a strong safety policy, only then can the foreman be held responsible for his part in the safety pro gram--which is admittedly an important, if not the mo&t important, single part of such a program. His part is. however, only one link in the chain, and no one link can carry the responsibility for the entire chain. Why the Worker Is Not Responsible y PHILIP BEIL Szkty Pwcw. TW Cudahy Packing Co., Kansas City, Kans. A child ta growth Vo azaturHy m yearly held more mxMMftUr iu# a-twa*. and when maturity haw bun reached wr expect rational conduct. If the ehdd ha* been prop erly trained, it ho* acquired to *oumt extent fixed habit* of rcwpuuhiliy The training of every employer, up to the time he enter* mdtaury. ha* been in the hand* of parents, vrhuol and church. How ever, m the matter of "safety** that employee has received so training. The employer know * that training to get out production i* necessary and he is the one to give that training. In the matter of "safety" tltc employee is not responsible until the employer has taught him tlie right way to do things, thus making the employee ac countable for his "safety actions." Now, is live employer through? No. True, the employee has reached the stage of ra tional safety thought, but the employer is still responsible, and will be until that thought becomes a fixed habit. That is the necessary principle in prevent ing accidents--formation of the right habit. The acquirement of fixed safety habits xxill largely do away with what is known as the ~bttman clement." that is. the uncertainty of what an employee may do next. The acquir ing of the safety habit does not make a ma chine of an employee---neither does he be come a "creature of habit"--nor does it de stroy initiative, because the employee xvith the safety habit can introduce a nexv idea that xvill be a success liccausc it has "safety" built into it. The employer is equally responsible for an experienced employee newly hired. That employee knows his job. hut he docs not know hi* work room and the various things that are different. It is the duty of the em ployer to teach him these things. The liabil ity of the employee commences only after his employer has taught him "Safely, the right way always." Tlie moral and legal liability of the em ployer for accidents is emphasized on the day he hires an employee who is not capable of rational "safety" conduct and tells that employee to "Hop to it" instead of "Watch your step." 378 Twt'iiiy-sixth National Safety Congress Who Is Responsible for Industrial Accidents? By JOHN M. McARDLE Safety Supervisor, Armour and Company, Kansas City, Kans. The gentlemen who Imvc preceded me haw altcmpU-d to *vt ti]i a vimlieniion for each of ilie iniiTc*tod panics: namely, the managi-mcnt. the supervisor. and the em ployee. anl nt the *ame time have pointed an licensing finder in the direction of the "oilier fellow.** I'rom their remarks, we wouhl lie led l*> lielivve ihal no one is iesjHmiil.le for accident*. Vet negligence on the pan of someone is the la.-ie cau-e of alin<i*( e\ery accident, either by ;ut of ommn>'iim or omission. Accident* *omctiim< arc the result of a lack of knowlcd.ee on (lie part of someone. Ina*nmi'li a* do not have a s|>ecilic accident to deal with. i\c imt*l coniine our selves to a Mineral ili*cu*sou of all acci dents and <leal with the responsibilities uf the interested panic* in their order. This bring* it]* i|tic*!iHt for the manage ment to ati*ucr. Ilaee liny Un *iucerc ami honest ulmiil a *jiu*ly program.' Have lln> I'cs'ii *> hu*5 directing their seemingly m>rc iui|H.ii.un bu*iue*s affairs that thc> did n<t have lime or take lime lo engage hi a pr.^ram of *aiTty? They are vitally ml<n<in| in |hr production eo*is t*i lin n pi*lort*; do (hex imt know th.il accident* anil ui.inru* rn.iu- a hidden c**t whieti ha* l*c*n e-timaled at from throe to livi time* lusher than the dirxct cost? Have ibex inaugurated a systematic rou tine oi tn*|Kxiiti? Have lhc> carefully selected supervisor* according l> their knowledge and ability to perform the lutie* ;**igiu-d lo them? I* the *ii|*cr\ i*or`* authority equal lo |iis iV*|*Hi'ih:Iiu t I* the remuneration )iaid him an iudncc- ment to other* to ;*|*ire to the re*iR>isihilttics of the modern *ti|ervi*nr? Are the working cnmlitum* of a standard to attract high (>pc* i*i workmen, ami are they an incentive in the pre*eiu unrkmeii lo produce hettcr piodiicis witlioiu acciilent* to men, iiuiliinm, or equipment ? Next, xve have the supervisor. The stipe rxisor has lioen cho*cn hecause he lias shown Ability as a leader of men and because ol his knowledge of the business. The super visor should know conditions, insist that the management provide safe working con ditions and equipment, ami insist that the safely rules be lived up lu by (be employees under his siqicrvisiou. When safety rules arc made, and ihc supervisor docs not see that they arc en forced, there is only one conclusion: that is (hat the sujrcrvisor is not big enough for the job. The failure to detect and correct a hazard, just as (he proper training of an operator, is the responsibility of the super visor. Something ran and .diould he learned from every injury, which will help In protect those depending on their leaders lor safety, ami ibis is pari of the joh of every super visor. Leadership is absolutely necessary lo triumph over alt enemies, whether they he accidents or not. In the nld order of industry, foremen were referred lo as Iks.*cs, sometime* drivers. In the modern order of industry, they arc relerrcd lo a.* leader.* and teachers. A knowledge f safety and the ability to im parl this kuoxxlcdgc lo those under then supervision is a requisite of every modern snjwrxisnr. When the management has honestly in augurated a safety program, and has pro vided sate working conditions, safeguards and proper safety equipment, when i| spon sor* an educational program for supervisors and workers, and when the *u|>crvisors have carried out the safety program of the man agement. then management can rightfully expect that the workmen will take necessary precautions in iicrformiitg their duties in a safe ami sane way. We all know that the lir.*t law of nature i* the law of self-pres ervation. It for m> other reason, an em ployee should avoid injuries liccau*c of die loss lo himself. h*s to his family, breaking his Itiltirc plan*, destroying Ins ambitions, :md the |>am and siiiTeriiig that every injury entails. Xo man can expect someone else to lake nit interest in him equal to lire interest lie should take in himself. Sometimes management i* charged with the rcs|>on>ibility for accidents hccau*c Meat Packing, Tanning ami Leather 7/i(/jurfni\v Section 37f; certain changes in e<|uipnieni, building or materials have not been made. This charge is sometimes unjustified. Profits from a busi ness must be taken into consideration before certain changes can be made; in other words, dollars which have not been earned cannot be spent. I will agree that management has profited by safety; but if xvc stop and think oi the lives saved, the bodies tumiaimcd, the mil- lions of boors of lost time and suffering that have been eliminated, certainly we will agree that the gain tn the employ ee ha* been even greater than that to the management An illustrated talk on "How F.quipmcnt in Meat Packing Plants Can Be Safe guarded." was given by \V. I'. McClellan. Safety' Supervisor, Armour and Co., Chiengo. Ucrthold L. Lange, Superintendent, l'oukc Quest of the Alaska ScaNkin '' The talk Fur Co.. St. Louis, Mo., spoke on "The was illustrated with slides. ADJOUKNMLNT Metals Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--C. M. Allen, The American Hulling Mill Co., Middletown, O. Yice-Chairman--R, A. Chaffin, Continental Steel Corp., Kokomo. Iml. Secretary and News Letter Editor--Mei.l E. Trammell, Gulf States Steel Co.. Alabama City, Ala. Contest Committee Chairman--Rorert L. Schmitt, l.ouikville Cat Wheel and Railway Supply Co., Louisville, Ky. Engineering Committee Chairman--R. H. Ferguson, Republic Steel Corp., Cleveland, O. foundry Committee Chairman--Irvin A. Brinkman, Mackintosh-Hemphill Co.. Pitts- burgk Pa. Health Committee Chairman--Da. R. C. Engel, Republic Steel Corp., Cleveland, O. Stembership Committee Chairman--H. J. Griffith, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., Pitts burgh. Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--H. H. Hcotv. Oti* Steel Co, Cleveland. Publicity Committee Chairman--C. E- Ralston. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co, Pittsburgh, Pa. Railway Car Builders Committee Chairman--P. J. RtuND, Pullman Standard Car Manu facturing Corp., Pullman, Chicago. Slides and Safety Kinks Committee Chairman--}. A. Oartll, Carnegie-1Ihnois Steel Co.. Pittsburgh, Pa. Statistics Committee Chairman--W. T. Kilmer, The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co, Youngstown, Ohio. Members at Large-- F. G. Bennett. The Buckeye Steel Castings Co, Columbu>, O. R. A. Beyer. Central Tube Co, Ambridge, Pa. C. A. Bianchl H. H. Robertson Co, Ambridge, Pa. E. F. Blank, /ones & Laughlin Steel Corf Pittsburgh, Pa. J. A. Cultris. National Radiator Corp, Jounblown, Pa. C. S. CtAKRiu, Belden Manufacturing Co, Chicago, III. >1. \i. Crocman. Inland Steel Co, East Chicago, Ind. J. KL Culusey, Bethlehem Steel Co, Bethlehem. Pa. H. W. Harr, Bethlehem Steel Co.. Johnstown. Pa. M. W. Dundore. Beloit Iron Works Co, Beloit. Wi. B. T. Dye, Republic Steel Corp. Warren. O. John P. Eta, Camegie-lllinois Steel Corp, Joliet 111. E. A. Ellia. Wheeling Steel Corp, Wheeling. W. Va J. P. Gatherum. Great Lakes Steel Corp, Etvre. Mich. O. F. Harviv, American Car and Foundry Co, New York. N. Y. S- E. Hawks*. Macwhyle Company, Rems*ha. Wiv H. G, Hensel, The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co, iliicago. III. W. A. Jarvis, Chase Hra<s & Copper Co, Waterbary. Conn. 581 382 '/'writ/y-si.rth Sational Safety Congress )'. A. I..\i i.huav, Kejmhlic Sled Grp.. Chicago, III. T. II. .McKk.vni v (retired), Carnegie-Illinois Steel Co., Chicago, 111. I >. V. Mki\u. Intcrlakt Iron Corp., Chicago, III. jniix (kk. Bethlehem Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Md. I*. S. Rmt.t.irs, Revere Copjter & Brass, Inc., Koine, X. Y. I*m \NK Kowi.. Wheeling Steel Corp., Portsmouth, (). A. C. Snil l.T/., Buev rus-Eric Co., So. Milwaukee, \\ i>. M. J. Si*oi.kkm. The Youngstown Sheet ami Tube Co., Ka*i Chicago, Itul. K. J. Stkknkk. Bethlehem Steel Co., Bethlehem, Pa. I. A. Yo*s. Republic Steel Corp.. Cleveland, O. Officers Elected for 1937-38 (jencraf Chairman--\\. A. Cil.n'flN, Continental Sled Corp., Kokomo, Iml. I iee-Chairmau--Mki.i. K. Trammku., Republic Steel Corp.. Alabama City, Ala. Secretory ami AYw.r fitter Editor--H. .1. Giorm-fi, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., Pitts burgh, Pa Contest Committee Chairman--Kohkkt L. Schmitt, Louisville Car Wheel and Railway Supply Co.. Louisville, Ky. I:.n}tineerma Committee Chairman--W. T. Fn.iitk, The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., Youngstown. Ohio. f'.atndry Committee Chairman--Ikvin* A. Bwinkmax, Mackintosh-Hcmphill Co., Pitts burgh. Pa. Health Committee Chairman--I )k. R. C. Excki., Uepuhhc Steel Corp., Cleveland, O. Membership Committee Cha\rman--I-'kku E. W.vkK, Pitlshurgh District, Carnegie, Illinois Steel Corp.. ritt'hurgh. Pa. Coster Committee Chairman--H. II. Hknkv, Otis Sled Co., Cleveland, Oiiio. !'r,></ram Committee Chairman--K. H. Fkkcusox. Republic Steel Corp., Cleveland. Ohio. Cal'iieitv Committee Chairman--John ()'K*l'kk, Bethlehem Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Md. Koil;eav Car Uailtlers Committee Chairman--P. .1. IU\\o, Pullman Standard Car Manu facturing Co.. Pullman. Chicago Statistics Committee Chairman--H. J. Sis>kkkr. The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., East Chicago, 1ml. Members at f.arae-- C. M. Ai.it.s. *riit* American Rolling Mill C*., Middletown, Ohio. I-. t i. lti n.vivtt. The Huckeve Steel Castings t o, Columbus, Ohio K. A. 1U\kk. lYntral Tube Co., Amhridge, Pa. I. A. Cnt Tkis. National Radiator Ctn-p., lohiiMowu, Pa. t*. S. Chap.mim.. Rehlcu Manufacturing Co., Chicago, 111. II. M. Ck<hui.v.v, Inland Steel Co., East Chicago, lnd. I. K. Ccu.ixiy. Bethlehem Steel Co.. Bethlehem, Pa. C. A. I*i.\Ni'iu. II. II. Robertson Co., Amhridge, Pa. II. W I)aww. licihlehem Steel Co., Johnstown. Pa. M W. IK NtMKi:. Beloit Iron Works Co., Beloit, \\ i. |i. T. I v k. Republic Steel Corp.. Warren, O. K. A. Ei.i is. W heeling Steel Corp., Wheeling. \V. Va. K.vHf. l;vt.KK, Caruegic-Illimits Steel Corp., Chicago. 111. 1:. I'. Blank. Jones & Latiglilin Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa. Metals Section I. P. ii.vintlKcn, Great Lakes ,Slcel Corp., Kcor^c, Midi. 0. 1;. II vkviv. American Car nml Foundry Co., New York, X. Y. S. E. llwvkKs. MacWliytc Company. Kenosha, Wis. II G. Iliv*n . The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., Chicago. 111. \Y. A. J\*\K Chase Brass & Cupper Cu., Inc., Watcrbury, Comt. |-'. A. I. ' t 'fk'i ' x. Republic Steel Corp.. Chicago, III. X It. M vt'lI**>i.. liethlelicm Steel Co.. Lackawanna, X. V. T. II. McKln.slv. 2542 F.. 73rd Slice*, Chicago, III. (Retired) D. V. Mmim.ik. Inleilakc Iron Corp., Chicago. III. C. S. Phu.iji*>, Revere Copper X Brass, luc., Rome, X. Y. C E K* vi.-to.v. Pitlshurgh Plate Glass Co., Pitlshurgh, Pa. Fk\xk Kuvvc. Wheeling Steel Corp., Portsmouth, O. A. C. Scut i.t/., Buc>rus-Eric Co., So. Milwaukee, WL. 1. A. Voss, Kepuhlic Steel Corp., Cleveland, O. 383 TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12. 1937 The session was called to order In Genoral Chairman C. M. Allen, The American Rolling Mill Co, Middletown, Ohio, who introduced the speakers. Safety as a Morale Builder By HOY W. KELLY Chief, Personnel and Training Division, Soil Conservation Service, Washington, D. C. The maintenance of morale is rcadiiv con ceded to be one ol the major objectives of management. Whether the executive i* re sponsible for building locomotives, making mattresses, managing a Government bureau, or commanding an Army division, bis suc cess is dependent in large upon keeping up the morale of his associates. All o( us tend to he influenced by, and to he upset and kept in a most unsatisfactory frame of mind by unsatisfactory living or working condition*. If wc want high morale, wc must expert to pay constructive attention to such matters as wages, hours, working conditions, basic causes for grievances ami complaints, improvement of sanitation, elimi nation of unnecessary noise, and proper heating, lighting, and ventilation of the work place. ITrhap' no other cause* contribute more to lowered morale than a feeling of insecurity in one's occupation, fear as to the future of one's earning jiovvcr anti doubt as to op|K)rUmitics for advancement and for sat is lying achievement. These arc all recognized ns matters prop erly belonging in the held of personnel nilministration or Inlior management. They art- mentioned merely for the sake of point ing mu that safety is an integral part of Ihjs functional held. Organization for accident prevention and the maintenance of (be safely program, if they are to contribute to im proved morale, must be planned ami carried nut with a view to their direct relationships with these other essential human factors in management. This is a point on which there is much diversity of opinion as well as practice. Nevertheless, the experience of many or ganizations tends to indicate that a safety program cannot hope to succeed, no mailer Imvv well planned, unless conducted in an 384 Tivcnty-sijclh National Safety Congress administrative atmosphere conducive to its acceptance and furtherance. This* require ment. coupled with the fact that many safety activities, because they deal with men and women in their work environment, are in extricably interwoven witli the whole fabric of ]>crsoimcl administration, appears to im ply that the subject of safety should be planned and broadly sujtcrviscd by the same executive who is responsible for industrial relations or jtcrsonncl policies. In no other way arc the full morale-building values of safety work likely to be fully' realized. We will try to develop this point further as we proceed. In a list <if essential factors which must be considered in developing high morale. I am inclined to place at the (op security in one's job and a feeling that the opportunities for advancement in the work where one is employed arc not closed. 11 the employee is marking lime financially, he must feel that he is making progress by improvement in bis method* or in his output, nr in his general civic, social and economic relationships. Next in order come safe, sanitary and at tractive working and living conditions. You will, of course, readily concede the first two adjectives and 1 am hopeful that you will sympathetically consider the third point of "attractiveness." Streamlining has (aught us that even trucks and locomotives can present an attractive, pleasing appearance. Progress in architecture, in interior decoration, in the manufacture of office furniture and plant equipment, no longer leave a place for ugly*, inharmonious or displeasing surroundings. A third factor of much significance is (he establishment of appropriate goals nr objec tives and is connected with the nature of the work itself, ('ride or joy in accomplishment, with consequent upswing in morale, never go along with a feeling that the work repre sents a useless waste of funds, .that it ac complishes no constructive purpose, or that it is not properly related to the general worthy goals or objectives of the organiza tion or work unit. A high level of morale can only be based on pride in workmanship, pride in the product, and satisfaction in the fruits of labor. A fourth factor implies the existence of an organization, administrative procedures and methods, and executives of such char acter as to inspire confidence, create loyalty ami enthusiasm, and able to bold a position of true leadership. Let us now turn back to the general state ment which was made at the outset, namely that accident prevention is a management function inseparably interwoven with other functions in the held of industrial relations or personnel administration. It is largely useless to debate how much a safety cam paign contributes to improved and more har monious labor relationships, or whether bet ter personnel administration automatically tends to reduce accidents. It is equally fu tile to argue that either safely or certain Other aspects of personnel administration ought lo be started first, in a new organiza tion, or emphasized most in an established organization where improvements arc sought. Without care in selection of new employees, without attention to promotion and transfers, without a constructive and harmonious labor policy, in the face of bad housing, or poor health, or low sanitary standards, or with an ineffective and poorly devised organization structure, no safety en gineer, no matter how competent, can hope to succeed in accident reduction and much less to use his program effectively as a morale builder. There is no heart for safety wliere bitterness and discontent, gloom ami discouragement, arc spread from these sources. This point is emphasized because it is be lieved that the safety engineer or the execu tive who faces his problems from a truly constructive, long-term point of view* will strive for the establishment of good person nel procedure and constructive labor policies. Certainly no other kind of safety engineer or administrator is interested in furthering morale through accident prevention. Pos sibly what is most needed for the sake of improvement in organization, as well as better morale, is more personnel adminis trators who have a practical working knowl edge of the field of accident prevention, as well as more safety engineer* who arc in telligently and constructively paying atten tion to (personnel problems and labor policies. Possibly, it will be helpful to briefly list some of the ways in which organized safety activities, viewed in the light of the fore going discussion, can be expected to con tribute to improved morale: 1. The safety program tends to remove fear as to the future. Accident prevention is one form of job insurance. 2. Good housekeeping with it* natural companion, improved housing, arouse and Metals Section 385 -u-taiu pride m the work place, in the local community, in well-kept tools, equipment and facilities. 3. Service on safety committees, coopera tion with supervisors in the investigation of accident causes, free discussion of equipment and work practices, all bring management and men easily and naturally together on common ground with a community of in terest.. Improved morale grows out of bcllcr understanding and mutual respect. 4. Training in foremanship as well at gen eral occupational training should be closely linked with the safety* program. The general values of training for morale building, such as prtdc in the product, satisfaction in waste elimination, gratification in improved crafts manship. can be helpfully coupled w'ith learn ing how* to avoid personal injuries. 5. Medical plans, physical examinations, first aid training, emergency first an! provi sions, a lung list ol mailers pertaining lo health and sanitation, arc the natural ac companiments of all well organised safely work. They yield direct returns in happi ness, contentment and higher morale. 6. Keeping accident statistics and the pub lication of comparative severity and fre quency calcs or unusually good records of <lcpart>uci)ts or ujuIs, provide an objective, inspire team play, and develop a healthy, competitive spirit. 7. Perhaps no other activity gives manage ment an equally* good opportunity to demon strait: a constructive, sympathetic, personal interest in the employee. Confidence is in spired by concrete examples of willingness to expend funds and to devote executive lime to protecting the life and health of the worker. Welding and Cutting Fires Are Preventable By J. 1. BANASH and H. F. REINHARD Consulting Engineer and Secretary, Respectively, International Acetylene Association, New York City The purpose of this paper is to set forth, from the viewpoint of the oxy-acctylene in dustry*. a few* simple, inexpensive precautions --the adoption of which is strongly urged. Studies prove that fires occur largely in portable cutting operations, that is. cutting done during repair, alteration or demolition work or in some intermittent use, and usu ally when the operation is not under the di rect control of the foreman of the depart ment where the work is being done. We es timate that about 90 per cent of all welding and cutting fires occur while using portable equipment, and that from 80 to 90 per cent of- tlnrsc fires occur during flame cutting, rather than welding, Tn these portable cut ting operations, our studies make it obvious that some lack of knowledge, supervision or interest on the part of the ottcrator lias been largely responsible for the fires. The nxy-acetylene flame has* no place in any location where a flame or open light of any kind would not be permitted. Hut if is surprising how many times an oxy-acctylene flame, with its very high temperature, is employed in places where a match ora spark or a forge or a gasoline torch would not !>c allowed. In nearly every plant or shop there are such places. Kor instance, extreme care is always necessary near combustible gases or flammable liquids, and Mich things us blowtorches, open lights, sparking tools and other possible sources of ignition must be prohibited. But welding and cutting can be done in most other locations with safety if certain reasonable precautions are taken. Knowing the way that fires may start is an important step in learning how to prevent them. Heat sufficient to start fires may come from the oxy-acctylene flame itself; from metals being welded or cut; from the molten slag or metaf that falls or drops front the cut; or from sparks that fly from the work. Some materials will, of course, catch fire from these sources of heat more quickly than others. Flammable gases and liquids with air or oxygen present arc examples of materials that will flare up at once. Oily wastes and rags and materials such as burlap, excelsior, straw and paper catch fire less easily, but burn vigorously once started. Wooden floor ing. timber structures, scrap lumber, wood .W> yVvv)//y-.vM//< National Safety Ctnttjress chip*, tarpaulins ami similar material arc lc>s apt lo catch fire than the others menii<*ied, hut prciautions must l>c taken with any such combustible materials. Fires started in them may only smokier at first amt then flare up sometime later due possibly to a gust of air or a natural draft treated by the heat from the smoldering material. The oxy-acclylcne flame is itself rarely the cause of a Are; probably because it is sulKrotiscioiisly evident to anyone that the extremely high temperature flame and flammable or combustible materials should be kept apart. Heal from the metal being u ddcil or cut may sometimes be the cause <>i tires if hot pieces of metal arc allowed co touch materials that burn readily. This may happen in the cate of culling steel and iron when small pieces arc cut away from larger pieces and allowed to drop onto the door or ground. I'hc smaller or narrower the piece cut away, the higher its temperature is likely to Jh\ and the more likely, llicrcforc, lo set fire to burnable materials. Piece* of iron or -tvvl which have Ix-cn heated to a bright rid Ih'31 may remain altove the kindling icmjtcraiure from 5 lo 15 seconds or even longer under some conditions. Even though ibr piece may appear to be at a black heat in daylight, it can scorch such things as wood or paper, and a fire may start if there i- enough draft Fire* that do occur during the use of the oxy-Mvtylvnc torch arc largely caused by .tjlobuh-s of )mI metal and stag from cutting ojhtMioiiv Beoau-c 01 this, tor immediate results, it srt-ms ttuit of our efforts should lie directed umard the cause of most of the iroulde--tlc ue of jmrtablc oxy- ucctylenc cutting cquijnTwnt. It does no good 10 ileliate the queMton of whether a fire has been caused by a *|ark or a drop of mollen metal or hot slat*. The practical fact re mains that hot globules of metal, hot slag and s|>ark* are all formed in flame retting operations, and all of them are capable of igniting flammable liquids, gas-air mixtures or combustible materials. because f<ark from cutting or welding, particularly from cutting, may fly in so man)* direction*, and because they sometimes travel tor a considerable distance, they must be watched closely to make sure that they* do not start href- Sparks are really little glow ing particles of metal oxides, and some of the larger ones may retain enough beat to start fires for several seconds after laodig. Thc heavy sparks from cutting work some time* travel 25 feet from the point of cut ting and can readily set fire to light mate rials such as excelsior, paper, or oil rags. 11 sparks should fail into containers holding flammable liquids or spaces containing mix tures of flammable vapors and air, quick ami dangerous fires will result. It is also important to realize that s/i/irks which fly some distance or which roll along a floor may cause smoldering fires. Smolder ing fires may start by sparks getting in the cracks of floors and woodwork of by sparks flying on materials such as rags, tarpaulins, paper wrappings, wood chips, scrap lumber, and cushion padding. Sometimes these fires go out of their own accord; sometime.* they smolder and burst into flame as long as onehalf hour later. Spark* may also drop through cracks in floors or between Boors and columns arid ignite combustible material on the floor below. Special attention should Ire given to such sparks when using the cul ling torch in the construction, repair or demolition of building*. Certain rules for the prevention of fires wlicn welding and rutting have been formu lated. Although we are dealing here with gas welding and cutting only, the same rules with one exception, apply to any hot opera tion. These suggested safe practices arc as follows: 1. Do not perform "hor work where any ojM3Q flame would be dastgerou*. a* in or near rooms centalmag flammable vapors or liquids, or exposed kx*-* combustible stock. 2. Be sure that ruttmc and welding equip ment >< out used near dipping or spraying room*, or rooms examining loose, readily combustible material unless there is no possibility of the vators or of sparks and molten metal ja<*mg through broken or open window*, open doorways or crack* or holes j wmTU or flours nr otherwise reaching comImuiMc vai't'r* which are often heavier than air. If fh< work can be moved, take it to a safe place for rutting and welding; do not perform the work m a hazardous location. A aon-rcn1>uttible room or building, or one providrd with an automatic sprinkler system i* usually a safe location. 4. Wlkcrc wckltng or cutting ha* to he done in the vicinity of combustible material, Metals Section 3S7 special precautions should be taken to make certain that sparks or hot slag--from cut ting operations particularly---do not reach (he material anil Mart a fire. If the work emmet be moved, exposed combustible ma terial should, if iKtssiblc. be moved a safe distance away. Sweep Boors clean and if combustible. wet them down before starting work. Wootlen floors should preferably be covered with metal,-sand, or other suitable non-combustible material where sparks or hot metal are likely to fall. Brick is not suitable unless all crevices arc filled with sand. Wherever there are floor openings or cracks in the flooring, make certain that there arc no highly combustible materials on the floor below, which would be exposed to hot metal or slag that might drop through the floor. 5. Observe the same precautions outlined in Rule 4 with regard to cracks or boles in walls, open doorways ami open or broken window*. Use sheet metal guards or asItcstns curtains where needed. Make sure that the guards and curtains arc adequate. Because hot slag may roll along the floor for considerable distances. it is important when using asbestos blankets as curtains that no openings exist where the curtain meets the floor. 6. When it is necessary to do welding or cutting close to wooden construction or in locations where combustible material cannot he removed or protected, smalt hose, chemi cal extinguishers or fire pails should be con veniently at hand. 7. Whenever combustible material has been exposed to mollen metal or hot slag from cutting operations, a man should be kept at the source of the work for a half hour after completion, to make sure that smoldering fires have not been started. 8. All welding and cutting equipment should be-kept in good order. Use good hose and renew it when necessary. When hose is worn near the couplings, cut off a few inches and renew- the connections, making sure that they are tight. Good connections between regulators ami cylinder valves are important. Torches or blowpipes should never be hung from regulators or across the tops of cylin ders. Only cylinders which comply with In terstate Commerce Commission shipping container specifications and which are equipped with safety device* approved as to type and location, shall be used for any com pressed gas. 9. For the installation and operation of gas systems for welding and cutting, the regula tions of the National Board of Fire Under writer* should be followed. Take no chances. Everybody loses from a fire, employer and employee alike. It is safer and much more to one's credit to keep fires from starting, than to put them put after wards. Remember, one is always some sort of an example for his helper or others less experienced. Men wlo arc to be entrusted with welding and cutting jobs should be men who handle o.vy-acerylcric equipment *af<*ly and sensibly. They should know that it is just a* important to prevent fires as it is to prevent accident", and (bar a small fire is a potential big fire that will cause severe hardship to his em ployer and his fcllotv workmen as well a* himself. The Inspection Department of the Assn dated Factory' Mutual Fire Insurance Com panies urges that before welding or cutting is performed at a point not regularly set aside for such work, permission be secured from some specified responsible person such a* a superintendent or foreman. We heartily sub scribe to this, and further urge that no such work be performed without the knowledge or consent of the person responsible for the department in which the work is being done. Discussion Mr. Allen; What is the best chemical tn use oit acetylene fires ? Mr. Banash: Follow recommendations of l. A. A. Mr. Ditnash : A thing to icmcitihcr is that outside contractors sometime fail to use proper precautions. A clause covering this should be in the contract. Mr. Medalie: Is there any danger of hav ing cylinders too close to work benches? Mr. Reinhardt: Keep cylinders far enough away from work benches. Mr. Filmer; We do not let any one use a torch until they have taken an examination from an instructor. Mr. Banash r Never burn on a concrete floor; use a steel sheet or plate. .188 Twenty-sixth National Safety Coiti/res.t WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13. 1937 How I Made Safety Effective in My Department By BEN J. HARLAN Superintendent, Blast Furnace Dept, Lackawanna Plant, Bethlehem Steel Co., Lackawanna/N. Y. My department consists of five modem blast furnaces, equipped with the usual auxiliary equipment; an ore dock, equip|>cd with four Hulctt unloadcrs, and four ore bridges. The capacity of the furnaces is 130,000 ton* of hot metal, per month, and the dock is capable of handling about 4,500,000 ions of ore, coal and limestone, during the lake shipping season of seven months. Daily working force at times of full operation is 443 men. During niy first years at Lackawanna, the blast furnace department had a safety record which was not all that could be desired, ami uc realized something had to lie done about it. We cleaned up the plant, guarded all the equipment, lighted the department so that a man could sec to work as web at night as during the day, look the coke salamanders nut of the stockltouscs, and installed a modem heating system, installed handrails, corrected improper clearances, and moved foot walks to tlicir proper and safe loca tions. In other words, we put the depart ment in order mechanically and physically. Then we started to work on the personal element. We wrote a safely code for all operations m the department, organized a special. Safety Inspection Committee of foremen and men, who inspected a certain unit of llie depart ment 0.1011 week for unsafe equipment, clean liness. and unsafe practices, established a ``safety court" and tried before a jury of men all who violated (he safety code, or who had an accident of any kind, minor or "lost time." Our employee representative acted as judge of the Court. We divided the departments into groups, held monthly safety contests, and awarded safety shoes to the winning group. All fore men held five minute safety meetings daily. We held weekly safety meetings of foremen. We held a monthly safely meeting of fore men, permanent safely committeemen, and as many of our men as our office would hold. We provided free to the men in the de partment safety equipment, such as protec tive clothing, goggles, and all other devices l bat they needed. The improvement ill our accident record follows: Year 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 Total Lost Time AccidenU 18 22 10 6 0 0 5 9 S Fatalities 0 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 In the four years preceding our intensive safety drive, we had 56 lost time accidents, ami seven fatalities; in the following four years, 14 lost time accidents, and no fatali ties; which is a reduction of 75 per cent in lost time accidents, and the elimination of all fatalities. During this period our best record of elapsed time without a lost time accident was 35 months. In general, prevention of accidents divides itself into two phnscs: mechanical safe guarding, and the human or personal factor. Mcclianical means of preventing accidents arc as follows: 1. Proper desigu of plant and equipment. Under this head comes guarding machinery; proper clearance; adequate walkways, steps, ladders, hand railings; proper electric wir ing, and the numerous other mechanical safeguards with which we arc all so familiar. 2. Good lighting. In order to be safe, a plant operating continuously must be as welt lighted at night as it is during the day. Metals Section 389 3. Good maintenance. 1 mean inspections and maintenance of equipment so as to liavc it always in safe operating condition, rather than repairing expensive break-downs. This, of course, applies to hand toots, ladders, ex tension cords, crane hooks, cables, ropes, tackles, blue flags, and other equipment in daily use, as well as the major mechanical equipment. The human factor is by far the most im portant item in accident prevention: being responsible, in my opinion, for at least 90 per cent of all industrial accidents. We believe the approach to this problem is best made through education, discipline, and competition. Hv education, we mean safety codes; bulletins; safety meetings; study of minor and lost time accidents as they occur, ex plaining the reason for their occurrence, ami means of preventing similar accidents to the foremen and the workmen involved; plan ning all jobs before they arc started from the view point of safety as well as efficiency; the study of all operations to eliminate un safe practices. Discipline must he maintained at all times, and all cases involving carelessness, infrac tion of safety rules, or any other conduct of the foremen or workmen {-renting unsafe conditions must be called to their attention, ami disciplinary measures applied firmly and equitably. All normal animals love competition: fox hounds love to lead the pack: thoroughbred horses love to win races; boys love to win baseball games; ami 99 per cent of all men, wito are treated fairly and encouraged in their efforts to make their department or plant safe, will co-oprrnic to the fullest extent to lend in the safety parade. Discussion Mr. Byram: How do you arouse sufviv consciousness in your men ? Mr. Harlan: We divide departments into six groups. We publish the name of any employe who has an accident. Mr. Filmer: If a man mako a >uggcs|i<m which is not feasible, how do you handle ii ? Mr. Harlan: We explain (be reason why. Mr. Hyram: Arc safety shoes required? Mr. Harlan: No, but we do stress the wearing of safety shoes. Ninety-five per vein of our men wear them. The Safe Use and the Abuse of Wire Rope and Wire Rope Slings By R. B. WHYTE General Superintendent, Maewhyte Co., Kenosha, Wis. i lie safe use of wire rope can be expected only if wire rope is made safe for use. Wire rope must have tensile strength and imiglmess, and it must be uniformly strong and lough throughout its entire length. This means that each coil of wire going into the wire rope must be uniformly strong and lough from end to end. There arc 114 individual wires in the most commonly used rope. Unlike many other steel products, rope wire is not heat treated at finish. The prop erties of strength and toughness and re sistance to fatigue arc gained through the cold working of the properly heat treated steel. This cold working or drawing is a continuous test of the material, for only suitable steel properly prepared will stand this cold drawing. All of the finished wire is check tested for strength, toughness and fatigue resisting properties. Rope wire can be laid into practically any .dec oT rope. It is also true that rope can he made with practically any combination of wires. The size, strength, and combination of wires in a roi>c arc determined by the service the rope is called upon to render. The centers used in wire rope can he either fiber or wire, depending on use to which the rope is subjected. If flexibility and resiliency are desired the hemp fiber is used; if the rope is subjected to heavy crushing pressures or intense heat, wire center ropes should he used. Wire centers add approximately 7]/j per cent to strength of ropes. Since the life of wire rope is largely de termined by the amount of bending it can 390 Twenty-sU'th National Safety Congress withstand, it follows that the larger the diameter of sheave or drum, the levs severe the licnding >tre>scs in the rope, hence the louder will he the life of the rope. In addi tion to reducing bending stresses, larger hlicavcs reduce the unit pressure between rope and sheave and this reduces wear on hoth rope amt sheave, a further argument in favor of large sheaves. Some types of equipment permit the use of larger sheave rope ratios than others, hut the important fact to keep in mind is thut the larger the sheave the longer will be the rope life. Sheaves and drums may be either flat faced or grooved, the grooves being of various sla|>cs to suit various conditions. 'Hie U groove supports the rope best and should be used where conditions permit. Many flat faced drums are tised however, jiarticnlarlv on small hoisting equipment. Naturally the ro|>e life will be reduced with a flat faced drum especially if it is less than the economical minimum diameter for the ro|>c u?ed. When designing U gruuves for sheaves or drum*, the diameter of the groove should always Ik- larger titan the nominal diameter of tho rope and when rO|>c is wound on a grooved drum, the grooves should be spaced far enough apart so dial the turns of rope do not conic in contact with one another. The V groove is used only where the rojic does not dead end on (he drum ami it is necessary to get traction between the rope :uul the drum. V grooves are generally very destructive lo rope, the wedging action causing :dw>ut 10 times the pressure between thy rope and drum that is found witlt the U type of groove. Furthermore. Ibis heavy pressure is distributed over a very small area of the rope, causing concentrated and rapid wear. Factors of Safety Wire ro|e should always be several times stronger than (he load to which it is sub jected, thus providing a factor of safety to take care uf abnormal conditions, wear, etc. If the strength of the rope is five limes greater than the load, we say Dial the rope has a factor of safety of five. Factors of safety in excess of five, vary ing up lo eight, and even more, are often required for safe and economical operation. The propci factor of safety for a wire rope should be determined by careful and thor ough consideration of all pertinent daia. Such data should include all loads, accelera tion, retardation, rope speed, attachments, the number, size and arrangement of all sheaves and drums, existing conditions caus ing corrosion and abrasion, length of rope, economical rope life and the degree of dan ger to life and property. For general hoisting work on derricks, power shovels, hoists, etc., the equipment is usually designed for a factor of safety of five, while traveling cranes and passenger and freight elevators arc designed for six, eight, or even twelve, depending on the type of machine, speed of travel, etc. Sometimes conditions will not permit of safety factors as great as those mentioned in the foregoing. For example, on ballast unloaders and logging equipment, the ropes are sometimes stressed up to nearly onehalf their breaking strength. Also on stand ing ropes and derrick guys, the heaviest load will sometimes reduce the factor of safety to about three, but since these extreme loads are only encountered occasionally, such a low' safety factor is not considered danger ous. Generally speaking, however, it is not good practice to go below* a safety factor of four for any class of service. To do so will cause the rope to wear out rapidly even where the element of safety* is not impor tant. Factors Tending to Destroy Wire Rope Hcmling stresses have a very great effect upon the life of wire rope. When a wire rope is flexed over a sheave or drum, there is considerable movement between ihe strands and also between the wire* compos ing the strands, and consequently there is much internal friction, licmliug also causes fatigue in the wires, reducing their tooglincsS and making them harder and more brittle. This causes them to fracture. Speed is an important factor in connection with bending since, wlien a rope is bent around a sheave at high speed, the wires do not get time to slide past each ullicr and adjust themselves to the changed contour of the rope. The result is thut at very high speed bending stresses arc much higher. It is not possible to state an exact rule for the effect* of speed upon rope life hut it is generally considered that rope life varies in- iMetals Section 391 vcrsclv a* die square oi the speed, oilier conditions remaining constant. Corrosion and lack of lubrication are similar to high speed in this respect since here also, the wires do uot get a chance to adjust themselves properly. High speeds and sharp betiding arc to be avoided if satisfactory rope service is ob tained. Reverse bending is very dctiimental lo the life of rope, causing failure in about one- half the time tliat is caused by continuous bending. Since a wire rope is a complex structure, the theoretical calculation of bending stresses is a very* complicated matter. In a worn rope bending stresses arc not sus ceptible to accurate mathematical analysis since too many variables are involved; cor rosion effects, condition of lubrication, core ctmdilinn, etc. Abrasion All r>3>cs arc subjected to more or less abrasion. Sliding frictional wear occurs when a rope drags over the ground, or across tracks, or through material of a gritty nature. For this type of abrasion a coarse *tnuid construction is desirable. To resist wear imposed by a sheave or drum a finer construction is desirable as such a construction has more wires per unit of length in contact with the sheave and this means a lower unit pressure between the rope and sheave and consequently slower wear. Mis-aligumcnt of sheaves or drums causes undue abrasion (o the equipment as well as the rope and where these conditions cannot be corrected coarser strand construc tions are beneficial. Where sheave or dram wear is the governing factor and conditions of alignment arc good, lang lay rope with its greater exposed surface is often success fully used but it is not rccommeuded unless .sheave groves are of proper sue. Deeply scored or corrugated sheaves arc also a source of rapid rope wear and con tradictory as it may appear, a soft cast iron sheave tliat wears rapidly will also cause more wear on u wire rope than the harder mali-rials such as carbon steel, manganese <r other alloy steels. One of the most serious abuses encoun tered in wire rope usage is overloading. While this abuse usually takes the form of broken wires or strands, its effect is some times present without being seen. A rope may be loaded beyond the clastic limit of some of the individual wires without having them break. This destroys the ductility ( the wire making the rope brittle and weak. Subsequent normal loadings may cause fail ure of the rope when this condition jnci.nK The maximum toad that can be applied to a rope without danger of overstressing some of its wires is approximately 60 per cent, ami for the sake of safety and long rope life it is desirable to keep the load well below this value. Overwinding When more than one layer of tope is pul on a drum the rope is subjected to much crushing, distortion, and abrasion that quickly reduces its life. When overwinding cannot be avoided the succeeding layers should not criss-cross bur should wind regularly in the groove formed by the preceding layer of rope. Crushing Ropes subjected to heavy loads on flat faced drums are apt to crush and flatten out of shape. This is especially true of eight strand rope which has a relatively large hemp center. Even on U groove drums, ropes arc sub ject to this crushing action when wound in more than one layer. Wire centers often replace hemp center* where these conditions prevail, ami as a coarse construction in the outer strands also helps lo give the rope rigidity, the flexibility is sometimes sacrificed to prevent excessive crushing. It is for this reason that scale patent construction is so jK>pular for logging and oil well rotary* lines. Corrosion Corrosion results from adverse conditions or lack of proper attention and plays a very important part in (lie life of a rope. Some types of corrosion cause a brittleness in the wires reducing their ability to withstand bending. Not only docs corrosion cat away the matcriat ami reduce the tensile 392 Twcuty-sixth National Safety Congress strength. but when it is present on the inside it causes ;i rope to liccome "rust bound '' Tliis means that when a rope is flexed or when a load is suddenly applied, the wires do not have a chance to slide freely ui>ou one another and equalize the tension in the various units. The result is overloading some oi the wires causing their failure with .-uhse<|iieul failure of the entire rope. Tensile tc-ts conducted on used ropes have dcion>traU-d that ropes free from corroojon have a higher clliciency than those that have Im-cii allowed to rust. Xo matter how well done the original job if lubrication put in hy the rope manufaclurcr, it cannot l*c expected to last the life of the ro|M\ esjicciaHy where it is exposed to the elements. The application of an approved wire rope lubricant will do much to prevent the evils of corrosion amt wear. Discarding Worn Ropes For ro|>es that can be used until one strain! or the whole rope breaks, the time to re move them from service is not a problem. W here the safety of life or equipment is at stake, ro|>cs must he retired while still amply strong to curry the load. Visual inspection of wear and the number o'- broken wires arc the only means for determining this, hut to attempt to establish a rule or set of standards for this without due icgitid to rmidiuoiis specific to the applicatuMi would lead the mpe u*cr astray and do more harm llutn good. The human element alone would outweigh nhnusl any other factor. Tc*l< for ultimate strength on A section of the rope under consideration have been proposed, hut it is deceiving to judge hy these tests, for it is a proved fact Unit in >nmc cases used ropes have a higher strength than when they were new. Their ability to withstand bending, however, is very much less than when new, hence their remaining life is guile limited. Experience coupled with an intimate knowledge of prevailing conditions on the particular ro{K* installation under eonsiderntiott is the licst guide foi piopci time to discard a ro|>c. Sling* form the connecting link between (he crane and (he load itself and are sub ject to more abuse, abrasion and indeter minate stresses than any other kind of lift ing equipment. The matter of application is too often a "catch as catch can" proposi tion. since little or no provision is made in designing machinery, heavy castings, dies, etc., for sling attachment. The method of application must therefore be determined by the character of the load and experience of tlic operator. This again will vary' widely on identical loads handled in different shops, or Iucahtic*. Sometimes this varia tion is due to tltc experience of individuals, rather than demands of the place ami the job. For instance, the general use of manita rope for sling purposes in any shop is usu ally an indication that the man in charge of lifting operations was formerly a sailor. Where the use of wire rope predominates, there is reason (o su$|>cct someone in au thority was formerly connected with bridge building or steel erection. The maximum damage to slings, regard less of kind and type, is always inflicted at the moment the crane tightens up. prepara tory to assuming the total load. This is due to the endwise movement of the sling, par allel to it$ axis, while under a considerable portion of the load. This applies, of course, where the slings encircle the load and is particularly severe On chain?-. Tin; move ment is often accompanied by a sudden snap, caused by a link catching on a projec tion, or to several links pulling off side. This would seem to account for the fact mo*t chain failures occur just when the burden has been picked up only an Inch or so. It is exceedingly rare to see a chain break with the load in mid-air. Rope slings obviate this danger Krause the axis of the sling lends to follow* in a straight line when assuming the full con tour of Ihe object being lifted. This is true of both manila and wire rope slings, each presenting a smooth surface with individual filters or wires which parallel the sling axis. Manila rope is ideal from a viewpoint of flexibility and protection of finished surfaces, but it is very easily damaged and subject to rapid deterioration from dampness, oils and dry-rot. The appearance of a brand new sling is no assurance of its strength, unless it was stored in a place free from dampness and high temperatures. I he true condition of mnnila rope atul chain stings is equally hard to judge. Metals Section 393 Chain slings arc highly flexible but cum bersome to handle and. it made from steel, the chance of fault?* welds and early crys tallization is a real menace. Iron has long been accepted as the best material for chain slings because it welds easily, rusts evenly and is slow to crystallize. It is hard, if not impossible, to determine when crystallization sets in, or to what extent it has affected the strength of the metal. There is no warning of impending failure until the break actually occurs. The practice of annealing chain slings to remove metal fatigue and thereby restore them to their original efficiency, is a fallacy, according to some engineers. It is common knowledge that annealed chains lose much of their original stamina. It has been found, for instance, necessary to resort to a I" chain to handle a given load which had l<en handled repeatedly with a YC chain before the annealing operation. Alloy steel lias recently been under con sideration for chain punioscs, but its gen eral use presents a problem that would seem to defy solution. All of such steels, suitable for drain, have two or three elements which fuse at widely different temperatures Hence, a good grade of iron will continue to be the most satisfactory material for chain, barring some revolutionary discovery. The flexibility of a chain and the ease with which it can be shortened makes it susceptible to abuse and unsafe usage. It is no uncommon thing to see a two-way sling with one leg twisted several times, so as to shorten it to lift a load evenly. Where one leg must be considerably shorter than (he other, the operator may even resort to the expediency of tying knots in the chain. Where such a sling is used with the legs hooked back into the main link, to provide two legs, basket hitch, the common method of lifting foundry flasks and castings is to twist one leg a number of limes to shorten it. Nothing but a chain will lend itself to such brutal treatment and the application cannot be commended. Wire rope has long been recognized as a safe material for slings because of its great strength and extreme lightness. There is no weakest link iti wire rope and the ap proach of tlie critical point of fatigue is always plainly visible in surface condition long before the sling is actually unsafe to use. A casual inspection is sufficient to determine its true condition and it is ca<y to decide when it should hr retired from service. When metal becomes fatigued, whether it be in wire rope, chain or sling fittings, there is only one way to restore it to its original efficiency. And that is to put it through the crucible and make it again. Hence, wire rope slings provide an additional safeguard in llat they cannot be repaired. It is true that chain will outlive wire rope in many eases, but the positive safety, low cost and lightness of wire rope more than offsets this disadvantage. Braided wire rope is a construction espe cially designed for sling purposes. The idea originated in the need for a sling lauly that would terminate naturally in eye ends and the result is a combination of the flexibility of manila rope, the strength of wire rope and the link principle of chain. For sling work, the Use of multiple ropes insures greater contact with the load and the sur face of the braid is just uneven enough to prevent slippage, without damaging the load. The safe load for w'irc rope slings is 20 per cent of the breaking strength while the safe load for drains is 33VS Per cent of (be breaking strength. Manila ro|ic slings arc usually figured on the same basis as chain. Where a sling is used for general pur poses, the safety factor will, of course, vary with the loads lifted, hut it can vary as much as SO per cent on an identical load, de pending upon the angle at which the sling is applied. For this reason, a,safely factor of 5 to l is always recommended, since the safe load can be doubled and the sling still hold a good margin of safety. However, many wire rope sling users, especially bridge builders and steel erectors, are satisfied with a safely factor as low as 2 or ZVi, because of tltc well-known dcitcmlahilily of wire rope. Discussion Mr. Patterson: What size sheaves should be used for 1" rope? Mr. Whyte: The proper size sheaves In use arc set out in all rope catalogs. Mr. Griffith: In open hearth practice whut is the danger of rope becoming crystallized? Mr. Whyte: We claim that rope does not 394 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress kiomc crystallized. Unless temperature of rope becomes higher than 950 F. the rope will not be injured. We do not recommend hemp center rope for dial type of work. Mr. Byram: Do >ou have a definite rule for changing ladle cranes? Mr. Whyte : Most operators do have some definite measured step for this. Planning Your Safety Program By BURRELL T. DYE Supervisor, Warren District, Republic Steel Corp., Warren, O. Organized industrial Safety efforts in our country arc credited with saving the lives of 270.000 workers during the past 20 years; also with preventing the injury of millions of others Only about half as many people arc being killed today in our industries as were killed in 1917. In 1917 industrial accident prevention as u science (lid not exist. It is true that guards --good, had. nml indifferent--were being a|iplied tn machines, but today approved guards arc being built on our machines by manu facturers at the source of their origin, and >ur newer plants arc being built on approved safety plans. Twenty years ago the causes of accidents were m<! accurately known; today these causes arc thoroughly analyzed, and in roost eases the cause is definitely established and remedies arc applied. \\V know today that 98 per cent of all accidents arc pic veritable, also, we know' that injuries arc caused hv accidents which arc preventable, caused by unsafe practices and iiii'Ui'c conditions. \Yc also know that alter < have made our plants physically 'UiY we have eliminated only about 15 per cent of our accidents. This being accepted as true, we must then attack the elimination of impale practice*. This is where a planned safety program begins to play a most impor tant part. There are as many reasons for a planned proi^iain a- there arc accidents during the >ear. l\cpori* are based on monlldy experi ence. bated at the cm! of each calen dar war. and you ex|>ect as good a record in .lime. October, or December as you cx- IM riemvd in January; iu fact, you should ex pect a more satisfactory experience from nioitili to immth. Assuming that you have safeguarded your plant properly, and that new machinery comes equipped with adequate guards, your problems are more of a maintenance ami educational type, and with the subsequent education of your organization, the main tenance problems should be few, especially those tor discussion in safety meetings, as such problems should be handled through the medium of the "Unsafe Condition" and "Unsafe Practice" reports to the foremen as soon as they arc observed. Of course, if the foreman is not safety-minded, you have another problem, winch may need to be handled through the superintendent or the works manager. You tave heard the many responsibilities of the foremen discussed from every angle; yet few discussions atise as to how to help him become a better foreman. This, I be lieve, can best be accomplished through a well developed set of methods of handling nil safety problem# and reports, with a planned schedule of topics to be discussed at his meetings throughout the entire year. This program should be arranged to cover nil seasonal topics at the proper time, such as : winter hazards and their prevention; an imal spring clean-up and paint-up programs; vacations of employees and their (amities; vacations of school children and the hazard of their presence on the streets and high ways; heat hazards and the care of the per son during hot weather, not forgetting the important use of salt in the campaign against licnt cramps. It lb assumed that cadi of you has some form of general safety rules or orders. A planned safety program is the one sure vvnv ii covering these rules in their entirely. During the yv;u\ possibly several limes over, I use a set of general rules with depart mental rulo, ami >ee that u portion of every set is ili'CHSM'd at each and cveiy monthly meeting, using a sufficient number of each to cover all of them annually. Foremen have had their burdcus Increased many times in Metals Section 395 recent years; therefore, I have attempted to make their tasks easier, at the same time giving them some definite thoughts to put over to their men. Tltc ideal planned safety program should start with jour executive safety meeting, and should be held at the beginning of each month, attended by works manager or gen eral superintendent and all departmental su perintendents. The place of these meetings maj* lie the office of your district manager or general superintendent, or in an elective place. I prefer holding executive meeting* in the department in which the most un satisfactory safety experience lias resulted hi the previous month, with the superin tendent of that department conducting the meeting as a penalty for his unsatisfactory work. At a meeting of this type it is well to have the foremen who have had accidents to their men during the previous mouth. In this man ner a real impression is made on the fore men present as to the serious manner in which management takes accident prevention work. At (hex meetings problems hicli cannot In; dealt with satisfactorily by departments should lie handled. Minutes of these minutes should immediately be forwarded to all de partmental superintendents, who in turn should use such general information as is valuable to their respective departments. Minutes of departmental superintendent's monthly meetings should be forwarded im mediately to all foremen of the depart ment involved, in order that they may use them in their group meeting*. After this point in your safely program your scheduled meetings become most ef fective and should be set up in such a man ner as to cover all unfinished huskies*, new business, special literature received from the safety department or superintendent rel ative to safely since last meeting, general safety orders, monthly safety bulletins, and other safety problems that have arisen since the last safety meeting. I have prepared and used in the last two years such a program, with an outline of subjects for discussion including a monthlj safely bulletin, all of which tend to create interest among foremen iu saicty and de velop all workmen along the same prescribed safety lines. The planned safety program for the War ren District of Republic Steel lias created so much interest that uhen a new department is opened, or a man is promoted to a forcmanship, those foremen involved will ask for a copy of the planned safety program for their personal files; frequently before they have been placed on the mailing list. As evidence whether such a program i* being followed, one lias only to compare the foreman's minutes of lire group me.ting> from one department with (hose of a fore man from some other department, which de partments, relatively speaking, have no com parison in operation, hut do have the same goal in eliminating accidents. In building up my foremen's planned pro gram, I prefer to attach to cacti program a set of 12 bulletins, each covering one or moresafety problems to be contained in one inch x li inch sheet, and then augment the schedule from time to lime with current topics and problems as they arise, together with all outstanding accidents and their pre veution month by month. After having followed this form of planned program for two sears we have en joyed a frequency rale well under the whole No. 4, and a severity rate well under the whole No. 1 in the Warren District. I introduce each program with a letter ad dressed lo all superintendents and foremen: "In presenting the attached piogram it is not our desire or intention to eliminate any individuality from the departmental plans or programs, or-to eliminate any of the respon sibilities of the superintendent or foremen in the piomotion of safety as an integral part of their duties. Rather, it Is our desire to he of assistance to the foremen, and we have, therefore, accordingly prcjiared a brief out line of subjects systematically arranged to be used during the current year. "You will notice many topics, such as clean-up, good housekeeping, hand tool in spection, etc., have been omitted from this schedule of items listed on the planned pro gram. This has l>ccn done for the reason that these subjects arc daily problems and should be dealt with accordingly. "Please remember, in accepting this pro gram, that you arc tiol getting any more out of it than you yourself, as a foreman, put into the program." 396 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 Metals Section Safety Contest Twelve <*i the 231 coni|K.-iing plants in the Mi.-t.tl> Section Contest completed the con ical |Krfi<*l without a single disabling injury. More than 345,000 employees worked 760.- man-hours for an average frequency rate of 9.240, (`otm-'-iams in the light machine shops di vision had the lowest rates, averaging 7.333. Foundries had the highest rates, with an average of 16.170. Fifteen plaques were presented to first place winners and ten certificates to winners of second and third place. Awards were presented hy K. T. Solcn>tcn. vice-president, Elliott Service Co., New York City, ami vice-president for member ship. National Safety Council Winners of plaques were as follows: fight Machine Shot's Division---Four tied tor firs* place--Republic Steel Corp., Berger Mfg. Co.. Canton. O.; The Perfect Circle Co., Hagerstown, Ind.; The Kostcr Solder l*o.. Chicago, 111.; Republic Steel Corp., ( anion Culvert Diw, Canton, 0. Steel MilIt lUz'isio". Croup A--Republic Steel Corp . South Chicago Works, Chicago, 111. Steel Mills Division, Grout* D--The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., South Chicago Works, South Chicago, 111. Heavy Machine Shops Division, Group A --Henry Vogt Machine Co , Louisville, Ky. Heavy Machine Shops Division, Group 8 ---Two tied for first place--C. Hager & Sons Hinge Mfg. Co., St. Louis, Mo.; Emsco Derrick & Equipment Co., D & B Pump & Supply Co.. Los Angeles, Calif. Rolling, fabricating and Finishing Divis ion, Croup A--Republic Steel Corp., Niles, O. Rolling, fabricating and finishing Divi sion, Croup 8- -Three tied for first place-- Republic Steel Corp., Moline, III.; Lehigh Structural Steel Co., Allentown, Pa.; Pull man-Standard Car Mfg. Co., Baltimore. M<1. foundries Division--Two tied for first place--Haynes Stellite Co.. Kokomo, Ind.; The American Rolling Mill Co., Sixth Street Foundry, Ashland. Ky. 4 4 4- A motion made hy Robert L. Schmitt, chairman of the section's contest committee, proposed that the Metals Section sponsor a program of home safety during 1937-38. The motion was passed unanimously by the dele gates. How to Make Statistics Interesting and Useful By W. T. FILMER Supervisor of Safety, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Youngstown, O. H i* not easy to present statistics in such a way that they will be interesting. Statis tics arc generally a very borcsome subject. Yet facts and figures are the most conclu sive evidence we have to prove or disprove the crticiicy of the practice involved and to act as the guide by which lo steer our futur.e course. Statistics, to he valuable, must be honest! Statistics must also be presented intelli gently. Variable conditions must be recog nized to get a true picture. The mere tact that (mic department shows a frequency of 2.6 while another shows 6.6 docs not nec essarily mean that the 2.6 department is doing u good job. What are the relative hazards of the two departments? Superficially, it would appear that the 2.6 department was the better of the two, but comparing it with another department with n similar operation in another plant, it was found that at the other plant the frequency was 1.4. Also the frequency for all depart ments of this kind, as disclosed by the U. S. Metals Sectnnt 397 Department of Labor figures, was 2.1, so that (lie 2.6 frequency was really bad for such an operation. On the Other hand, the 6.6 frequency of the other department, compared with 7.4 frequency for a similar department at an other plant, and with a 9.7 frequency for all similar departments listed with the U. S. Department of Labor; so that the C.6 fre quency was relatively good. The man to whom statistics are an essential part of his job can, if he is interested, find a great deal of interesting information in the intensive study of a tabulation of figure*. But the man in the factory, the foreman and often the superin tendent, do not have the time nor the inclina tion to wade through a mass of abstruse figures which, so often, carry very little meaning to the superficial reader. Yet, these are the very men for whom we must provide the fall Story in nil its completeness, if progress is lo be made and past experiences made the ladder upon w hich we arc to climb to liighcT achievements. There is a way by which a mere tabula tion of figures ran be made to tell the story quickly if. say, two columns can be shown which give (lie ranks of the various depart ments. Usually these departments are listed alphabetically and to find out how any one department-stands, it is necessary to jump up and down the tabulation. But if (he de(artment having the best frequency rating could be shown as number one, and so on in order, it would be easy for a superinten dent to determine how his department stood in the comparison. Similarly a column would show how he stood in his severity rating. Dale Carnegie has said that we are all primarily interested in ourselves. Naturally, when we arc confronted with statistics in which we are a factor, we look to see how we stand. If 1 find that 1 rank first in the tabulation, naturally I am elated; 1 proceed to pass the word around to my subordinates, and they too are enthused and an incentive is produced to plug hard to hold that place. If, on the other hand, I find myself in twelfth place, and that figure stands out like a sore thumb for all the world to sec, 1 realize that it is essential to get the gang together to see what can be done (o get away from such a discreditable showing in the future. The question "How do we stand this month?" ts one in which superintendents and foremen arc vitally interested and the more clearly this standing can be shown, the bet ter. Tabulations should be prepared to satisfy that interest. The best tabulations, however, cannot presrnt the story quickly, We must take time to go over them care fully and intensively. They arc, therefore, of little account when it is desired lo reach people who do nut ha\c lime nor the in clination to look them over in that You have all seen the pic chart, in which percentage figures arc shown like various sizes of cuts of pic. There arc charts in which the various proportions arc shown by varying sizes of the same figure, such as the figure of a man, or of a number of men compared in groups. The handbook of "Ac cident Facts," published by the National Safety Council, is lull of Matistics splendidly and comprehensively presented by this pic torial method. Work of this kiitd requires the services of one, who, if not artist, must at least be able to draw fairly well. Most of us, however, arc not gifted in that way. How then can we get the benefit of this pictorial presentation of facts? A very effective chart on frequency and severity can be made to show the standings of different departments by the use of a red line. It can be made variable by the use of a red and white ribbon running on spools at each end and around behind the back of Die body of the chart, so permitting it in be changed front month to month. The same type of adjustable chart can be used to show' the number of days since the last disabling injury in various departments. The same general form can he used on a smaller sheet for distribution to give department heads and men a quick picture of the various department standings. Such a chart, for example, can be made on an ordinary letter size sheet. The purple lines can be printed with hectograph ink. The red lines can be put on with a ruling pen with hectograph ink, showing the record for the current mouth; and as many copies can be made on the duplicating machine as are necessary. Such a chart conveys a much better picture, depicted in a much more con vincing manner, than any tabulation of figures could possibly convey. A chart of this type can very easily be adapted lo show many other interesting statistics, such as causes of accidents, nature of injuries, age ranges of victims, time incidence, etc. 398 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Now. what about progress cliarts to show Ihjw we are progressing from month to month? One chart, easily made, has a re semblance t<* a city skyline, aTM! tells its ''lory quickly nut! convincingly in a very interesting way. We made such a chart for 1W6 showing eight similar operations. The different colors indicated the different units. The top row indicated frequency; the lower row indicated severity. ach horizontal pacc represented one month of the year, and the height of the line indicated the cumulative figure for the year to date. The first space was for January alone; the sec* ond space for January and February com bined; the third *j*ace for January, Febru ary and March ; and so on. The same type ol chart can be nsed ef fectively in depicting other subjects. It makes an interesting ami forceful picture of what progress is being made in dealing with various types of injuries. This type of chart can he taken out into the mill and shown to men at safety meetings and I have been a little surprised at the interest which was manifested by them. Maintenance and Repair and Its Relation to Safety in the Metals Industry By CLIFFORD J. SMITH Superintendent of Maintenance, Gary Works, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Co., Gary, Ind. The safely program of a steel mill main tenance department consists of two major divisions ; the promotion of the safety of the maintenance crews in llic performance of their work, and (he safety of operating ami production crews, insofar as proper main tenance of equipment and development of improvements. lutscd on observation of o|crnliiiK difficulties, can contribute to the safety ol >uch crews. The maintenance man is called ti|H*n to work around all types of cqui]wncnt in ins department; and if lie is working out ol (lie central shops, his duties will take him itiio all parts of the plant. For this reason be is subjected to a greater vari ety <>f hazards than ihc average employee, a fact which diouM l*c Itornc in mind in the selection of prr*umu*l. The preferred type of matt lor this .work should be alert, able to analyze a situation and arrive at a prompt decision as to the re quired action. He must lie able to include in his analysis the proliahilttic* of dangers to himself and crew and minimize these dan ger* Iiy proper planning of the work. Men arc naturally placed in an organization by their interest ami capability in a given line of work. In maintenance work, for ex ample. some m*ii can climb at considerable heights, with no ill s*ffccts. aiul others can not ; and this ami other limitations of indi viduals must lie known and considered in (lie assignment of work. The next consideration is that of proper tools kept in good condition, mid special clothing or equipment where required for safety. This, of course, includes goggles, foot guards or .safely shoes, leggings, gloves, aprons and helmets for burners and welders, safety helmets for men exposed to falling material, respirators for dusty locations, and oxygen apparatus where noxious fumes or gases may be encountered. Plants operating blast furnaces and uti lizing their by-product gases, which arc high in carbon-monoxide content, must pay par ticular attention to the safety of operating and maintenance personnel. Gas detectors arc available which arc ar ranged to show gas concentration on the dial of a suitable meter, calibrated to read di rectly in per cent of carbon-monoxide. These devices may also be arranged to ring a bell or light a light or both, at a predetermined concentration of carbon-monoxide, giving a continuous check, or at suitable intervals. Such devices should be used whenever work men need to enter any confined space where gas may be encountered, as in gas mains, blast furnace stoics, gas washers, engine room basements etc. In areas where gas is expected, and where the presence of workmen is required for a short repair or operating job, sonic form of breathing apparatus must be employed. House masks may be employed where there is au unquestionably pure air supply within reach of a reasonable length of hose. Metals Section 399 and a hand-operated blower used to force a supply of pure air to the wearer of the mask, in atmospheres where there is suffi cient oxygen to sustain life, another type of mask and breather equipment may be used, wherein the carbon-monoxide is re moved by passing the air through a suitable chemical filler. When the oxygen content of the air is at all questionable, a complete oxygen breathing apparatus must be used. The foregoing apparatus is all of a preven tive nature, and to be effective, must be ap plied in anticipation of a workman's exposure to harmful concentrations of carbon-iuonoxde. To guard against unexpected exposure definite and detailed procedures must be de veloped and strictly observed. For example, men must not work, or go alone into con fined areas where gas might be encountered --as in cngiuc room basements, gas washer enclosures etc. Notwithstanding careful planning, accidental exposure may occur and remedial procedures must be fully developed. These include the application of artificial resuscitation to persons overcome by gas, ;md the supplying ol oxygen through the use of inhalutor-. Men must be available in all crews who can administer treatment cor rectly ami promptly, and frequent drills m this procedure arc ft<cnlial. The next step in safe maintenance is to insure the proper line-up of men and equip ment on the job at hand. Proper clearance with operating departments insures the at tention of those supervisors acquainted with details of operating conditions and attendant hazard-, and whose advice on such matters is very important. Furthermore, this mini mizes the likelihood of unexpected operation of equipment and calls the attention of operating men to the presence of outside men in the department, in locations where nor mally no one would be working. On ntuvable equipment, all sourres of power and control must lie safeguarded by lucking out such power control apparatus lv the use of safety kicks. Proper line up of ihc use and removal of safety locks is of prime importance. If more than one group of maintenance men are working on the job, carli group should attach a safety lock, to be removed by no one, except the man responsi ble for a particular group, and then only after careful check, which accounts for each man in hi group. Facilities should be provided m* that locks are attached directly to (lie locking-out device and capable of removal ill divitlually--for example, snapping one lock into another lock, so (hat the rcmoul of ihc first lock removes the protection of the other groups, should not lie tolerated. If one supervisor is responsible for all groups employed on the job at hand, then one saft iy lock is sufficient, if not removed until every man assigned to the job i> accounted lor. Working platforms, where required, muT be constructed in accordance with accepted standards, with railings and approaches and other features required by the job, and makeshift or substandard construction must not be tolerated. The need for railings and warning signs is to lie carefully analyzed, as well as the need for special watchers. Before the work is started it is essential that all men arc lined up not only as to llieir duties, but also as to special conditions re quiring their attention to insure a safe con clusion to the work at hand. Here again (lie operating department can he of great as sistance in calling attention (o hazard? which may lie encountered by men getting away from the working area, where all possible precautions have been taken for their safety, and into a location where they arc not ex pected to be, and where hazards may not be entirely obvious. Changes from the agreed procedure should not he made by any individual or group until it is certain that alt concerned are aware of the proposed change and that no unexpected hazard will be introduced. Upon completion of the job. a complete clean up should be made, removing all scrap and unused material, and restoring the sur roundings to ail orderly condition. AH guards and safety appliances must also he restored before turning Hie equipment over for operation. Furthermore, during the prog rcss of the job strict attention to orderliness is required. All material* aiul tools should he kept in order, and no accumulation of scrap materials or tools under foot, nr inter fering with progress of the job can he tol crated, if accidents are to be minimized. Good light is essential to the safety of maintenance work, and sufficient temporary lights should be used to insure adequate il lumination, provided that the light intensity for normal operation is insufficient. Portable man cooling fans may often increase the comfort and efficiency of the workmen and minimize the hazards inherent in fatigue and discomfort. 400 Tu\'nl\-sixlh Xalionu! Safety Congress On the ban' *>t the liuman element being the major problem in the elimination ut ac cident?* aiul their attendant injuries, the *>alely program mU'l l*c designed to enipha*i<e t<> the >ii|*erviMi and workers the nc- cv-sity ol |cing atcty-minded at all limes. The nMj'i iiuriivc intluciicc in selling any tro|Kitt>ii i' an ap|>cal to the self-interest <*i tlie individual. If he licmmcs convinced dial he can j*cr>iially benefit by the elimina tion of arcidi-iHb. lie is apt to accept the -sifety program and Ikcuiiic a safety booster. The hazard' incident to maintenance work can U minimized hy methods which antici pate ami reduce the number of breakdown jobs. This reduces tin- amount of work and orrc>|oiiding man hour exposure, and al lows most of the work to be done on a planned The morl essential practice in such a prcrgrain is systematic, thorough and frequent in*i*ceiion ol all equipment, witli a follow-up system which will insure that unsatisfactory conditions arc corrected a* promptly as production allows or eco nomic considerations dictate. If the maintenance foreman's territory is small (his iti>|ieclioti can lie made person ally. However, the usual division of a steel mill maintenance foreman is too extensive and too many oilier demands arc made upon his time to allow j>cr-onal attention to all items of equipment. It is then necessary to delegate this im|*>riaiit function to opera tors. oilers, engineers and electricians who are in a jm-iiioii to <*l*scrvc the condition of each piece of apparatus. In |xtML-r ln<e. Ixiiler bouses, pumping -tathnis ami similar station jobs the engi neers. oilers, pump tenders and electrical <ij-ratMri arc primarily occupied with operaij..!i of itie equipment and dose and continual ob'crvatnm i- automatically obtained. Such vh.'c oh'L-rvalnwi is accepted as necessary due to the imiNinam'c to production and the fact dial little spare capacity is provided. Like wise. the standard of maintenance is high, being kept as far as possible on a preventive la>is. 'Die jobs arc usually well planned, I he crew* experienced and efficient, and all iihiU and special equipment at band, resulting in efficient and safe performance. The majority ol mill auxiliary equipment dots not get the same degree of attention ami maintenance. Here the operator, in gen eral. lia> no ini crest in the apparatus, except that it ropuud to the control.-, ami little or no responsibility lor keeping the unit in operating condition--hence the necessary, fully organized maintenance crew to take care of such equipment. The only exception to ibis is the craneman who may have limited responsibilities as to the inspection, lubrica tion and adjustment of his machine, and certain other machine operators. Overhead traveling cranes, gantry cranes, repair trolleys and various types of lioists comprise a class of equipment which require special attention from the standpoint of in spection and preventive maintenance. Hue to Ihc hazards of failing material, whether cas ual material, broken parts of the equipment, or loads dropped due to failure of mecha nisms, every precaution must be taken to keep this class of equipment in good repair. It has been found desirable to supplement the work of the foreman and repairmen charged with the proper maintenance of such equipment liy the use of Crane Inspectors. The crane inspector goes over al! equip ment in detail, recording all items of a me chanical or electrical nature which need ad justment or replacement. This survey pro vides a double check and docs not lessen in any degree the rcs|K>nsibilt(y of the abovementioned foremen mid repairmen. Copies of these reports are. forwarded to the su perintendent and foreman involved, as well as to the Plant Safety Department head. All recommended repairs or alterations must lie disposed of, either by being carried to completion, or hy being rejected lor cause. The inspection covers cleanliness and or derliness of the equipment in the interest of minimized fire hazard and increased safely of operators and repairmen. Safety equip ment, such as sunders, fire extinguishers, hand lines, safely belts, gongs, warning lights, tight extension cords gear guards etc. is checked. Loose or scrap material on the cranes, approaches or runways is not tol erated. Loose, worn or broken parts arc itemized and recommended for correction. Inspections at intervals of one to two months have been found sufficient for aver age conditions, with more attention given to particularly hard-worked cranes. Unusual operating conditions, or failures of parts may make it desirable for Ihc inspector to make special checks and reports when requested. ADJOURNMENT Mining Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--C. \V. GlfiBS, H,arwick Coal ami Coke Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Vtce-Chairman in Charge of Engineering--G. J. Bakkutt, U S. Steel Corporation Sub sidiarics. Duluth, Minn. Vice-Chairman in Chary? of Health--Lee Lo.no, Cluichficld Coal Curp., Dante, Ya, Vter-Chairman in Charge of Membership--Angus V). C wii'iiki i, McInty re Porcupine Mine*, Ltd.. Schumacher, Out., Canada. Secretary ami Xetes Letter Editor--Daniei. Hakiii.ncio.v, United States bureau of Mine', Washington, L). C. /`aster and Slide Committee Chairman--J. }. Fokhks, United Stales Bureau of Mines, Pitts burgh, Pa. f*royram Committee Chairman--L. C Cami'HIU i., The Koppcr> Cal Lu, Pill-.burgh, Pa. Publicity Committee Chairman--M. R. Bunn, The Explosives Engineer, Wilmington, Del. Statistics Committee Chairman--W. \V. Adaus, United States Bureau of Mines. Wash inglon, l>. C. .Members at Large-- Thomas Auz.v. Chief Coal Mine Inspector, State of Cohna<ln. Denver, Coir*. J. W. An. Calumet & II ecla Consolidated Copper Co., Calumet, Mich. P. M. Arnica. American Zinc Co of Tennessee, Mascot, Tinn. Fmeo E. Behai.k. Consolidation Coal Co., Fairmont. \V. Va. John L. BoakomaS;. Anaconda Copper Mining Co.. Butte, Mont. Mackicf. Coulter, Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp., Indiana. Pa. H. T. Harper. Tennessee Copper Co., CoppcrJiill, Tom. H. C Hknhif, Phelps Dodge Corp., Bisbcc. Ariz. Rush X. Host.rn, Coal Mine Section, Pennsylvania Compensation Rating 9c Inspec tion Bureau. Harrisburg, Pu. C. F. Keck. Jamison Coal Corp., Greensburg, Pa. Thomas E. I.mmtFoot, The Koppers Coal Co,, Pittsburgh, Pn. Wit. G. Metzger. Hudson Coal Co.. Scranton, Pa. D. IX Morr.\T, Utah Copper Co., Salt Lake City', Utah. Y. O. Mukkay. The Union Pacific Coal Co., Rock Springs, Wvn. R. IV Paul Xcw Jersey Zinc Co., New York, N. Y. John T. Ryan. Mine Safety Appliances Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. L. T. Sitka. Si. Joseph Lead Co., Bonne Terre, Mo. John Trkavkek. Homestake Mining Co., Lead, S. D. Officers Elected for 1937-38 Ceneral Chairman--G. J. Barkpit, Oliver Iron Mining Co., Duluth, Minn. Vice-Chairman--Let Lose, Clinchficld Coal Corp., Dante, Va. Vice-Chairman--Anouk IX Camprei.l, McIntyre Porcupine Mines, Ltd., Schumacher, Ont., Canada. 401 -102 Tieenly-si.ith National Safety Congress Vice-Chairman--V.. C. Cami'buj, The Koppers Coal Co., Pittsburgh, I*a. Secretory and Xew.r Letter Editor--Daxiej. Harrington, United States Bureau of Mine?, Washington. I). f*o.xler and Slide Committee Chairman--J. J, Fdriik*, United Stales Bureau of Mines, Pitis- Iiurgh, l\i. Publicity Committee Choir man--M. It. Buuo, The Explosives Engineer, Wilmington, Del. Statistics Committee Choirman--\V\ W. Adams, United Slates Bureau of Mines, Wash ington, D. C. Members at l.or;/e-- Thomas Aiux, Chief Coal Aline Inspector, State of Colorado, Denver, Colo. .1. W. Alt. Calumet & Hccla Consolidated Copper Co., Calumet, Mich. P. M. Arthur, American Zinc Co. of Tennessee, Mascot, Tenu. Frro E. Bedale, Consolidation Coal Co., Inc., Fairmont, W. Va. John L. Boakdua.v, Anaconda Copper Mining Co., Butte, Mont. Maurice Coulter, Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp., Indiana, Pa. C. \V. Gums, Harwich Coal & Coke Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. H. T. Harper, Tennessee Copper Co., Copperhill, Tenn. H. C. Hexkil, Phelps Dodge Corp., Bisbcc, Ariz. Ki;sh N. Hosier, Coal Mine Section, Pennsylvania Compensation Rating & Inspec tion Bureau, Harrisburg, Pa. C. F. Kkck. Jamison Coal Corp, Grrciisburg, Pa. Thomas E. Lk.hitoot, The Koppers Coal Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. William G. Metzger, Hudson Coal Co., Scranton, Pa. D. IX Moh\t. I'tali Copper Co., Salt Lake City, Utah. Y. O. Ml'rrav, The Union Pacific Coal Co, Rock Springs, Wyo. K. M. |'.\u. New Jersey Zinc Co., New York, N. Y. John T. Kva.v, Mine Safety Appliances Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. I.. T. Sicka. St. Joseph Lead Co., Bonne Terre, Mo. John' Trkwefk. Homestake Mining Co., Lead, S. D. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 The session was called to order by Gen- and Coke Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., who introeral Chairman C. \V. Gibbs, Harwick Coal duccd the speakers. The Relationship of Safety to Efficiency in Mining By JAMES K. RICHARDSON Safety Director, Climax Molybdenum Company, Climax, Colorado No person will deny that tliere can be but two ways of doing work--a right way and a wrong way. The whole scheme of mining methods is basically a question of safety and efficiency. If the ore cannot be extracted economically the system is abandoned. It the ore cannot lte extracted without endangering the lives of the employees the system is abandoned. Unquestionably the latter though has often been overlooked. We cannot, however, overlook the fact that anything that kills or maims men is morally wrong. Fur thermore, If our process or method tears up machines it is surely not efficient. Mining Section 403 Low cost production is the true basis of efficiency. The major item on any' cost sheet is labor. A property lliat achieves a low' unit cost due to a cheapness acquired by low wages with the consequent low type per sonnel will not long exist! Tlic reason is obvious--although the daily labor cost is low the ultimate job cost is high. These poor \\orkcr> are the men that efficient organiza tions refuse to tolerate--the "cream of the crop" arc hired in their place. When a mine gets a reputation for unsafe working conditions you will notice an influx of poor workers. The good men leave--the poor ones stay. The reason is that the poor worker realizes he cannot get work in an organization that demands efficiency and ability. Each of us has talked to various em ployees coming from oilier properties. You iicar that "such and such** a company kills men daily, or that someone is always getting hurt. These reports may or may not be exaggerated--but where there is smoke (here is fire! 1 f your property gets such a reputa tion among the laboring men LOOK OUT. The basic principles of accident preven tion are: Supervision, education, and disci pline. It is not necessary to discuss these principles. However, it is true that too much of each day's work is lost by the working men, due to unsafe conditions. If the work man must spend half his day remedying faulty conditions, replacing staging left by a previous shift, "blowing out" his working place, or any one of a thousand similar cir cumstances, you know production costs are rising. The efficient mining organization is today standardizing every task. These standards are built up from the study of the task aud are adopted if efficient and safe. Such jobs arc easily supervised and it is easy to educate the employee in the manner of working. When an employee knows how to do a job he seldom is injured 1 From my personal standpoint I believe that the standardizing of jobs is the biggest step an organization can make toward im proving underground or surface efficiency. I also believe that on the standard tasks the accident risk has been lessened 50 per cent. Every task is done the same way yet there is enough variation of conditions in mining practice so that it does not tolerate a man becoming mechanical. When a workman knows he must keep a definite standard re gardless of the work being done, he attempts to meet those requirements. He knows that the preceding shifts must meet the sumo re quirements and therefore he is able to take up his work safely, exactly where it was loft by his predecessor. He can thus devote his full time to work without fear of slipshod methods applied previous to his arrive . I believe that a task well done, regardless of the job, is more easily maintained than a haphazard piece of construction. When a job is safe, all components of that job are in first class condition. Wc can, then, surely count on lower maintenance costs on first class jobs and when the operator looks over his cost sheets, repair costs arc the major items. All of us have seen t'itnhermcn tearing out old timber and replacing with new. Had this timber been properly placed and properly considered at first, the new job would not have been necessary. Unquestionably we have all had experi ence with faulty ventilation. I iccall cer tain underground fires that could have been controlled and loss of life averted had venti lation been considered a major problem in the original layout. The major portion oi our small metal mines arc notoriously poorly ventilated. Many men arc "gassed," causing them to fall from high raises to death or certain injury; others contract pulmonary diseases more readily and are disabled. Some are injured because of their inability to sec their work clearly. These things are all due to a faulty ventilating condition, and any in jury causes certain losses in production rc gardlcss of its seriousness; nor can it be denied that unless breathable air is avail able die normal efficiency of employees is decreased. In one particular property I recall certain additional work obtained merely by estab lishing proper ventilation. A total of 150 ma chine shifts was being put in each day in a stoping area and prior to correct ventilation the average amount of hole drilled per ma chine was 86 feet. After the ventilation was improved the average was increased to 118 feet. Loaders who had originally pulled ap proximately 76 cars consistently passed the 100 mark. Footages in development work rose from 2.6 per machine to 3.8 feet. Loss of time from pulmonary disorders dropped to a negligible figure, and the accident fre quency fell 28 per cent Another important factor in accident pre vention is correct illumination. Those mine? which have done away with the old carbide 404 Tiicnty-si.vth National Safety Congress lamps have found not only increased effi ciency but increased safety. Tlic average length of lime spent per day working on carbide: lamp? by the underground work man has Ijccu found to be approximately 25 minutes. This alone makes a sizable amount on ihc co>t sheet. When we consider the thousands of underground men still so equipped, the amount is truly appalling. The argument so often lieard to this point is that regardless of the 23 minutes thus wasted, the average worker would waste it some Other way. Regardless of such ar gument, the amount is still chargeable against carbide lights. J. J. Carrigan, general superintendent of mines, Anaconda Copper Mining Company, has said of mine lighting in the Butte Dis trict : "The salient advantages of the use of the electric cap lamp in the Butte District are: 1, Elimination of the Are hazard of the open flame lamp. 2. Reduction of fire hazard due to light ing circuits. .i. More uniform light during the entire shift, which is n good safety factor. 4. More efficient sorting of ore, made pos sible by better ami more uniform illu mination.'' The advantages outlined arc those normal to most metal mines. Entirely neglecting the compensation or medical costs incurred hy an injury there arc numerous other costs which arise each time an accident occurs. Some of these costs arc hidden and not easily tabulated--others arc very definite and arc always present. Re gardless of whether "hidden" or not; after a serious accident look at your cost per unit. We are safe in saying that it has materially risen. For example let us take a wreck on a main haulage line in which a motor ran into the rear of an ore train. No one was injured and the delay caused was only five and one-half hours. It was, however, impossible for other trains to proceed with their ore, so that pro duction stopped during that period. That accident in actual loss of production cost $12,000; labor to rerail and repair motor and cars amounted to $430 ; labor idle under ground $350. A toial for an accident which caused no real injury to personnel of $12,800. When persons arc injured underground there are production losses in their immediate area: transportation costs which contribute to production loss; lowered morale of em ployees with a decreased individual produc tion which often extends over several days; repair of equipment; and other items not easily tabulated. All of these are "dollars and cents" items to the prc>ducing company. Our company has figured that we have saved during 1936, by our safety program, ap proximately one-half million if we consider the year we undertook a definite program as a base. Our company is no exception, and our management definitely believes that there is no compromise with safety, and there is no lessening of efficiency by strictly adhering to a successful accident prevention policy. Safety Program for the Reduction of Accidents In Coal Mines in Colorado By THOMAS ALLEN Chief Coal Mine* Inspector, State of Colorado The safety program in Colorado involves many scimratc and distinct efforts; it will be necessary to describe each activity individ ually. and the coordination of the different units into one genera) plan. Some three years ago 1 took the office of Chief Coal Mine Inspector for the Stale of Colorado. This was iIk: time just following the general depression. For several years mines had worked very irregularly, and all lines of safety work had fallen practically into nonexistence. At that time there were funds, am! had been funds for several years before, in other state departments which might have been applied to work along educational and safety lines, IHit for some reason this was not done, and consequently there had been a long period of inactivity in safety programs with the State Coal Mine Inspection Depart ment. Mining Section 405 The activity of the Coal Mine Inspection Department at this time, in contacting oilier organizations engaged in welfare, safety and similar work in coal mines, is described here. The State Cnal Mine Inspection Depart ment is now the hub around which all this work revolves. Colorado Coal Mining Laws Tlie Coal Mine Inspection Department, being the base of operation for Safety efforts, is built upon a very good code of mining laws. Colorado has had effective coal mining laws since 1913. Previous to dial time laws were suggested and recommended, but with very little power for enforcement. No real changes in the coat mining laws were made from 1913 until the Colorado Leg islature convened this year. With so many changes in coal mining nictliods during the last twenty-four years, it was necessary lo redraft different sections of the law to meet the new conditions. The major rearrangements were made for the control of mechanical mining, which in most cases requires some blasting on shift. The important changes in the law regarding mechanical loading arc os follows: 1. Where mechanical loading devices arc installed they shall be operated under rules and regulations as prescribed bv the State Coal Mine Inspection Department. 2. No blasting on shift shall be permitted in any coal mine without the written |>crmission of tlie Chief Inspector of Coal Mine*. 3. No other powder than iierniissible pow der fired by electric battery, Cardox or ap proved mechanical or chemical device* dial! be used where blasting on shift is permitted, and only certified shot fircr* slialt be allowed to fire snch shots. 4. Snail power or hand blower fans for face ventilation may be used with Ihc written permission of the Chief Inspector of Coal Mines. 5. In all mines the installation of under ground fans slialt be permitted only by the written approval of the Chief Inspector of Coal Mines. Tlic temporary rules governing the installa tion of mechanical loaders are here quoted. These roles are subject to change, with every possibility of more detail in regulation. 1. That each area where mechanical units arc operating be under the constant super vision of a properly certified shot fircr orbthcr official, other than the regular employed fore man or assistant foreman. 2. That slmt tiring l>c done by a properly certified shot fircr or other official. 3. That all places shot be examined as so*hi as possible ami before operating men arc allowed to return to work. 4. That the use of dynamite, black or pcllci powder be prohibited in the coal face. 5. That only electric shooting by battery be iermiticd and rubbed covered or properly insulated lead wires be used. fi. That burster shots be fired alone and tliat no dependent shots be allowed ami delay cap* used when more dan one shot is fired at a time. 7. That a sufficient supply of non-combustibic, dirt or clay cartridges be kept on hand at all times. 8. That all places .where mechanical devices arc used be protected from dust hazard in n manner agreed upon with the Chief Inspector of Coal Mines. 9. That ventilation arrangements in me chanical districts and throughout the mine meet with the approval of the Chief Inspector. 10. That all ventilating fans be on tlic intake side of die workings and so set as to prevent return air from reaching it. 11. That all workmen wear goggles, hard or safety hats and hard toe shoes. Men oper ating cutting machines, electric drills ami other such devices, wear only lu'gli-prcss rub ber shoes with hard toes. 1 2. 'rti.it no light, other than the approved flame safety lamps and electric safety lamp* he used by crews on these units. 13. That first aid kits be kept close to oper ating units and all men be trained in first aid 14. That telephones he kept up to within a reasonable distance of (lie working face. 15. That systematic timbering, meeting with the approval of the department, be strictly enforced. 16. That no conveyor or parts of machinery be suspended from the roof by hooks or bolts inserted in hules drilled for that purpose, excepting with the permission of the Coal Mine Inspection Department. No regulations have liccti drawn as yet for 406 Txvcnty-sixth National Safety Congress control of blasting on shift, but such rules will be ready for publication soon. Mechanical loading devices, blasting on shift shooting. Slid underground fans, are under the direct control of the Coal Mine Inspection Department. This gives the depart ment full |Kmcr to stipulate any regulations they may see fit tor the purpose of advancing safety in this work. 'Id carry out the proper supervision, Use Colorado State Coal Mine Inspection Depart ment is allowed otic Chief Inspector and six Deputy Inspectors as a maximum force. The law states, "That every mine employing more than three men underground shall be inspected at least twice annually, and all mines employ ing three men or less sliall be inspected once every six months." Maintenance of Inspection Department The revenue tor the maintenance of the Coluradu Coal Mine Inspection Department is derived from a special levy of four mills jtcr ton of coat mined at each mine. In addi tion to this there is a license requirement as follows: Every coal mine producing less than SOU tons annually pays a license of $10; 500 to 1.000 tons maximum, a license of $25; over 1.000 tons annually, a license of $50. This clarifies the mines in a general way as large, medium and small. Coal production in Colorado is approxi mately seven million tons annually; this nets uii animal income of about $28,000. Licenses It<mIucc approximately $10,000 annually from .158 mines listed. The law gives a further advantage in that registration of licenses gives us a complete li.it of all coal mines operating in the state. Previously, smaller mines would open and dose without notification to the department, although the law provided that such opening* and closings should be recorded in the office. The law provides dial in the event that we >lu mid accumulate more than $20,000 in excess ot the cx{Krnditurcs of the department, oper ators shall he notified that they are exempt from payment of the current quarterly install ment of the four mill fevy per (on. The Coal Mine Inspection Department perMiimyt is selected front the classified lists of the Colorado State Civil Service Commission, after competitive examinations arc held gov erning the Mihjccts pertaining to each indi vidual job, In addition to the field force of six Deputy Inspectors and one Chief Inspector, the office force consists of a Chief Clerk and two As sistant Clerks. One of the assistant clerks is classified as a Safety Director, whose work consists chiefly of accident and safety sta tistics. Mine officials in the State of Colorado are certified after an examination is conducted by the Board of Examiner*; this Board consists of ope engineer, two coal miners and one coal mipe operator. The Chief Inspector makes ihe fifth member and is Chairman of the Board. Certificates of competency, granted by the State, are required for Mine Foreman, As sistant Mine Foreman, and Fireboss or Watchman. Sl>ot firers are certified by the Chief Coal Mine Inspector, who the candidate personally at the place where be is employed. Certification o( machine runners is nut in the law* yet. However, the reliable coal ranpanics are beginning to request this. In the shot firer's examination the candidate must prove that he is able to detect dinftnws gases by the use of an approved safety lamp. The Coal Mining law provides that before any shots arc fired or any electric devices oper ated in a working place, the place sou* be examined for explosive gas. This means that every machine runner should be familiar with a safety lamp and have some knuuWdgi of explosive gases. In the 1937 session of the legislature a W1 was proposed requiring certificatbe far el underground employees. In addition to the forces of the Scale In spection Department, the larger coal opera*** of Colorado have formed an insurance one pany which has two inspectors m the field. Must of the smaller mines arc insured wsdrr tltc Colorado Stale Compensation Imerast plan, and this department carries at lea* tar inspector on its payroll for coal muiu each* lively. Only one company in Colorado arrk* its own safety inspector. Accident Reports Monthly accident statUtir* arc paUnho] by the State Coal Mine Inspection Department. A list showing the number of aocidrnt> for each mine is sent to every operator and mry Alining Section 40 7 local union of the United Mine Workers of America. At the end of each six months the total number of accidents for each mine is sent to the same people. This is in the form of a competition for the reduction of accidents. The winner is presented with a silver plaque known as the State of Colorado Trophy, for the best record over the preceding six months' period. To obtain permanent possession, a mine must win it four successive times. The State Board for Vocational Training has very materially assisted in the develop ment of safety programs. In 1935 it obtained about $4,000 for instruc tors' salaries, to train 60 mine rescue men, arid trained 300 applicants for certificates in the examinations held for mine officials; also, various groups were trained in first aid. The Board lias cooperated with the Coal Mine Inspection Department and the United States Bureau of Mines to train an additional 1,200 men and 100 women in first aid. During the last legislature the Vocational Department secured sufficient funds so that $16,000 was allotted to traiu miners in mine rescue work, first aid, and the technical phases of coal mining this year. Mine Rescue Work Through lack of funds the training in mine rescue work had been inactive since 1935. Xow we have enough funds to reopen the rdaratkmal campaign. It will be carried on ontsl at least 1.000 well trained helmet men are in the mines of the state. t iiqilm file of these trained men will krpe in the inspection office, so that in lime 4 wndriW they can be called out for duty. Thr iw*.iwk.i t to select a key man in every droerwt. rhi, upon notification, can assemble tSr n quirtd am. S*onetime ago a meeting was held to organur a State Council nf the Holmes Safety AxMjcsatHXi. The organization of a State Council did me get under way, but the United Scale* Bureau of Mines, and the Coal Mine Inflection Department arc furthering the program. Routt County, one of the largest coal pro ducing areas, is 100 per cent organized. Other districts arc organizing local Chapters with the expectancy that in possibly one year the entire state wilt be functioning in tins safety work. The Holmes Safety Association of Routt County was possibly the first group of men in tltc country to Uke it upon themselves to further tltc use of goggles by all coal mine employees. The Coal Mine Inspection Department maintains a very close contact with the United States Bureau of Mines through the regional office and field force in Denver. First Aid Work The system of First Aid Work was built up as follows: A representative of the United Slates Bu reau of Mines trained a group of men from each district to be instructors. The instructors trained workers at individual mines and were (aid through the Vocational Board, assisted by the Coal Mine Inspection Department. This may or may not be an entirely' new method of approaching safety in coal mines. In furthering this program, the gospel has been preached among the women in mining communities that they are the real sufferers in accidents. Women's auxiliaries arc formed with the Holmes Safety Association, and other group* of women here have organized into inde pendent unit*. These women are trained in first aid by a representative from the Stale Coal Mine Inspection Department and by any other available instructors. At present there are four active organizations in the northern field of Colorado, and six active organizations in Routt County. Wc expect to expand the program throughout the state. These women, in addition to giving first aid, will help take care of the families where a mining disaster has occurred, and liclp maintain proper quarters and food for rescue workers. The value of women being trained was shown at a recent meeting of the Haybro chapter of the Holmes Safety Association in Routt County. A miner's loose clothing caught in moving machinery. Women were present when the accident was discussed. In the future they will see that the men have tight fitting clothing, also leggings as a pro tective device. 408 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress \V. P. A. to date lias given the State Coal Mine Infection Department tle following assistance : It lias assembled anti lilvd all the cual mine maps in the |K>s*cs>io of the lns|>ectirin Dcliartimrtit. It is now possible to secure a map of any mine in the state in a very few minutes. Tin: women's section of tltc W. P. A. made 500 com|>resses and possibly 2.000 triangular Ikandages for use in first aid instruction. The material was purchased by else Coal Mine Inspection Department. Splints for first aid practice were made by tltc men's group of tlte \\\ P. A. At jrcscnt >01110 \V. P. A. workers arc making mine models for use in teaching coal mining in the different districts. Exhibits of mode).-* am) num-riaJi lutvu been M/cured from jiowdcr firms and machinery Itomcs; safety 1ani|* liavc been collected and are available fur instruction. We have ail agreement with the Public Service Company of Colorado whereby we may use any of their equipment on emergency. The Mountain States Telephone and Tele graph Company will also respond with equip ment or supplies. We have an agreement with the Colorado National Guard, that in serious situations, necessitating the use of large crews of men, they will transport and place at the scene of the accident bed and bedding and cooking equipment, so tint the excess crews may be handled. National Guard airplanes will be placed at tl>e disposal of the department for emergency work. The Colorado State Highway Department will provide trucks and automobiles. Included iu safety activity is a continual pressure for tbc use of protective clothing, replacement of open flame lamps by electric head lamp*.-rock dusting, etc. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimination In Bituminous Coal Mining By JOHN LYONS Safety Engineer, Bel) & Zoller Coal & Mining Co., Zeigler, 111. l or the last nine years I have been in charge of safety nt two mines which have a combined daily tonnage around 1-1,000 tons, i hiring this period we have made a complete transition at both mines front hand loading to 100 |>cr cent mechanical loading. Some hazards have eliminated themselves with the change and new ones have originated. Very few of our serious accidents ha%-c been repeaters that could have leen elimi nated by Ihe same recommendation. Each accident had its own peculiar circumstance and needed a different remedy. I-el me illus trate--two men were fatally injured in sepa rate accidents by falls of roof rock. "A" was cleaning and timbering an entry; an old prop supporting some rock was still stand ing. "A** knocked the prop out with a ham mer and when Ire did, rock fell, fatally injurying him. Safe practice would have been lo pull the prop out with a long rope pulled by a motor, or by use of a regular post puller. In the second case "B" had a rock roll across an entry which he was instructed to make safe. He set one prop under it on one rib and was standing under the roll cutting off the shoulder on the other rili when t!ie rock fell and killed him. Safe practice in this case would require several safety props set un der the roll and then cross-harrcd it. However, there were some accidents which might be termed repeaters sueli as cutting Mining Set lion 409 machine men riding cutter bars when the machines were in transit from place to place. Usually the helper would ride the cutter bar and upon seeing a switch ahead lineal against him would jump off the moving ma chine to reiinc the switch and would slip un der the truck wheels. This we have elimi nated by enforcing a safety rule which allows no one to ride cutter bars. In two separate fatal accidents the basic cau#r was the breaking of an electric loco motive axle underground. Early in 1931 we Ijrgan changing our axles and used a heat treated alloy steel having a tensile strength of 125.000 pounds per square inch and a Urine)! hardness with a 225 rating. Prior to this change we averaged breaking one axle per month; with the alloy steel we have never had a broken axle. We )*ave reduced our eye, toe and head injuries considerably by the use of goggles, <Hety shoes, and safety hats. The majority of our other accidents have bom reduced through removing the cause, tuch as the elimination of close ribs and timbers and requiring a minimum clearance of JO inches, from the outside of the rail. The same applies lo unloading timbers along the side of any track, they must clear 30 incites. Koof supports of junctions or curves must t< put up so that in ease of a derailment tbc timbering will not be knocked out. This I* done by either hitching the legs or putting m concrete piers. In face loading, we require that props be mtI not farther (ban 20 feet from the face and during the loading out of a room not le.- than three safety props must be set u-herc cual has been loaded out, and no props must be removed while machinery is in motion. At all times our foremen carry >u*td rod# for roof testing and flame safely lumps for gas testing. To prevent wreck-- and accident- at switches, through the failure of the bridle liar on the latches for any reason, we have installed double or extra bridle bars on all main line haulage switches or any place where the motor may make a drop. Safety rule* require tliat the ground for 15 irrt on each side of a switch throw be kept clean. Track is now laid on treated tu s This is especially important in development work where track laid on untreated wood becomes rotten and is responsible for a lot of liad track and derailments. Furthermore, track should be laid on tics not loo far apart on account of breaking rails. We find 20 inch centers suits our rolling stock. We avoided several finger and thumb am putations by providing all car sprags with guards. We use a steel pipe sprag on which is welded a steel washer inches outside diameter and 6 inches from the cml held in the hand. The pipe used is ordinary 2 inch double strength pipe. The use of wedge rap pieces for timbering increases efficiency and avoids the need of using an axe which has been responsible for the loss of many thumbs. We enforce safety rules which require men to unload and load into mantrips only when trips arc stopped, and only at regular stations where the trolley wire is guarded We also require motors to keep at least 200 feet apart in transit with only two men on each motor. Our greatest problem has been (o eliminate the type of accident which may be attributed to man failure similar to that described in the case of timherman "B." Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimination In Anthracite Mining By JOHN D. COONER Safety Inspector, Hudson Coal Co., Scranton, Pa. My company operates 17 mines in north eastern Pennsylvania; employs fi,000 men, and in 1936 produced 4.500,000 Ions. Eight years ago, our vice-president and general manager, Cadwallader Evans, started to drill into us the belief that most of our injuries were not due to accident>, because an accident is "an event that takes place without one's foresight." This obvioush leads to the belief that there would ho fewer accidental injuries if dangerous con ditions were properly guarded against, ami 410 Txventy-sixth National Safety Congress if the person likely to be injured look proper care to guard himself and his neighbors. Our endeavor, therefore, ha6 been to con vince our men that what is commonly called an accident is generally caused by something that takes place due to lack of foresight of some person, and we now refer to such oc casions not as accidents but as injuries. Our inside men are 100 per cent equipped with safety hats. The majority of them wear safety shoes, with the number increasing; lut our progress in getting our men to ac tually wear goggles has been slow. Men have received eye injuries, and in some cases lost their eyes due to flying materia), etc. In many of such cases, investigation of these injuries has shown that the injured men owned goggles which were cither in their tool box. their coat, or at home at the time they were injured. We have, after much thought and designing, had the manufac turer of our safety hats attach safety goggles to the hat h.v means of two aluminum discs on the under side of the visor and an elastic around the track of the hat. The goggles arc thus immediately available when needed and easily put away when not needed. To Min> - their sale, the men at our two largest collieries were given the following incentives to secure this combination: (a) [fa man has a hut without goggles, the new' goggles will be placed on his hat free, if he presents his hat and any kind of goggles. (b) If he has no safety hnt, he will receive the combination at the cost of the hat if he presents any kind of goggles. It is customary to use small auxiliary fans in sonic caved ground places and short tun nels. the faces of which are diflicult to ventilate. These fans arc installed so that the air is not recirculated or a non-permissthle type is not installed in a gaseous area. The colliery people, before they install an auxiliary fan, must make a forma) ap plication to tlie ashistant general mimager on a special form used for this purpose. This form gives alt the facts of the particu lar working place and vicinity. Should the conditions he satisfactory, the assistant gen eral manager approves the form, which gives authority to install the fan. A copy of this approved form advises the ventilation in spector of the authority and intention to install a certain fan in a certain place. When this fan is installed the colliery people im mediately notify the ventilation inspector, who inspects the installation and--if satis factory--approves same. Such a procedure must be followed each time a fan is moved or installed. Our ventilation inspector, there fore, knows where each auxiliary fan is installed and under what conditions. In 1932, we started to use steel props on the three retreating longwall operations at our Birdseye mine, because we had learned that it was practically impossible to control the breaking of the roof with wooden prop*. These steel props arc made up in ihrt-e pieces, the middle piece being the sliape of a wedge which is held in place hv a key and a bolt which runs through the key and the wedge. All three parts arc tied together by a chain. It was not long after these steel props were put into use that men began to be seriously injured -by parts of the props breaking ujulcr the terrific pressure and fly ing about. The 1 inch bolts through the wedges would break, allowing both the end* of the bolts and the heavy wedges to fly, even though the wedges were tied to the other two parts of the props with the Yi inch chains, which would also break. In one particular ease one of these -40-lh. wedges flew 23 feet and struck a man hi the back. He wasNdlc I l/i years. To elimi nate these hazards the following change* have been made: (a) The I inch boll through the key and wedge was increased to \XA incites, inade of special high grade steel in stead of ordinary steel as before. (b) The Y inch chain tying the three parts of each prop together was increased to hi inch. (c) The size of die wedge was increased to make it stronger. <tl) The prop* were stood with the wider portion of the wedge toward the cave so that if it did fly it would go into the caved area. These changes have caused the injuries to decrease as follows: 1932 1936 Per Mine Start Injuries 02 0.015 Man DayLost 10.0 0.13 Mining Section 411 Total 1932 1936 Injuries 26 3 Man Days Lost 1,382 28 We design, and have made up. our own safety posters for our mine bulletin boards. The posters in each case attempt to show our meu the mistakes of others and other wise teach safety lessons. As an example--our No. 29 poster or Safety News shows the right and wrong way for a machine run ner's helper to hold and hitch the main rope jack for an undercuttcr. This poster was made up after one of our men chose the wrong way, i.e., he stood between the jack and the moving picks as the undercutter was being aumped in, and stepped or slipped into the moving picks. His shoe--a new one --was tom from his foot and thrown out of the back end of the undercuttcr. Fortunately he lost only his small toe. Copies of each poster are kept on the bulletin boards two weeks. Four years ago, four men were very seri ously burned with gas in a chamber at the beginning of the shift. The cause of the gas accumulation was never definitely deter mined but the source of the ignition was. The brattice carried a good current of air to the face and the fire boss' marks were found there by the mine foreman, who arrived on the scene before the fire boss, i.e.. after the men were burned. The investigation brought out among other facts that this fire boss carried, in addition to his flame safety lamp, an electric cap lamp to give him better light for traveling. Although this fire boss claimed he always put the headpiece of the electric cap lamp in his coat pocket as he approached each working place, it was concluded that due to the presence of the high candle power light. a short time before he would test for gas his eyes were not in proper condition to detect in his flame safety lamp as small a percentage of methane as lie would if lie had not keen carrying such a high power light. After these injuries occuned all fire bosses were forbidden to carry these high power lights, and each one was issued an approver! flash light to be used in traveling over falls, down pitch workings and similar difficult places. The mine foremen keep tabs on the use of the flash lights by keeping records how often the fire bosses ask for new flash light batteries. As roof falls cause approximately 50 per cent of the falals in our industry, special stress is placed on the care of the roof anti the facts in connection with roof fall in juries. Each sectional foreman must per sonally write a report lo the assistant general manager, forwarded through the mine fore man and superintendent, covering each injury resulting from litc fall of roof or nh. even though the injury may he only slight. In this report the sectional foreman tells how the injury occurred, makes a sketch of the place the injury occurred, reviews the injured man's past record, and states how a similar injury may be prevented. The assistant general manager scrutinizes these reports very carefully and they are not filed until he is satisfied that all the (acts have been given and that all concerned Imvc learned the lesson of each injury. It is sometimes necessary to send back some of these reports to the colliery a couple of times with the request for more or clearer information, or' pointing out the responsi bility of individual officials in conncclioti with the injury. The result of this report system has been to spur the sectional fore men and mine foremen to put forth special efforts to eliminate roof fall injuries. Iron Ore Mining By G. J. BARRETT Secretary, General Safety Committee, Oliver Iron Mining Co., Duluth, Minn. In diminishing numbers, we still have ac.cidents Involving the head, eyes and feet, hut we liavc practically eliminated resulting injury by the use of hard hats, goggles and steel-toed shoes. We saw the goggle enter the field of 'accident prevention for use principally in surface operations--particularly shops. We all remember the ensuing struggle and the ultimate victory. However, it has been a 412 7'wt'Uly-si.x`ih National Safety Congress far greater problem to introduce the goggle into underground work. We know our records indicated a serious eve hazard while drilling l>orc holes and breaking chunks. But I lie miners said that glass goggles fogged--that they could not keep them clean in wet places---that they were uncomfortable. How could we get eye protection just tor the starting of the bore hole, and while breaking chunks by hand? We pioneered home-made, shop-made, and finally a factory-made screen for insertion into the goggle frame. We did not ask that they l>c worn constantly, 1ml we did insist that they lie worn while starting holes and breaking chunks. We made progress and convinced the workman that eyesight could be saved with screen goggles. We then waived side protection to pro mote goggles with glass lenses, and again we did not make rules aliout their being cnuiinuou'dy worn. We publicized broken goggles by circulating them to all of our nro|K.rlic>, with a story of the happening. The men saw gJa-* lenses broken by flying objects, but with the resulting saving ot eyesight. Our supervisory forces followed tip these eases with extreme care, always preaching the proven value of the goggle. The men finally made tlieir own mines 100 per rent goggle from rheck-in (o check-out, whenever atmospheric conditions could he surmounted. Several of our mines arc 100 per cent goggles for the full period of the shift, and we know it is only a matter of lime until the men increase their use of goggles, but not without daily pressure from the local mine management and the pub licity which we scud out to conviucc them that eyesight can lie saved by goggles. The hard hat came next as a matter *f personal equipment. We sent trial hats to the mines sk>u after they were put on the market, but no enthusiasm was aroused in the management or the men. They said they were loo heavy--that the brim inter fered with the carrying of timber--that they were otherwise uncomfortable, and too ex pensive. This sort of thing went on for i|uitc a time, but we. were convinced that a hard hat could he worn with comfort, be cause our private investigations confirmed this. How could we get the men going nn hard hats? We finally offered bats to the men at a price of one dollar, the company paying the lalancc--here they had something for al most nothing. Again we made no rules to enforce their use and waited for several months to see what would happen. Our supervisory forces in the meantime followed up all hats broken in accidents, and we publicized the crippled hats by routing them to all of our. properties and telling the story of another life saved. We then made an investigation to deter mine the number of hats in use, and we were gratified to find that about 95 per com of the men had equipped themselves. It was nOt a difficult matter to make hard hats compulsory for the unprotected 5 per cent. We still publicize broken hats in the manner described, just to keep the men con stantly reminded as to the importance of their being worn at all times. Safety Shoe Salesmanship Hard-toed footwear was our next experi ence with personal equipment. Com|>o>itinii toes caused a great deal of sales argument, and prohahly much valuable time was lost. Then the steel toe came into licing. The workman complained just as he had always done whenever something new was sug gested. He said the shoes hurl his feet, because the fitting was not properly <lotic-- that we could not make delivery promptly. He bad never anticipated his shoe needs in advance, and it was apparent that it would be necessary' to bridge this gap. Our purchasing department began a spe cial study of shoes. They investigated quality, price, comfort and delivery. We studied the problems of the manufacturers and the manufacturers investigated our problems. The result was--better fitting and immediate delivers* of a good shoe at cost from our stock in l<*cal warehouses, with deductions from the payroll to cover cost. Again we publicized all shoes crippled in service, sending them on tour of all of our properties, with a complete story of the accident. I am gratified to report that our under ground, open pit, and sliops arc 100 pur tenl equipped and using steel-toed shoes. At M>mc of our properties we arc using n small number of safety-toed rubber liooiv We arc now studying the problem of better insulation of shoes to meet the needs of men working outdoors in the winter climate of Minnesota. Mining Section 41A Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimination in Copper Mining By RICHARD S. NEWLIN Mining Engineer, Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co., Inspiration, Aria. Most copper mines of the world may be classified as "big mines," handling large ton nages of relatively low-grade ore. As in other big industries, their problem calls for organization and standardization. Accidents have no place in such a set-up. Every' cop per mine I know of 1ms an accident pre vention program winch aims to educate the individual miner to work safely as well as to eliminate the hazards which surround him. In carrying out this program effective supervision is of the utmost importance. The Irosses in direct charge of men should be res|Mmsilrle for ihc enforcement of safety instructions. They should be teachers as welt as leaders. Every accident that occurs should be thoroughly investigated and vio lators of safety rules disciplined. Frobably more than one-third of the serious accidents in copper mines arc caused by falling rock. In most copper mines the nature of the ground requires timbering in all permanent openings. Where slabs arc likely to fall on men working at the face, timber should be kept as close to the face as possible. In many mines the practice is to use booms of steel or timber, hung under ihc caps by boom hangers. After the round is blasted, the booms are moved ahead and the next cap is laid in place on the booms, lagged and collar braced, before the muck is removed. This forms a protection for the muckers, or the muckmg-uiachinc operator. One southwestern operator uses the same method successfully in advancing timbers in square-set slopes, with booms hung under (he cap. The same mine reports that in driving two-compartment cribbed raises in ground requiring close timbering, they in stall not less than two stulls on top of the last round of cribbing, with headboards ar ranged to allow drilling between the lagging. In mines using shrinkage, caving, or simi lar systems, the hazard of failing ground is particularly present in the slopes, where a minimum of timber support is desirable. There should be very definite rules as to picking down loose rocks. Slabs too large to let down must be stulled. Bosses should le required to inspect all slopes and guard against loose ground. The use of hard-boiled hats and haid-tued shoes is nearly universal in copper mines. These prevent man)' minor cuts and bruises as well as more serious injuries. But at the same lime the miner should keep bis mind alert to the damage which falls *>f rock may cause him. In a large mine, where a big tonnage is handled daily, there arc likely to he many hazards connected with haulage. Most cop per companies have- planned their haulage' levels so that the ore may bo handled not only cheaply but with a maximum of safety as well. Sections where collisions might occur are usually equipped with red and green signal lights, operated by doublethrow switches which may be thrown lv the molormau at either end of the circuit. Haulage ways should l>c well lighter), ami the clearance between cars and sides of drifts maintained, sufficient for men to pass trains safely. Many mines have provided refuge stations at regular intervals along main lines, where men may stand while trains arc passing. It is most important that the sides of haulage drifts lie kept rlc.tr of muck piles, timber, or other obstructions, so that (he danger of men tripping and falling under or between cars may be lessened. Cleanliness and safely arc closely related. Many haulage accident* are caused by de railments of cars or motors. The danger of derailments may be reduced by maintaining the tracks and rolling stock in good repair. Definite slow speed areas cut down derail ments on curves and switches. Itrakemeii should be prohibited from adjusting couplers with hand* or feet, and when coupling or rerailing cars, should be particularly cau tioned to stand in the clear. In copper mining we have our share of blasting accidents. Less frequent titan other types of accidents, they arc nearly always more severe. Improper spitting of fuse-, the use of too short a fuse, nr trouble with a faulty lamp, may cause men to delay ton long while spitting a round and be caught at or near the face when the hole- start to go. 414 T'ijcnty-si.rth Notional Safely Congress A iiunilter of methods have been devised in make ime spitting a shorter ami surer (iteration. Some mines recommend the use 'I bunch blahting. others, the hot-wire spitler. The fir>t method call* for a special tool him! a technique ot preparation that is rather complicated for the average miner. The M-cond method, the hot-wire spitter, is gaining favor. The hot-wire spitter burns with a hot, smokeless flame, and has the advantage of burning at a definite rate. However, it rarclcsdy dropped before it is consumed, it may add lu the fire hazard. Many copjwr mince are going over to elec tric blaming, which eliminates the danger of men Mating too long at the face, simplifies the guarding of blasts, and -reduces the danger ot mi-sd liolc. Most of the south- m>Uni mines u>c electric caps and !iand-o|w'rated luitcrics in chute blasting. Electric blasting in chutes, storage, or trans fer rai*-r prevents the chute blaster from living injurol In a 1*011111 placed hy himself, either l*cau-C he remained too long at the rai-e after the fii-c was spit, trying to place the f*omh in an effective position, or because Ik- returned l* the place alter hearing a dim in Minn- other part nl the mine and thinking it na*. his own. Klectric bl.i-ting has its hazards, however, if not properly done. Electric detonators arc jii't a< likely to ex picnic as ordinary caps through dropping, striking, or Other mis handling. Lead wires, it not carefully pro tected. may come in contact with pipes, rails, or other conductors which often carry stray current. Whatever method of blasting is u-t'd, the important point in dominating ac cident' i- that the man handling explosives mu>t lie impressed witii the destructive, vio lence in them. Explosives should never be handled carelessly. In loading explosives into Itolct time must be taken for thorough prt|>anition. so that the chance of premature explosion is entirely removed. fn underground copper mines there arc many vertical and inclined openings for |tasage of men, material, and ore. The hazard of falling in such openings is always present. Protection is provided by grizzlies over ore raises or chutes, by equipping the tops of manways with screen doors, shaft stations with gales or bars. Ail open raises and inactive chutes must lc covered with lagging. In open slopes, pockets, and shafts when- the nature of the work entails the danger of falling, most operators require their men to use safety belts. The impor tance of secure staging, especially in square set slopes, cannot he overemphasized. There is always danger connected with the hoisting and lowering of men. Modern hoisting equipment, however, has almost en tirely eliminated this hazard. Hoists arc protected with devices which prevent overspeed and overwind, and mechanically op erated brakes arc applied in case of power failure. Cages arc equipped witii safety dogs which grip the guides in ease of rope break age. In most large copper mines the care and periodic inspection of all hoisting equip ment are among the duties of a competent mechanical force. A fixed code of hoisting signals and a separate call-bell or telephone system aid in eliminating the human ele ment from the operation of handling men in shafts. The increasing use of electricity in copper mines has Introduced an added danger. Be sides the additional fire hazard there is always danger of men coming in contact with trolley wires or poorly protected power conductors. All trolley wires should be kept al>ovc a minimum clearance and evenly and securely bung. Where timbering or other work is to be done near a trolley wire, the line should either first be killed or, if this is not possible, should be covered with n line hose or other insulation. Men should be prohibited from carrying pipe, drill steel, or other metallic material ou their shoulders through drifts where there is a trolley. Above all, electrical apparatus should only be handled by those whose duties require them to do so. and power cable in sulations and supports should be subject lo periodic inspection. In many copper mines the danger of fire )$ a great hazard. While flammable gases are rarely present, there is always danger of fire in timbered areas. Most mines have so arranged their ventilation systems that air currents may be completely controlled, both to safeguard human lives and to aid in ex tinguishing the fire. In areas where fires arc likely lo occur fresh air currents may be separated from exhaust-air currents by fireproof doors. The principal entrances and exits to the mine are often fireproofed by some means, either by lining them with concrete or, if timber is used, by treating it with some fireproofing preparation. Many maiit working shafts are concreted, and sla- Miniug Section 415 tion floors concreted ui>d station timbers ^united. Many mines have prepared fireproof res cue stations, located centrally in each mill ing area, of sufficient si/.c lo accommodate all of (he men likely lo l>c in the area at any one lime. These refuges arc usually pro vided with air and water lines, and often a telephone as well. Some mines have high pressure water lines underground as welt as on surface, with strategically located fire (loses: one mine has large fire lines at the collars of all shafts, which can be discharged clown the shaft in case of fire. The valves for these lines are located at a considerable distance from the shaft. Some mines provide means of injecting a warning stench into their compressed air lines, to notify the men in all parts of the mine in case of fire. In mines where fires arc likely to occur, fire drills, conspicuously (Kisted fire regulations, and, of course, the check-in and check-out system of tallying the men, are important. Open lights and smoking arc prohibited at ail shaft stations and in cages. Old timber, powder boxes, paper, oikI other flammable debris should be kept cleaned up. Men working in areas where a fire hazard exists must be impressed with the precautions necessary to prevent the outbreak of a fire, and should be thor oughly drilled in the steps to take in ease of fire. Since the copper of the United States is produced in about equal prr|>oi tions hy underground and surface mines, it might he wed to mention a few of the hazards pe culiar to the surface mitring of copper ore. Most surface copt>er mines arc a railroading problem, and the rules and safety devices uf modern railroading arc scrupulously ob served. Accident peculiar to the use of heavy machinery, such as the cranes in elec tric shovel operation, are avoided by careful design and periodic inspection of equipment. Falls of men from bank ropes while drilling pot holes, due to caving of the bank, arc eliminated by the use of safety belts. Great care in the handling and storage of explo sives is common practice. Whether on surface or underground, cop per miners arc adopting a new attitude toward safety problems. By exerting pres sure through officials and bosses, they arc making the individual miner safety minded. The man who handles the pick and shovel, who runs the haulage motor, or operates the drill: he is the one to be sold on Safely. Teach the miner the correct, safe, and effi cient manner of doing his work, and you'll go a long way towards solving the safety problem. Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimination In Lead and Zinc Mining By H. W. GIESSING Safety Engineer, Commerce Mining and Royalty Co., Richer, Okla. Our mines produce principally zinc and some lead concentrates. The proportion is around eighty-five per cent zinc and fifteen per cent lead. Specific accident hazards on the surface, in shops, and in concentrating plants consist of: Contact with moving machinery. Contact with electricity and electrical in stallations. Faffs of persons. Handling objects. Handling chemical reagents used in floata tion plants. Using grinding wheels. Moving heavy machinery. Tailing pile slides. Drowning in mill ponds. Pouring hot metal. Steps have been taken to guard machincry and floor openings properly. Each employee is accounted for when'starting the plant. Put ting on belts while machinery is running is prohibited. Men are requested to wear close fitting clothing. Electrical equipment when exposed is guarded and grounded; and re pair work is required lo be done by compe tent electrical men. Heavy objects, consisting principally of roll shells, arc handled with crabs and hoists. 416 TwciUy-si.vth National Safety Congress Men arc cautioned and not permitted to stand or pass under luravy loads regardless of the saicty factor oi the hoisting equip ment. To eliminate falls of persons, excess grease ami oils must be kept off Moors and walkways. Steps arc guarded with proper hand rails, and overhead walkways arc equipped with hand rails and toe boards. Men arc cautioned t< eliminate short cuts to avoid accidental injury. In floatation plants men arc required to handle copper sulphate. l*oth in crystal and liquid form, Xanthate. Crcsylic Acid, Aero Float am! Pine Oil. Care must be exercised in opening steel drums and handling con tents. Rubber gloves anil goggles or face masks arc used to prevent hums. All grind ing wheels arc guarded and cheeked for speed. Men are required to wear non-shatter glass goggles while grinding. AH heavy machinery is moved by the rec lamation department, which has proper equipment and experienced men. Employee* arc required to wear goggles nr face masks while |Kuring hot metal to guard against hums from contact, or from explosion.*. In reclaiming old tailing piles for rvtreatmcnt in tailing mill* we have a tailing *lidc hazard. These piles arc from 25 to 100 feet high. When walls arc left too nearly perpendicular, we encounter slides of great volume. To eliminate this hazard, blasting must be started on low side and cautiously continued to keep the pile benched back at top. This protects men ami equipment front being cov- ereil (hir mill jiortds, deep in Mime instances, arc a constant temptation to swimmers, young and old. We i*o*l danger warnings, remove :mv diving lioartN that might lie constructed ami a much as possible prevent swimming in mill Mine shaft* arc fenced and pru*|H-ct drill holes filled to prevent anyone from fulling into them. Siiccitic underground mine hazards con sist of: ball of rock. Premature explosions. Rocks rolling down slope. Loading ore. Animal and rope haulage. Kyc injuric-. Shaft accident*. Foot injuries. Strained backs. Dad air. Fall of rock is an ever present hazard. One or more roof trimmers arc employed at each mine. Trimmers arc equipped with bars, ladders, flash lights and use electric sjhjI lights when doing very high work, to light entire work ings. These men insixrcl the workings and correct hazard* before men work in such places. Inspection is a part of the mine fore man's job and all corrections under his supervision. The trimmer work* off a ladder when necessary and often as high as 60 feet. High ladders require projter roping and guying and often three or four additional men are required in the work. All underground employees arc required to wear skull guard protection. Skull guards have saved many lives and prevented nu merous pthcrvvisc serious injuries. We keep skull guards on exhibition in the employ ment office which have seen service to demonstrate their value to new employees. In blasting we use fuse and detonator. Electric blasting is employed under certain conditions. Premature explosions with re sultant injury and death were formerly not uncommon. In (he spring of 1926 two of our em ployees, McLaughlin and Anderson, patented a safely shell. Safety shells arc now used in all blasting. These shells are made of card board, 10*/4 inches long, 1 r% inches diameter. A wooden core is bored to permit passing of tlc fu>c. This wooden core is inserted and glued 2% inches on the end of the shell. A second hole, not completely through, per mit* insertion of spike on the end of the tamping pole for threading the shot into the bore hole. This shell prevents rupture or de struction of (be shot and exposure of the detonator, which previously was the cause of most premature explosions. We have used more than a millions shells in the past 10 years and have no record of premature explosion or injury when the shells were being used. The detonator is placed in the shell at the cap rack and need never be exposed in transportation or load ing. Detonators and dynamite arc stored separately. We have daily delivery of dyna mite and approximately only one day's needs stored in any mine. This also insures fresh powder at all times. Mining Section 417 Rocks rolling down steep high stopes are a constant menace Men are instructed to keep these combed down to avoid injury. Shovelers at the foot of slopes are contiuu ously exposed to this hazard. We constantly caution against over-lifting or lifting while in awkward positions, to prevent falls ami strains. Animal and rope haulage presents many hazards. Keeping a safe distance from the mules' heels is essential. Care in replacing wrecked cars, wider haulage drifts, heavy rail and better lighting arc necessary to safe haulage. Track gauge* widened from 14 and 16 incho to IS and 2-1 incites will pre vent many wreck.*. Our recently-introduced rope haulage requires better equipment, bet ter lighting, and warning signs, since the speed of the trips is materially increased. Employees arc furnished screen goggles for mine use. Drillers and helpers are re quired to wear these while starting and blow ing holes, and when using jack hammers. Shovelers are required to use goggles when sledging boulders, to prevent injury from flying objects. Shaft accidents result from men riding up or down, from falling objects, and from failure of equipment. At three properties we use safety cars for handling men on and off shift- Proper signals are required when handling men. We require not more than 500 feel per minute rope speed. Men are not permitted to ride from collar of shaft into derrick. Tub hookers at shaft bottom arc required to wear army type steel helmets for head protection against tailing object*. Hoisting equipment is regularly inspected, td tonnage hoisted per rope limited to 50,000 tons. Any unusual occurrence or abuse requires immediate inspection of the rojx which is usually removed regardless of the tonnage hoisted. We use -H Tru-Lay cable, hoist from 1,400 to 1.000 pound tubs an average of 350 feet, and up to 800 tufts in one eight-hour shift. Foot and toe injuries arc reduced by wear ing safety shoes. This is not compulsory. A recent check revealed that about 60 per cent of men were wearing safety shoes, They arc sold to men al cost. The hazard ot back straiu is constant. Some are real and many falsely alleged. Education in proper methods of lifting is the l>est remedy. Old workings are inspected for foul air. Air samples to determine gas and oxygen content arc frequently made. When a defi ciency of oxygeu content exists, added forced ventilallve is furnished. Samples to deter mine dust content arc made in each working face. Ventilation down shafts and drill holes, and thorough wetting of mine and muck piles, arc employed to keep dust count Itelow permissible limit. Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimination In Mining from the Viewpoint of the United States Bureau of Mines* By J. J. FORBES Supervising Engineer, U. S. Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa. Control of accidents can be accomplished best by intelligent and impartial investigation and by study of statistics relating thereto. First, the operating head must he imbued u ith an earnest desire to prevent accidents whether from a purely humanitarian point of view or from the more urgent one of operating cost; otherwise, any safety proKrain is bound to fail. 'Published by permission of Hie Director (not subject to copyright). Presented at Mining Section, Twenty-Sixth National Salety Congress, Kansas City, Missouri, October 11, 1937. As the result ot greater interest in the pre vention of accidents shown by both men and management, there has been a substantial reduction in accident frequency and severity during the past decade. During the 5 years, 1906 to 1910, inclusive, on an average 2,568 persons were killed annually in the coal mines of the United Slates. In 1936 there were 1,275 coal mine fatalities, a reduction ol about 50 per cent. In other words, (here has been a saving during the past 26 years of -4IX Tu\'nfy-si.rth National Safety Coii</n\<x approximately 1,000 live* annually in coal mining. Somewhat similar results in saving of life have l*ccn attained ill metal mining. During tlie 15 ycais, 1911 tu 1925, inclusive, on an average 531 persons were killed annually in our metal mines, compared with 164 fatali ties during 1955. a reduction of alioiit 68 per cent. The most prolific source of accidents in IhxIi coni mid metal mining is falls of roof and side materia). Approximately 35 to 50 or more |>cr cent of all mine fatalities and alont 25 i>cr cent of all non-fatal injuries are from this cause. Accident* hy mine cars and hwomotives ;ir- the next greatest sources of fata) and nonfatal injuries, representing 10 to 20 per rent of the total. Explosions, electricity, explosive*, mine fire*, and accidents of a mi-ccllnueous diameter, together with ma chinery. are also rcs|Mtn>ihlc for a large num ber of fatal ami nonfatal injuries annually. Falls of Roof and Side Material There has been an encouraging decline in accidents from falls of roof and sides during the past five years, ns shown in the reduction made in hitnminous coal mines. During the period 1926 to 19*10, inclusive, the average annual toll from roof-fall accidents was 902 death*. hut during the following five years (19.11 to 1935, inclusive) this toll was* re duced <ti an average of 517 annually, a re duction of nearly 45 |>cr cent within five The solution of Ihc problem of roof falls is very largely a mailer of enlisting the co operation of Itolh the mine operator and the mine employee. It required many years of intensive education of the part of the Bureau of .Mutes to convince the milting public that coal du>t in the absence of cnmhtistihle gas is explosive, ami even now far too.many mining people arc more or less skeptical. It required even a longer period to obtain general recognition of the fact that rock dust properly applied would prevent the propagation of coal-dust explosions. In con sideration of the critical problem of deaths from fall* of roof ami sides, the question naturally arises, "How long will l*o required to effect a substantial reduction in fatalities and injuries from this cause?" The 43 per cent reduction in fatalities from falls that ha* been effected during the past five years is indicative that progress is now being made to prevent this type of accident. l-alts-of-roof accidents arc due largely to tlie failure of the individual miner to exer cise full precautions necessary for his own protection. Therefore, any successful cam paign agaiu-t such accidents must be directed largely toward the awakening of the miner to the necessity of guarding himself un ceasingly against this peril. Very frequently, in discussions of falls of material in mine*, the causes have been assigned to more immediate or readily apparent conditions rather than to the under lying basic conditions. Analyses of roof-fall accidents usually reveal lack of carefulness either hy officials, miners, or other under ground employees. Far too frequently the victim is blamed for carelessness and at the same time the res|>oiis>bjlity of management itself is overlooked or neglected completely. The United States Bureau of Mines studies reveal that the principal factors in preventing accidents from falls of roof and sides, or rock and ore are (I) proper layout of mines; (2) education of officials and em ployees; (3) systematic support of roof amt sides; (4) testing ami inspection of roof and sides; and (5) adequate supervision and discipline. The first step in preventing falls of roof and sides should he taken on the drafting Imard hy preparing the proper layout of mines. Shaft and haulagcway should be protected amply by adequate barrier pillars. Working places, such as rooms `or slopes, likewise should he protected by pillars of adequate size. Mine officials should be educated in the pro|>cr development of the mine so tlie plans may he followed carefully atul accurately; the supervisory staff then should lie in structed in definite methods of protecting the men at the working faces and along passageways. Officials, in turn, should instruct employees in the system adopted for preventing falls of roof and sides. A systematic plan of timbering should Ik* adopted ami all em ployees should be instructed in tlie main tenance of this system, a* well as in the necessity of adopting additional timbers for support where necessary. Specially trained employees should be designated to make careful inspections of all Mining Section 410 working places and passageways arxl to test adequately fur loose material before the shift f men enters the minks, as well as throughout the working shift. Milters should Ik* instructed to test and observe frequently the condition of tlie roof during the work ing shift and before starting to work, and if the roof or sides arc unsafe they should be secured hy posting or timbers. The effectiveness of this system depends on having competent supervisors who will carefully instruct the workers in the propet procedure and who will discipline any em ployee failing to follow the system which has been chosen and taught. Education should include publicity regard ing falls-oi-roof-and-fcidc accidents. To in sure accuracy in this publicity, adequate inspection and investigation of roof-fall ac cidents, whether fatal or nonfatal, should be made and definite conclusions drawn as to the causes of the accidents and methods pro posed for preventing recurrence. One of tlie newer hazards which tends to increase accidents from falls of roof and sides is tlie introduction of mechanized mining Some machines require relatively large open spaces in which to operate, thus requiring large areas of unsupported roof. Also, because of the noise made by the vari ous kinds of machinery, workers are unable to hear the preliminary chipping and crack ing tiiat usually precede the fall of larger masses of overlying material. Mining companies utilizing the newer me chanical methods owe it to their employees, a$ well as to their own material interests, to make definite studies as to possible acci dents Involving the use of machinery, and extra precautions should be taken against them, otherwise, the newer systems will come into disrepute and be barred hy state officials, ns 1ms already been done in some instances. Haulage Accidents Coal mine haulage accidents annually cause about one-sixth of the fatal and about one-fifth of the nonfatal injuries. In metal mines haulage is responsible tor about ft per cent of the fatal ami aftoul 8 |>cr cent of tlie nonfatal injuries. Although haulage ranks second as a cause of coal mine injuries, it ranks fourth as a cause of fatalities and second as a uui'c ul nonfatal injuric> in metal mines. Haulage accidents, like roof-fall accidents, have shown a steady decrease during the past five years--tins in the face of longer hauls, increased speed, ami heavier equip ment. During the five years. 1926 to I95P. inclusive, the average annual death toll from haulage accidents in bituminous coal mines was 328, and during the past five years (1931 to 1935, inclusive) the average annual death toll from haulage has been decreased to I/O, a reduction of 48 per cent. In both coal ami metal mines, tlie outstanding causes nl haul age accidents arc; Struck, run over, or squeezed bciwcrn car* or locomotives; and squeezed between car and rib, timber, or roof. .Yonfatal-injury rates are higher proportionately than fatality rales. Coupling cars or loeonitives is the outstanding single cause of injuries received from liaulage accidents. The prevention of haulage accidents de pends largely on proper equipment, proper maintenance of equipment, proper mainte nance of haulagcway*, suitable layout of haulage for safe as well ns efficient trans portation of coal, and the adoption and en forcement of practices that will minimize liaulage hazards. Haulage accidents generally entail a greater economic loss than other t>pcs of mine accidents, excepting explosions and fires. In a great many haulage accidents. <m interruption of production occurs and there is financial loss from damage to property. The economic loss involved in haulage acci dents justifies special efforts on the part of mine management to reduce such accidents. Explosions Explosions of gas and coal (hist arc limited mostly to coal mines, although some gas ex plosions have occurred in metal mines. A most gratifying reduction lias Ixcn made during the past six years in both frequency and severity of accidents from explosions; this is believed to be due primarily to (I) increased activities of the various slate mine inspection departments, especially in educa tional work, and demand for more rigid ad herence to state laws; (2) growing realization of tlie economic waste of accidents, and more or less general acceptance by mine operators of responsibility for accident oc- 420 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congres: currcncc; and (J) widespread dissemination of safety data by tlie United States Bureau of Mines and other safety organizations. The record of fatalities from mine explo sions in the United States during the past four years has been the best in the history of the mining industry. During these four years, mine explosions have resulted in an average of 45.5 deaths per year, compared with an average of 153 deaths per year for the preceding five years. Because explosions generally are a menace to the lives of all the men in the mine, precautions to prevent them arc a primary requirement and demand con sideration even beyond that given other incident causes which kill far more men. The three outstanding ignition causes of explosions in coal mines are electricity, open lights, and explosives. One of the major activities of the Bureau of Mines has been research on causes and prevention of coalmine explosions. The causes of explosions have been given so often hy Bureau of Mines employees that time will not be taken to discuss them here. It is desired to empha size, however, that in spite of the recognition of the hazards of open lights in coal mines, large numbers of open flame lamps are still in use, and many explosions continue to re sult from open lights chiefly in so-called nun-gassy mines. The Bureau of Alines recommends that explosions be prevented hy' adequate ventila tion pro|*erly coursed ; by the exclusive use o| permissible electric cap lamps for illumi nation in mines with accompanying use of l>iTini*Mhlc flame safety lamps or other suit able equipment to lest for explosive gas; by the use of permissible explosives; by rock-dusting all coal mines excepting anthra cite mines; by supplementing rock dust with water applied at the face regions; and by the use of permissible electrical equipment underground. Explosions arc not unknown in metal mines. Some explosions in metal mines have resulted probably from decomposition of organic matter under water in old slopes where a large amount of timber liad been used. Where beds of carbonaceous material are intersected, gas is sometimes given off from these strata, causing explosions. Under such conditions, as a rule, little attention has been paid to ventilation, and when gas is en countered there is insufficient air to dilute or carry away the explosive gases. Those in charge are rarely able to cope with the situa tion effectively, because such occurrences arc too rare in non-coal mines to give the operat ing personnel experience with them. Explosives Accidents Explosives, with about 3 per cent of the fatalities and less than 1 per cent of the nonfatal injuries, rank fourtli as a cause of coal mine injuries. In metal mines, explo sives cause more than 7 per cent of the fatalities and approximately 1 per cent of the nonfatal injuries. Accidents from explosives are due largely to premature shots when charging and tamp ing, shots breaking through rib or pillar, flying particles of coal or rock, drilling into unexplored holes, delayed shots, ami suffo cation from explosives fumes. These causes are more or less general in both coal and metal mines. The Bureau of Mines recommends the use of permissible explosives that will not ignite gas and will give off a minimum of poison ous gases. Explosives should be used in a safe and permissible manner. Permissible explosives are rarely used in melal mines, due to lack of explosive-gas hazards in most metal mines. The Bureau of Mines believes that in metal mines electric blasting should be used to reduce the hazard of misfired shots and accidents resulting from persons returning too soon after blasting and being injured by delayed blasts. The Bureau has published information on the proper use of explosives and the preven tion of accidents from explosives. Briefly stated, the essential recommenda tions to prevent accidents arc (1) select the proper explosive for the class of work to be performed and use the minimum quantity per shot which the conditions will allow; (2) store explosives under proper, safe con ditions and handle explosives and blasting supplies under proper conditions; and (3) blast with proper electrical equipment, being careful to prevent premature ignition of ex plosives and to protect nearby workers or oncomers from flying material. Explosives accident} in bituminous coal mines have been reduced about 45 per cent during the past five years, compared with 1926 to 1930, inclusive. Mining Section 421 Electricity Electricity causes more than 4$4 per cent of the fatalities and more than 1 per cent of the nonfatal injuries in coal mines and more than I per cent of the fatalities in metal mines. There have been few nonfatal in juries from electricity in metal mines. The figures cited do not include explosions or fire originated by electricity. It should he noted, however, that all five of the major explosion disasters with 37 fatalities in 1936 were suspected or having been initiated by electricity. The increased use of electricity in mines greatly extends mine hazards, not only in the haulageways but also at or near the working faces, and only by tire most careful planning by the mine management, use of permissible equipment, proper installation, and rigid in spection system can the extended use of elec tricity be made safe. The responsibility for the prevention of electrical accidents rests more with the em ployer than with the employee; the employee should exercise care in avoiding such acci dents, but the rmploycr is responsible for the safe installation, maintenance, and guard ing <jf electrical equipment as well as in choosing safe types of equipment and safe methods of using it. Electrical accidents generally are from contact; shock Occidents are most numerous from contact with unguarded trolley wires, machine feed wires, and junction boxes or switchc*. Protective hats are now being used extensively in both metal and coal mines, and are an additional precaution against contact with electricity by the work man. By far the largest number of deaths hy electric shock in mines occur from contact with live wires that can be safeguarded with relative case. Live wires, such as trolley and power wires, should be guarded adequately throughout their entire length unless they are more than 6Vi feet above (lie rail. The development of elertrtc mining equip ment has reached the stage where safe per missible equipment may be purchased and installed at smalt additional cost; the instal lation of sucli equipment, together with adequate supervision, strict discipline, and continually guarding against carelessness, will go far toward preventing electrical acci dents in mines. Mine fires constitute a hazard in both coal and metal mines. Fortunately the fire hazard is relatively unimportant, causing less than 1 per cent of the total fatalities and less than one-tenth of a per cent of the nonfatal in juries; however, fires in coal mines consti tute an ever present menace of developing into an explosion. Methods of preventing and controlling mine fires have been discussed frequently aud precautions and methods to use in fight ing fires will not be restated here. There is an outstanding hazard, however, in fighiing mines fires that should be given careful at tention. Mine fires cause the formation of gases one of which is carbon monoxide, whose deadly qualities are well known to all those in the mining industry- In spite of litis fact, in many instances in both coal and metal mines, in the effort to control fires, employees enter mines or arc taken into the mines without any or with in adequate respiratory protection or with rela tively little appreciation of the possiblehazards from fire fumes. Consequently, a number of men have been killed by asphyxia tion in the last several years, due either to carelessness or to lack of knowledge or appreciation of the properties of mine-fire gases and of combating them. In one mine the rescue crew fighting a fire had adequate respiratory protection, but workmen bring ing in supplies and working on the haulage road that was on the return air from ihc fire area were left unprotected; about 15 of them were overcome, nine of whom died before assistance could be obtained from the rescue men. In another mine where the return also was on the main haulage road, five or six men were overcome while working on a haulage road without gas masks or other respiratory devices. It cannot be emphasized too much that wherever a fire occurs all men fighting or helping to fight the flames should be equipped with adequate respiratory protec tion ; those who cannot be protected should be kept out of the mine or at any rate should not be allowed to remain in return air or other place where the air may be con taminated by fumes from the fire region. Consideration of causes of accidents usu ally centers on the outstanding causes of fatalities as listed above. A large number of nonfatal and a certain number of fatal accidents from other causes are generally 422 7'wt'Uly-sixth National Safety Congress disregarded and given little emphasis. Hand tool*, machinery, falls of persons, handling of materia), and run of ore from chutes and lockeU annually cause a large number of injuries. In 1934, hand tools caused nearly 7 per cent of the nonfatal injuries and falls of persons down chutes, winzes, raises, and \topcs caused nearly S per cent of the fatal and over A'/* per cent of the nonfatal in juries in metal mines. Run oT ore from chutes and |ockets caused nearly 3 per cent of fatalities and more than 2 per cent of the non fatal injuries. Machinery, on the other hand, caused less than \l/t |tcr cent of the nonfatal injuries in metal mines and nearly 5 per cent of the nonfatal coal-mine injuries. Handling material, other than rock or ore, caused virtually 7 |k.t cent of the nonfatal injuries in metal mines. Hand tools causing injuries were princi pally picks, axes, or hatchets. Engineers in safety work in the Bureau of Mines recom mend that wherever possible saws be used ami that in general axes and hatchets should not Ik.* used underground. In metal mines it may l*c necessary to uses axes and hatchets for certain kinds of work; however, even in metal mines use of axes and hatchets should be restricted to a few persons, se lected for their carefulness, where timbering forms a major part ot the operation in the mine. The safety workers ol the United Slates Bureau of Mines believe that virtually all accidents can be prevented and eliminated in both coal and metal mines. The method used by the Bureau is to study carefully slatistics, observations, and dala collected on'specific hazards or accidents; make a thorough, comprehensive, and impartial in vestigation of all similar accidents; then carefully analyze all data that have been obtained. Analysis should reveal not only the direct cause of the accident, but indirect or proba ble causes. Recommendations of measures for preventing recurrence of similar acci dents arc then formulated ami made public through publications, addresses, motion picluies, and instruction courses. Similar methods can and should l>c employed by industry to help to prevent and eliminate accidents. Coal Mine Injuries from a Doctor's Viewpoint By JOHN M. GRIFFIN, M.D. Dec Moines, Iowa l-Ycnn 1919 iii 1932 Iowa recorded more than 25.000 mine injuries, of which M3 were fatal. 73 per cent of all fatals were at Ihc face from fails of coal nr slate, due to care lessness. In fact. 75 per cent of all injuries occur under conditions controlled by the workman. I hiring tlii- period tltcrc were inur^ than fytHNI eye injuries, or more than one eye in jury to each employee. 25 jk.t cent" of all mine injuries were to the eve. 90 per cent of these were due to flying objects from pick or sledge at Ihc face. Suitable goggles would have prevented these injuries. The oilu-i 10 per cent were due to hand tools, fulling objects from the tipple, etc. The number of injuries iter million dollars pay roll averages about 300. 00 per cent of all injuries occur at the face, of which 13 per cent ary serious back injuries, due to falling slate or coal "jack-knifing" the work men, resulting in various types of broken hacks. In the past 25 years, I have seen and assisted in operating on more than 300 broken backs, where there was complete paralysis below the waist, due to a displaced fractured fragment of the vertebra pressing upon Ihc spinal cord. I refer only to the type where the vertebra is broken in two. with a displacement sufficient to produce jKiralysis below the point of fracture. All these eases would be total permanent disability without surgery. From my obser vation, it is my opinion that any man with a broken lack who survives the shock of the first four days, even though all flic deep re flexes arc gone, is entitled lo the chance of relief from Ihc permanent paralysis, due to pressure on the cord, by surgery. The opera tion is not dangerous after the period of shock has passed, and he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. A fracture of a Mining Section 423 spinal vertebra that is maintained in appo sition by fixation will heal just the same as the shaft of a long bone anywhere in the body. There are two methods oi fixation ot the spinal vertebra without a cast. One is a bony inlay in a groove through the broken vertebra, back in proper position, extending into the well vertebra above and the well vertebra below, which acts as a splint and prevents the displacement of the fractured fragment on breathing or moving in bed. This method is not as satisfactory in view of the fact that the bone inlay docs not al ways take, and requires a secondary opera tion. The operation of my choice for the past twenty years lias been fixation of the frac tured fragments by drilling a hole through the posterior spinus process of the fractured vertebra, also the well one above and the well one below; then lacing the three to gether with Kangaroo tendon, which holds Ihc fractured vertebra together until the callous form*. Kangaroo tendon does not absorb for 0 to 8 weeks. We have many cases of broken backs that would have been total permanent, who are now'back at work. [ will cite briefly two eases that looked hopeless and were operated against our judgment as to any relief. First a man had sustained a fractured 12th dorsal vertebra with complete paralysis from the waist down. He had lain in the hospital at the State University of Michigan at Aim Arbor for 14 months, completely paralyzed from the waist down, large bed sores on each buttox, and lie had had two operations without re lief. An X-ray showed the displaced frac tured fragment was pressing on the cord, which we felt in the 14 months period must have degenerated beyond recovery, and (lii- couragcd an operation. But they insisted. The fixation operation was done and to our surprise sensation returned, and the bed sores healed, and the man again learned to walk, ami gels ainuit without crutches to day, and works as a harlcr. This has been nine years. Another ease had n fractured first lumbar vertebra with a lateral displacement, one-half inch greater than the diameter of the spinal canal through which the spinal cord passes. We all felt that this displacement would surely sever the cord, and discouraged operation; but being a compensation ease, the in surance company, in order to satisfy the rel atives, insisted upon operation. Fixation was done, and the patient recovered sensation. These two eases arc outstanding. They should be convincing that any man who has a frac tured vertebra with paralysis below the in jury, is entitled to a chance, as the spinal cord can stand lots of abuse, and can regen erate after more than one year's lack of functioning; and that even though the dis placement is sufficient to sever the cord, we have no way of dctc>mining whether the cord is severed or dragged over with the dis placed fractured fragment! In these 300 broken back eases which would all have been total permanent, about 60 per cent recovered sufficiently to return to work within 12 to 18 months. About 20 per cent were able to get about and have the re turn of sensation. Thu other 20 per cent which may or inay not have had severing or destruction of the cord, remained total per manent disability. The return of 60 per cent of these casc^ to industry and their families was worth the effort. From a financial standpoint under the compensation carriers, there was a savings of thousands of dollars, which in turn cut down the insurance premium, nml finally the cost of production. There is also a form of back injury known as compression fracture, due to "jack-knif ing" or bending of the spinal column forcibly forward, which crushes the anterior body of a vertebra, usually the 12th dorsal, or the first lumbar, which >s in the greatest curva ture of the arc produced by forcible flexion forward. This type of injury without com plications docs not produce paralysis, and often goes unnoticed without a lateral X-ray picture, which will show (lie gradual hunch back, known as Koovnal's disease, which In comes progressively disabling. These cacrtreated immediately or within the course of a few' days (the sooner the better) can be relieved hv hyper-extension, and maintained by a cost to maintain this curve. We aKu take a lateral or side view X-raj ptetme through the cast after the hypcr-cxtcn*iun. idone, which shows the wedge shaped verte bra has filled out to its normal width on tinanterior body, and the cast holds the patient in this position until the vertebra becomes normal again 424 Tzoenty-si.vtU National Safety Congress THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION. October 14. 1937 New Safety Kinks in Mining By W. D. HASELTON Iron Mines Safety Supervisor, Pickands, Mather & Co., Duluth. Minn. Tlic sinking of shafts by boring is a rather recent application of an old principle. It can no longer be classed as experimental, as one rather deep shaft has been drilled as well as several shallower ones, in (he course of which work the routine was well developed. Further Improvements in this method of sinking will be along the lines of better and heavier equipment, rather than in 'any changes of basic principles. The sinking is accomplished by means of a cutting sleeve riding on chilled cast iron shot, the sleeve being the lower extremity of a core barrel. Rather closely coupled to the core barrel is a cylindrical cab contain ing the driving mechanism and operator's compartment, which is prevented from ro tating hy means of jack crews set into the walls of the liore hole. The rest of the equipment consists of a head frame, hoists and cables, cage, power line, bailers and numerous miscellaneous items found neces sary or convenient in the work. I will limit myself to discussing the safety features of this method of sliaft sinking. To show that the method is practical, I refer to the successful drilling of a shaft 1,125 feet deep and 60 inches in diameter through rock tliat was sometimes solid, sometimes faulted and sometimes very treacherous. This shaft is now* in service for ventilation ami the handling of inert at the Idaho Maryland Mine, Crass Valley, Calif., and was completed late in 1935. In spite of the experimental nature of both routine ami equipment on this joh there was only one disabling accident, a simple leg fracture, caused liv failure of a mcial hook ami therefore not ot* a nature peculiar to tlii- particular operation. incidentally within the next month, a 1,200 iool shaft 5 feet 6 inches in diameter is to be started at a mine in the Lake Superior Iron Ore District, the selection of this nietltod of sinking having been based on probability of reducing accident hazard as well as of lower cost per foot than would obtain by the conventional method. The hazards arc less with this type of sinking operation titan with conventional methods for the following reasons: 1. The crew is small, consisting of a run ner and a helper for cacti of the three shifts, sui>erviscd by one foreman. With this crew of workmen there is less exposure than would exist with a normal crew of perhaps 20 men per shift. Due to the unique nature of this job, it has been found advisable to have an apprentice in training through ob servation and helping as needed. 2. Very close supervision of the work is possible, and the crew is so small that indi vidual attention can be given both to their training and to their work. 3. There Is no crowd of workmen swing ing shovels at close quarters and no con gested use oi drills, flic laltcr being used only for drilling plug holes, etc. The core is generally solid and is lifted out bodily l>y means of a harness, with no one below it. In case of broken ground there is only one man at a time doing the mucking, using a bucket rigidly supported below a bonnet, so the latter could not be. lowered onto him hy mistake. The man rides out afiovc the bucket but under a bonnet and with his safely belt fastened to a ring just below the bonnet. 4. Only one man is in the sliaft at one time, except when the foreman is inspecting. Only one man at a time rides the small rectangular and pointed cage, which is fully enclosed except for the cut ranee, tlc latter having drop liars across it. 5. The operator sits in an enclosure pro tecting him from all sides, with a manhole through the roof as a means of getting in and out. Miming Section 425 6. He is further protected by a strongly built bonnet above the operating cab. except during the few seconds required to step through the trap door in this bonnet while getting into the cage. The manholes in the roof of the cab and the bonnet are stag gered. The bonnet is equipped with guide wheels riding on the sides of the hole to prevent spinning. 7. Drilling is submerged, so dust is at a minimum. 8. Blasting is so light there is no shatter ing of the wall. 9. Powder can be dispensed with by using wedges to break off the core, but when powder is used only about one quarter of a stick is required. This is placed at the bot tom ol the cut, where it is buried in sludge. Shots are fired hy electric detonator setoff from the surface. Missed holes are not in the picture, but if one should occur the powder could he easily withdrawn from the sludge covering it. 10. The operation docs not involve the hoisting of rock or materials over the head of the man at the sliaft bottom. 11. Tit bad ground no serious difficulty occurs, as would be the ease in a large rectangular shaft. Reinforced concrete ring* or patches arc put in, using a steel form expanded into place. By use of hot water and CaCL very fast setting can be secured, so that little time if any is lost through waiting for the concrete to set. 12. There are no heavy steel shaft sets or lath to be installed. The most important item, of the small amount of steel required, consists of tlic guide runners for the per manent cage, these being welded to short plates supported by bolts which are leaded into plug holes drilled into the side of the shaft. All of this work is done by template to assure proper alignment. Most of the electric cables are placed behind these plates where they are protected from damage and away from likelihood of accidental contact with anyone working in the shaft. The other items consist of brackets, extending from the runner plates, holding the 32 volt cage signal trolley and clamps leaded into specially drilled ping holes, used to support water and air lines and such cables as arc too large to put behind the runner. 13. The air in the shaft is violently agi tated by a trip of the circular drill unit or cure, which has a piston-like effect in (he round hole, but just what improvement to the air result:* is a- \ cl an unknown factor. Fresh air is easily supplied to the single workman at the -haft bottom through a l/3 inch rubber hose, handled hy reel on the surface. 14. The sliaft opening at the surface can easily be protected by fencing and toe hoard*. 15. In severe climates the headframe, etc., can be enclosed to permit working in a com fortable temperature and with no hazard of ice and snow or numbness of feet or fingers during work around the collar It is only fair to cal) attention to the fact that the system is not fool proof and that it has some hazards not found in the old methods. Among these points consideration should be given to the following: 1. Tf anything does happen to the operator down in the shaft it may be very serious or fatal, as he has no one to assist him. 2. He is in the shaft alone with a 100 IIP motor. In case of short circuit smoke might quickly knock him out, due to (he small size of the opening; therefore, a tetra chloride extinguisher and a self rescuer should probably be provided, but this is a questionable means of protection, as the use of tetrachloride in such a confined space might be open to debate. 3. Any lica\> fulling object might damage the bonnets, making il difficult for tlic man to get out on top of them to gain access to the cage. Incidentally, he is unprotected while doing this, although only a few sec onds are involved. . 4. The sinking cage operates without safety catches or runners. There is a swivel between the top of the cage and the cable, and tlic cage is prevented from .spiiming hy the rider guiding it from either the other hoisting cables or the wall. 5. In handling the core a weight of some 15 tons is involved. 6. In handling the. core after it has reached surface there is danger of it split ting along a plane of weakness when the lifting harness is released upon setting (he core down on the transfer car. 7. The core frequently breaks o(T with an irregular or angle bottom face requiring use of blocking when placing it on the transfer car in order properly to balance its 10 or 12 feet of height. 426 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress Handling Safety in a Large Mexican Mine By ARTURO C. FERNANDEZ General Superintendent of Safety and Hygiene, The Fresnillo Company, Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico In our mining operations our most difficult problems have been: (a) To plan ahead of nclital execution all details of mining opera tion in order to render them inherently safe, (b) The relatively high percentage of workmen not reached effectively by means of printed information or propaganda, (c) The stufdrtmi opposition of the local labor organization to the application of disci plinary measures; and (d) The adverse character of our ore bodies, mostly narrow veins scattered over considerable territory, rendering the high type of supervision re quired extremely difficult. N'otuith'tanding these unfavorable cirvum'Mmes the company has succeeded in maintaining large scale operations during lire U-i IK years without interruption, our ^riitcM achievement in the prevention of accident* luring the mining of 674,446 metric it*ns t ,rc during the last fiscal year in 4.5M1.000 ntan-liours of exposure without a taial mi-hap. Needless to say. thc>c results have been made iMs*il>lc by tlic application of well known principles of safety: organization, engineering, education, supervision, disci pline, and above all, by the coo|Krr;ition ol the human clement. On November I, 1928, in a small mining town of the State of Zacatecas, a meeting of all the local operating executives and technicians of the company was held to discuss problems related with the preven tion of accidents and occupational diseases. A unanimous decision was reached to in tensify by all possible means the campaign of safety and hygiene initialed in previous years, and for this purpose, a general safety committee responsible for the health, safety and welfare of the workmen was appointed. The first act of the general safety com mittee. under the permanent chairmanship of the assistant general manager, was to ap point departmental safety committees, pref erence being given nl the start to the mining department. Oil account of its greater im- IHirtance. The departmental safety commit tee for the mine, iu order to obtain the cttopcration of the existing lalror organiza tions, in turn appointed safety subcommit tees with syndic*) representation to cover not only all the sections of the mine, but all the various phases of mine operation as well. TliC preparation of the members of the varibus safety committees for the efficient discharge of the respective duties, the de lineation of their fields of activity, their degree of authority and resj>onsibilily and their sulrordiuation to the safety department were of extreme importance, but once this was accomplished the whole organization liegau to function as a unit, the immediate steps being: (a) Intensification of the edu cational canijiaign by means of posters, safety contests, meetings and conferences, (b) Complclc revision ol the company's safety regulations, (c) Intensification of the training given to the workmen on health practices, hygiene, first-aid, fire prevention and fighting and mine rescue work, and (d) The publication of a monthly safety bulle tin entitled `'1 Ccntincla." At a meeting of the general safety com mittee on November 23 the safety engineer presented hi* report giving an account of the activities up to that date, pointing out the accidents that had occurred in the min ing department during the previous month, as follows: 2 fatal accidents; 2 serious ac cidents ; 68 minor or disabling accidents and 230 slight accidents without loss of time, in a total of 47,679 man-shifts worked. For a quick comprehension of the prog ress made in the prevention of accidents as a result of the procedure outlined before, it will suffice to say that, three years after the initiation of the safety campaign, the accident record of the mining department for the month of October 1931 was: no fatal accidents; 2 serious accidents; 19 minor or disabling accidents; and 57 slight acci dent*, in 32,131 man-shifts worked. In addition to the progress made in the prevention of accidents since 1924, the com pany ha* built a fine hospital, providing the best medical treatment and care. The yearly records of accidents and occupational dis eases have improved progressively, culmi nating this year with the following statistics: Mining Section 427 Mining Department Disabling 1 iijunes per 1,000 man -shifts worked Fiscal years 1927 1928 1928 1929 1929-1930 1930-1931 1931-1932 1932-1933 1933-1934 1934-1935 1935-1936 1936-1937 Minor 1.309 1.257 0.860 0.623 0.335 0.266 0.255 0.217 0.112 0.176 Serious 0.018 0.064 0.036 0.027 0.021 0.026 0.018 0.019 0.024 0014 Fatal 0.027 0.029 0.006 0.027 0.016 0.015 0.010 0.012 0.003 0.000 N.B. The Mexican uiiiiiiiK lx* defines a minor injury as one requiring from 2 lo IS day* to hoi; a serious injury, one rcquiriitB more Ilian li ilayd lo beat. All Department*---Fresnillo Unit Fiscal Year 1936-1937 Total amount paid for non-pro fessional diseases on the basis of 50% of daily wages.............. 1*58.088.47 Total amount paid for all classes of compensation, indemnities, and special expenses on ac count of injured employees, including eases that corre spond to previous years, not settled before..............................P25.066.09 Total amount paid for all classes of compensation for occupa tional diseases, including re tirements in non-professional eases ................................... P49.805.51 Total health and accident indem nities ............................................. F74,871.60 Total amount of wages paid dur ing the year.............................. F4.360.337 81 Percentage of wages paid for health indemnities in eases of occupational diseases........................ Pi.142 Percentages of wages paid for accident indemnities........................... P0.575 Total percentage of wages paid for health and accident indem nities .....................................................PI.72 These figures arc eloquent proof of the progress obtained in the prevention of acci dents and occupational diseases. However, an explanation is necc*>ary concerning the relatively high cost of non-professional dis eases noted. These costs arc due, primarily: (a) To a concession made to (he workers in the collective contract that became elTcctivc in April 1936. whereby they ary allowed 50 per cent of their daily wage* up to tsvo months* illness per year, while they are under treatment and test, (b) To mild ail ments of the respiratory organs such as bronchitis, colds, coughs, giippcs, etc., gen erally brought about by sudden clwngcs of temperatures, due to the obstinacy of many miners who work in their bare thorax while in warm places of the mine, (c) To various affiictions of the skin such as itches, rashes, dermatitis, furuncles, etc., brought about by insufficient cleanliness of the clothing or bodies of workmen. Accident Reporting The importance of this feature of acci dent prevention was soon realized by the organization and since the inception ot the safety campaign, a written record of the causes, circumstances and consequences of all accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of employment, ha* been kept. Every workman receiving an injury on the premises of the company, regardless of its severity, is immediately sent to the ho>pita! for treatment, ami a rc|>ort is made by the boss or foreman is sent to the medi cal and safety departments. Each morning all the accident reports received by tlu: safety department arc studied, and then referred for further investigation to the sectional safety committees, who report their findings, conclusions and recommendations. In all eases of disabling injuries an inde pendent investigation is made by the safety engineer and foreman in charge, and a de tailed report Is sent to the management and officials of the mine. Infringements of the safety rules arc punished with layoffs of from 1 to 5 days or even immediate dis charge, in very serious eases. All eases re quiring the application of discipline arc the subject of a thorough investigation by a safety committee, final action resting with the company. The hospital keeps a lxrrmancnt record <>f all the injuries reported, with complete information on each ca>c and treatment' On each new injury a complete description of the ca*e i* entered in the hospital book>. and copies of the medical report are sent to 428 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the mine superintendent and heads of lhc employment and safety departments. Each accident is analyzed and entered on the workman's safety record which shows at a glance, not only the accidents that he has sustained and the action taken, but also the educational training he has received and the protective equipment with which he has Iteen provided such as goggles, gloves, safety hats, lamps, safety belts and other similar articles which are furnished by the company free of charge, and exchanged without cost to the workmen when rendered unfit by normal wear. The Mtfcly work of the mining depart ment is under the direction of a safety engi neer, who has under him a corps of trained inspectors who make an inspection of all working places on each shift, and supervise general Masting operations. Dangerous con ditions are reported immediately to the lxss in charge of the work, and in urgent situa tions the insj>cctors lave authority to stop the work until the place has been inspected hy the boss, who then assumes all further responsibility. Typewritten reports arc dis tributed daily by the safety department to ail the ho*ftc concerned, and at the weekly meetings of supervisors a check is made on the action taken on the recommendations that liavc been submitted. As a stimulus to greater interest and co operation in the prevention of accidents, a scale of monthly safety bonuses, payable to all bosses and inspectors has been estab lished. This scale is based on the total rate of accidents per thousand shifts supervised, and takes into account the interest displayed during the month by each supervisor in the elimination of hazards, enforcement of safety rules, and good housekeeping. Once cnclt month all the working places of the mine arc inspected by sectional safety committees, who make a detailed report .of the conditions and equipment considered to lc unsafe. Tjievrittei copies of these re ports are distributed to all the foremen and Ixjsses concerned for their investigation and written comments, and the discussion of iiucbtionablc recommendation* is token up at a monthly meeting ul* lle committees, Kisses, foremen anil mine oflirials. Separate meetings of the contractors working in the two main divisions of the mine are held once each month, and the accident record of the preceding month is discussed with them in detail, adopting all possible measures for the prevention of similar recurrences. Two meetings of the general safety com mittee comprising the management, operat ing executives, technicians and principal as sistants*: one for the surface departments and the other to cover mining operations, are held once each month for a review of the record of the previous montli, and for the discussion of matters of general nature. Fire Prevention Every possible effort is made to minimize the danger of a tire underground. In prep aration for, such a contingency a large number of carefully selected men have been trained in the use uf oxygen breathing a|>paralus, and five crews of five men each arc kept in continued training. A smoke room has been provided to make the training more effective, and fire-drills arc held under ground in various sections of the mine once a month. An up-to-date first-aid and minerescue station is maintained on the main, patio of the mine, completely equipped with 12 McCaa oxygen breathing apparatuses; 10 all-service gas masks; 50 scif-rcseucrs; oxygen pump; carbon monoxide detector; safety lamps; stretchers of various types; life line, and other miscellaneous equip ment. A fire-ear fully equipped with hoses, axes, pipe fittings, fire extinguishers, first-aid supplies, and other tools and material is also available on the main mine patio at a mo ment's notice. Provisions for an abundant supply of water in all part9 of the mine through both air and water lines have been made, and water connections, hydrants, and fire extinguishers have been placed in con venient parts of the mine. An injector installed on the main air line at the portal of the mine is available to spread, hy means of a stench signal, the warning of a fire underground. ADJOURNMENT Paper and Pulp Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--George J. Aim ms, International Paper Co.. Glens Falls, X. V. yicc-Chairmau in Charge of Membership--Arthur E. VYinsi.ow, Hollingsworth & Whit ney Co., YVatcrvillc, Me. Secretary and Program Committee Chairman--F. A. Kudinson. Kimberly-Clark Corp.. Neenah, Wis. Neios Letter Editor and Publicity Committee Chairman--Ci-Wton Bkaatz, Marathon Paper Mills, Kothscluld, YVis. Contest Committee Chairman---A. Scorr Down, The Paper Industry, Chicago, 111. Engineering Committee Chairman--D. B. Ciiant, The Ontario Pulp & Paper Makers' Safely Assn., Toronto, Out., Canada. Health Committee Chairman--Da. Eduard W. Paine, Hollingsworth & Whitney Co, Watervillc, Me. Poster Committee Chairman--J. ]J. Turner, Consolidated Paper Corp., Ltd, Grand'Mcrc, P. Q.. Canada. Statistics Committee Chairman--Frf.d W. Braun, Employers Mutuals, Wausau, Wis. Members at Large-- ErNKST Augustus, The Mend Corporation, Chillicothc, O. W. J. Brennan, Maine Department of Labor and Industry, Augusta, Me. M. W. Dukijome, Beloit Iron Works, Beloit, Wis. K. L. Pai&t, The Champion Paper and Fibre Co., Hamilton. O. YV. A. Gi.kason, Wammcmiill Pajicr Co., Erie, Pa. E. E. Chant, The Crystal Tissue Co., Middletown, O. J. ). Hastings, Port Huron Sulphite & Paper Co.. Port Huron, Mich. C- O. Hoi.niicr, Minnesota and Ontario Paper Co., Minneapolis, Minn. F. L. Tkvin, St Croix Paper Co., Woodland, Me. 1). A. McAeahv, Fraser Companies, Ltd., Edmuirdslon, N. B., Canada. Don E. McDowell. Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Co., Kalamazoo, Mich. Arthur Murray, Container Corjioralion oi America, Chicago, III. H. G. Noykx, Oxford Paper Company, Unmford, Me. J. J. Plzak, Consolidated Water Power it Paper Co., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Samuel Prgyx, P'inch-Pruyn Co.. Inc., Glens Falls, N. Y. 13. D. Rooms, Bird & Sou, Inc., East Walpole, Mass. F H. Rosebush, Xckoosa-Edwards Paper Co., Port Edwards, Wis. S. F. Siiattuck Kimberly-Clark Corp., Xccnah. Wis., Representative. The American Paper atid Pulp Association. L. K. StursoN. Tlic Brown Paper Milt Co.. Inc., West Monroe. La. Officers Elected for 1937-38 Geuerai Chairman--Gumo; J. Adams. International Paper Co, Glens Falls, \. Y. trice-C/iairman in Charyf uf Membership--Arthur E. W'i.vm.chv, Hollingsworth it VV'hil- ney Co.. Watervillc. Me. 429 430 Tzcenty-sixth National \ofctv Cotnjrcss ! Secretary tout Program Committei* Chairman--(\ A. Roihnron. Kimberly-Clark Corp., Xrcitaii, W'is. AYiv.v Letter lidilor and Publicity Committee Chairman--O.avton Hr.xatz, Marathon J'apcr Mills, Rothschild, W'is. Contest Committee Chairman--A. Scorr Dowd, '1 lie Paper Industry, Chicago, 111. Jltniiiu'criiui Committee Chairman--D. B. Chant. The Ontario Pulp & Paper Makers' Safety Assn.. Toronto. Ont., Canada. Health Committee Chairman--Da. EoNVAkl) \Y. I'aink, Hollingsworth & Whitney Co.. WnUrvillc, Me. Poster Committee Chairman--J. H. Turner, Comhlklatcd Paper Corp., Ltd., Grand Mere, P. Q., Canada. Statistics Committee Chairiuan-~Fkr.t) \V. Braun. Employers Mutuals, Wausau, YVis. Members at J.onje-- j EN\t:sT Augustus, The Mead Cor[>oration, Clii.fJicotlie, O. M. W. Dundore, Beloit Iron Works, Beloit, KVia. K. L. Faikt, The Champiou Paper and Fibre Co., Hainilion. O. W. A. Gleason, Hammertniil Paper Co., Erie,' Pa. E. E. Grant, The Crystal Tissue Co., Miildleldwn, O. \. J. Hastinos. Port Huron sulphite fi: Paper Co., Pori Huron, Mich. C. O. Hoiaier, Minnesota ami Ontario Paper C<., MinneajHilis, Minn. V. I.. ItiviN, St. Croix Pai*cr|Co.. Woodland, Me. Ik A. McAtwvav, Fraser Companies, Ltd., Edmundstou. X. It.. Canada. Dun E. McPowki.i.. Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Co., Kalamazoo. Mich. Arthur Murray. Container Corporation of America, Chicago, 111. 11. f. Noyes, Oxford Paper Company, Rum ford, Me. E. \V, Patto.v, The Lawrence Paper Co., Lawrence, Kansas. J. J Pi.zak, Consolidated Water Power & )*a|>cr Co., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Samuei, Pkuyn. Finch-Prtivit Co.. Inc., Glens Falls, X. Y. I*. D. Rui.khs, Bird & Son, Inc., East Walpole, Mass. F. H. llosKni'dii, Nckoosa-Edwards Paper Co., Port Edwards, Wis. S. F. SltATTVCK, Kimberly-Clark Corp., Necnah, Wis., Representative, The American Paper ami Pulp Association. |,, K. Simpson, The Brown Paper Mill Co., Inc., West Monroe, La. MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 11, 1937 The opening session of the Paper and Pulp Section was called to order by George j. Adams. International Paper Company, llluis Falls. Xew York, who presided. Chairman Adams: Following the usual practice, it i my duty as General Chairman tn review briefly the activities and progress of the Paper and Pulp Section during this jiast year. There were two meetings of the executive committee during the year, the first at Chi cago on January 19 and the second in New York City on April 15. At the Chicago meeting, the principal topic of discussion was tlx: program for this Kansas City Convention. The New York meeting was concerned with a discussion relative to the correlation Paper and Pulp Section 431 of efforts of this Section with other agencies or association!* of ihe Industry in their aims to promote accident prevention in pulp and paper mills. Also included in the Xew York meeting was an extensive discussion on acci dent statistics. It was proposed that the Section take some means of perfecting and continuing tl>c.se statistics Ixrcausc of the very pronounced interest being shown hv a number of mills. Accordingly, a committee was apt>oiuted at the Xew York meeting consisting of Fred Braun, Chairman, Ernest Augustus, Arthur Winslow, George Bums and myself to act as a suh-committce to the regular statistics committee, of which Mr. Urauu is also our Chairman, to consider the following: 1. Improvement of the present form of report of accident. 2. Perfecting a plan tor future tabulation. .1. Perfecting a plan for the presentation of the statistics to the Section. I have asked Mr. liraun to include in hi* statistical report also tii- report of this com mittcc. There has l>ecn quite an increase in the membership of our Section the past year. About 25 per cent of the industry ns n wliolc are now members of the National Safety Council. Through the good will ol Fred Robinson and the Kimltcrly-Clark Corporation we have the services of a stenotypist to take discussion notes at our meetings here. We certainly are all appreciative to Fred and his corporation for this. J. J. Pi.kak (Consolidated Water Bower &. Paper Co., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) : I would like to ask that the nicmlxtrshlp give the Secretary permission to record a unani mous vote of appreciation for the splendid leadership that this Section has had under our Chairman. George Adams. (The motion was carried.) Report of Accident Experience Exchange By FRED W. BRAUN Manager, Safety Engineering, Employers Mutuals. Wausau, Wis. Statistics sltould l>e used in your accident prevention work for fact-finding interest on vour program. These can be shined in any manner. Some very interesting things arc brought ont in this year's report. Members of the Section are to be com plimented on their rcsjtonsc in sending in their reports. We received 678 reports this year as compared to 108 last year. This year August, with 77 accident*, was the high accident month: July, with 29. low. In Tabulation 2, which indicates the day >>f the week in which these accident* were caused, you will find that Wednesday was high, with 119. and Sunday was low. In *36 Sunday was low and Thursday was high. There is apparently an indication there that the middle of the week is high. You should check with your < *wn plant experience and see whether the accident- a* they are retried to your plant check with this. Do you liavc the high recording tn the middle of the week* Tabulation 3 sliow the <lay or shift. 'I he day worker is low and the shift worker high. Docs dial mean that the day worker, work ing eight hours a day. during the day, every day iti the year, has more natural rest, and that the shift worker who goes on at eleven to three or from three to eleven ami so on. one week, and next week sonic other liours. has his rest broken up; When a man comethome at seven o'clock in the morning from a night -hift. or three o'clock, does he go to bed and get his rot; It so. docs lie get natural re-t? T1w>*e are s**me of the things you 4xmld cheek with your own plant. Talmlation 4. time of accidents, is very rlose. There is very little difference Ir> tween afternoon ami morning accidents in recording. Tabulation 5 shows that for the throe var>. '35, '36 and *37, the highest peak in the mKiting occurred anywhere from eight to twelve o'clock. Here is your first some what consistent fact. In the afternoon you 432 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress find practically the same thing. From two tu ionr i> your high period. Why do we have accident*? Why d> they iqqwircntly conic at the same hour? Is there drop in viuluisiusm? Is there drowsiness.? Is it in creased production? Is there tenseness? These arc some of the causes (hat vun might Nttwlv. hcomsc ilicy arc <iuitc consistent in their time. If this is an indication, and it is going to run this way for years, why do we liavc safety meetings iti the evening? Why not luve five-minuie safety meetings at ten 'clock in the morning ami soniewltcrc be tween two and lour in the afternoon? If that i the time that you have accidents, that is the lime that you slxmld concentrate mi tlteni. According to lahidatioti l*. which shows tlie lime worked preceding the accilcnt. accidents are caused after men luve worked several Itours. This tear we liad 121 accidents re futed after men had worked five to six In.iirs. which indicates, again, that that liroleihly is the lime to inject some safety program into the picture. Xo\v tlte age bracket--note llw 25 to 35 group. Tabulation 7 kIkiws Ikiw close these iiHlicatiotts run for four years. Is it due to the fact that you have more men employed at the age of 25 or 30. or arc they more prone to accidents? In -h you had 45 acci dents occur to tito.se hetween the ages of 25 and .10; in '35 you had 43; in '36 you had 21 from 30 to 35. This year you tuid 117 ficlwccia the ages of 35 and 30. It wilt he interesting to figure out in your own plant what your average age of cm)loyiiiciit is. See if it checks with thi*. Tabulation 8 show* a higher frequency lor married men. I really cannot see tlte value of this. Proliably moat men who work are married. That i* the reason for that; they proliatdy have to work, and that is why you Itavr a high frequency. Tabulation 0 shows the years in employ I company. Xotc again how close they run as to new men. In *34. 44 worked from one month to six months: in '35 you had 36 acci dents of men that worked from one year to two years; in *36 you had 10 that worked from two to three years, and then this year you liad 74 accidents, from three to lour year*. 1* this to lead us to believe that young employee^, in point nf service, show the high accident tendency? Certainly all of us should work on tlie new men. Tabulation 10 shows a steady increase and a stead)' hold uo machines for the number <>( accident*. Tin* should lead us to make a study of pa(HT machine accidents by departincuts. Is tlie nip hazard responsible? I call to your attention the finishing room-- 8 accidents in `36 and 73 this year. Shipping went up from 6 accidents last year to 26 tins year. However, we had a tremendous increase in number of accidents reported, which may account for that. But you see the importance of sending in reports. If you could hold to a certain fig ure. the number of accidents reported over u itoriod of years, you would luve some very* accurate statistics. Tabulation II shows a tremendous in crease in days lost--110,000 compared to 10.000 last year. It shows the trend of the departments that are having tltcsc accidents. Several more years of rc(K>rtmg of this kind would prove ilefinitcly that machines arc proliahlv your greatest time-lost hazard. Tabulation 12 sltows the job-distribution of accidents. The four years that arc repre sented show a consistency on laborers, wood handlers; machine tenders and finishers show quite an increase. The next tabulation, on the cause of in* jury, is probably the most important talxi* latiou fur all safety men. Note that ''slip ping. stumbling and tripping" shows a re markable increase. It was first in 1936; it is first again this year, with 1,169 days lost ami 75 accidents. Tabulation 14 is on tlie nature of the in jury. Fractures and bruises take first and .second place. Last year it was just reversed. That shows you, again, how consistent sta tistics can be. Vou have "slipping, stumbling and falling'' and machine accidents as your high causes and you get, as a result, bruises and fractures. Tabulation 15 is on parts of body dial were injured. For the fourth consecutive \ear, hands, fingers and feet suffer most. I want to make a few comments, now. tltat arc very pertinent to this job. It is a mistake to change your statistical chairman year after year because it is quite a job to pick up where the other fellow Pafer and Pulp Section 433 left oft, and a great many people do not have the equipment to tabulate. 1 mentioned that at tlie Kxecutivc Com mittee rneeting of this Section tlie early part of last year and urged that a uniform report Ik adopted, and that you clear all your rec ords through the National Safety Council, allow the National Safety Council to he your statistician. Then year alter year you m leave the same typo of report, the same agency tabulating it. They have the facil ities: they have tlie means: and I know that they will do it. provided you adopt a report that will fit their cards. That should be worked out by the committee. Chairman* Adams: I would like to ex plain a little further. Our present form of report is quite complicated in that it re quests a good deal of information relative to the accident. Our members are asked to file a report tor each accident that occurs and send it through to the chairman of the Statistics Committee. Some fault has been found with that at the mills because it entails a good deal of work. In many instances the ques tions are not answered. To me that is an indication that the fellow who is making out the report thinks it is a silly* thing to answer this question or that. Do you get that im pression ? Mr. Braun : Yes. Chairman Arams: We conferred with the National Safety Council headquarters. They looked over our form and said they couldn't do a thing with it in its present form, but that if we would simplify it they would take over the compiling of our sta tistics. Does anybody want to discuss this question? J. H. Turner (Consolhlated Paper Corp.. Montreal, Canada) : Has the National Safety Council submitted a form they would like us to adopt? Mr. Braun : This isn't as complicated as it sounds or looks. Mr. Forney, the statis tician of tlie Council, will submit a report form to the officers of this Section. If dial form meets with the approval of your offi cers, they will adopt it and send it on and use it this year. Then the Council wilt auto matically take care of your statistics and publish the report each year. Chairman Aoams: Fred, can you give us any idea of that report--what the ques tions ace? Mk. BhaUn : They have a great deal of information tlat we call lor now. The causes and the detriments are practically the same. Chairman* Adams: Is there anything left out. in your estimation, that would be of value to us ? Mr. Braun: I think it can lw used. Some additions could be made, and they would lie willing to make (Item. You sec, they get re ports from other sections, and that is why their report is somewhat uniform. If you want a separate report, of course you would have to get their u. k. But as the report form stands now, I think it could be used and would give you valuable information every year. Ernest Augustus (The Mead Corpora tion, Chillicothc, Ohio) : Could Mr. Braun, as retiring chairman of this committee, get that form and submit it before the end of our sessions this week for consideration, and if o. k. could we adopt it and go ahead? Arthur E. Winslow (Hollingsworth und Whitney Co., Watervillc, Maine): Will we lose records that have already been com piled if we adopt the new form? Will they simply start with'tlte new form and go on. or will these be iucuriiorated? Mr. Braun: You could incoqiorate these and just add your 1938. Chairman Adams: You will get your year-to-year -comparisons? Mr. Turner: What is tlie statistical period? Mr. Brauk : From October until the time the chairman feels he lias to stop to make up his tabulation. D. C. Hunter (Oxford Miami Paper Co., West Carrollton, Ohio) : Why couldn't that period be the same as our contest? Chairman Adams: I think we discussed that before, and we decided we didn't want to hook up our statistical report with the contest. 434 Twniy-si.vtJi National Safety Congress Dr. Tihjmas Dorhins (Servel, Inc., Evansville, Imi.) : What <lo you class as accidents, lost-time, just ail injury. or what? Mr. Braun; They arc all injuries. You have a question in there as to the time lost, if there is any lost time. Dr. Doinuxs: What do you compare that with, your man Itours of exposure, number of men ? What do you class in these in juries? Do they have to have lost-time or involve compensation or expense? Mr. Hraux: They arc just injuries. Dh. Doiuuns: Around a mill a lot of fellow* pet hurt and they are never reported. One linn may be conscientious in reporting injuries, and another doc>n`t report them. They ju>t wrap litem up ami the men go I tack to work. Chairman' Adams: Tliat i* true. But the purpose ni the report is to classify, accord ing to (lie different tabulations, such rcjxirts as arc sent in to the chairman or to the national headquarters, ns to cause, age, and so forth, without any relation to the man hour*. Hooking this thing up with a con test isn't our puriosc. You arc probably familiar with our Paper Industry Contest. It is Itnscd on cxjsosure. Mnyhc T am wrong in this, luit 1 can't see die value of hooking mao Itours into this kind nf tabulation. Mr. Braun: We are not interested here iu man hours. We are interested only in niie thing---frequency ) musts. If a man scratches his huger aiul goes to the first aid room ami is back in fifteen minutes, you might think that is a very trivial cause, but alt of you know men have died from a cause like that. If you have in a year 500 acci dents like tliat. there i> something wrong in yiuir plant. If you liavc five, it makes-no difference. It is an iwlieatimi of the trend of cause of accident*. That is what you warn to gel mil of lids report. If you want a omtest. that is another matter. You want the frequency ami the raiie. Of course, the severity is interesting. You Imre it here IKi rn use you must tie up severity with your accident program. It is brought out tliat ltand ami leet are the (tarts of the Irmly that receive the most severe blows in your industry, naturally, when you have all these nip hazards, and vmr severity is based on that. Chairman Adams: We arc getting back into a discussion we have had for three or four years in the past, as to what our sta tistics sluill consist of. 1 believe we started tliis with lost-time accidents only. It may have got to the basis where we are including no-lost-timc accidents. There is just as much value in the data on a minor injury that doesn't cause lost time as there is on a fatal Arcirkait. There is very little difference so far as cause is concerned. The circumstance of the accident is going to determine whether or not a fellow will go hack to work or lie taken out in a coffin. At the same time, if it is the consensus that you want to stick to lost-time accidents, we can settle that now. If we want to include both, we can still do that and make some sc|iarat>on in the tabulation. .Mr. Braun; It is difficult when you get these reports. Some aren't lost time and >wc arc. You must have a standard form and stick to it. Some mills--whether they misunderstand or not, I don't know--will send information and you can't tabulate it. flail goes back to what I originally started tu say, that if you have a standard form that is used by all the other sections and add to that possibly some of the questions you want answered, you will have better information. Chairman Adams: Will the meeting con sent to this? f.et me apjioint a committee tn consult with the National. Mr. Braun: I move that the Chair ap point a committee to consult with tltc Na tional Safety Council, to adopt a uniform rejrurt form and uniform practice of rejKirting fur this Section. (The motion was seconded by J. J. Hast ings, put to a vole ami carried.) CtiAiRMAN Adams: 1 will apiroiut Mr. Winslow and Mr. Augustus. Will you serve with them? Mr. Braun: I will he glad to help. Mr. Plzak : I want to inject this into tltc matter of recording these statistics. I won der. Fred, if you arc familiar with the Hein rich Cause Committee committee report*. It is a federal rcjrort. The committee might look into it. ft is a type of form for report ing both lost-time ami minor injuries, (t might help in your report. Chairman Adams: Is there anythiiiR else on tliat question? STAProRi* A. Benedict (Southern Advance Paper and Pulp Section 135 Bag and Paper Co., Hodge, I .a.) : I would like to bring out one point that I believe has been overlooked in this discussion here. Very often an employee will neglect to rcport a minor injury, although we realize they may be severe eases some time in the future. If we included every injury in this statistical report, we would not get quite the precise report that 1 think we want. If you made that strictly lost-time accidents, it is more than natural that tire employee would report an accident or that you would get a check on an accident that involved lost time. If yon make this strictly lost-time accidents, I believe you would arrive at more definite conclusions. Chatmman Adams: The committee will take tliat into consideration. We will try to do the best job we can. G. J. Bienvenu (Corrugated Box Co., Inc., Bogalusa, T.a.) : I am in a converting plant. When drawing up new reports, I svould like the committee to consider analyz ing accidents that may take place in a box factory. Most of the reports leave them out. 1 am wondering how many representatives we have in this group from box plants. Chairman Adams: We can easily find out. Mr. Bienvexu : Corrugated fiber boxes, carton*. (Eight.) Have you gentlemen found it true that the paper and pulp reports do ixit bring out the type of accidents we are likely to have in our plant? Chairman Adams: You will be given all the cooperation in the world if you will file your own reports with the committee. Mr. Ricnyenu: We have been doing that. Chairman Adams: They must he in cluded then. They may not have been clas*ified. Mr. Biii.nvknu: That i& what I mean. They are not classified, ami the report doesn't ask for enough information that we could classify them well enough, lit other words, it seems to be devoted almost entirely to pulp and paper mills ami not to box factories and refabricating plant*. C. A. Wriciit (American Bov Board Co.. Grand Rapids, Mich.); Maylro he is in the same position that we arc. We have a paper mill and converting plant. We arc all in one plant. We either have tn break them down and scud just live paper and pulp to get them classified, or send them both, amt they are not classified. Mr. WrNsr.ow: The tabulation is bn>cd upon the reports that came in the first year --isn't it, Ernie? Mr. Augustus : Yes. Mr. WiNsbow: That first year apparently the box industry was not represented. That was in '34, I think. Certainly the Section doesn't want to freeze out any part of the industry. I think the committee could talk with some of you boxboard people and find out wlial points should be covered. Chairman Adams : I will ask the com mittee to take your suggestion into consid eration when they meet with the headquar ters .staff. Our next speaker is Mr. Tltotna* G. Hen derson, Superintendent of Bird ami Son. Inc., Philipsdale, R. I. Methods of Obtaining Employee Interest and Cooperation in Safety By THOMAS C. HENDERSON Superintendent, Bird Sc Son, Inc., Phillipsdale, R. I. I shall describe the methods we use to get >ur employce!i to help us in our safety pro gram. \Yc believe the first thing necessary is that the management show the employees that it ii> enthusiastically willing to do its part in the safety program. All machinery and all dangers should be thoroughly guarded, and all svork should be laid out so as to be done in the least dangerous manner. While it is generally conceded that more accidents arc caused by carelessness or thoughtlessness than by the lack of machinery guards, the responsibility of management iu this direc tion is perfectly clear if employee cooperation is to be deserved. Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Existing machinery should he periodically inqiectcd to see that the necessary guards are in place and all new machinery should he gone over to see (hat guards, not supplied by the manufacturer, arc made and put on before the machine is put in operation. Extra precaution should be taken to see (hat after rciairs or alterations no guards have been left off, even temporarily. ]n consideration of (he pro|>cr methods of doing various operations, it is realized that the safe way is not always the quickest way; but since em ployees are quirk to detect any lukewarm ness tin tlic part of management toward .safety, it is especially important that in pre scribing certain methods for doing routine jobs the management should take as broad a view as possible. Perhaps equally important is the safety committee organization. We have first the department safety committee, made up of the foreman, as chairman, with a few of his men, and second the central safety committee, headed hy the vice-president in charge of manufacturing, and made up of all the plant superintendents. The detriment safety committees arc headed by the foreman. He is given to un derstand that he i directly responsible for accidents in his tk-panment ami that this safety committee is a means for him to comliat accidents. On this committer he will have wltat men he thinks necessary and will meet with them informally at least once a week to talk over dangerous or unsafe practices which tlwy have observed, review' the peculiar haz ards of tlxir department, do what they think necessary to keep their department safe, ami consider recommendations made by the men. It is tart of the duty of these members to lalk to any men working in an unsafe man ner. atul they, as well as the foremen, have the right to stop wliat tliey consider any unsafe practice, ft is the* custom of the comIianv to change the makeup of these depart ment committees at least once a mouth on tltc theory that hy so doing all men, particu larly the newer employees, will Itavc a better opportunity to become versed in the safety idea. Since all suiKtrintendcMs have some lati tude iii the running of their safety commit tees. we have made it a practice in our plant to keep the same men on ile safety com mittees for longer periods on the dtcory that :;afety work is important enough to warrant the time of the best men in each department and that their position on these safety com mittees would be respected more if everyone realized that their appointment was probably more or less of a permanent nature. Regardless of which plan is followed it is important to bring in the men on the job. No matter how good a foreman is. he can frequently learn safety improvements from his men, and their having some say in the safety program cannot but increase their interest. These committees occasionally make inspections in other departments and are sometimes able to call attention to conditions or practices to which men have become accustomed but which sliould be corrected. Recommendations of these department com mittees are passed along to the superin tendent, who sees that they are carried out when practical. Some recommendations arc passed to the central safety committee. A foremen's meeting, held twice a month in each plant, offers the up|ortumty for safety matters to be brought up if a foreman wishes certain items discussed. Here, after discussion, changes may be ordered or rec ommendations made to the central safety committee. In emphasizing the foreman's responsibility for the success of the safety program in his department, lie is required to come each morning to the superintendent's office and mark on a chart the accident record for his department during die previous day. This is something we insist upon every morning, and the foreman is not allowed to forget it. The central safety committee, made up of the superintendents and presided over by tltc vice-president in charge of manufacturing, meets once a month. It receives reports of the safety inspector, passes on recommenda tions of the various superintendents, and de cides the general policy of the safety pro gram. Since it is never too early to get the employee's interest in safety, we start before he is hired. The employment department explains to tlx* new nun the company's pol icy in regard to safety work; and the fact that he must work safely is impressed upon him before he starts to work. In addition to this cadi foreman must see that the new man is thoroughly instructed in the hazards of the work he is to do, and the necessity tor working safely is further impressed upon Paper and Pulp Section 437 him by the signing of an examination card liefore he starts to work, signifying that lie has been instructed in tlie hazards of his department and that he promises to do his work in accordance with the safe methods outlined. A further check is made on the new non by the safety inspector. He makes it a practice to talk with each new man before he has been working a month, and he atisfics himself that the new man has been properly instructed concerning safety matters. This fame procedure is carried out when an employee is transferred to a new depart ment. so that he may be fully instructed in the hazards of the new job before starting. The cooperation of the employee is dclcndem to a great extent on the attitude of his format! and his superintendent toward safely work. Frequent talks with the men, cither l>y the superintendent or foreman, alwiut safety matters will go a long way toward the desired oiopcnlion. 'Flic foreman or superintendent must know when he secs a man working unsafely and must lie willing to take the time to stop the man right there and then to explain the danger of what he is doing. He should be made to understand that he is actually play ing with perhaps life-long misery not only for himself but for His family a& well and that the safe way to do his work is the only way approved by the company. The management feels that a detailed ctieck and careful investigation of all accidents em phasizes the importance of safety work to the men in addition to providing means for the prevention of future accidents. All acci dents requiring medical attention are reported immediately to the vice-president in charge of manufacturing, and a very detailed report is sent along later. This includes first the accident report made out by the foreman giving a description of the man, the accident and the time and place, what the foreman thinks was the cause of the accidcnt and what he can do and has done to prevent its recurrence. Second, a report of the investi gation hy the plant safcty inspector. Third, a report of tlte nurse who sets down the employee's reason why the accident occurred mkI wliat precautions have been taken. These arc all sent through the sujicrintendcnt who, of course, keeps himself well informed con cerning the safety conditions of his plant. A safety inspector visits all plants at least once a month and not only constantly checks the hazards which the management can cor rect but also does a lot of missionary work In talking with both new and old workers. His recommendations are made to the super intendent and to the chairman of the general safety committee and arc subject to followups of this committee. Two shields have been provided by the company as an incentive and an acknowledg ment of good safety work. One shield is held by that plant which has run the largest number of days since the last lost-time acci dent and the other is held by the plant which has run the largest number of man hours without a lost-time accident. Items on bulletin boards play a part in stimulating employee interest. Statistics are posted monthly showing the standings of the individual plants in the company's own con test and also in the other safety contests in which tlte various plants have been entered. Details of lost-time accidents arc given when there is noticed a tendency toward any gen eral unsafe practice (such as fast driving around the plant), and in case of a particu larly bad infraction of the safety rules a little publicity is given with very desirable results. National Safety Council posters arc used and changed frequently. We consider that these posters, to be effective, must be changed at least once a week. There is a question as to just how important bulletin boards arc in a safety program. It certainly is necessary to keep what information there is on the boards up to date and to change them fre quently. Probably the fewer boards there arc the more they are looked at and, of course, they should be placed near a time clock or some similar place where the men must sec them every day. In the employee magazine publicity is given to all accidents and to all safety achievements. The contest standings of the various plants are given. Safety calendars are distributed to all workers each Christmas. These serve not only to show the company's interest in safety work but also to create an interest on the part of the employee's family in the com pany's safety program. In any industry where heavy materials are handled we believe safety shoes to be very much worthwhile. We, therefore, carry in our storerooms a stock of a good brand of safety shoes and advertise, recommend and 438 Twcntysixth National Safety Congress otherwise encourage their use by permitting ilicm to be Ixiught at cost ami paid for in installments from the weekly |>ay check. These shoes are consuiitly proving them selves to 1m.* good injury preventives. Time card* and |y envelopes are an opportunity i<r (he presentation of short and attention-getting safely slogans. Tlic use of time cards especially ofTers good possibilities lor this purjKisc. as they are seen by all employees at least twice a <la>% and good slogans will have a chance to sink in. A very gocxl and direct metliod of creating employees' interest is hy the encouragement u American Red Cross courses in first aid. We have had very good success in sixmsoring courses the last three winters. A large group lias ftccn interested not only in the regular course hut m the advanced course os well. These advanced students have also formed a First Aid Club which meets regularglv during the winter. A few of die ad vanced students arc taking the examiner's course. We think these first aid courses are very effective, as they make the men con scious of what terrible things can happen when safety is not practiced. One more thing which should be brought out is the need for variety in certain items of the safety program. Take, for instance, the organization of the safety committees. There arc probably nearly as many different kinds of safety committees as there are com panies. and under certain conditions they may all be I>cst; but probably no organiza tion in safety work sltould remain unchanged year after year, as tlierc is just as much danger of getting into a rut here as in any other work. Too many times a program is set in motion and then forgotten until the company experiences a flood of accidents which awaken it to the need of changing the whulc program. A new program may not l>c any better than the old, but in offer ing something different it will restore a good accident record. Probably every safety program should he thoroughly overhauled at least once in five years to be sure that inter est is maintained. Chairman Adams: Does anyone want to ask Mr. Henderson any questions? Ci.avtox Hkaat/ (Marathon Paper Mills Co.. IvutliM/hitd. Wis.) : I would like to ask Mr. Henderson in what form this publicity is tliat you use in safety work. Mm. llexDKKSOx: We put out organiza tion liooks once a month. In them, if there are any accidents, we describe them and tell wliat corrective steps have been taken and any other information we can get. We also show safety standings of the companies. Mm. Hhaatz: When you describe these accidents, do you give the name of the man ? Mm. Hknokssox : Yes. \V. R. Owkvs (West Virginia Pulp and Pa|)cr Cw., Covington. Ya.) : 1 would like to ask Mr. Henderson if lie has any method of punishment for carelessness or lack of interest on the ictrt *i tin* tundoyecs r Tltat is. if one fellow is found to lx* a rvjicaliT or any thing like that. Mm. Henderson : We Iiavc talked tliat all over and threatened to lay men off. but we Iiavc never had to do it. We find when a foreman tells the safety committee about a man who is careless and can't be trusted, he generally brings hint up; and the superin tendent will talk with the man and tell him tliat if he continues to be careless, he is likely to be laid off for a few weeks. In almost every case that lias been cuough pun ishment--just the klca of the superintendent talking to the man, with his foreman, just showing him what it means to get hurt, making him feel that you arc working for his interest more titan for the company's interest. It would l>c far better to lay tliat man off for two or three weeks rather titan to take him into the hospital. We have never really line! to lay a man off. Chairman Auams: That is a question we Iiavc scheduled on our program for Wednes day, I think we can iron it out at tliat time. Is there anything else ? E. H. Kkitkr (Kimberly-Clark Corp., Kimberly, Wis.): In making out this report on accidents I would like to ask whether lie gives the employee's viewpoint of the acci dent or puts down wliat he thinks aliout it. Mk. Henderson': That is on the'nurse's Paper and Pulp Section 439 report. She asks the man certain questions, and she puls down his very words. * Mr. Bienvenu: Is that given publicity? Mr. Henderson : No, it isn't, but it comes up before the central safety committee and it is all talked over. The safety inspector generally knows about it, and he checks on it. Mr. Augustus: I think T understood Mr. Henderson to say that tl>c members of his safety committee are given the same author ity as tl>c foreman to put a slop to any un safe practice. Have you ever had any diffi culty with that, any resentment on the part of the men? Mr. Henderson : No. It lias worked out very well. If a man from one department is passing through another, and he is a member of the safety committee in his own depart ment, and he sees a man doing something that is likely to endanger him, just stopping and talking to him lias done a lot of good. I believe that is a good thing. Chairman Adams: That might depend somewhat on the size of the plant. Do you agree with tliat, Mr. Henderson? That is, that might not work, I can see. in a large ten-machine mill, for instance, where it might work in a smaller milt where every body knows everybody else. Is that true? Mr. Hendf.rson : That might be, but I can't see why it wouldn't. If on tliat depart ment safety committee, even though there arc ten machines, you have one or two men who have been tlierc for a number of years, who can take the younger men or the newer employees and show* them that they are wrong, I believe it will work all right. Chairman Adams: Do die safety com mitteemen wear a113* identification? Mr. Hekderso.v: No. We have posted in the department a card showing who are members of that committee. These depart ment committee meetings arc very informal. The foreman will take his three or four men who are generally just working on the com mittee, and they will sit down on a roll of jiaper and talk things over, and he sends a little written report right in to the super intendent. That i just to show the super intendent lie has had a meeting with his men. M. D. Kossokis (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D. C.) : In investi gating accidents I Iiavc come across a belief or an attitude on the part of the men who have had accidents, to the effect that the in vestigation and rejK>rting of minor injuries results in diminution of cooperation of the employee towards the safety program be cause of die effects of such publicity. Mr. Henderson : We haven't had any trouble in that way. You mean minor in juries, some that have to go to the doctor? Mr. Kossoms: No, just first aid eases. Mr. Henderson : The foreman's re|xirts coine to the central committee meeting. They talk them over. "Well, here is a man who stuck a wire in his hand" or "a truck ran over and jammed a foot" or something; none of them required medical attention. They arc just talked over in tliat way. We have never had any trouble. The man isn't brought up and bawled out. If he has been careless, the foreman will go hark and talk to him in a nice manner. Then the safety inspector will later talk to the man. ask him if he is getting along all right and is he careful. We just have to use judg ment when we talk to the man, make him feel that we are working for his interest more than the company's. Secretary Roaikson : We have had very strong resentment on that point. In invest! gating, we found it was because the em ployees did not understand our objective in recording the information and making the investigation. They even objected to having the nurse write their name down and put down the cause of the accident, to say noth ing of a formal investigation. T think we liave difficulty with a lot of these things because we don't get together with the group affected and explain to them what it is all about. These people had tlic feeling (hat we were using it for a black list, and after two or three occurrences of their names on the first aid report, it was going to be too bad for them, which, of course, wasn't the intention. It is a matter of trying to correct a wrong procedure or metliod or practice and using the actual ex perience to help us to' do that. Mk. Augustus: Do I understand, Mr. Henderson, that every little, minor first aid ease >.* brought to the attention of your com mittee and discussed? That is, every cut or scratch or bruise? We have quite a large plant. An average of 100 men a day come into the first aid room, maybe only for a scratch, hung up on a nail, a bruise, a boil 440 Txocnty-sixth National Safety Congress or something else. Is every one of those discussed by your safety committee? Mi. llr.soEMSrtN : In our first aid room we have a book, ami the name of every man w)kj i treated is |tui down ilicrc, showing what lie was treated for. When we have our monthly meetings, that book is brought in. We just look them over. We liandle a lot of hales of rags. We might liavc a dozen eases where men got wire stuck through their fingers, and things like that. Wr <lon'i take each case, but it \< niilMandiiig there that perhaps a dozen < might turn to Mood poisoning. Wlwt arc we going to do about it? Let's -ay a dozen ca>c- hap)M*ti every month, and every mu* of them might have been a had ca<<. It niighi develop tliat tve would make men wear gloves in liandliug the (tales. That i- tlw reason for the report, to catch the little imc* and not wait fnr a lost-time one r a doctor's treatment. Mm. Atni sn s: In that connection, this might help somebody else: Farit morning iHir imr>i cut a report, mimeographs it. -vutling i< .he name and department and the nature of injury, very briefly tle- M*rilnl. of every man treated by her during the preceding id hours. Tliat goes to each {reman so that he lias a check on his own men. If he looks at tliat rc*|Hrt each morn ing. he will see how many of his men were in the plant hospital the day before. \\\ A. Oi.kasun < Haimncruiill Paj*cr Co., Frio. IV i : I was going to ask Mr. Hen derson when they liad lime lor this safety enmiiirttcc to function. l>o they shut down the machines ami do it ? He said that some lime luring the day they sit down and make a little informal meeting of it. Mm. IU xnnrsov: That is right, just whenever everything is running nil right. It is only a small committee in depart ments. |*Tltaps three or four men. Chairman Adams: 1 think what you have stressed nil through your pa|H.*r is the development of attitude, a- I undcrshx'd you. from the top down. :Mm. Hkxim'.ksox Yes. make tlic men in ilte plant feel tliat it is to their advantage for us to help them, that ivc arc not helping the company. We never talk about what an accident costs, or anything like that- We just talk nlwntt how to Nave the man from being hurt. When a man is hurl, sometimes it is a good thing to talk to him and give him a little sympathy, and he will feel pretty good. Foremen meetings arc hcl I twice a month, usually about one-thirty in the afternoon. Foremen can generally get away then. That takes in foremen in all production departments. It doesn't necessi tate shutting dawn the departments, how ever. You take the foreman of the paper machines, die foreman of the beater room, the foreman of the cutter room, yard and nit the other departments--they all go right along even tltough the foreman is out for a week. Jay F.. Farr (Kuiplovcrs Liability As surance Corp.. Chicago. 111.) : With refer ence to making public the names of men who have been injured in plants--one company with whom we have had dealings has a system that I think is interesting. They have had some of their safety men equipped with cameras, that will take pictures in the natural light in the plant. Pictures have been taken of men in unsafe acts and later published on bulletin l>oards. It has a very amusing reaction oil the men. One time a man was photograplicd stand ing under a heavy load hanging on a crane. Of course, he didn't think it was possible, hut there was his picture. In the same way. anotlier man was going up a ladder with some tools tit his hands, climbing over a point where some other men wire standing. Ma. Hknih-irson : We have dune tliat. too. Frank Fisher, our safety inspector, has taken a number of those pictures. Some hare been printed in our monthly bulletin tliat goes tu the employees. Mr. Puzak : At Kimberly-Clark Fred Robinson took some movies of actual safe and unsafe practices in the paper and pulp industry tliat are very, very interesting, very educational. Chairman Adams: Were they posted? Do you want to explain that? Skcrktary Robinson: Yes. We went through our accident reports for a certain period of time and picked out some of the accidents tliat we figured could liavc Ixicn easily avoided and were probably the result of wrong practice. We had those re-enacted and took movies of them. Then we liad movies taken of the job lieing done in the correct way so that you had the wrong and the right way. We had several reels of tltose and showed them chi our annual safety day Paper and Pulp Section 441 at Kimberly. We had a better turnout, I believe, at that event than we had ever had at a like event. The wives and children were anxious to see the husbands in the pictures, and. of course, they took a safety message away with them. We used the pic tures at various plants. We discovered something else that has helped us maintain employee interest in safety. I found that we were making up our safety program behind the desk and botely on the part of management. We felt that we could get better cooperation if we would give the tiourly pah) worker an opportunity to cooperate with us in the development ol tliat program from the bottom up. We went to our labor organization and sold tlic idea to them, told them what we wanted and asked them to appoint a com mittee of hourly paid workers to work with a nuinl>cr of management representatives. Tliat committee is the steering committee. They have the power to ap|H>int otlier com mittees, subcommittees, tu make special in vestigations or to work on certain phases of tin* safety program tliat is developed. We go over our safety program every year with dial committee. I noticed, and I liavc the same word front the personnel department superintendents of our various mills, tliat as the result of that method, we liavc received greater coopera tion and have been able to see an improve ment in the interest stxnvii by the employees, hourly paid workers, in the program. They have an actual part in building it. Another thing--in the purchase of mate rials and equipment for our plants we have a system we call materials standards. For instance, we need belting. All right, why buy it here, there and all over? We buy certain types of belting and investigate, analyze and try it out. and Anally come to the conclusion that we want this particular type because it lias given the best results. \Yc) do the saute tiling with safety clothing aiuj equipment. There is a full-vision mask out on the market. When the material came out on tliat, we liad a request from one of our plants to make an investigation. We bought otic and sent it to the plant. We will try that out alongside the old equipment we are now using, and the employees will be given an opportunity to express their own views on it. Tlic same thiiiR is done with guggles, gloves and what-havc-you. They have a part in deciding on the clothing they are going to wear. They have their own ideas, and if they have something to say about them, and you can help them analyze the situation, you arc going to come out a whole lot bet ter in the end. Mm. Augustus: Do yuti have motion pic ture equipment, or do you get an outside concern to take the pictures? ShcriiTary Robinson: I got an amateur who was making a hobby of it, and he did h very good job, although I found in looking at those motion pictures some things that I hadn't noticed in going through the plant. They divulged a few things that needed cor rection. I will tell you one thing we found. We installed a deluge shower in our acid room. It was a brand new shower and in a very convenient place so if one slsoutd get splashed with acid, lie could run in, pull the chain and get soaked and washed off with this water. We were going to show that in these movies. We had a fellow all prepared to give the demonstration. He ran under, pulled the chain and nothing happened. He yanked it again, and nothing haiipenccl. We looked all over to hud out what happened. Some body during the night liad got up on the piping and shut off tlic main valve, and we haven't yet been able to find out who did it. From this we learned that we must lock important valves so that when we want to use them, tlicy will be all right. Chairman' Adams: Arc there any other questions on Mr. Henderson's paper? Mr. Augustus; One thing I would like to mention that is very important in main tain ng interest in safety is the manner in wl. -h your nurse liandle* (lie employees. She probably lias a greater opportunity to contact your employees than any other indi vidual in your plant, and. depending iqwn her personality and tact, she can get the good will of your employees and get them interested more quickly than anybody else. Dr. Thomas Dobbins: We have another stimulant for safety interest. We pay for suggestions and have suggestion boxes up near all the time clocks. We pay anywhere 442 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress from $2 to $300. Several of the men have won these high prizes. That is either on safety or production or anything that will improve conditions about the plant. :Chairman Adams Our next speaker represents the boxboard industry--Air. C. W. Patton, Safety Director, The Lawrence Paper Company, Lawrence, Kansas. Major Hazards and Their Elimination in Boxboard Mills By E. W. PATTON Safety Director, The Lawrence Paper Co., Lawrence, Kan. Many accidents arc due to some little thing or group of little things which cause the normal o(>craling conditions to become ab normal. In boxboard mills, where the domi nant thought has always been production and more production, little things have not been given the recognition they deserve. \Vc arc inclined to be lax in storing raw materials. They will be used sooner or later, so why bother placing them to insure safe ty? The same is true of materials used in repair work. They arc put down in the manner that requires the least amount of elTort. whether the material is well arranged or not. Safety men know that a poor ar rangement ot material is a formal invitation to an accident. The responsibility is squarely up to us to see that the neglect of these little tilings is corrected. How many accidents arc caused by poor illumination? It is true tliat few accidents arc attributed to this cause, but the actual number would probably he amazing. Un shaded lamps are widely prevalent hazards. To work near an unshaded lamp is not only injurious to the eves, but there are areas nearby where the vision cannot be depended upon because of the difficult adjustment re quired. Good light is important to plant safety. Injuries caused by burns arc common. The most frequent cause is uninsulated steam pipes or pipes where the insulation has been worn down. Electric switches, connections and extension cords, especially when used near water or wet objects, present serious dangers. Maintenance work around boxboard mills lias always Ik'cii subject to a high accident frequence. The repairman may lc called to work in any sjkM in the mill, no matter how small, dirty or poorly lighted. He handles all ty|H.`S of material. Sometimes no special provision is made for handling heavy mate rial, and men arc required to lift weights be yond their physical capacity. There is a tendency when several men lift an object for some to permit most of the burden to rest on (he others. Strained backs and her nias are likely to result. After a man strains his back several limes lie acquires a "trick back/' and anytime that man lifts a heavy object he may have a lost time accident. This type of injury occurs when tiic super visor is nut doing his job correctly. Waste paper is the principal raw material used in boxboard mills. It is handled in bales ranging in weight from less than a hundred pounds to nearly a ton. It is not unusual for one man to truck a bale of paper weighing 1,600 pounds on an ordinary two wheeled truck. Three unskilled men would have a difficult time doing this job without the knowledge of how it should be done. The weight is in itself no small haz ard. When truck wheels bump over a rough spot in the floor it can shift a tremendous amount of force to the truck handles. This hazard cannot be completely eliminated un less mechanical means of handling the pa]cr is substituted for man power, and in many cases this is not practical. However, care ful training of the men, smooth trucking surfaces, and tracks kept in good working condition will eliminate most of the injuries from this source. Waste |ia|M.*r is humid with stiff baling wire. No particular care is used to separate other forms of waste. Anything might lie found in the bales from old razor blades to beer bottles. These foreign objects arc rcsixmsihlc for a high minor accident fre quency. Injuries of this nature may he reduced materially by an inspection of each bale for loose ends of wire and other sharp or pointed objects. Paper and Pulp Section 443 Another type of injury occurred when two men were stacking bales of paper. One man. in attempting to hook a bale, missed the bale but dug the point of the hook iu Ids partner's elbow. An investigation dis closed that the men were hired temporarily and were not given adequate instructions in the use of hand hooks. Sometimes also the hook may slip because it is defective. The heavy materials handled by the yard crew make it extremely important that their hand tools lc in good condition at all times. A daily inspection by each man of the equip ment he uses should keep the tools in good repair. Waste paper i also handled in the beater mom hut the hazard is changed. The wires binding the bales arc clipped here. When the tightly drawn wire is cut, the ends fly out. Cuts, scratches and punctures on hands and face tiavc been caused by this operation. Eyes have liven put out by it. A satisfac tory method of clipping wires is to hold the wire firmly beneath one hand on a side of the bale and clip the wire near a corner. The loose end is then short and will fly around the comer away from the operator. Gloves offer effective protection for the hands. Wire taken off in the beater room should not be scattered about indiscriminately. In working around large piles of cooked stock there is a cavc-in hazard. An accident of this kind wrecked a good safety record. A beater mail's helper was shoveling stock onto a conveyor and dug so tar into (he base of the pile that it caved in on him. In working around material of this type close supervision is absolutely necessary. Continuous beaters arc generally located near the floor level. The opciators stand close to the edge of the heaters. The guard is generally a substantial ratling around the exposed section of the beater, leaving ade quate space to permit feeding with the least possible interference. Handles are some times put along the interior sides, and sometimes chains arc attached so tliat they will be within easy reach if a man should fall into the Iteaicr. Chains arc moie of a safeguard in large or long beatcis than in short ones. The design of the most effective safety devices is determined ill all coses by existing conditions in individual mills. In mills where the lalKir turnover is small the paper machine hazards are materially reduced. The slip hazard around the wet end of the paper machine depends upon the particular arrangement in each mill. Ample gutters am! drains should be provided along both sides of the machine so that water is carried away and doe* not accumu late over the floors. All footing surfaces should he kept free of oil and grease. Along the press section small portable Udders are less dangerous than poorly shaped toe holds on the framework. How ever. the ladders must lie of firm and de pendable construction. In repairing felts there is danger of infec tion from needle punctures. The puncture hazard is also present in working around the screens. The dirt and filth to which these objects are exposed make infection inevi table when the skiti is penetrated. These wounds do not always bleed and there is no way of being certain that they will not cause trouble, except by prompt medical attention. Weight levers, and rods Imlh on the press section and at the calenders present a possi bility of weights dropping on feet. When flic weights are tied on by ropes or wires, the constant vibration of the machine may free them. Bolts of sufficient size lo hold the weights may he put in the end of the levers. Or reciprocating notches may l>c pul in both lever and weight so that no slip can occur, Rubber nips have tremendous pulling power. A man might have a chance to es cape with the loss of a few fingers or an arm if caught between steel rolls but rub ber rolls would certainly pull him through. Nip hazards around the felts arc therefore very dangerous in box board mills. Acci dents from this hazard occur most fre quently when wrinkles in the felts arc living pulled out and when the felt is being straightened by pulling the edge of the fell. When tliis is done in front of an humming nip the risk of being caught in the nip is tremendous. Automatic felt straightens rs eliminate this haz.ard. Where they are not in use the risk can be diminished hy proper instructions and rigid adherence to them. Nothing should be left undone to impress U|M>n all men working around lliis type of hazard that they arc risking (heir lives when they touch a felt moving into a roll. Rope carriers that thread the pai>cr around the dryers eliminate most of the dryer haz ards. The heavy grade of paper and the production speed of bos board mills make it extremely difficult to guard nip hazards on the calender stack without interfering 444 Ttifcnty-sijrlh National Safely Congress with its n|K;r;itirtn. The tact that it is recog nized should help n preventing accidents from such a hazard. The propensity toward excitement when a hat! run of breaks in paper occurs should be overcome as much as possible. Naturally, the men arc eager to get the paper started again, but loud talk only adds to the nervous tension and con tributes generally | the confusion. 'Hie hazards encountered in handling the finished product depend entirely upon the method used in individual mills. The use of cranes and hoists in conveying paper rolls to storage or to Hie shipping department is the safest method. The hazards here deIkihI on the equipment. The test is whether the equipment is kept in proper condition and designed to du the work for which it is used. In some mills handling the finished rolls is done entirely by trucks and tiering ma chine* or slackers. The size and weight of the material is in itself a definite hazard if handled by man power. Trucking requires special knowledge when done with a two wheel truck. It requires a sense of balance and g<H*l coordination for one man to truck a heavy roll. A substantial truck in good working condition ami a smooth trucking surface arc needed to do the job safely. The stacker or tiering machine has many danger jMiu|s on and arouml it that the operator* mint constantly bear in mind. It is extremely im|Mirtant tluit strict rules be made con cerning the starting ami stopping of this machine so that the operators arc aware at nil times of what the machine is doing. In our plant we have a rule forbidding the operators from riding on the stackers, and all men are warned not to be under the machine when it is being loaded or unloaded. One man had his arm severly mangled when it was caught between the moving platform and the frame of the stacker although this space was comparatively small. A wire mesh guard was designed that eliminated the hazard. One big problem in I lie use of slackers is bon* tQ keep the floors in good condition when,these heavy machines arc continually chipping and grinding Holes in them. Tn this method of stacking the rolls are chocked at the base of each roll. Heavy Itoarris arc laid on top of the roll and each succeeding layer is built up in the same manner. Special boxes provided for keeping the chocks off the floors will prevent many Sprained ankles if the men arc taught to put chocks in the box. The yard man's skill in handling large laics of waste paper is comparable to the skill required by men who handle rolls of {ia|>er on the stacker. With an iron bar the roil is controlled and balanced while it i.s being guided into place. But it is a life and death matter with the operator because a single slip might cause him to be crushed to death by a roll falling on him. Instruc tion and supervision 'play a very important part in preventing accidents. No safety program is complete without adequate provision for taking care of in jured employees. I suggest that in addition to a regular first aid attendant that courses he given to men throughout the plant in first aid. C it aw max Apams: We arc now open i. discuss Mr. Pattmi's jiatcr. I hope there is a kmkI representation from the boxboard industry. He lias brought up a number of very vital question*. Mr. Uikxvknu: Mr. Chairman, this gen tleman spoke nlmui a boxltoarrl mill. We are in a rcfabricating plant. After be gets through with the |H>er. we get it; then we make it into Ihxo-. The hazard* are alto gether different. When von called oil the speaker you said you were mighty glad you had some boximard iKvple here. 1 just warned to get my pisitioii straight. Cuairman' Adams: I thank you, but I still think we have some people here who are connected with the manufacture of boxboard. I realize that probably we as a sec tion have neglected what we call the conver sion part of our industry. We haven't done it deliberately, hut because we haven't in the i>ast had enough representation from conversion to carry on a discussion. I will Ih.* very glad to devote some time during the wvek to problems oi conversion in the paper industry. D. B. Chant (Ontario Pulp & Paper Makers' Safely Assn., Toronto, Canada): In addition to the offer you have just made, Paper and Pulp Section 445 to provide for a discussion of boxboard problems, I suggest that a memo be given to the incoming executive suggesting a pajwr on the hazards of the box plant as distinct front the boxboard mill, to be put on next year's program. Among my members there arc thirteen or fourteen Ik*.\ fabricating plants, most of them branch factories of the Gair Company of Canada or Heinendorf of Canada, both of which are represented here today. I think, certainly, there would be room for such a paper and such a discussion on hazards which arc no doubt considerably different from those of the i>aper manufacturing mill. Chairman Adams: Your suggestion is in the notes of the meeting, and I am sure whoever is the program chairman next year will be glad to do that. :Mr. Pt.zak As a matter of information, the National Safety Council has available a pamphlet on hazards in the boxboard indus try from a converting standpoint. Chairman Adams: Of course, in the pa|*er industry we have a lot of conversion. I:nr instance, our company lias bag plants where we make cellophane hags, and regular grocery bags, and so forth, but your sug gestion lias to do with boxboard boxes. Is that right? Mr. Chant: Box factories. C. A. Wright (American Box Board Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.) : I think we arc all interested in box factory operation, regard less of whether we have a converting plant with our mill or not. As I say. we do have a converting plant with our milL It is all in one building. We are very vitally inter ested in that. When you get down to it, we are working for the elimination of accidents, regardless of whether it is in our own mill or whether it is in a box plant. We can all probably give suggestions even on the product going lo the hox plants. Mr. Rkitkk : Mr. Patton was shaking about weights on the calender level. We have had some accidents through weights failing on toes and so on, so we developed a lever with a sock in it, and we have a set screw going through all our calender weights, that permit the weights to be slid hack and forth for difTcrcut levers at the same time, prohibiting the weight from fall ing off the lever. Then there is a chain on the end of the lever >o it rnn't slidr off. Chairman Adams: I wonder if you would be willing to make a drawing of it. Mr. Reiter (Drawing sketch} : In the center of the lever we have a slot ot about three-eighths of an inch, and through the calender weights we have a set screw iliat comes right up into the slot of the lever, but not tightly--jusl enough so you can lift it up and still permit (he weight In l>c slid back and forth. If the hack tender on live end wants to hold that lever stationary, he tightens it up. We put a ring screw on some of the weights .so that the back tender wouldn't have to use a wrench. He can tighten it up by hand. We haven't had a weight accident on lire calender since: we did that. Chairman Adams : Are there any other questions of Mr. Patton? Mr. Wricht; Mr. Patton s(K>kc about nip hazards on the calender. I wonder how his men feed the paper into tite calender, on starting (he calender. Mr. Patton : They do it with the finger. We have tried a stick sliapcd in the form of a triangle, but our paper is too heavy and we haven't had much success with it. I believe we run paper possibly heavier than they do jn most boxboard mills, because some of it is 30 point. It is pretty hard lo handle with a stick. We run up to 50 point and use a stick. Mr. Henderson : We use (lie sticks on our box machines, and we haven't had an accident. Mr. Patton : I look up the suggestion with our superintendent, and he said it wouldn't work, that it would cut our pro duction speed. Mr. Henderson : You haven't tlie right shaped stick. Chairman Adams: How fast do your machines run ? Mr. Patton: We have a small machine, about 40 tons a day. Chairman Adams: How does that com pare with yours, Mr. Henderson? Mr. Henderson: We make about 151) lo 200. M. Wricht That is about the average. That is wlial we run. We run from 12 point up to 50. 55, sometimes 60. We use 44ri Twenty-sixth Rational Safety Congress plug-. We haven't had a nip accident since ut- started using them. Mu. Patton: The nip accident I iticnti.aied in mv j*A|xr is ftic only one tiiat we have Imd since I Itavc l*ccu tlttrc, or that I kiu.w anything almut. Since sve liaven't had many accident* due to tiiat tiazard, nothing ha* Inn done alN.ui feeding with the fingers. 1 did lake the subject tip with the super intendent. and he said it would interfere with our production, seriously, if we used (Ik* sticks I). S. Gakiu-r {Hummel and Downing Co., Milwaukee. Wi.O : We have a board ma chine running up to 40 point board, about JJa feet a minute. We eliminate nip hazards hy bavin? the first and second back tenders ivi>rk on the ratcixlcr slacks, hut they are all iii-vtriictcd i>* |Hit the pa|Krr through the rolls with tlivir hands t*ahn forward. We never luiw any nip accident*. ('hmumax An.uis: Tiiat it a live subjt-< t. Wv could talk nil day on feeding paper >i all weights and kinds through calender stacks. 1 do kiHpv this, that Mr. Patton >a>> you have to take into consideration the Aliunde o| (lie production man. Mk. Wright: 1 wonder how many here arc interested in tltc trend ol legislation on i ctup.'itional diseases. We are very vitally interested in it liccausc the first of next month wv start a now law in our stale. I know some i the stales represented here already have it. I wonder it it would be interesting later on to get into that. I>k. Donut vs: 1 would like to answer that 1v saving, ` Who'* atraul of die big, bad w-df?" About eight years ago Wisconsin inaugurated the Industrial Disease Act, and we were tearful of it. I was at tiiat time with the Xasl Motor* Company, employing about JJ.HUO men. We had shops in Milwaukee, Kaciuc and keuo.dia. Wtini von speak alxnit occu]>atioiial dis ease*. what is foremo-t in almost everybody'* mind is silicosis or pueum>C(>niori$ caused by inhaling dust. That dust is so fine it is below six microns hy microscopical measurement. Von can't sare it with the naked eye. The big chunks of dust yon gel in vour nose and throat and spit up the next morning, hurt very tew people. In six years with this law. we had two eases of ridcroM*. One man inhaled iron dust and the other inlialcd a little foundrydust. In flic iron case the diagnosis wa> made hy a physician out in Missouri wlm had no laboratory facilities, and the judge of the court later reported back to our attor ney tiiat this pour doctor was non compos mentis; hi plain language that means "nuts." The other case has never been decided. It was purely a case of tuberculosis. The man left our employ and painted houses around Wisconsin for six months and went on out into the country and developed a typical ease of tuberculosis. I will tell you one thing: There arc many unscrupulous doctors and shyster lawyers who think tlicy arc going to profit on this. Thousands of cases were brought up in Illinois and Wisconsin. T said, "We have an issue to face. It is like the war. We may as well get on with it." So we had a joint hearing with the Illinois Commission and with the Wisconsin Commission in Chicago and actually heard a case. We brought in Gardner, we brought in a doctor from Saranac I.akc, front the L\ S. Public Health Service, the best type of men wIki were qualified to speak and ren der testimony on this subject. We found that this particular case did not have silicosis. There is nothing to fear. There is ample l>ersonal protective eijui)Hiieiii available to guard against silicosis. We spray porcelain, and tiiat contains six tier cent of sitka. We used a sand-blaster but we arc now using steel. I went through the Kohler plant at Koh ler, Wisconsin. They do a great deal of sand-blasting. A couple of weeks ago I went through A. O. Smith's in Milwaukee. They do a world of sand-blasting, blit their men arc amply protected, with air-fed masks. They work right inside these great, big vats --the beer vats, and the great big tanks where they crack gasoline, 100 feet nr more long. They arc in tlicrc for hours and hours at a time. They have had a few cases. Kohler had three up to that time. Find out what protection you need. Some salesman will come around with a commodity with a trade name ami will uot -divulge the formula of it. You don't necessarily have to have it exactly, but you should know what is in it. Is it alkali or acid? Is it some thing that is going to injure the lungs or the skin or the tissue of this individual that Paper and Pulp Section 447 is going to have to work with it? Is it toxic? If they won't tell you, don't do busi ness with them. If you arc dealing with Dupont, they will tell you. "There is no silica in this, no lead in it/' The insurance salesmen have been scaring the manufacturers on occupational diseases. You can find out from the National Safety Council, you can find out from the American Medical Association, what is the necessary protection, ami whether or not these sub stances are toxic; or have the chemist in iour plant da ii. Don't f>e afraid of it. Don't try to econ omize on protection for your workmen, and you will have nothing to fear. .Mr. Wright: I liad something different in mind. We run into hernia. We run into dermatitis and several other things which come in the wastepaper tiiat Mr. Patton was 'peaking about. With those things in mind, we have a lot of work to do to protect our men. Dm. Dubbins: Hernia is not an otxujiatiunal disease. It is an injury* Mr. Wright: It is in our law in Michi- Dr. Dobbins: There never was a hernia caused in an industrial plant by trauma. Hernia, if caused at all, is called trauma. It is not a diseased condition. It comes on a man gradually, so you couldn't call it a disease. It is an affliction. Dr. Dobbins: Dermatitis is inflammation <>f the skin. You may put a man to work on paper pulp that contains a little acid. He might be much mure susceptible than the next man. The only thing to do is to walch that man and see whether he can do that type of work. If he can't, die sooner you take him off, the better. If you put him in a damp place, he may develop pneumonia. Ii you give him boots or a raincoat and rainhai--if he is out in the weather--and protect him, you have done everything that is physically possible. The law is practically the same in all the states, except that they say `'occupational disease," which has scared' so many of us. The occupational disease that almost every body is afraid of is lung disease1--pneumo coniosis. Mr. Wright; Ours is a sclteduled type, and hernia is one of the sdteduled types. Dr. Dobbins: The laymen made the rules J hey probably don't have h doctor on their commission. Mr. Wright: That is tme, but from the statements you made tlicrc, there is work tv* be done in the paper mills to protect the men, regardless of (he law. Dr. Dobbins: Haven't they been doing that for years? In Indiana tlicrc was no law to buy safety equipment for the m.-u. I went down there and started buying pro tective equipment. They said, "You are start ing a precedent." They didn't have safety shoes. Mr. Wright ; You arc arguing the pievention of the law. I am arguing the pievenlioti of sickness and accidents to (he man. Dr. Dobbins: We use all kinds of chem icals. We say, "What is tin's, ami what is it going to do to the workmen? How ore we going to protect them?" If it won't rto the job. we find something else. We have about fifty engineers sitting over there, and they can find something else. Mr. Wriciit: in tiiat case, what you do is protect your men by investigating all this stuff. How many of the plants do that? That is what i am trying to bring out. Dr. Dobbins: The majority of them. I went through every big plant in the North. They liave awakened. I think Ford (lid it twenty years ago. Chairman Adams: This is a ripe ques tion. Maybe we lutvc found our speaker for next year, Mr. Wright: Maybe we should leave out the occupational disease pliase of it and say the prevention of sickness and accidents." Mr. Bienvf.nu: We have about $80,000 worth of suits pending against our plum for silicosis. Chairman Apams: I can see your angle, and l can see yours, too, Doctor. In New York State we Itavc an all-inclusive occu pational disease law, and we don't know what it means. Tt might mean a common cold. I think that is what you arc driving at, isn't it? Mr. Wiugiit: Yes. In other words, the ]>apcr mills have sonte definite job here which they can do not only to protect themselves but also their employees. How should we do it to the best interests of all? 448 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress Chairman Adams: We will use that for w of fnir subjects at the Wednesday aftertKHiii .wssion and try to get something on utr program next year in connection with it. I agree with you. Doctor, that tltc thing can Ik* controlled. Your solution is control ling it at the source. We are probably lax in the paper nulls in not trying to control >orm: of the conditions that exist. As an example, I lutd a ease in one of our mills recently in a state that does not Jure any occupational disease law. where a fellow was completely covered with sores and Ikm'Is, a dermatific condition that he claimed lie got from handling color. I went to two different color jieople who supply the same color to (his mill. One said. "Yes, there is the odd ease where the color will cause this condition, but it is very rare, and the thing to do is lo transfer him to some other type of job." The odter company, with exactly the same formula, said, "Under no circumstances will this color affect anybody." They said it muM have been due to something else. Hut those arc the things we arc up against. Mb. Chant: For general information on the subject of occupational or industrial dis eases, dermatitis has been a compensable in dustrial disease in Ontario for seven years or possibly a little longer. So far, in the pulp and paper industry, which includes the box manufacturing plants in Ontario, we have had only two claims of dermatitis un der the act. and both of these were rejected by our board. So T don't think we need lo be greatly alarmed about the danger ol der matitis in the pulp and paper industry. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Ch.ujoia.v Adams: NVc arc fortunate to Itavc as our first speaker a gentleman who \\a> instrumental in organizing this Pulp and Paper group under the National Safety Council and who served as the first general chairman: Mr. S. F. Shat tuck. Vice Presi dent in Charge of Industrial Relations of the Kimlerly-Clark Corporation, Necnah, Wis. Safety's Place in an Industrial Relations Program By S. F. SHATTUCK Vice-President in Charge of Industrial Relations, Kimberly-Clark Corp., Neenah, Wis. |ti many institutions the safety movement as it took shape in the early years of this century, biased the trail for present day in dustrial relations programs. Let u* look at the industrial relations program itself. What arc its objectives? Uy what is its soundness measured? TKc more obvious tests of industrial re lations would Ite in terms of tangible fac tors such as wages, hours, working ctMuliiuxis supervision, aixl the like. But auc< hours, and working conditions arc effects, not causes. They demonstrate the sincerity of the program but do not neces sarily reflect its motivation. An industrial relations program that touches people where they live deals primarily with motives, at titudes, habits, and loyalties. Above all, our I>otictes and techniques must take into acrount the significance of the individual. The desire for individual recognition is us basic as is the desire for money. Thus the test or measuring stick of our industrial relations program is found in (he realm of intangible, rather than ol tangible factors --in spiritual rather than material value*. 1 Paper and Pulp Section 449 appreciate that this word "spiritual" is not readily accepted by the practical supervisor whose pay and progress are measured by hi$ ability to produce marketable goods at low costs. Yet we are dealing with spiritual factors, and the most efficient managers and supervisors demonstrate the most skill in dealing with these intangible elements. Industrial relations programs these days must be geared (o something more funda mental than production demands. There is abroad a social awareness unlike that of any former post depression era. The survival of the enterprise order, or capitalistic sys tem, depends more than we may realize on the quality and level of relations and pro grams which take shape within industry dur ing the years just ahead. Typical criticisms leveled against the en terprise order arc: 1. The system operating as it does, with sell interest and the profit motive at its core, sets definite limits to the operation of active good will between men. Class con flict becomes inevitable. Capitalism i based on strife. 2. In setting limits to the operation of active good will, the system creates a de structive conflict in the lives of individuals sensitive to spiritual values. In other words, the so-called Golden Rule cannot operate in modem industry because the economic framework of the enterprise order is alien to it. 3. Our economic life, it is said, is char acterized by the substitution of corporate for individual ethics Modern capitalism, by its very mass character, tends to obscure moral issues and dissipate individual moral obligation. For purpose of this discussion, these three criticisms are segregated, all of which focus upon the importance of the individual. We recognize the interrelation of economic and political factors in this complex problem, hut we will perhaps agree with Professor F. A. Magoun when he said, "The funda mental problem underlying every other problem of human endeavor is the problem of human relations." Try as we may to treat people in the mass, the significance of individual personality re asserts itself. In the long run every human institution is judged by what it docs to in dividual lives and personalities. Let us view two extremes in human values. On the one hand the scientist finds that the human body shakes down to about 98c worth of chemicals. On the other ham), the late Michael Puphi of Columbia Uni versity, after a long life nf research into the mysteries of the physical universe, made this observation shortly before his death in 1935: "These big hot stars arc only the begin ning of God's creative energy, the beginning of cosmic history. But the human soul, in sofar as science can penetrate, is the Inst chapter of this history so far as it has been written. The soul of man is the highest product of God's creative handiwork.** Could two concepts be wider apart: And how different one's attitudes and policies, depending upon which of these bases one accepts as a foundation for his life philos ophy, It is understandable, therefore, that men, women, and even little children, have here and there down through onr indusrtia) history been used like cogs in a machine-- as means to a materialistic end rather than as ends in themselves. Discounting all the racketeering in present day social move ments. there remains n solid residue of so cial insistence that modem, mechanized industry give proper recognition to indi vidual personality. True, this i$ a confused social insistence Mass movements obscure it. But let us be clear that we deal here with a fundamental human desire. In spite of mass movements and political distortions, management has in this' fact of life a pathway to normal re lations within industry. J. .David Houser expresses it aptly in. these words: "What the employee wants in the situation where he spends half of his waking hours and most of his energy is exactly what every human being asks of life: respect fur his personality. Ins human dignity, an environ ment that he comprehends, and a sense that he is p^og^es4tng,.,' Within the past four and one-half years, federal and state legislation has entered the field of industrial relations with new em phasis. Some stagnant situations, we know, need the physic of the (aw to start move ment, but the law does not discriminate between the side and the we)). We observe other situations in which norma! and friendly relations between men have become all but impossible due (u the maze of fine spun legalism now governing our industrial life. Out of the confusion and the fight for 450 Tu't'Hly-sixih National Safety Congress power between major labor organizations one /act becomes clear: yon can't get cordial unct friendly relation*; hy passing a law. Wherever one finds ;i satisfactory imlustrial relationship it has come from the inside out. not from the outside in. Democratic institutions real upon a work ing belief in the capacity of the common man, which is another application of this principle of respect for personality. The enterprise order in a democracy must tune its ixdicics, its altitude:*, and its programs with this idea or. in time. sulTer the social consequence. Over the long swing this con cept is as searching as the photo electric eye when turned upon the procedures of hiring, transfer, promotion, demotion, release, over time, education and training, safety, and all the other relationships between management and individual employees. Note, in imagination, what its operation does to the criticisms against the capital istic order mentioned earlier in tins paper. Is there one of these criticisms that ii not modified or nullified hy an active applica tion of the principle f respect and rever ence tor personality? Now let n see where and how safely fits into our ideal industrial relations set-up. | ir>i of all the safely program meets the acid test of rcs|H*cl for personality. When mc eoo(H:ratc for safe working conditions, ii is for the safely of individual men aiul individual women. Second : 'Hie saving of waste is an ob jective of the safety program, ami what is more wasteful than tin: needless sacrifice of human skills and abilities? Quoting Arthur T. Morey: "We feel that righr con ditions for the men are ns important a part of the plant's equipment as steam in [he Itoilers ami roofs on die Imildings. Our men arc the most important equipment we have." Right conditions are safe conditions, always. Safe conditions permit a man* to give'the bci that is in him without lurking fears of disaster to himself and sacrifice of family ambitions. A vigorous and sincere safety program reaches ihrough into the home life and. consciously or unconsciously, eives the wife an added sense of security ami cniitcnlincul. Third: A thorough-going safety program wiiliiir industry ba- a definite relationship in public opinion. We will agree. 1 am sure, that the prevailing altitude of the public toward the corporation i> something that merits our serious attention. Any reason able change in the public altitude toward industry can lx: achieved with the backing ami support of employees. They know their communities and their word carries convic tion. Therefore, if we accept the premise that public relations have their roots in relations within the plant, where can we turn lor a feature that offers the degree of mutual interest that is inherent in a well ordered safely program? Fourth: In the safety program we have a morale builder of the first order. Just as safety was the vestibule through which modern industrial relations programs en tered, so it may be the binder that bolds it together. T.asl spring, at the Kimberly Mill of Kimberly-Clark, the second annual safety day was observed. The success at the day loy in the weeks of preparation for it. The central committee saw to it that each de partment of the plant was made rcS|>oiisiblc for a booth demonstrating safe or unsafe practices. Civic organizations, the schools, and the borne were drawn into the plan. The state industrial commission and the com pany officials did their part. Meetings be gan in the forenoon and continued through die afternoon and evening, climaxing in a banquet with speeches, mufic, and recogni tions. A spirit of comradeship was gen erated through the widespread delegation of responsibility and through competitive features such as school posters, essays, and booth displays. Not only was the direct em phasis on safety thinking impressive, but the Ly-product in fellowship and a sense of mutual interest was no less significant. Your officers have referred to the faci that T was the first cliairinan of the Paper and Pulp Section oi the National Safety Council. The inspiration that led me to ex tend myself into the work of this section is significant. It was in Milwaukee, at the first Safety Congress ever held, that T came under the influence of the late Arthur T. Morey. Mr. Morey was then a director am/ the general attorney of the Commonwealth Steel Company. I have already quoted from his talk on that occasion, hut I close with the paragraph which impressed me most: "And now I come more specifically to a very important point in this kind of work, and that is the spirit of the organization and of the shop. Our president. Mr. Clar ence H. Howard, is very strong in his ideas of organization, discipline and cooperation. Pafer and Pulp Section 451 He saya it you put ten men around a load, and they ail push against it from different points, flic result is nothing. Jf five men pull one wav and five oppositely, flic result is still nothing. If eight men pull one way and two another, you have the value of only six men, the wages and labor of the other lour being lost and wasted, and in this waste is often the difference that makes up die net profits, and the difference between die success and failure of business. But if you can get the whole ten men pulling in one direction fogctlxr, you get the very highest result. This is leant work that shows on the profit side of the ledger am) -.hows In results in safety work '' What Mr. Morey said in 1012 at the first Safety Congress is still charged with inspi ration for us in 19d". There are those in Hus audience who may be moved, ;> ) was then, to do something about it. It so, let tis remember that one of the most effective tools in our indiisiiml relations kit will he an effective and a cooperative safety pro gram. Demonstration of Accident Investigation Chairman* Auams: The next part of inir program is in the hands oi Mr. H. 0. Noyes, Personnel Manager. Oxford Paper Company, Kumlord, Me., ami Mr. N. B. Giles. Agent. Industrial education, Office of Education, Washington. D. C. These gentlemen arc going to give us a demonstration of instructional methods in accident prevention in the pulp and paper industry, fullouvd by a practical demonstra tion of accident investigation method. H. G. Novps : The subject is divided in to two parts, A and B. A is entitled "In structional Methods in Accident Prevention in Pulp and Paper Industry/' and B "Prac tical Demonstration of Accident Investigation Method." We are going to reverse that and put on B first ami A second. Obviously, we couldn't have n paper mill here and we couldn't have all of the tools and equipment necessary for tlx show. Obviously, also, tlx line line of actors we have here, coming from ah parts of the United States amt Canada, couldn't have very many dress rchcarsah before tve started. So we arc going lo create a pseudo-situation. But I think we can establish the fact that there is an art to teaching, and that a fore man, to carry out his supervisory responsi bilities as a teacher, has to know something about tlx art of imparting information and teaching in such a manner that tlx recipient really learns and knows how and can do it. We propose to do this by setting up an accident and going through the process from cause to effect and remedy, so that we will have material to leach and the method or technique of doing the leaching. Some of you people who me more or less schooled and insliluti>nali/.c<l know that it takes weeks and months and years to put over a program of teaching people Ikjw lo teach. Therefore, in the next thirty minutes we won't do a whole lot, hut if we can put it over in such a manner that we will give some food for thought after you get hack (tome, perhaps tlx show will not have liccu entirely in vain. Act No. 1 is the explanation of the inci dent upon which we arc going lo base the analysis. A workman on a paper machine, whose part will be played by Mr. Reiter of the Kimberly-Clark Corp.. Neenali, Wis., was the assistant lor putting a wire on a machine. When he was putting the nails lack into the suction boxes, he slipped and fell against a valve which was partially open. Steam escaped, and lx rccciscd a leg burn, a very severe injury, causing considerable loss of lime and considerable pain. The foreman who investigated that acci dent, whose part is being played hy Mr. Clayton BraaU of the Marallion Paper Mills Co., Rothschild, Wis., gave it a very tlorough investigation with the superintendent, that part being played by Mr. Jiui PUak of the Consolidated Water Power and Paper Co., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Both agree, after a very thorough exam ination of the case, having analyzer! it, in- 452 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress vestigated it and conferred, tliat this is what would have prevented this particular acci<lcut: Had this valve been shut off tightly, that accident would not have occurred- To clinch their ease, they also said that this valve on the steam line, below the wire, should be taken out of the way so tlut the accident won't liappcn again. That is the build-up for (lie show'. I now present Mr. Giles who really put on the brain part of the >!hj\v. Mr, Giles: As I understand it, we are to illustrate the use of the conference method in investigating an accident case. The people in it will be people who know something afxmt the ease. Would we conic nearer to getting all the facts if all tliat saw the acci dent listed them? We would bring the facts out. The results of a lot of tests show conclu sively that the combined judgment of a group like this on a problem is as good as the judgment of the brightest individual in the group. You get all the fact.-, out and you evaluate them in the light of the experience of all the participants, and your conclusion is almost always correct. Our conference lists the facts. The par ticipants evaluate those facts. Tliey con clude and work out a plan. Then it depends u|K>n the individuals to carry it out. So you >ec the conference is simply a clear device tor thinking. We liave many device* to get a group to (lt< this, and their cltoice depends on the per sonality of the individual handling the con ference. With tliat in mind, I think we Iiad better start in on this ease. You have the problem, it is before you. I would like us to be clear tliat we are not necessarily soh'iHfj that prahletH. (At this point the demonstration took place, with Mr. Giles conducting the ques tioning.) Mr. Giles: Let me see if I can summa rize this group's thinking. I believe we have come to the conclusion, as we have analyzed thc<c causes and the fads regarding them, in the light of our experience, that the mair's slipping is the accident; the burn is secondary, a by-product of the accident, one of the results. I think we have come to the conclusion tliat to prevent that accident four or five things arc involved: First of all, more careful supervision, be cause that is an emergency job. Tlterc is a lot of speed in it. Somebody should be re sponsible for the supervision. The crew should be more carefully trained and or ganized to click. Conditions should tic right, clean as nearly as possible; any slime we had from the removal of tlte old screens should be cleaned up. Someone said the steam pipe doesn't be long there. Suppose tlte steam pipe should belong there. The fact of tlie steam pipe doesn't cuter into this ease, docs it? We have cleaned up die cause. Now, then, you may go a little farilter. The fact that we had this accident brings another case to our attention--that the steam pipe should be removed; or if it sliould be there, that somebody should see it is turned off. Then you close the case right there. Would it not leave a better attitude if we prevented that man from trying to put the blame on some individual and punish him for it? "Who is to blame for it?" is about the first question, instead of finding out the very cause of the thing. This gives you an idea of how to go about discussing it in con ference. Mr. Noyes: I would like to tell the jury, before you retire to give your verdict about the disposal of this particular incident, that it was not the purpose of this demonstration to settle the case. Due to the lack of time we had to cut out a lot of the discussion. The entire purpose was, first, to sitow that through a conference in which the people involved were in possession of all the facts, they could go through the thinking steps and analyze from cause to effect--then set up the remedy. Chairman Adams; We will give a few minutes if somebody wants to talk about it. Mr. F. H. Rosebush (Nekoosa-Fdwardx Paper Co., Port Edwards, Wis.): I don't know that I should, in view of wliat Mr. Noyes has said, but one of the points brought up was getting all the facts. To my mind, they didn't get all tlie facts because when you set up the premise tliat this man was burned, that was the accident; the facts about the steam valve weren't brought out. The question naturally arises, why was a steam valve left in that position, that a man Paper mid Pulp Saction 453 falling against it could open it? Was that a steam valve, or was it a quick opening valve? To my mind, the whole thing was that it was a burn accident. I don't care whether the man slipped three times before lie gut to that valve. I don't think you got all the facts, because if it were a valve which could be opened by a man falling against it, I would certainly hold the com pany responsible for allowing that kind of valve to be left there for 12 years. Mr. Noyes: Mr. Cliairman, I would like again to say that wc tried to bring out this point, that the first thing we do is to define the problem. If it was defined incor rectly, the only one to blame is myself, in my opening remarks, when I read that the cause was the man slipping in putting in (he rails for the suction rolls, hitting the steam valve, opening it, and allowing the steam to escape. Then tliesc two gentlemen here, who acted as foremen, said: "Had this valve been shut off tightly enough, it would have prevented the accident." They said it should be put out of the way so it wouldn't happen again. Wc tried to set these up as our facts. We have two things here. One was the accident, and tlic other was the personal injury arising from the accident, and the supervisory staff investigated the injury u-hich was the result of the accident rather than the accident itself. We may have got our signals crossed in doing so, but thAt was the intent of the show. Mr. Giles: I think wc can say we didn't dig into the facts because there wasn't time, that we were just demonstrating the methods. Mr. Noyks: Then we tried to bring down the steps in thinking, which Mr. Giles had here, trying to put over to the group the fact that most safety engineers, superin tendents and other people either start off from a wrong premise or come to a wrong conclusion because they don't go through the thinking processes. If you will take this as the wrong way iu do it and then go home and think it through the right way, you will find out, l think. tl>c value. You determine the cause and determine tlie effect. You set up your remedy and put it into execution. I will tell you a trade secret, with due apologies to the people who acted as oper ating superintendents. If they go through this problem and help make the plan, they are co-autl>ors of a book, and if there is anybody who can defend tlie book, it is the fellows who wrote it. Decause they are the ones who invented this plan, invariably they will be very much for that sclicmc when you put it into effect, instead of having a safety guy come out and say, "Well, I think you had better do that." Tlicrc is a whole lot of psychology back of that. Chairman Adams: f mu glad, Fran/, you brought that up, because I think wc have all benefited by Harold's remarks now. I think it is much clearer in our minds. Mr. J. H. Turner (Consolidated Paper Corp., Montreal, Canada) : Was it deter mined that the conclusion was the act of slipping? Chairman Adams: Do you want to answer that, Mr. Giles? Mr. Giles: I would say we didn't dig into a lot of things that wc would have if we had had time to investigate. I want to make this comment: You are just exactly like any group which tries to study a conference. You wonder what it is all about. After you work through it as a member, you see the thinking process de veloping and you learu to think that way. There is another big thing tliat comes to us and that is that some of you go awayfearing it won't work. Try it tome day, and see that it docs work. Chairman Adams: I just want to say here tliat the reason for this demonstration was that we did liave this question come in, and so much interest was shown that it was suggested wc put on a demonstration, so that you could see how it docs work. Mr. Noyes : 1 am going to try to set up my premises correctly for tlx: second part of this. The first part was trying to study through from cause to effect to remedy, through a joint conference. Had we done what we sliould have done, we probably sliould have followed from this accident (o the other, but our working tools couldn't he transported. So we will take something else. Wc arc going to try to put uii a denxmstratinn to .show how the train ing job Hlxmld he done. Wc arc going to use tin's plank here with a hexagonal nut on it, and some wrenches. I know you people think it is more or less absurd, but we couldn't do much differently. 454 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress Try to visualize the actual job. A bear ing is being changed on a winder roll. This fellow used a poor wrench, which slipped, resulting in a bad sprain to Isis right thumb. In tlie investigation which the foreman nude afterward, he said the man should have used a good wreuch of the right size for the bolts. So, if you will use your imagination and nuke believe this is a winder and that is a nut ami here arc the wrenches, we have two very eminent cluractcrs who are to partH*i|>ate in this. They arc known from one end of the country to the other. Mr. Earl Gram will be the forenun who sent the ease down to tin- first aid department, and Mr. I>. B. Cliaru wifi be the workman who will demonstration how it was dune. Then Mr. titles and 1 will attempt to teach not how to put a wrench on that nut but some of the techniques of (caching a person to do a job. (At this point the second demonstration fmik place, with Mr. Giles interrogating die lurticipants.) Mr. Giles: The first thing is to find out who is going to give the order--where the job is to lie done; when; whnt, and, perhaps, why. I want to get the psychology back of giving an order. First, a* you walk up to a nun to give an order, you don't know whether he is thinking almul you or whether lie thinks you are one thousand miles away from you. He may be looking at you and dreaming about something else. He may be paying no attention. He may be thinking about his job. He may be tremendously interfiled in the Job he is doing, and when you start to talk to him about what you want him to do, he is afraid to ask you wliat you said. 'Hie very* first thing to do is to attract his attention, prepare his mind, and make sure you have his attention. This fellow never looked at you when yon gave that order. Me didn't even know you were talking to him. Where? I.et me illustrate tliat. Sufqiose you were going to have him cllarge a pipe. He is working in the machine room, and von want him to cliangc a pipe over in the digester room. Wouldn't it be well to switch him from his environment in this room to ilie place where lie is going to do the job. so that lie will think in terms of the mate rial he is going to work with? You are going to break him definitely away from what he is thinking about. You prepare him. Then yon give him specific instructions as to what you want him to do and how he is to do it and why. I would say, in my observation in con ducting conferences in industry, that 99.9 per cent of the orders given can be misinter preted and cause trouble and accidents. In tine two weeks' conference, every da>r for seven days somebody would come in with an , order which could mean one to five things, though the management only wanted one. Finally they pinned two written orders onto the management; in one case three things had been done before they got the results they wanted; in .the other, two false starts had been made. Remember, in teaching a man to do a job, the first thing is to get his attention, pre pare his mind. So, in good teaching, the first thing is to ask a set of questions that start the man thinking along the line you want him to think, about what lie is doing. Then, by demonstration and various other devices, you get him to do what you want him to do. I will wager that nine times out of ten, when you sliow a mail how to do a job, you work with it and he is standing oppo site, and you have it backwards and up side down from his outlook. Think that over. On pretty nearly every job, the teacher stands over there (indicating) and his apparatus is backward to you as an operator, and yet he expects you to vis ualize it correctly. Perhaps, instead of bawling the man out lor using the wrong wrench, you could ask him what wrench lie was going to use. By a set of questions, you should get the man to think it through and visualize tlie actual doing of the job. I went up into one of your good industries in Wisconsin one time. There was a group of 12 men, all of whom could do the job and do it well. I said, "Break me in on this job." As they taught me to do those things, 1 wrote them down. When I got through, there were 10 specific things they told me 1 was to do. The superintendent said, "I will put you to work, You can do that job," Paper and Pulp Section 455 When I* got through with the job, I found there were 43 specific things that I had to do, no one of which could be left out. They had taught me only to do 10 things. If you are going to teach a man an op erating job, you must have the operations clearly in mind as a teacher, either written out or worked out. You must know what those operations arc, and you must follow to make sure, and check back to see that the man knows those operations. The rea son you leave out so many steps is that you do tlie job so naturally that it conies auto matically; you don't think certain things are important, and so you leave them out in the explanation. In teaching, first of all, get the fellow to sec what the job is; second, wliat tools Ik is going to use; third, what operations he must go through. . . . Demonstration of proper way to lift a person ... :Mr Giles If you would analyze those three things, you would have a very fine lesson. I am going to summarize. In the first place, tliat manager or that foreman thought he could do everything alone. He might have busted that fellow's head. He ean't'do the job well. Ordinarily, what hapjiens is tliat a tall man will get over there and a short man here, and they tip him. They will do a very poor job. What was the difference? In picking him up this way, what took place? There was no leadership in tlie first. In the next you had some leader ship. Let's see what it was. First of all, I properly placed the men for die job. I got the short ones over there. Then 1 instructed them on how to do it and coordinated their efforts, so that they clicked together. That would be training men to do things. Let's go back to our very first case. I wonder if we can't see some very good reasons why we had this first accident. Perhaps that crew in changing that wire was not properly selected or did not have tlie proper leadership in coordinating their efforts, to step in and see tliat everybody did the right thing at the right time. With that illustration you will rvalue that there is a training job for every last foreman and superintendent in every single industry of the world, and they arc sadly neglecting the personnel. Industry is com ing to a realization that they have been neg lecting it for years. They are now making a strong demand on the part of supervisors and superintendents everywhere to do a bet ter job of instructing, so that they will get the correct operation, and in the correct operation they will get safety. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Penalties for Violation of Rules By L. R. SIMPSON Safety Director. Brown Paper Mill, Monroe, La. We made a survey to find out wliat eniployces in point of service were the most accident prone and violators of safety rules. We found that violations and accidents among the older employees by far led all others. It is not safe to assume that a man who lias been on the job a long time will lie a safe worker all the time, So many things can happen to a man in a short time. In the mechanical field his work can become automatic. Monotony creeps into the work. The mind wanders. 456 Tx^entysixth National Safely Congress lit the physical realm things can happen lo the body. Infection and many other physi cal ailments can happen in a short time. Mentally, many disturbances can account tor accidents such as domestic, financial and other worries. Yesterday the old type foreman was the hardboiled tyi>e. His word was law. Today the new type foreman still retains power of control hut it is brought about by leader ship and infraction. New processes and change^ in machinery and methods take place Jail). The employee must be trained to meet these changes. Now let us take up the two sides of the subject. The weak and strong points of penalty for the violation of rules. First ihosc points (hat arc considered weak. The jicnalty system has a tendency to create a fear complex, hard feelings and breaks down morale in an organization. What happens when a severe penally is rlam|cd on an individual? It is human nature to dislike to admit we arc wrong. When criticism, bawling out, and penalty conies to a man be is going to do a lot of superficial thinking. Revenge and ill feeling may be paramount in his mind. He tries to raise that let down feeling by making the other fcUow ufTer in his own mind. Penalties are considered hy some as short cuts to desired results. But are they* lasting results? The penalty system assumes a type of discipline that says--"If you arc to blame for violating a rule you are fired." "If you make a mistake it will be too bad." Any man that does anything makes mistakes. We are human beings who are prone to err. Men will not lie entirely liappy where there is fear of )o*>* of job. Management cer tainly has the right to control men, but docs such procedure Iniild the finest morale? Penalties arc sometimes a substitution for luck of training and poor forcmaiisliip. When a foreman accepts ilic responsibility for safety these arc necessary for accom plishment and results: 1. Sympathetic un derstanding of the individual working under him. 2. Ability to enthuse litem. 3. An apjieal to the emotions. Tilt foreman to accomplish results further mutt remember that all accident prevention work falls under three heads--1. Find the hazards. 2. Get rid of them. 3. Stop ex posing people to hazards. The last some times means the changing of habits and practices of employees that is at times hard to do, particularly older employees. Penalizing tends to shift responsibility from leadership to employees. Most acci dents, thoroughly investigated, point the finger of blame on leadership. When an accident happens in our plant I cannot help but feel that I am largely to blame. I feel that if I had done something more in safety work it might Have been prevented. I feel that my leadership and efforts have failed down the line somewhere; that man that was injured did not want the injury any more than 1 did, and if he had known, under stood, and if the foreman and his leaders had done something that was left undone, it perhaps would not have happened. A rule states in no uncertain terms that a man should do a certain operation a given stated way. Time and again this was not done and his foreman allowed this to go on to his knowledge. T have heard a fore man say. "I told that man" after an injury. 1 could not keep from wondering--Did he tell him--could he have been mistaken-- could it have been some one else he told? It will surprise us sometimes if we have some personal interviews with our employees and see how many know the rules. Words are not always sufficient. Writing is not always sufficient. We must be sure that instructions and rules are known definitely. Talking with foremen who supervise de partments requiring men of special technical ability leads me to believe that rules, viola tions, penalties and the like are not so im portant. In most cases such men--if they are properly trained -- properly handled, properly placed, do the job properly. For instance in the laboratory in our plant we have never had a lost time injury' in the 13 years' existence of the mill. The men arc carefully trained or else they could not do the work. In the electrical depart ment very few electricians arc injured and rules and penalties arc not needed, as they know the hazards of their work and have respect for them. They practice safety. The skilled men in the maintenance department have very' little tost time, nor do they violate rules of work amt safety. All Foremen arc not teachers. Glenn Gardiner tells us that there are four steps in teaching. (1) Telling; (2) demonstration; (3) testing; and (4) checking. A foreman may be fine on telling but weak on making allowance that words can be misunderstood Paper and Pulp Section 457 and leave the rest to chance. I sometimes realize that I have a weakness in dealing with men. I forget that the man I am talking with and trying to teach may not have aveiage intelligence. He may not have had the advantages of an education. Rules should be sold just as a commodity is sold. Penalizing indicates lack of sales manship and understanding. Do we try be fore a rule is made to get the men concerned together and ogTee on its neces sity'? Men do not get much stimulation out of violating something they help make and agree on. They stand for it. They will fight for it. Some years ago I directed summer camps for boys, hundreds of boys. I never had any need for punishment in camp. The first thing to be done was to get the youngsters togetfier and get them to agree on what I wanted them to agree on, letting them think it was their suggestion and rule. Individuals differ in many respects. A rule is not interpreted the same by different people. Men are not equal. This is a state ment by a noted psychologist. Twenty-five per cent of public school children cannot be educated beyond the 5th and 6th grades. In normal times there are approximately 3 million unemployables. There are four aspects to maturity: 1. Chronological age. 2. Intelligent age. 3. Emotional age. 4. Body age. All these facts must be considered in rules, enforcement, and violations. Thou shalt and thou shalt not tends to mechanize human beings when it Is followed by punishment. It retards initiative, progress and individual thinking. A machine can be controlled because it is not endowed with a brain. Man is controlled by sympathetic understanding, appeal to motives and emo tions. The germ of accident and violation is a mental germ. A man in the state of mental depression may stray from the path of safety and conventions and be punished for his waywardness, while others who may have committed the same acts are never caught and do not suffer the penalty. There will always be in his mind the doubt of fairness and square dealing in his case. When wc condemn we rend to tear down something that needed to be built up by a kindly word, praise and like action. When a man, who violates a rule, is laid off, fired and dismissed from the job, some one must replace him. This leaves a gap in the organization of producing a product. In many cases the replacement must be trained and production suffers. Unless good person nel procedure is followed the new man chh never replace the one released. This in cludes hieing, training, tests and examina tions and much other personal work. Em ployee turnover is costly. Penalties influence men differently. At one of the regular foremen meetings of a certain plant it was found that one depart ment had made a record in production. The strange part of this record was that the foreman of that department had been ab sent from his work during the time the record was made, due to a death in his family. One of ihc members present at the meeting stated that it might be better if he laid off a week, perhaps his own de partment would get along better and make a record. The superintendent took up the con versation here and stated that the men in this department had been heart workers and not eye workers. If we can get our men to believe in us, have faith in us, respect us and believe in our leadership, wc can earn a place in the hearts of men that rules, punishment and penalties can never reach. There is always a spot in every man's life that can be touched and the finest brought out in him if we can find that spot. What is it? That is our job to find out. It may be something we never dreamed he possessed. Now wc may think that there arc not some strong points in favor of the opposite system--enforcement, penalty, punishment. There are many strong points, used by in telligent, sensible leaders the world over. Remember we are trying to present both sides. Making an example of an employee edu cates the force in accident prevention and creates a strong company policy in reference to safety. One violation let alone tends to weakeu the organization and breaks down discipline. Some companies have experi enced high rates of accidents of certain types, such as eye injuries. Everything has been done in the way of coaxing, pleading, lead ing to get the inen to wear goggles when needed. Yet eye injuries continued. These same companies have made hard, fast rules with penalty attached for violating them and have been successful in stopping these in juries. How many cigarette smokers would stop 458 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress smoking in ihc plant if they knew they would not suffer some punishment for breaking |Iic no smoking rule? The ma jority would, it is true, as they have respect for company rules. Some would only stop violalitig the rule for fear of l>cing laid off or tired. However, I find in some plants that this rule alone has not stopped smok ing entirely. Many companies advertise their eases in which penalties arc used. This is done so that the entire force may know what has happened. They feel that it gets the safety program over. It lias its effect--true. But on the other liand--is this the best niciltod? Punch rods were causing some trouble in the digester room in punching down chips. We had to send several men to the dentist with a broken tooth. The pulp mill super intendent put a notice in this department that the next man who had this happen would lie disciplined. Ho explained to his men in meeting?' that ilit- was absolutely an avoidable accident and that a man was half asleep that |-imitted this to happen. This isa* a year ago. No mre accidents of this tyi*e have liapjnied Kllle teach -l control. Sell control is nlitaiiHil hv uUiniiiii^ to rule* and law. K-|kci for rule- wit! not )- |io*-jltc wliere ell rc-ped i- laikmg You nu> give a man rule-. xa?Y practice-. Ivt. lie will TKAer r-jsd tlaeui unlm lie ha tstmc respect for self. Neither will he obey them and let them guide his actions. One of the strongest arguments for the enforcement of rules is that it saves lives. If enforcement of rules was a popular prac tice, hundreds of jicoplc, yea lliousands and millions would be alive today who have died, and others would not be maimed for the rest of their lives. No foreman gets much pleasure out of laying off a man for a few days or firing him from his job. He knows what a few days' pay "means. He knows wliat the loss of a job means to his family and those dependent on him. But these same leaders have had to break the sad news to loved ones and friends. Some men do not understand sett discipline. Enforcement seems to be the only answer. Fear of penally has a good psydtological effect. Many organizations have always imposed penalties for violating operating rules with, good effect. It is therefore rea sonable to expect that the same effect will lie secured in safety rules and practices. Safety is ait operating function and should not be separated from operations. Safety cannot be put in one corner of the room and production in the other. They must be combined to be successful. Discipline of the organization should not suffer by al lowing infractions to go unpunished. Non- enforcement tends to demoralize. Penalties enforced as outlined will be accepted as a -qoare deaL t in:v'.M*. \i>*w- \\ going to dr- t..lr .* twenU 1o a dtXU*- .i..n .>i iln- |i.i)t l<> Mr. 1 am i'.ifit* i.. a-k \nhtr Win-low to start. Nviiii k I'. \Y ix-low i t|othiig-w<<rtli and Whittles t .... Waurvillc. Maine*: licing \vfy mtnh bia-ol <m ihi- Mjbjc.it. I udcottJC ttii- ip)rtut>it>. 1 bi| \ou will all Isar in mind jlut that |*aj*r was simply intended to prexAit tin- pro* and txwis id tlie subject and -lari an argument or delate, and lliat from it >.<u -1>uUl irv to draw your own cotirhi'ioit-. filling it p* tin- conditions. the -it(M|io/r4. that ari-e in y>>ur own plant. Wlutt can we lutvv it h>eusioii on this tajier r C. A. \\ ktc.MT < American Box Hoard Co.. < raml Napids. Mich.}; In actual practice in tlie jJant is the |*cnalty generally set in tlw rule book? Is there a definite penalty tor a certain definite infringement, or is die penalty based on the case itself r H. G. Xoyks (Oxford Pajxr Co,, Rom ford. Maine) : We have a book of ruJo. though \ve call it a code. It was drafted jointly by the safety committee and the supervisory force. Tlat code provides tliat there are certain hazardous procedures lliat common sense says shouldn't be done, to which all parties to the hook agreed. That book is our rule lioolr, as we figure rules. Under tliat set-up, the management has a right to penalize the individual for the violation of it. 1 think since we have had tliat set-up we have had two poultia en- Paper and Pulp Section -4.V) forced, which meant a loss of income to the individual who violated the rules. One of them was for not reporting to the first aid room when he should have done so, and the other one happened in production, viola tion of a production rule, which was re garded as bordering very closely on insub ordination. The penalties are not stated in (he rule. I might say, furthermore, that in some or ganizations where they have agreements with unions, most labor organizations arc inure or less keen for the safety committee, from the viewpoint of the mail himself und his welfare. I know several preambles to the union agreements in which it is specifically stated (hat il is one of the functions of the agreement to enforce safety. I know some union agreements in which it positively states that violation of a safety rule is one of tlie rules for which the penalty may be dismissal. Mk. VVi.nsi.ovv: Of all the rules we use I recall only two lliat carry specific penal ties. One is for stealing, and the other is for coining into the plant under the influ ence of liquor. Mu. WaiciiT: When a penalty is set, who sets it? Mb. XovtS: The penalties to which 1 re ferred were set by the superintendent ol the department in which the thing took place. In our set-up nu penally can be in voked unless the Ilead of the personnel dc- l*artmmt agrees, and in both cases I cited the thing was talked over and the maximum fxnalty decided upon, and the victim and the aperititendeiit and the personnel manager . inferred with him and made the decision. C. M. Gbhx (Moxiucc Pajier Mills Co., \Vi>. 1 : We have a set of safety mb'*. *l*he bt-t article provides that a pen alty stay be on the man wlui will- tall > them. Our rules have been m effect abut ten years or mure. The best rax we had of laying a man off was this year. It was not that lie Itad violated the safety rule but that by his ac- he had endangered the other men in hi department. The superintendent of the department came up. and we talked it over, lie didn't want to lay the man off, and E didn't either, but we felt tliat we really were not being just to tlie other men in tlie department unless we did give him some discipline. He wasn't satisfied with the de cision, so lie appealed it to the general manager. The superintendent und myself had a session with tlie jnannRcr in the pres ence of this man. We stuck by our decision to give him a week's lay-off. I will tell you very frankly that I felt badly about it. -I had known the man for scars, liked him, and he told me how much salary he was going to lose in that week. 1 was almost tempted to pay it to him out of my own pocket. Hut I think there arc some occasions when you have to have some sort of penalty and action of that kind. G. N. Cakleton (Detroit Sulphite Pulp and Paper Co., Detroit,' Mich ) : Our coml>aiiy lias no definite penalty rules, but we have a workmen's committee which decides the penalty, and Mr. Gippert here, who is chairman of the safety committee repre senting the management to some extent, sits in with them. But these men absolutely de cide the penalty. Their only trouble is that they liavc a tendency to be too tough on their fcllowincn, and we usually have to inject a little mercy into their findings. Sal aried employees come under their jurisdic tion. too. Their very first victim hap|>eiicd to be the general superintendent of the plant, who was fined $5 for sticking his finger in an emery wheel which was running. G. W. Pnir.uirs (The Champion Paper and Fiber Co.. Canton, N. C.) ; We,have a safety code. Of course, we explain to our employees that we do not cover all the tilings that should be done or sliould not be done to prevent injury. However, we do lave one rule with a specific penalty--that is in regard to drink ing. The preface to the rode \va.> u rilten by tlie president. He said something like this: "It sliould not lie necessary for us to say, `Leave the job or obey the rule.' We hojic every employee will live up to the fol lowing rules." I am deeply interested in this subject. It was splendidly presented by Mr. Simpson, but I am wotulcring if it is possible to get the ideal condition that he pictured, to get a man to do just what you want him to do. In the Garden of Fden. you reiuemlicr. Adam ami. Eve disuiicycd, ami the result was they were punished. Four thousand years or more ago. Oil Mount Si'ini, Clod wrote upon tablets of stone the Ten Command ments. In those Ten Commandments lie said, "Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not 460 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress kill." and so forth. There was a certain penalty attached to tint. Upon the Ten Commandments every civi lized government in the world lias been founded, atvd we find that it has worked. 1 don't believe in ironclad rules. I don't lielicve in severe punishment. But how many of yuti have violated a trafTic Juw and. in doing >o. glanced hack through your mir ror to cc if the cop was following you? Why did you do it? For fear of punish ment, didn't you? And you would have driven just a little faster if you didn't think you would be caught. You can't tell me that the law doesn't make men better. It Iteliw. There must l>e some punishment lichind it all, or men are just going to run away with the whole thing. I did it when I was a boy. and so did you, and your fathers and moliicrs had to spank you a little to bring you back into line. It doesn't mean harsh treatment. It means kind treatment. Many years ago I couldn't convince our president and general manager tint this w*as necessary. I said one day, after we had a severe accident, "Mr. Robert son, don't you think it is better to penalize a man before he gets hurt than wait until after he gets killed?" Which is best? If we let this thing go on, fellows, until some man gets killed, we arc all.sorry and heart-broken, but it is too late. . Mb. Wi nslow: Our time is up. I must turn the meeting back to the Chairman. Ciiaikmax Adams: The next paper was written by Mr. G. W. E. Nidiolson. Mr. Nicholson has recently taken on the added duties of starting a new mill, and it is impossible for him to be here. Jim Plzak, of the Consolidated Water Power and Paper Co., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., is going to read Mr. Nicholson's paper. Management's Function in the Safety Program By G. W. E. NICHOLSON Production Manager, Southern Kraft Corporation, Panama City, Fla. One of Che most important industrial prob lems is the relationship between management and the workers. Such a relationship can be Micccssful in the long run only if the deal ings are frank and Iioncst. The basic princi ple must be mutual confidence and respect (hi this basis, safety work and safe working cunditioiis become part of the functions of the management in the same manner as effi cient operation is required of workmen. It Itccomcs the duly of the management to train men in safe and efficient liabits. A, new worker follows the example of the older men and his foreman. Therefore, the train ing must be done largely by ihe foreman. The lop management must formulate the |Mliciv4 of llic safety program, which it iiiti'it also actively support to arouse sincere t-fiilitt>iasin down through the supervisors to the employee*:. A wholesome, intelligent and friendly co-operation between flic manage ment and the employees is absolutely ncc- osarv to eliminate accidents. It is a matter of (cant work and joint responsibility. The first step, and probably one of the most important is to select the new em ployees carefully. The qualifications of the employee will, of course, vary, depending upon the industry. However, age. physical fitness as determined by medical examina tion, intelligcuce, clean living habits, back ground and previous record should be care fully investigated and considered. A great help in pointing out what is expected of the new employee, as far as safety is concerned, is to give him a safety rules booklet espe cially printed for this purpose. However, it should be very dearly understood by every foreman in the plant that he must take especial interest in every new man he puts to work. The new employee must be pa tiently instructed and must be kept under constant watch until the foreman is- posi tively assured that the new worker is capable of performing his duties efficiently and safely. The new employee is definitely the foreman's particular responsibility. Every Safely Program should include:-- Paper and Pulp Section 461 1. Accident facts. 2. Elimination of hazards. 3. Safety program. 4. Creating a safety record. 5. Safety publicity. 6. First Aid. An accurate knowledge concerning how and where accidents happen, the nature of the injuries, sources of accidents, and the number of accidents occurring, is necessary to reduce accidents. A careful study of these facts should guide preventive efforts. Proper statistics should be kept so that conclusions may be drawn from them to guide the study of future accident causes and aid in reach ing a decision as to the method of eliminat ing knowu causes. AH accidents should be investigated, par ticularly the lost time cases, either by the safety director or a committee consisting of department heads especially appointed for the purpose. The agency investigating the accident should have enough authority to call any witnesses, including the foreman of the department, and take whatever ac tion may be required, whether the accident is due to neglect on the foreman's part, care lessness on the man's part, unsafe working conditions, or other cause. Proper records of such investigations should be filed. Intensive educational work among em ployees is necessary to achieve a good safety record. The first step in educational activity must be to win the confidence and support of the employees. Every effort to remove hazards and improve mechanical safety in the plant indicates to the employees the sin cerity with which the management regards the safety program. Il is only through close supervision and continual carefulness by the employees that a no-accidcnt record ran be obtained. Rigid enforcement of every order issued will get results, Chance-taking, un necessary haste, hazardous short cuts, and other unsafe practices are opening wedges for accidents and must not be permitted. Good housekeeping throughout the depart ments, strict enforcement of rules, constant watchfulness for laxity, regular And thorough inspection of all operations will bring to light the underlying causes of ac cidents assigned to man failure. The management should take the lead in plant housekeeping by creating a spirit of orderliness and system through supervisors and foremen, and by generally insisting upon good housekeeping in all operations. Attrac tive grounds around the plant and a well kept up plant lend to encourage carefulness and neatness among the employees. The sucrcss of safety work depends very greatly upon the foreman, since a competent, protected working force depends largely upon his ability to lead and inspire confi dence among those under his direction. The foreman can secure full co-operation of all employees more quickly by giving each man a definite responsibility than by presenting the safety program solely in the form of in structions and orders. The employees should have an active part in accident prevention work, develop enthusiasm and the feeling that the success of the program depends upon his individual efforts. It gives each worker an opportunity to accomplish something that the employer desires. He feels that it is a personal service, which gives him much pleasure. The vast majority of industrial accidents are caused by man failure, which can only be controlled by supervision. Failure to issue and enforce instructions, inattention, poor discipline, improper and unsafe practices, and undue haste are conditions which cause ac cidents. The foreman must believe in acci dent prevention as sincerely as he would be lieve in anything else that would make him more valuable to his employer, and he should be interested in the welfare of every em ployee working under his supervision. He must exert every effort to protect the men, and he must be a leader who ran secure the whole-hearted support of the employees. If the foreman is indifferent, the workers will be indifferent. He must be a leader, and the sincerity with which he performs bis part in the Safety Program will be reflected in the co-o|>cration he receives from the workers. Special safety campaigns or contests be tween the departments will create and main tain interest in the safety work. An attrac tively arranged bulletin board showing the record of accidents in the various depart ments, daily, weekly, monthly, us well as yearly, is of great assistance in creating ami keeping up Interest in safety work. Bulletin boards containing displays of safety posters, notices of contests, letters from the management are effective in keep ing safety before the employees. Another splendid aid in safety work in a plant is the suggestion box planted at differ ent locations where (he men can drop their suggestions. Suggestions should be ex- 462 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress amiued and decided ii{>n by either the .Safety Director or the Safely Committee es pecially ai>iK>iutcd for the pur|>o>e. It is very ini|K>rtant that suggestion* arc not neglected or put ofT, hut should be carried out promptly. To spur further interest among the employees suggestions for safety slogans are ot great value. Slogans should be re newed on suitable sign boards every month, and it is very important that the name of the employee who suggested the slogan be mentioned. Furthermore a suitable prize, such as a textbook pertaining In tlte indus try, is very helpful. Another useful agency for safety work is an Employees' Committee whose meetings should be attended from time to time by a representative of the management who will give a short talk. One of the important features in any safety organization is the first aid depart ment. which should le well and efficiently managed. The nurse in charge should keep physical examination records locked up. that the employee can be a-sored that these ivcords are known only In the doctor ami ihc nurse in charge. She should also keep an accurate card s\sfcin |H-rtainiiig to em ployees' first aid treatment. The nurse should also keep weekly, monthly, as well as yearly statistics which slmuld be posted. as well us scut to department heads. All injuries, no matter how small, should I* reported im mediately and treated by the nurse on duty. First aid facilities provided for employee-' create a feeling of protection, and employees respond to safety activities much more whole-heartedly, as they feel that the em ployer is doing his part. The nurse in charge of first aid should keep in close touch with the various safety agencies in the plant, whether the safety di rector. the safety council, employees* com mittee or management. All serious accidents sliould be closely followed up in the form of visits by the nurse in charge. a well as the superintendent ami foreman to the hos pital, and in certain eases later on also in the home. 1 f a serious accident has happened, it is very important that special interest l*e taken in such a ease and that the man is put to work as soon as jio.ssiblc, although it may lie only light work; and the man should be given such 'a position that lie can maintain the same earning capacity as he had before the accident, if possible. Another important agency in the Safely Program is the resuscitation team. Training in resuscitation should be given continuously, so that in due time a great nunilwr of men around the plant can carry* nut such work whenever required. Mr. Plzak: In Sloan's paper (Mathew S. Sloan, president of the New York Edison t >uip'iny > he made this statement in re gard to the intent to avoid accidents; "It )o unfortunately trite that the element of risk, i hazard, cannot Ik.* eliminated from life. Human nature is fallible, ami fatigue, error ami carelessness will always take their toll of life or liml*. Our task is to reduce the element of risk to its lowest jiussible diiitcn'xo>. Tin* involves first the maintenance of the greatest safety factor in otir plants and cxpiipmcnt and i!k* highest standards of practice in 'jH-ratiou and. sccuiul, a constant education of >ur people. to impress upon them the remit' of error or carelessness and to halge in litem tlte i*sitive. active intent and pwqo*e to avoid ami prevent acts or conditions which may result in accidents to themselves or other'*." I think Sloan packed plenty of dynamite in that one paragraph. Chairman* Adams; Arc tlicrc any ques tions on the paper Mr. Plzak read? D. B. Chant (Ontario Pulp and Paper Makers Safety Assn., Toronto. Canada) : In this paper there was a printed set of safety rules. 'Hie point occurs to me, is it the custom in most plants to have two sets of rules, one set for operating rules and one for safety rules? If so, bow do you distin guish between the two? Whet) you consider the rule, which is quite a universal one, that machinery must he oiled only while motionless, do you consider that an o(>crniiiig rule or a safety rule? Mk. Plzak: How many have operating rules as well as safety rules in their plants, printed ? (Three.) E. E. Rohr (National Carbon Co., Cleve land, Ohio) : All we have is a small booklet that goes to every new employee. It not only has operating rules, but safety rules in it--just general information. It is up to the Paper and Pulp Section 463 new man's foreman to go over this little book with him immediately when he conies into the department Mr. Chant: It is all in one set of rules? Mr. Rohr: All in one set of pamphlets. Mr. Crotcher (Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company) : Our operating rules and safety rules are incorporated in one book let, together with tl>e rules for conduct. The booklet is not put out by the company, but is a union agreement. The last half of the book is devoted to mill rules and the govern ment of employees while on the job. For years we had twenty or twenty-five causes for dismissal. This year we kicked them all out. There isn't one cause for dis missal left in the book. The only icferencc to safety is that men shall conduct them selves in a safe manner. Tt is more or less tacit It is left to their own judgment and the judgment of the foreman and other supervisors. Mr. Chant: Tlte point I was trying to bring out througli the question was whether it was advisable or even possible to divorce safety rules and safety regulations, and pen alties for their violation, from the regular code of operating instructions and operating rules. Mr. Plzak : Franz, liave you anything to offer on that? You do have rules in your organization, I know. F. H. Rosebush (Nckoosa-Edwards Paper Co., Port Edwards, Wis.) : We have very few penalties in our rules. I think the only one is with regard to intoxication. They are all together, operating rules and safety rules. In the back of tlte book there is one page that is set up so that a man must sign it, tear it out and return it to our department within a few days, showing he has read the liook with his foreman and understands it. It is not a rule book; it is a guide book. It contains all the guides for getting acquainted with the job and the conditions of the com pany and the matters pertaining to insurance, accidents and other things. I believe there is only the one penalty in the hook. Mr. Plzak: Are there any other com ments? G. W. Phillips (The Champion Paper and Fiber Co., Canton, N. C.): In the prep aration of our code book we felt (we have 12 departments) it would be too large for each man to read and memorize, so we divided it up by departments. The mainte nance department is separate from the oper ating, and the machine, finishing and so forth is covered by another. Mr Plzak: In this departmental set of rules do you incorporate both operating rules and safety rules? Mr. PuiLurs: W Mr. Plzak: You i .vc a separate safety pamphlet for the entire organization? Mr. Phillips: Yc>, in loose-leaf form. MR. Plzak: They can lc changed? Mr. Pimllii-s: Yes. We arc revising the rules at the present time. Chairman Adams: \\V have kept the remainder of this afternoon a* an open spot on our program. We call it "Your Hour-- Open Foruin for Newcomers and Oldtimers." Because ot the questions that have been raised at previous sessions, we already have three things listed for discussion. After we dispose of these you may bring up anything you want for open discussion. Mr. M. D. Kossoris is here from the U.S. Department of Labor at Washington. D. C., to get us started. Mr. Kossoris : 1 want to tell you a little about the type of data the Bureau of Laltor Statistics of the U. S. Department of Labor collects, handles and disseminates, mid tlte types of services it gives in that connection. Statistics show up ttic weak 5(>ots and, by showing them up, indicate to you tlte direc tion in which to devote your efforts as safety engineers. Statistics as such, as Mr. Plzak pointed out, if merely collected and put aside, may serve some historical puriioscs, hut aside from that they arc useless. They should be directed toward a definite end. They ought to be used as tools the same way a carpen ter uses his tools. 7n one instance he will use one method of approach and in another instance a different method of approach depending upon the situation that 4nccs him. The statistics you see in the newspapers regarding changes in employment, payrolls, cost of living, wholesale prices, retail prices, rents and so forth, arc all prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. One of the functions of the Bureau is in the field of accident statistics and workmen'* compensation. At present the Bureau re- 464 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress ccivcs reports giving employment and manIvour exposure for accident statistic purposes from approximately .10.000 firms in the United Slates covering about 50 to 55 in dustries. These statistics Iiavc not been broken down in the past by size of estab lishment, but they have been broken down by industry and. on various occasions, by states. This year it will be possible for us to five h very much better measure of accident hazard* in terms of disabling injuries, by industry, by state, and by various sizes of establishments. We hope the firms cooper ating with us will be able to compare their experiences with those of their own industry in the same state ami in other states. 1 hope they will Iiavc enough curiosity to inquire why their experiences are worse titan the statistics sltovv, if tlicy should happen to be. You may wonder why the Bureau of I.abor Statistics is collecting this type of statistics, when the National Safety Council is already collecting it. The answer is sim ple. The Safety Council gets data only from its own members. We get data from a very much larger sample, from firms whether they arc members or non-members. Further, the type of firms we cover are firms which may nut particularly be interested in safety, so that we get a cross-section that is perhaps more representative. As a result, our acci dent frequencies for industries are invari ably higlier than those shown by the Naliunal Safety Council. A second part of our facilities concerns ilie aid which the Bureau gives to the indi vidual states. As you undoubtedly know, the states collect tlieir own statistics as pre pared from the reports submitted in con nection with workmen's compensation. In many ea*e those statistic* are good, they are well developed, they arc well analyzed; and in many cases, due to political turn over.- and so forth, in spite of intention^ to do a go**! job, the personnel handling the information is not equipped to do a good job. The Federal Bureau makes it its busi ness. when invited, to assist states in the development of statistics both as to the incidence of accidents and as to the cost in terms of compensation, so that the infor mation may be available to industry and also that it nay be used by the factor}* ins|)cctors most effectively. There is no reason why factory inspectors should not ease up on the plants with good accident records and concentrate on those with the lad records. Aside front that, tite work in connection with the states, if carried on with the assistance of the central source, gives greater uniformity in tite statistics and permits comIiarison from state to state. One of the manuals which is now in preparation deals with standard codes defin ing the various types of disabilities and will give a method of approach to an analysis uf accident causes far superior to any now in use as a standard method. Bulletin 276, prepared in 1920 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was the first approach to standardization of accident sta tistics. As you can readily surmise, that manual has been long outmoded because of the steps made during the last ten years in the analysis of accidents. I would like to outline the so-called Hein rich Cause Code. Under the old method of analyzing acci dents, you had falls from elevators as one cause; falls on the street as another cause; falls from scaffolds; falls from ladders, and so forth. These accidents migltt be coded statistically and tabulated as falls, whether they be allocated to elevators or whatever. So, if you were interested m any particular type of accident, you were never sure of getting the complete list of accident* under that heading. Further, the analysis wc so far have had was not really an analysis of causes of accidents. It was an analysis of causes of injuries. If a man had his arm caught in a machine, that was coded as a machine accident, because the injury was sustained on the machine. What actually might have happened was that 0>c man slipped on a gre&sy floor and landed his arm in the machine and sustained 0k injury. There fore, the cause of accident was the grease on the floor and not the machine. What you arc after fundamentally i* not how the nan got hurt but why he got hurl. The new cause code analysis proceeds on the basis that most accidents are preventable and that when an accident does occur it is due to one of three things or possibly a combination of them. It is either an unsafe act on the part of someone, it is an unsafe condition of machinery or equipment, includ ing tools or working surfaces, or it is some l>crsonal defect in the worker himself, such Paper and Pulp Section 465 as poor hearing or poor eyesight. The the ory is that if you can determine what the defects are, you can then rectify them. The code breaks down each accident into six parts, not coivccrning itself with the analysis of the type of injury or part of the body affected. You start out first with the agency that was closely connected with the accident. It may have been the floor that the worker slipped on, the nachine tliat the accident occurred on, or boxes that fell down and struck him. Second, tite part of the equipment that was closely concerned, as transmission appa ratus or point of operation. The third part of the analysis is the type of accident--a fall on a level, a fall from one level to another, struck-by, accident, a toxic condition caused by a rapid poisoning, a slow toxicity developed over a period of years, such as in silicosis. These types of accidents are mutually exclusive, and any oik accident can very readily be classified in that particular category, and there are only eight or nine of them. The fourth factor concerns the unsafe act. Roughly, this divides itself into a relatively snail number of categories, each of which is in turn broken down into a larger num ber: Operating equipment without authority or proper clearance; operation or working at unsafe speed; making safety devices inop erative; using defective or unsafe tools or equipment; using tools or equipment un safely; overloading; crowding; poor arrang ing; unnecessary exposure to danger; working on moving or dangerous equipment; distracting attention; teasing; abusing; horseplay; failure to use safety or protective devices; unsafe acts not otherwise classified, and so forth. The fifth step in the analysis concerns tite failure on the part of equipment or machinery, the unsafe mechanical condition, which may be that the chisel had a mush room head, or that the machine was un guarded, or that the workplace was not properly illuminated, or the work surface was slippery so tliat the worker couldn't get a good foot support. The last point is the personal defect on the part of the worker. That method of approach permits coding every accident into its component parts and permits you to cross-dassity ami create any number of these elements you wish. You can make your breakdown by department; you cau make it by your plant; you can make it for industry; you can make it for the whole country. That is perhaps the most important con tribution that the statisticians and safety engineers working with statistics have made in tite field of accident cause analysis during the last decade. This method of analysis is being devel oped by several agencies cooperating with the American Standards Association, and the code should he available some time in the spring. In addition a manual is being prriiared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics which will embody not only the code and its application but will give a good deal of other information pertaining to the analysis of acci dent statistics. This is intended largely for the use of state departments, but it is very easily adaptable to me by industrial con cerns. That manual also will be out in tlx* early spring, and you can obtain it then by writing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U. S. Department of Labor, Wash ington, D. C., asking for the Manual on Accident Statistics. You can obtain from the Bureau a good deal of information on safely codes, stand ards, codes used by various states, and information pertaining to accident statistics or any work in connection with workmen's compensation. Clt aiuman Adams: Another subject scheduled in this open discussion is the making of paper boxes. I have asked Mr. Pattuu to lead the discussion. Mr. :Patton Will you say a few words, Mr. Murray? Arthur Murray (Container Corporation of America, Chicago. III.) : I was going to raise a question as to wlKthcr the speaker was referring to the folding industry or the set-up box industry. There arc two very distinct branches to be considered, and I don't think they should be considered at the same time. Mr. Patton: Li.is see how many men are interested in the corrugated boxes? (About ten.) In folding boxes? (Six.) Wc haven't liad many accidents in our box plant. Most of ours have l>ccn in the mill. Mr. Wright: The greatest number of our accidents in the last two years have not T'ivnty-sijrih Xalional Safely Coiigrex.t Ih.cu earned by machinery, but by fellows Iwinping against trucks, by uneven floors, by pulling on trucks. (. J. Biknvenu (New Orleans Corr. Box Co., Im\. bogalnsa, l,a.): My request the other day was that we box people--and by Im*x people i meant corrugated manufac turers, solid fiber, and set-up cartons--be given a more representative ]>art hi these iliMussions. that >l we are going to revamp the metliod of reporting accidents, uv break it duuu into deportments known t> die box (K'ople, All of our accident forms have lieeii in terms of paper tutll accidents. We have a warclKMise, a posting room and corrugated room ami finishing room and cutting room ami bundling and shipping --am! accidents may twcur in any one of those dejiartincuts. A man will run an overhead crane off a track, get caught in the corrugator, liave his liand up on a .dutcr. knock bin twtli n with a lift truck. A to inicciioti*. we employ girls for stapling They get infections from cuts (rout jtajicr. We have comliatcd these accident* and liave methods to prevent tltcni, IhiI we may learn more advanced methods by exclianging views. Chairman Adams: Docs anybody else want to discu>s Itox hazards? K. K, Grant t Tlic Crystal Tissue Co., Middletown. Ohio): This gentleman is from the boxlxunl industry. 1 am iroin a tissue mill, and I Itcar very little about tissue. As a matter ol iact, the hazards lie brings out are exactly our liaxard*. We liave stitchers. We have hit trucks. I am not sure xve arc * iur a|art niter all. We arc speaking the -.line language but in different terms. Mu. lliK.wt:xr: Po>s>ibl_v we are not un derstanding it. f think we are close enough together to tie in one group, but I still think rmc time should l>c given to our particular part ui that group. I think when reporting ai'cidents, if you are going to liave statistics (hat mean anything, you ought to have the departments in which tlicsc accidents liap* Im-ii and not jlist departments that can only lie in pajicr mills. Mr. Grant: The animal report has prac tically all the dc|arlmcnts in it, Itasu't it? Mr. Biknvfnt: Xo. It is not broken down enough. Mr. Grant: It has finishing department, shipping and unloading, whicli would cover your warehouse. I am just wondering what else there should be. I don't think it would take a great deal more refinement to fit the needs of the whole industry m your manu facturing plants. Mr. Bif.xven u ; You wouldn't liave to revamp the whole thing, but it would help to have it revamped a little. Chairman Adams: I think I see your point. In our company we have a good many tiag machines where we have injuries both to the operators and girls. We have a com pany form for filing statistics. We liave {MToviried on our statistical charts a place for bag machines right alongside the paper machines. I think that is what you have in mind, something that will limit it to boxmaking. Mr. Bienvexu: If you will pick out of the statistics given, those for the box depart ments and bag mills, and you have a con verting mill-- Chairman Adams: We must remember tliat statistics are general, and we can't get it down too finely, because we liave so many different means uf conversion, after the pu|icr is made, dial if we embraced every thing in each one, we would just get beyond ourselves. L>. S. Gabjjer (Ilummcl and Dawning Co., Milwaukee, Wis.) : This nan talks about the crane running off. In Wisconsin you are obligated to put stops oil all cranes. Mr. Bieniksc: We have the same stops, steel stops that you have to push off before the crane will move. Mr. Gakhu: |i< our plant tlwv have to unlock (Item. Mk. Bif.xven c: Tticy arc steel locks. Mr. Garbfr: Before lliey can move the crane, they liave to get a mechanic up there. We have tliem locked so they can't take them off. Mr. Biknvkxi;; The cranes can go through a steel lock. The crane fall I am talking about did this very thing. Mr. Garber: Arc your crane* liatwl or motor-operated: Mm. Biexvcsc: Motor-operated. Mr. Garber: We haul rolls (xeae as high as 5.000 pounds) *m an dcrtrinD)' operated crane, and yet we have never had dial happen. We ixobably tuve twenty-five or thirty cranes in vur plain, including two Paper and Pulp Section 467 monorails in which an operator rides. We have good heavy stops which we make ourselves. Mk. BlENVKNu; Ours have been iuruished by tltc manufacturer. Mr. Wright: We had an unusual prob lem in our box plant, an accident with n man setting up a press. The operator left the motor running on a press, idling along. Tlicrc were tivo lielpers, one adjusting the pistes on the printing press, and the other on the back side, up on the hopper form. He started to jump down, caught his pant leg in the lever, and it drew hint in. He wasn't seriously hurt. Tie lost a week's time. We tried to set up rules about shutting down the machine. We ran into this ques tion : If a belt breaks, arc you going to shut the machine down? That question came up between our box factory and our mill, which left us open to an individual problem iu our box factory. Mu. :Garuf.r We have had tliat same thing come up. The paper mill superin tendent insisted he wouldn't slow a paper machine down to put a belt on. It went along until one day a fellow put a belt cm and went right with the belt. Since that time -we have shut down every machine for makcrcady. We aluu, on starting boxes, hang a sign whenever a machine is down for makeready or any other cause, which reads: "Do not start this machine." Chairman Adams: You arc talking about the box-making machine ? Mr. Garber: Yes, cutting presses and printing presses. We have signs on the starting boxes. Mm. Wright: We liave that same thing now. In fact, it was a rule before tliat, but there was one case where tlic operator stood by (lie control box, and the accident hap pened to the helper. I was trying to bring out the problem between our box factory and our mill. Mr. :Patton Mr, Chairman, in picking up rolls of paper I would like to know wliat is the most satisfactory kind of grip to catch the roll. Chairman' Adams: Pick it off the floor? Mr. Pattux : The hoists pick the paper op and cany* it. Mr. Garker: Do you refer to the jumbo roll? :Ml Patton The large roll. Mr. Garber: We have a device that we make. It is two heavy bars of iron with a slit iu the middle, and it has two T-hnoks. You can slip tliem along l>y hand. We have those on all our hoists. \Vc don't pick any rolls up by hand. We pick everything up by crane. Chairman* Adams: Docs that answer you? Mr. Patton : That is one type of hook. I would like to hear from several men who have different methods. Mr. Bikxvenu: We u*c overhead cranes. A man rides in the cab and drops the hook. It is motorized. It will open and close to fit the roll. It has teeth. It ts about one foot by three feet. It will come in and grip the roll and pick it up. We did use, previously, a hook type of lift, two pieces ol pipe run into each other, with holes ill it, and a pipe \uth an arm lianging down. A man would liave to gel down into the place and put the hook in each hole. With the present mctlMxl the man in a crane can handle the roll bv himself without another man at the bottom. It reduces tlic hazards considerably. Mr. Wright: Iu tiering rolls on end you can't tier them very high because of the hazard of toppling. In tiering them on thu side, you lose a lot of space. I was wonder ing which was the safe way. Mr. Garber : We stack on the side. Stacking rolls on end is hazardous. If you stack them flat, they can't topple over. Most of our rolls arc wjde, 60 inches. Mr. Bienvexu: The ones we stack on end arc 28' inches in circumference am) about 8 inches wide, little uarrmv ones. You can stack them up al>out 8 high. The totAl height would lie just about the width of one of your rolls. Mu. Gakuf.r: Yuu don't make vuur own hoard? Mr. Bikxvexi:; Xo. Mr. Garber: We have our board right off the machine. Mr. Plzak: 1 took the liberty to go down to flic National Safety Council exhibit and bring up a sample of the folder I referred to. Unfortunately, I have to return this. You in the jiaiier box industry will be pleased to kuuw tliat this (xnupHIct is avail able through the National Safety Council 468 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress offices- It called "Paper Box Manufac turing/' Chairman -\iiams: It Uicrc anything elver Mr. Gkaxt; ! Iiave a question 1 have been warning to ask for two days. You have talked about penalizing guys and not doing anything alxjut fellows who get hurt. We have a chronic at home who gets hurt con stantly. He has been with us a long time. He owns his home and takes a great deal of pride in it. Now he is just luving one injury after another. TIk department was keeping the old man because of his value on certain jobs. The other day the superinten dent came around and told me he wanted to lav the old gentleman off, and, candidly, told hint it wasn't going to be that way until 1 got hack front this meeting, that 1 was going to get the experience of experts. What would you do with an old man who has been with you probably 10 or 12 years, and in all probability V". I*c uuahlc to get a job any place else, u: > constantly having accidents : Mm. Cakher: Wc had that same experi ence with a master mechanic in our paper mill. He was a fellow who had been with us a long time. JIc started to lave one accident after another, and we demoted him to a lower job, and pakl him the same rate of jtay until wc got our bargaining com mittee together, and they listed him as an overpaid man. Kach time wc issue a general raise, wc still keep turn at his old rate be cause we can't raise him, hut wc still keep him oil. Chairman' Adams: In other word*, he ** a working pensioner. 1*. H. kosEiitiSii (Nekoosa-Edwards Pa lter Co., Fort lidwanU, Wis.) : I can give >ur cxi>cricnrc, which I wouldn't recom mend for usual procedure. We Itad erne case nt a matt who lud. as 1 recall, some 32 accidents in 10 year*. We called him before live central safety committee, which consists of the mangeinctil--the president of the company ami the treasurer and the superin tendents--went over his record with him in as easy and nice a way as we could, point ing out that he couldn't very well pose as a safe worker. While there was no discipline attached to his ease, he gut the idea very quickly. In the four or five years since wc took that action I don't believe the man has had a single accident. As I say, tliat is rather a severe thing to do. If you follow it as a permanent proce dure, these fellows will not report their acci dents. In spite of your rules you will find tliat they will evade reporting those acci dents and cover them up, and give you oilier excuses as to why they arc not coming to work. Mr. Grant: I would like to ask Franz what age tliat man was. Our man is prob ably 55, 56 or 57. Mr. Rosebush : I think our man was that age, past 50. Mr. Plzak : Wc had a man very much like that. He is still with us. He started oil a construction job I think perhaps 10 years ago. The first mistake he made, which might have proved very serious to him, was in working lit one of the shafts of the sul phite building, one of the elevator shafts, using a suspension rope tlut even his helper told him wasn't safe. But Tom was one of tiiosc fellows who knew more about it Uun anybody else. He fell from the suspended scaffold. He had compound fractures of bodi legs and compound fracture of the right arm. He recovered from that. We had sym pathy for him because he had a family of six children. We put him in the wood room. One day the motors in the wood room all stopped, and the electrician pulled out the disconnect to start solving the trouble, and for some reason Tom decided the machinery should run. He went up and threw the main Square D, almost killing one of the elec tricians working on the motor. There was a sudden jar, and Tom was burned all over the left side and face. Again tlie union committee begged for Tom. We gave him another job, this time in the beater room. He was almost killed by a heater. We were quite concerned about it and gave him a month's leave of absence, because lie himself was responsible, and finally the president of the conqumy got Tom his job back. We jnit him in the finishing room, and he has been there seven years and nothing has happened. I think the answer is this: We didn't have Tom in the right place. We finally found where Tom belonged. Maybe it was our fault. But it is difficult sometime* to study the man and Use job he might be particularly Paper and Pulp Section 469 fitted for. especially wlicu he is an individual like this one. 51k. Patton": We have a problem where men get hurt at home and say they got hurt down at the factory; nobody sees tliem, but they report the accident, and we take care of tlicm. We have had cases where men have been hurt down at the plant and didn't want to say they have had an accident, al though wc have never punished anybody for Ilaving an accident. They say the accident occurred at home. I wonder if anyone else here has had that experience. Chairman* Adams: Does anybody want to comment on tliat? Mr. Grant: Probably the one most out standing case of this kind in our community happened at the American Rolling Mills Company. A fellow cut Ins finger off chop ping wood at home, came in the next morn ing, and after he had been on tlie job an hour, went up to the hospital and told them he had cut off Ins finger and immediately applied for compensation. They arc very thorough. They made a check-up immediately and went back on the job. I think that is where some of us fall down on the job. We don't make an investigation quickly enough. They went out into the mill and couldn't find anything there. It developed that the portion of his finger was left at liotne. They imme diately chased it down. Chairman Adams: We arc self insurers and have a number of thousand of employees in different localities. It has been our expe rience that it is just the odd one that tries to put something over. But a prompt, thor ough investigation usually discloses the fact. Mr. Plzak: 1 want to ask Mr. Patton, arc you self-insured or insured under a car rier? Mr. Patton : Under a carrier. Mr. Plzak : Does someone have charge of the department first aid? Mr. Patton : We are just a small plant. We have about 200 employees. Mr. Plzak : Do you liavc a rule in which you demand that no matter how trivial the injury, it must be reported at once ? Mr. Pattox : Yes. Mr. Plzak; Tliat is one of our strictest rules. A moil is subject to discipline quicker for not reporting an injury than anything else. We are not interested so much in side stepping an obligation as wc are in finding the facts and then placing the obligation where it belongs, whether it is with the employees' benefit association for off-duty accidents or disability, or under the compen sation department if it is a compensable in jury. We demand that. We do the deciding. After wc Iiave tlie facts, we decide where the case sltould be placed. If he differs from that, he may appeal to the proper hoard. Mr. Patton : Have you ever had an acci dent where the man reported it :i week later, saying that at the time he hurt himself he didn't think the injury was sufficient to war rant first aid treatment? Mr. Plzak: Yes. We have had such ac cidents, and so has everybody else here. Un fortunately, in accordance with certain state laws, a man has thirty days in which he may report his accident. If there are certain cir cumstances surrounding it that indicate it happened on the job and was not self-in flicted, you are responsible for taking care of him. It is perhaps a good law. However, in our industry we still demand that they report them immediately. If not. we proceed to set up disciplinary measures in accordance. He may be laid off a week after he has recov ered from his injury, or perhaps dismissed entirely, depending upon the circumstances. No commission objects to that punishment. That is entirely up to yourself a* long as you compensate properly. What you do from a disciplinary measure, if it is justified, is your business. Mr. :Rosebush Wc are in the same state in which Jim is, and while tliat is a rule, we have published in our plant rules which state to the men that unless these accidents arc reported immediately, wc reserve the right to disclaim liability and throw the burden of proving that accident u]>on the man. Wc have had lots of cases just as you mentioned, where men have not reported their accidents. Of course, if a man can substantiate with proof by his fellow-worker that he got in jured in the plant, wc. will accept it, but we make it difficult to go through tliat process, so he doesn't usually try to drag in an acci dent after it has gone a week. Wc almost force him to have a hearing before tlie Indus trial Commission and prove his case. Not many of them do it. So gradually the tradi tion has grown up in the mill that to put an accident in the files of the company it must be reported immediately. 470 Twcttly-sixth National Safety Conyres. Mr. G.moikm: Do you still give lay-offs as penalties fur breaking a safety rule after the unemployment law is in? Mr. Pl*ak : Yes, we do. Fortunately, in the State of Wisconsin the unemployment compensation (aw provides what they call a disciplinary measure clause. You may dis cipline a man by a one or two or four weeks' lay-off ami not lie obligated to pay unem ployment compensation during that period. The weeks in which such disciplinary meas ures occur arc called Icured weeks, and they arc not included under unemployment conijK-nsnlion. Mr. Gakukr: Have you been reading flic return* on any caM.-> where liny decided on that? Mk. J'ij-ak : Yes, tlicy pass through my dciiartmctil. Mr. Gahukm; Did you see any place where tltcv Itad allowvd that? Mr. I*ij/\k: I law. not only in our instance. There were two. Null for drunkenik-ss. We |wave Itad mi other disciplinary measure', lay-offs. 1 Itaw iMiticcil in llwr Wisconsin Manufacturer'' Association bullctm a review <f accident* or. rather, of lay offs tluit were either acceptetl or not accepted by the unenipUyinem cmipetisaiuin division as disciplinary measures. Mr. G.uujer : l went down tu the indus- trial conimis.siiH) in Milwaukee, and the fel low therv o <* that it was a very danger ous practice, ami three times out of four they wouldn't he allowed, so I discontinued it. Mm. Pi.zak : It is a dangerous practice in that it becomes a very useful wcajiou for an employer to take advantage of lav-off with out A>suminp liability, but if you are justified in your action, I atu omiukiit lliat the Indus trial l`*`iiimis.'ii*n will uplioM flat action. Mr. Gakiuk: You are '`tiff doing it?. Mr. I*i_/ vk : Yvs. We Iwd a ease last week iu which a man came to work under the influence of liquor sutVicivntly so that he could not continue his work. Mk. CrARarR: Had (hat tclkiw already liad Ins waiting period? Mr. Plzak; Yes, an old employee. Mr. (ivKuKk: Kvtry year tlic waiting jk.tkI is renewed, two vvivks vut of tiitytwo. Mr. Pi.zak: In thi> caw this man had even drawn benefits for partial unemploy ment. Mr. Garber: Did you give him more lhau a week lay-off? Mr. Plzak: Two weeks. Mr. Garuer: Had he liad his three weeks' total unemployment waiting period? Mr. Puak : Yes. He was in a depart ment tliat is not worked as fully as others. Mr. Gardes; Have you liad a machine break-down where you had total unemploy ment ? We liad a line-shaft blow up, and it took us a full week to get new pulleys and everything tliat was needed. I thought (hat that was an act of God. 1 will tell you the way (lie thing happened. \Yc had this pulley insured. It fad been examined die week be fore by the insurance examiner, and no de fect was found. They wouldn't allow it as a waiting period. Mr. Plzak: I am afraid I would be in clined to agree with the commission tliat it would not constitute a bar. I ain very sorry to say that, btit we <lo this when an occasion like tliat occurs: \Yc try to provide and present to that employee other ami suitable employment, and if be turns that down, then you have a bar, providing you can prove tliat such employment was suited. In a paper mifi, a large organization, tliat is very possible. A man could go into the finishing room or even into tlie yard. Mr. Garber : Do you have enough spread for eighty men? Mr. Plzak : No. Mr. Garuer : Tliat is wliat tins involved. I figured it would lie better to give them a week waiting period than to fool around. Mr. Plzak: We have not attempted tu jeopardize operating efficiency to avoid j>aying unemployment compensation liability. Afa. Garhkr ; U'c haven't either. Mr. Plzak: I fully sense that. I think the employer who aiteinjtts tliat sooner or later finds himself in a lot of trouble. Mr. Garber : I figured out a standard working force, ju't exactly the iiuinlwr of men it takes to ojierate our plant, dir! that is what I keep all the time. M'licncvvr we go into our |>eak |N.*riutU, and tiwy only litsi a matter of two or three weeks, we can bring iu inexperienced lielp and (tut them <m jobs. You see what we do, we put our semi-skilled and skilled help hack, and tlicii as these jicak Paper and Pulp Section 47 periods come, raise them up and bring iu new lielp for the common labor. Chairman Adams: I think we will get away from the discussion of unemployment insurance. Is there any other question? Mr. Patton*; I have a question I would like to hear discussed. It is about this safety contest. Is it fair, when a man gets hurt and he is unable to continue on the job he lias been doing, to shift him around and give him a lighter job and not count the accident as a disabling injury? Clayton Bkaatx (Marathon Paper Mills Co., Rothschild, Wia.) : I would like to an swer that by asking another question. About two weeks ago one of uur machinists, a top machinist, ran a sliver iu his hand. He liad it taken care of, but an infection developed He told me about it a couple of days later and said tliat the doctor advised him to take a day off. 1 told him how sorry I was alxmt it and how sorry his foreman would l)e tliat he was going to have a lost-time accident and ruin his department's record. He sug gested we go down to his foreman and find out if he could do anything, which we did. We found tliat the foreman could give him work, productive work on a lathe, which would only entail the use of one hand. I would like to ask your opinion :is to whether I am cheating a bit wlien I put that man lack to work on his own job. Chairman Adame : Before I call on Scott Dowd, I would like to have die opinion of some of you oilier fellows. D. C. Hexter (Oxford Miami Paper Co., West Carrollton, Ohio); Our prime interest is in preventing an acckkm or an injury. I can't quite understand how a man can break a leg and fie put on svmie other kind of work and that firm have a clear record, regardless of whether the man was on productive work or anything else. You have liad a hazard in yutir mill. A man lias broken his leg. While it is well to keep the record nice and clean, flat thing is happening. He still has a broken leg. M. D. KoS'OWS: Pcrliaps I can cite the case of the plant which had a perfect safety record. A man fell and broke his leg, had it in a cast, wn placed in a waiting room, kepi on the payroll, anti the employment commis sion is engaged at the present time on a horrible example of what not to do. It kepi the record clear. Chairman Adams: 1 suppose every paper mill iu the United State.' that has e\cr been in a cuntcst has piubably cliealcd a little bit. Maybe cheating is (he nroug word. But iu their anxiety to get a good record, they do provide work for people who ordinarily wouldn't be back to work ii they weren't involved in some sort of a content ur to make some kind of a record. I think cverylnxlv will agree willi that. I think our mills hate done it, too. But we have been trying iu our null' t< promote the spirit of Imnc.'ty in rc|x>rtmg accidents. If a man is off the ju| on ac count of an injury, he has to lie declared able to do his job by the doctor lietorc he goes back or before the lost time is stopped. Our statistical record has apparently suf fered because of it, but I think our financial record will improve because of it. .Scott, do you want to say any tiling? A. Scott Dowd (The Paper ludti'iry. Chicago, III.) ; The rules were adopted by the Section. Tliat is all there is to it. M*l Wright; I believe the rule says the man must return to work the starting hour the next day. Chaikmax Adams; That is light. Mr. Wright : What do von do if a man feels lie should liavc medical attention, goes down to your company doctor, and comes in at ten o'clock. He is due on the job at eight and conies in at ten. He doesn't lose the day or doesn't even lose half a day. Chair scan Adams: l don't think tliat is lost time. Mk. Wkigut: I call it lost time. CuAirman Adams : Just for ;t couple of liours, because of medical attention? Mr. Wright: No, the man himself thought he couldn't come back to \\<~>rk. He went down to the doctor, and the doctor fixed him up. Chairman* Adams: Muyl>c I didn't make myselt clear. We depend upon the doctor. We don't dcqiend upon any man to till us whether he is going to work. Mr. Wright; The doctor said he could work. Chairman Adams: T would say there was no ' >st time. Mr. Grant: I have a questionable case. A man comes to work on the last shift the last day of September. He gets hurt on the 472 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress morning ul October 1, though the shift he is on started on the last day of September. Wliat clay do I report? Mu. Chant: The third shift of Septeml>er 30. Mm. Koskhcsh : Our industrial commis sion, <m that point, has ruled that in unem ployment insurance eases, where a shift starts at 11 o'clock at night--for instance, in computing at the cm! of tltc week, Saturday night, the shift starts at 11 o'clock and aids at >evcu o'clock Sunday morning--all of that tune is cliargcablc to Saturday. Mu. Hmaatz: George, what do you do in a case like mine? Cii.mkman Adams: I think if a man can go on a productive joh--I don't mean* to carry a man back ami forth or anything like that---but if he can cuntc in ami go on a productive job that somcl*od\ lias tu fill, o. k. It certainly is rcliahilitating that man, keep ing him at work: it is taking up his mind, and it is a distinct benefit to him. I think any doctor will tell you that. Mh. Murray : Won't there be some per manent partial tlisability in a broken arm ease ? Chairman' Adams: It is probable. Mr. Murray: Then it is chargeable. Chairman Adams: Not under the con test. It is under the statistics, but not under the contest. In the contest we just have fre quency. Mr. Plzak : I think you liad tlic answer to that when you stated "if the doctor per mits the mail to work," providing you do not use undue salesmanship in persuading the doctor. I would like to ask Clayton Braatz, if this man came to his office with that hand infected, if he would give him a joh, if he were a new employee. Mr. Braatz: l wouldn't. Jim, but I called tlie doctor before I took the man down to tlte shop, and the doctor told me by all means to put him back to work, providing He didn't have to use his hand very much. The foremau told me he had some mainte nance work to do. It necessitated another man taking the injured man's place. This was essentially his own job, only he couldn't do all of the details attendant to that job. It was a fill-in for half a day. That is what it amounted to. Chairman Aoams: If nobody has any thing else, we will stand adjourned until tomorrow noon. THURSDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 14, 1937 Data on 1936-37 Paper Industry Safety Contest By A. SCOTT DOWD Associate Editor, The Paper Industry Magazine, Chicago The 1936-37 contest of the ptilp and paper industry had an enrollment of 139 mills and rcmamifncturing plants. Of this total, 126 units remained through the entire period, ex ceeding the number of participants in any previous contest. The total number of hours worked by more than 56,000 employees was 123,612,000. This is the greatest exj>osurc ever recorded in the pulp and paper industry contest. The average frequency rate for all par ticipants was 16.301, which is slightly higher than the 1935-36 contest rate of 15.096. How ever, frequency rates in the paper industry contest have been reduced 17 per cent since 1933, when production curves began their upward trend. It is also worth noting that the frequency rale in the contest was more than a point lower than tlie 17.59 rate of the 198 mills reporting to the National Safety Council for the year 1936. Contestants in the Paper and Pulp Divi- Paper and Pulp Section 473 ion had an average rate of 16.861 in com parison with 9.041 for participants in the Paper and Board Remanufacturing Group, Division 2. The largest mills in the Paper and Pulp Division, composing group A, had the lowest frequency rate, averaging 14.198. Contestants in group C of this division had the highest frequency rates, averaging 25.318. Group A and group B lowered their frequency rates from those in the previous contest. Seven contestants went through the culirc year without a single disabling injury. Five of these were in group D. and two were in (he rcmanufacturing division. The enrollment in the 1937-38 contest stands at 146 plant units. During the first two months 46 of these units operated with out a disabling injury. The average fre quency for all participants in these two months was 14.502, a reduction of four points from the rate in the corrcsjKHidiug period of last year. The rules for the 1937-38 contest are tire same as for the previous year. Pulp and Paper Section Safety Contest In the Paper Industry* Annual Safety Con lest seven of the 139 competing mills went through the entire year without a disabling injury* For the entire group of participants, one out of each 28 employees had a dis abling injury* during the contest period. This ratio compares with 30 to I for 1935-36 and 29 to 1 for 193435. Ten plaques were awarded in the contest to winners of first place; seven certificates were awarded to winners of second and third place. The trophies were presented by Harry Guilbert, Director, Bureau of Safety and Compensation, The Pullman Co., Chicago. Winners of plaques were as follows: Paper and Pulp, Group A--Hollingsworth and Whitney Co., Algonquin and Taconnet Mills, Watervillc, Me, 3,028,195 man-hours, 9 injuries. Paper and Pulp, Group B--Hoberg Paper Mill*, Inc, Hoberg Division, Great Bay, Wis, 1,047,753 man-hours, one injury. Paper and Pulp, Group C--Escanatia Palter Co., Eseanaba, Mich., 711,073 man hours, two injuries. Paper and Pulp, Group D--Five tied for first place--Bird and Son, Inc., Phillipsdalc. R. I., 312,744 man-liours; Rogers Fibre Co., Inc,, Fibreboard Mill, Bar Mills, Me., 192,545 man-hours; the Mead Corporation, Nashville, Tenn., 188,296 man-hours; Cen tral Fibre Products Co., Vincennes. Ind., 157,034 man-hours; International Paper Co., Riley Mill No. 23, Chisholm, Me., 142,578 man-hours. All five winners completed the contest period without a disabling injury. Paper and Board Remanufacture--Two tied for first place--Container Corporation of America, Anderson, Ind., 278.853 man hours ; Beniis Hro. Bag Co., East Pcppcrcll, Mass., 86,494 man-hours. Both winners com pleted the year without a disabling injury. On behalf of Mr. E. B. Fritz, pulilislicr of The Paper Industry Magazine, Chicago, A. Scott Dowd presented the paper industry major trophy to the Phillipsdalc, R. I., plant of Bird and Son. Inc. During the contest period, from July I, 1936, lo June 30, 1937, the plant operated a total of 3)2,774 manhours without a disabling injurs. THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 Chairman Adams: Our subject this af ternoon is a round table discussion on paper mill machine room luzards. There seems to be an unusual interest in the hazards of the paper machine department. The nature of the process, the impossibility to guard dif ferent points of operation, create hazards that are always a problem. Now there >> 474 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress one definite trend that reduces hazards in the machine room--modem machinery. For instance, in otir company in Canada we have several modern newsprint mills, machines that run up to 1,500 feet a minute. Those machines arc nil comparatively new. Prac tically everything is handled automatically, and accidents arc very rare, that is, jiajicr machine accidents. Tltey do have accidents in the machine room, but they arc mostly slipping, stumbling and occasionally a bum or some such type of accident that you get in almost any department in the mill. On the other Itand, a paper machine has very long life, and you can't replace a paper machine because it is hazardous. Particu larly in the older type of mills we lvc ma chines that present a problem, that arc not up to date. They are not equipped yet with modern devices such as rope carriers, steam jets and air jets to carry (he paper, and this work has to l>e done hv Ivaud. Speaking of the actual number of accidents that occur in the iapcr machine department, 1 have jotted down in the group of Inter national Paper Company mills the percentage of the total over a period of years, from 1931 through 1936: *31, 24 per cent of the total accidents were in the pajH-T machine depart ment; '32. 20 per cent; r33, 27 per cent; '34. 24 per cent; *35, 26 per cent, and '36, 27 per cent. In oilier words, it is fairly con sistent experience that about uuc-quurtcr of the accidents, at ka^l in our group of mills, have been dtargeablc to tltis one department, the paper machine department. I haven't the figures on the severity of these accidents, hut we all know that a paper machine acci dent is usually severe. This discussion was developed with, the thought tliat the first requisite of any safety program is to provide ideal or as nearly ideal working conditions a possible; in otltcr words, the equipment guarded as far as pos sible. and the floors in good condition. - l have listed on the board six major parts of the paper machine on which we experi ence the most frequent and severe accidents. What arc tlie principal hazards encoun tered in changing wires? H. H. Reiter (Kimberly-Clark Corp.. Kimberly. Wis.) : Most of the injuries are minor injuries, mostly pinches or scratches or little cuts. We haven't had a real losttime accident in changing a wire for fifteen years. The last one was with a pulling T rail and the rail riding along the valve. As the man pulled it out, it opened up the valve, and a ran standing about ten feet away from the steam Ituse, a ten-foot long hose, was burned. I know all about that, because I was tlie victim. Chairman Adams : Your mill's experi ence evidently lias been very good. What is the reason? Ala. Uritt.r: We always have tlie boss machine tender right there with the wire changer. Most of our wire changes come in tlie daytime, and we liave a boss machine lender and wfiat they call a tower foreman. Tlie boss machine lender is responsible for it, and tlie tower foreman supervises. We have two supervisors there as much as pos sible. Chairman Adams: You think supervision is the answer? Aik. Reiter ; Ot course, there is some training connected with it. We have all old liand* there. Chairman Adams: You safety directors --can you llunk of any reportable accident during wire changes? Mr. Reiter : I could mention one more thing. A couple of years ago we put new floor* in, and tltey were quite slippery, so during die first couple of wire change* we laid drier felt on the floor, and gradually we put sulphuric acid on, which roughened it. Chairman* Adams: \tw cement floor* that were slippery after being laid? Mr. Reiter: Yes. Chairman Adams: That is a very im portant point. I have seen plenty of machine room floor* that were improperly laid. What i* the remedy for that? Mil1. Plzak: Could the gentleman tell us how they applied the sulphuric acid, the concentration ? Ala. Kk.itkk; We just took the sulphuric acid and hud a section marked off, and somebody stayed right with it and let it soak on the floor for a while and then washed it off with water. We did just enough to take the smoothness off. We haven't had a man slip in changing wires for ns long n-* T can remember. W. A. Glka^ox (Hummeronll Paper Co,, Erie, Pa.): We liavc adopted a new scheme during flic last year or two. Whenever a' floor needs replacement in the paper mill, we Paper and Pulp Section 475 have reinforcement put in, and the cement, of course, doesn't entirely cover tlie rein forcement. The squares of tlie reinforcement arc just filled up evenly, and that leaves a rough surface. I-.. C. Haggard (Champion Paper ami Fibre Co., Hamilton. Ohio) : We have preliarcd ah of our floors in our machine room, and we have used cast iron grating and filled the openings with cement. That has elim inated a lot of slippery floor*. TheChairman Adams; grating is ex- l>u*ed? Mr. Haggard: The top of the grating is exposed. Chairman Adams: If you take a bunch of cement workers or cement finishers and tell them you want a floor laid, they smooth it over like a piece of glass. If you try to get them to put in a rough finish, they think you arc crazy, unless they know something altout the conditions. J. H. Turner (Consolidated Facer Corp., Montreal, Canada) : We use carlx>rundum crystals in a mixture of cement, about fifty- fifty. We have found that pretty good. The carborundum crystals do not get into the machines. That has eliminated quite a lot of slipping. Further, when we replace the floors, we replace them at tlie ground. Chairman Aoams: Ih changing wires, would you all agree with this, there are not very many hazards involved because we do supply proper supervision? Does anybody dispute that? Mr. Gleason : I do. Chairman Adams: Why? Mr. Gleason : There are two machines in our machine room. When you change a wire on one of them, naturally you block the passageway between the two Machines. In variably at that time there people who want to travel through the machine room. Our biggest difficulty is keeping people out who have no business in there at that time. Of course, the tube rolls and boxes of all descriptions arc pulled out and put into tlie aisle, and then, of conrsc, there is tlie slime tluit comes from die wet machine equipment that you constantly have to keep washed out of the aisle, but that is all very slippery. On the older type of machines you pull and haul so much machinery back and forth. There are plenty of hazards in connection with that. In back of the machine there isn't any adequate place to stand when making a lot of those lifts, Oi course, in the more modern mills, where you have this electrical equipment, that brings a lot of your Fourdriniers right out m the center ot tlie floor, where you change your wire and eliminate a great many liazarris. Electric cranes have come into their own more in recent years, and that takes a lot of the pull and liaul out of changing a wire. Of course, everyone knows that when your paper machines shut down, you arc not making paper, and the speed that enters into the operation of changing u wire causes a lot of hazards. Chairman Adam*: I agree with you, Walter, that it is very hazardous. I think I agree with you also tliat we don't get very many accidents a* a result of those hazards. I wonder if this lias anything to do with it. 1 have helped change many a wire. Joe ami Jerry know they are going to take out the tube roll*, and jack and Jim know tliey are going to do this. Isn't your work planned? Everybody knows where lie is going and what he is going to do. Mm. Reiter ; Yes. I might mention, also, that we tried to eliminate some of the speed. Some of the gentlemen mentioned tlie otltcr slay tliat tliey paid their men so much for wire change. \Yc don't do that. We pay them time and une-ltali. So we eliminate some of that extra hurry*. Mb. Gi.f.ason : Do you bring the beater room lielp in to help out at tliat time? Your beaters are down at tlte same time. Mr. Aucustus:' No. Mr. Gleason : What do you do with them? Mr. Augustus: Tliey dean up. Fred G. Cox (M. & O. Paper Co., Kenora, Ontario, Canada) : In our mill, when we put on a wire, we use 21 men, a couple of machine tenders, a couple of tenders, and so on down the line. We have three heaters for the two machines, and when the beater men are not doing their own work, tltey help out. The other machines are generally runningWe liavc had very few accident* in this operation---a few pinched linger* from three or four boy* at one end letting lulic rolls down a little bit before the other end. In regard to keeping out people who are not supposed to go through that part of the 176 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress nil!, ujj in Canada it is a practice not to tllow visitors in the mill. They have to get i special permit. If they were changing a vire, you wouldn't get a permit to go there, o matter if you were the prime minister of Tanada. Our finishing floor help has to go hrough the machine rooms. We have lots r room to walk back of both sides of the uachinc. They can go around. AU we use 21 men on the wire. Mr. Atx;isTu.s: Didn't you bring out oterday afternoon that one of the greatest iazards you have on wire changing is your nek of coordination of effort? I think that s true not only of wire changing but a lot f other operations. If each fellow knows cliitt he is to do and when he is to do it and nows how to do it, there is very little hanee for injury. Chairman Adams; I think we have overed this topic quite fully. Let's go on to lie wet felts. The wet felts are hazards and o vary somewhat, although they arc similar, ependiug upon the age of the machine and lie speed. What arc the hazards? Are they ivrc during tltc constant running or are ley greater when you are trashing up? Ralim! Bailey (Lawrence Paper Co., -atvrcuc*. Kansas) ; One hazard in chang- ig a wet felt is the slippery machine you avc to step on. Wc run cy linder machines, "here is a danger of slipping and losing your alancc when you have a load. Chairman Adams: While you are washir uj>, or while you are running? Mu Bailey ; While they arc changing the -It. It is impossible to remove all the slime, ou can get the machine dear, but you can't rt rid of the slick surface Chairman Adams; Does anybody have ivihitig in his mill on the walkways? F. K. Minor (Kenora Paper Mills, Ltd., emirs, Ontario, Canada) : We found h a >od practice to use the Fourdrinier wires. cut them up in strijn and tack them onto walkways. Of course, they do not last rry kig. but there arc lots of wires on ind. and wc a1way have a wire we can it m tlwtc in a few mmntet' notice. If the -rertis tivrrflx*. jjkJ ui>ihiig gets m there, e i4ti Mtfdi it FelWm> with robber 4 imr inaml rt very effective. ACiiaim*x hoc ourdruiier vnv r t Vu pa the old artacc? Mr. Mim* Vo. Mr. Cox: We also had our tinsmith cut sheets of tin and punch them, punch them from the inside, with the rough edge up on the wooden walks. No matter how much slime or stock gets on there, you can't slip. There is a hole that is hardly bigger than the point of your pcucil. Chairman Adams: That is all right as long as you wear shoes. We have mills where the men still go barefooted. Member: Are they positive they have no tripping hazard? Tf they did have one, what would happen? Chairman Aoams: Ever have anybody stumble over those? Mr. Cox: No, they are only up an eighth of an Inch. Every now atid then wc change the piece of tin that is tacked on, so there are no nails sticking out C M. Green: (Mosincc Paper Mills Co., Mosinee, Wis.): Wc use what we call a rubber bonded aluminum tread, made origin ally by the Norton Company, not around our wet ends, particularly, but around calenders and on the bed plates where they get slimy, and oil and water apparently do not affect them. They retain the non-slip qualities. We have had them in for four or five years now, and they arc apparently as good as when wc put them in. Member: Is the tread flexible so that it can be wrapped around ? Mil Greex : It comes Jd inch thick, any length you want and in varying widths, up to 12 or 14 inches. Ch-. xuax Adams: It can he put on either metal or wood surfaces? Mr. Green : It is drilled and countersunk so you can put ft on with wood screws or machine screws, whichever you wish to use. I am getting on the wrong end of the ma chine, but we liave equipped many of our machines with that material. L. R. Simpson (Brown Paper Co., Mon roe, La.) ; Our machine steps and runways are all equipped with a similar product, known as Kass. Chairman Adams: So tar in our discus sion it seems that slipping is the predominant hazard at the wet end of the machine. Mr. Haggard: Wc have covered some platforms and steps with expanded metal We are using subway grating. Paper and Pulp Section 477 Chairman Adams: That is on steps lead ing up to the side of tire machine. Mr. Augustus : Isn't there a Iwizard in turning the felt? We have had several ac cidents in that operation on old machines where there wasn't much clearance. Chairman Adams: That is on wash-up, where you are turning the second felt. Ml Augustus: Wc had one fellow thrown clear around the roll. This was on a small machine. They had some experi mental equipment in, which gave less room for working than usual. This fellow got down in the pit to turn the felt, and as he reached to grab it, he pulled his fingers around the roll and was thrown over the roll and into the pit, dislocating his shoulder. Of course, it wouldn't ordinarily happen the way this did, had the machine not had this experimental equipment on it, but we have had several others in the past ten or twelve years similar to that, where men have been caught turning the felt. CHAtitxtan Adams: When men are turn ing a felt on the machine, or pulling a felt (indicating on blackboard), a felt is going up over this roll, and they are usually stand ing on a platform here performing the oper ation. If the felt is traveling in this direction isn't it a fact that it will come away easier if you pull right before it goes onto the roll ? Mr. Reiter: Yes. Chairman Adams: Is that the reason, we get those accidents, that the fellow was working where he knows his work is going to be more effective, right before the pinch? Is that right? Mr. Reiter : That is right. Chairman Adams: What is our remedy? Mr. Reiter: We hRven't had an accident of that type since wc raised the top roll up so high that a man couldn't reach the top of it. Chairman Adams: There is the man, and you put the roll 'war op here (indicating). Is that right? Mr. Reiter: Yes, and a man at the stop* and-stort switch. Chairman Adams: You keep a man stationed at the lever all the time? Mb. Rons: Yes. Mb. Cox : We haven't washed a felt for eight years. We hove the modern machine. Wc don't wash oat. don't even change them. Chairman Adams; 1 would like to tell you what one of our mills did on the old machines. They arranged their platform (illustrating) so that it forces the fellows to pull the felt on the side of the roll away from the pinch, and there is no danger of getting caught. But one day they liad tltc felt all bunched in the middle and were ready to pull. You know how they do--reach under and pull around. The boss machine tender Utought it wasn't coming fast enough, so he jumped up, reached around to give it a couple of tugs, and went up over. So that doesn't seem to be a remedy, although it is a case of the boss breaking the rule himself. If you can enforce those rules, you will have safe conditions. It seems to me so far that the raising of that roll 'way up in the air is probably the best solution. Mr. Gleason: How about a bar guard, something in which his hand can go so far and then strikes the guard between the framework of the machine? Chairman Adams: Would that stop him from going in? Mr. Augustus : He means where you have the platform on the opposite side. The man couldn't reach through on the other side. Chairman Adams: Put something through there so he can't reach through? Ml Gleason : Yes. I have a request for a bar at the third felt framework where we had a man get his arm caught in the felt. I haven't investigated it thoroughly. Wc talked of It in the safety meeting. It is my understanding that he wanted it in the cen ter, between the framework of the machine, below the roll. The boss machine tender said that would be in the way all the time that yoa are washing your felt. It is a question of whether it goes inside or outside, under the felt. That hasn't been settled. Chairman Adams: Do you feltows ever have this happen while the machine is in operation* stock crumbs gather on a felt roll, and a fellow reaches in with^his hand and catches them? Mr. Plzak: We had such an accident occur not over three weeks ago. Incidentally. I would like to ask you machine tenders a question. As I understand it, you throw crumbs in and take them out to stretch the roIL Is that correct? Mr. Rrmi: That is right. 478 v .'..i in ty Congress Mk. 1*1./ %. 'Illl" ttJ' \ V4U1 | i Iff 4 A tb` M-. <!. ||t .* |4- Itrl !*. lltT*. MOIH-Illtla' hi-' lil.i! i`i-flMI.,14; lit put In's li;m*I n i-M.'-st -r imm . * 4;u*l il w;i* (nine fill. V\ i }-*! ijuih *. itii>.ii> I n* jpl'aiqt tno m.m i<lm t.i ihT< \\ i put a yuar! .*r i<inp.M4il aim! until We find ihi* mIhuIic-i it* ini- p. put ln.> arm in there. he ie-t% il *ui l*-r <dluiral- iiiu) and can *ulj it m > h*oi dutatier Il prcvcul-s it ifttui bong dragged down, because (lie nip i* ut lurv. and iu- land i> jterfcclly *afc in tlwrc. There i* about a Six* inch clearance with ju*t a guard >trip right amiss here. llo arm rv>t in there iii^tiatl f l<eing |im*>c and likely t>< lie dragged in. Mk. Itiinii: 1)> yai mean that is tltt tray <> euteh tl>e water going out of the nip? Mk. I'iJiAx: Yes. Mk. Kunjc: Why don't you lave the trav mink* liiguer; We lave tray* with about one tout Ivtween the mil* and tlic tray*. W. It. <hvi I W'er-t Virginia Pulp and l'iilier l\i.. (.`ovingtMii. Va.) : Why don't you !wer y.iur trays; Mk. JYzak: Tl,i| doon'i happen to he tiie nip. He wasn't caught m the nip. This II is turning this way, aiKl tin* one in the opposite direction. He was caught lietwccn the lower roll and this water jacket, as the* tall it. There was inaylie one and one* halt lu two imho >f space. He hnpjiciicil to l*e a thin man ami was able to law his arm drawn in there. 1 presume his arm went a* i:u a> it miilil. and llie rotation of tlic roll kept cutting that luniii. Mu UTitik: You wanted to know the solution tor the use i enunhs. If you have any Kits which coutimuiUy run crooked in a certain wav--for in>lancc, if the center keeps mi running Iwhind or something like that--why don't yon crown the roll or else the opposite? Mk. Pij/.mc : Would the condition lie the same with every felt? Wouldn't that con dition vary? Mk. Kkjtkr: We crown the roll* to elim inate tlic use of entmh*. Wc don't use cnmihs \cry often. When a felt lias a ten dency to run in one certain way wc over come it with tlic felt roll. Chairman Apa MS: Let's go on to the hazards in the drier section. V\ lad mie lad accident wlierc a man .r.wle! up and stood on top of the drier, i.f-'.i U'Hutu drier, during a tcnqiorary shut >wii, to mcitd the scam in tlic top drier felt i*o irh. top section and bottom section. I lu- latch grabl>ed. and he, of course, went mix iik- drier*. That was a hazard. It isn't .*m more in our mills, but I just relate it iio jiiM it might lie well for you fellows who do lu\- tlr older type machines to inquire Iw.w tliey uhtikI the seams in the top drier i< In, that they don't stand on those drier drums. In tins accident nobody touclicd the lever at alL Tlic clutch was a little out of order and it grabbed and started tltc machine. W'ltat are khik of the other hazards in the drier section? Mk. Kkitkk; Burns. Chairman Adams ; Ilave ? Wliat else do wc Mk. Bailey: A few years ago wc had a vertical stack drier si* feet high, and wc had a man fall from practically the top. We were lucky lie fell on a catwalk just jart way down. It didn't hurt him seriously. We have drier ladders beside the drier that carry the iiapcr over. Tliat is our main haz ard. foot slippage. Men will either get burned or fall. CliAiHMAN Adams: Thai drier is vertical. How fast do they run? Mk. Bailey : Wc run 30-point board to about 12-poiut, so tliat our x|H.*cd varies from 200 down to 90 feet u minute. When we have a new man, wc generally let him watch the older fellows take the paper over until he gets onto il, and then when wc arc cm 30poiut wc break him ill easily and try to make him efficient before wc give him something a little fast. I think slippage generally causes the burns. We use felt four-inch strips tip ou the drier ladders to eliminate the slip page. Ciiairman Adams: On most machines where tlic speed goes tip to 500 or more they usually use the rope carrier, and that does help from the safety angle. Do you fellows have any hazards with these fast, modern machines? Mr. Cox : The only hazard we do have as far as the drier is concerned is, of course, tlic rope carrier; wc travel 1,200 feet a min ute. Occasionally the tail will fall off the ropes, and die back tender or the boss ma chine tender will liave to reach in and pull lJum. r and i'utf' Scituni 479 it back uu the fupe-. ii pr<-tr> iiirt, and !.* d< - ,,< > <)> . 'id -! hi> finger* l*ur*i'*! -i iIk ui :*-r Oiajkmw A:>>v- \\ ;ijj n,4^ !ki-hc |Ik old pnJjli'Cp ill Mk 1V(.|KI would Ik lut ::i l!i >* ->*- i.Ui tile vnd of a drier pvar ainU voIm-u u> J.x> t hear Onv thing jJ--.ii Hiw* tih.rv. At otic time it wa- vjutu U to yet tln- fellows in dsr drier iiu-linn to put die spear* lack oil 0k U-k 1uri tiirv weren't in use, and I-.- surr, alien going up ami down oil tlic mu huK ruotu H.ur hrn sonit- Ikm1>* was U'iiiR a >t*car, that rots di.ln't get jMikcd with it. The calender stacks do *(ill present quite a problem in producing pinched fmgers airl pinched toes. Wc lad a man slick his feet in one not hmg ago. He liad on a pair of rubbers, and lie climbed up to make an adjustment ou tlic lop of the stack and willi the slack running. The steel rolls rstughl that rubber toe in nice shape. He hud a very bail injury, had to l>e amputated above die ankle. Whai has anybody to offer on the calender stack? Wluit bus anybody to tell us that i$ new in handling paper, or preventing getting caught in tlic calender stacks ? J. 4*'kki Bkrry (Alton Box Board Co., Alton, III.) : I would like to hear from some of the boxboard mill representative* here if they have some lyj)c of guard on the calender slacks to keep the lingers out when putting on the heavy grades of paper. Chairman- Adams: You mean the inruuuing nips--vvliclltcr they have a guard* Mk. Hf.hkv: If they do and what type. Mu. W'rk'.iit: \Yc put a two-by-fonr across the full length of the rolls, about eight inches out from the inrunning nips, so that if a man is going through ami slips and bills, he will have something to throw his hand against rather than into the nip. There is plenty of room to get around and put the plug in, hut if a man falls, he can throw his hand against the two-by-four. Chairman Adams: Do you have it next lo the winder? Mr. Wright: Wc only have it up about 6 feet h-Hi. A man won't throw his hand any higher than that. Chairman Adams: It will be high enough to protect the fellow on the floor. It doesn't interfere with your operation? Mr. Wkiunt: \\ e d*<n't let them work up : dw Jc the .'tack'. C.i(\ja\iw Ainu: Th.t - a K-ard. imi'i i: Ml Wnji.nr: Yc>. Our grv:<u>t trouble uj' in brinying the duvi from the drier xwr Du the tu| in the ulcudvr >t.u.k. hi ycititig up there a iium u;i-> in an awkward (Mj'itkm. We put a I'ttlv hg hook up so that j man cun throw his leg over it ami allow Uith land* to be free to bring the sliced aver ll top. We lad trouble with tliat. In ulknviug a man to have both hands free, wc have eliminated the difficulty. Chairman Adams: Would the metal "erw llie same purjiose as the two-by-four? Mk. Wkicut: It would, hut wc find if the sheet gets plugged in the nips ami any great pressure arises, it will break the board away rather than cause trouble on the bearings. Chairman Adams: That is a good point. Docs it help you any? Mk. Bkkky: To a certain extent. An ex pert on guards has a Jyjc which he has been showing us. He is Mr. Burak* of the Lib erty Mutual Insurance Company. Chairman Aiiams: Wc will give him a few minutes. Louis Bokaks (Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Buxton, Mass.) : I travel the country for our company and get into a lot of paj>cf mills, hut I am not a paper man. I have liccn a mechanic fur alxmt 26 years. Wc have hnd a great deni of success in guarding finishing calenders and finishing slacks, using different types of guards, particularly two boards in die shape of an angle iron. Chairman Adams: You arc talking about lioard machines? Mk. UoitAKs: I am talking about cither paper or board. We have had more success with |iaper than wc have had with ixiard. Chairman Adams: Is this on the paper machine calender or on the finishing room superealender? Mr. Boraks: Wc have had more luck on tlic supcrfiuislicr. We have had some on the paper machine stack. It lias been very diffi cult to get men lo use them because they have not been educated lu use them, 'flat has been our greatest difficulty. You can get a good picture ol llie guard when 1 say it is two boards nineiy degrees lo each other, with a separation in the center. 480 Tivcnty-sivth National Safety Congress Chairman Adams: Could you illustrate tliiit on ihc lioard for us? Mm. Bokak*: (Illustrating) Here is the uiji point. Tlx two hoard* of tlic guard arc joined together on the end*. There U a slut in Iktc tliey ran be bolted to the machine there. Tticrc arc three ways that tlx paper ran go in. I will make tin* down here again. At that point there is a considerable opening. I have made it considerable for a purpose, the idea luring that you lure a natural funnel or lead for the paper to thread, while down here it ir> narrow enough so your liands can't get in. Still vve can leave it pretty wide, because ii you brought that guard up dose to the nip |>oim. you would have lo bring it down to tlic thickness of your linger, three eighths or a halt inch; hut your hand gets thicker as you go up. up by the knuckles, you have pretty nearly an inch. In other words, if the guard it about four inches from the nip point, you can liavc an inch of space there and still can't reach the nip point. If the paper has a big lead there, it naturally goes in. By making that sharp point, as you see it, ilwrc is no tendency for tlx jiaper to come out. Ii that were a round guard, the paper might come out that way. By having those sharp |K)ints, the paper docs not go around at an angle and come down here and go that way. Tlic suction of the roll itself and tlK sharp point tends to thread it. That is the guard with which we are hav ing the most success- There arc three ways u> feed: Come in from the front or either side, top or bottom. If you make them' of wood, you still have the same good point the gentleman before me brought out, that it will break. The big trouble in trying to use nip guards on tltcsc stacks has been that you tried to bring live guard too close to the nip pi>iiit. In doing that, it gels choked up .very <iuickly, and it is hard to feed the paper. By bringing tlic guard further hark you can put your lianil in there but you can't reach tlic nip. There is no friction between the guard ami the roll because you have at least an inch there. Mr. Winslow: Suppose your lrand goes in there ami the roll is pulling it right down in ? Mr. Boraks: It won't pull your hand into Ihe nip. Mr. Winslow: I am not talking about the nip. I am talking about a friction burn from the roll and the guard. Mr. Boraks: It is a question of whether you want to liavc a burn or have a hand off. I don't think you would be very likely to get it. You could get it, but it is the lesser of the two evils. We iiave used that guard quite considerably hut we have an awful time introducing it, and I blame it on the fact that the trade hasn't been brought up in the right manner. I have drawings of tliat guard if anyone wants them. CiiArasiAN Adams: Have you ever put this guard on a paper machine calender stark? At what maximum speeds? Mr. Boraks: We put it on the fast ma chines and on the slow machines, it doesn't make any difference. Speed doesn't affect this thing at all. because you just cannot reach the nip point. We arc leaving a tre mendous amount of sjiace to thread the ma chine. The weakness in all the nip guards in previous years lias been to get the guard close to the nip, leaving a small space. But then they couldn't thread the paper. If your paper broke, it would crowd up in there. There was no room for it; it jammed. By leaving a lot of space and taking ad vantage of the thickness of your hand, you can do Uiat. By moving the guard back, you are all set. I will send anybody who wants them half a dozen different types of guards. Yon can use. the one best suited. We find in our business that inrunning rolls are the third largest machine hazard we have. Of course, vve have inrunning rolls in every industry, paper, metal, food, any thing. Mr. Gleason: Doesn't your doctor take care of the nip hazard? Chairman Adams: Will you explain? Mr. Gleason: Over the face of the calen ders, on the paper machines, we have what the)* call tlic doctor, which is practically a two-by-four across the face of the roll at a point possibly six inches from the nip, and when they throw (he paper they hit their arm against that doctor. That keeps it from going up Into the nip. Mr. Plzak: There is another hazard in connection with the supers. I appreciate that you are talking about calenders, but let's stay on the super for a minute. Paper and Pulp Section 481 Chairman Adams : I am a little con fused in my own mind as to whether we have been talking about the paper machine calender stack or the super. Mr, Plzak : This is the super here. Chairman Adams: Mr. Boraks said It could be Applied to the paper machine cal enders on any speed. Mr. Boraks: Yes, we use them on all the calender stacks, any kind. Chaikmax AoamS; Whether or not this works on the paper machine calender stack f think it is a step in the right direction. Mr. Plzak : Could I digress from paper machine hazards and ask one question? Has anyone Iiad experience in using sponges on llie supercalenders instead of rags for wiping off the dust? We have had three accidieuts in a row with rags on supercalenders. We Itave been tempted to get sponges. The infor mation we received is that sponges seem to disappear--I won't say they arc stolen. They have to buy them by the bales. Who has had *omc experience in that---the use of sponge* in place of rags for wiping off lint and dust on the supercalender rolls? Mr. Haggard: We use sponges but haven't had trouble from stealing. Mr. Plzak: How do you prevent it? Mr. Hacgard: We haven't witnessed it at all. We use sponges on the superealenders. Mr. Boraks: Isn't it the proper thing to clean the roll on the outrunning side? Then you don't have to worry about it. If you clean a calender on the inside, you are likely to get caught. It is the same point you made on the felt. Chairman Adams: I think what Jim has in inind is that there is still the danger of the nip above getting you. Mr. Reiter: I think this gentleman is talking about tlic bottom nip. Mr. Plzak: That is right. Mr. ReiTER: You can't do that on die outrunning side. Mr, Green : I don't know anything about calender stacks, but one method we have used with equipment that is likely to be stolen is to give every man who might need that equipment one piece, whatever it may he, and charge him with it, and if it wears out, he can bring back the old one. They may slip in a few old ones from home, but you won't lost quite so many as if you were trying to keep track of them some other way. Chairman Adams: Is that of any help? Mr. Plzak : The thing 1 am pleased to hear is that sponges arc being used. I was interested in (hat expression rather than in the other. Chairman Adams : Mr. Boraks, how about feeding paper into the calender stacks, from the drier section into the calender stacks? Somebody brought that tip the other day. particularly with respect to board, feed ing of heavy grades in slow moving ma chines. Mr. Wright, did you ask tliat? Mr. Wright: The question came up as to whether you could use plugs, and some body said you couldn't. We have always used plugs. If anybody has any questions on it, I will be glad to answer them. Chairman Adams: Tliat is on the heavy board? Mr. Wright: We run all the way from 12 to 5S or 60-point and use plugs all the time. Mr. Patton: In my paper 1 mentioned that wc couldn't use plugs with any degree of success because they interfered with the operation, and Mr. Wright brought this point up in connection with that. Mr. Gleason: What is a plug? Chaiuman Adams; A piece of broomhaudlc about one foot long, and rounded off. Chairman Adams: A piece of broomabout three inches wide and about one and one-half inches thick, rounded off, not pointed, so they caiVt lx drawn into tlx nip. There is enough point to bring the tail down; they break tlx sheet so it goes double into the nip. I wonkl f.ay the handle is drawn down. It is about the size of the broom handle. Tlic plug Itself is wide. Chairman Adams: In other words, it is a piece of wood shaped so you do this (il lustrating) with the paper and shove it right into the pinch. Mr. Wright : When you bring over a tail--wc usually start twelve inches wide-- it breaks the sheet, so it automatically folds right into the nip. As it comes over to tlx other side, the fellow tears it off. Mr. Winslow : Where do you keep the plugs? Mr. Wright: We have a slxlf right on 482 Tivcnty-sixth National Safety Conyrcss the edge of the frame. As the men run lip the stack, they grab tlic plugs. Chairman Adams: The same idea can be tised on a book and bond machine. 500 or 000 feet a minute. We do it in stacking paper. Mr. Winslow: The fellows complained that the little steps on the calender stacks were so small that they couldn't stand, so we widened our steps out and made a little tray--about half ail inch raise--around the edge. It is probably eight to ten inches wide, sets out a little bit farther, so the men have a good foothold when they get up on the starks, and that eliminates slipping. AI#. Uoraks: 1 have seen plugs used very successfully. Mh. Henderson; We use them on board machines. It was quite a job to get the men to use them. XIa. Wright: We found the broom-handle too small where it went into the nip, so we widened litem out. Chairman Adams; How about your fast machines? Have you any hazards? Do you want to describe how the paper is put into the nip? Mr. Cox: The jKiper is put in off the driers into the top nip by hand. Of course, (lie third hand amt hack tender stand on a footboard. and Die third liand spears the tail for the hack lender in grab hold. He has a rope with a handle on the stack, takes hold, ami lias to put his font up on the step. We have a tueplatc around it so the fellow can shove his toe up against it, and he steps up and throws the tail over. \Ve have doctors. All the third liand doe* is throw it tip there, and the air will blow it into each nip all the way down. We have doctors tlicrc to- dose when we arc stacking paper. As soon as we have the paper slacked, we open. Mkmiikh: What type of doctor? Mr. Cox : We arc using the Dicker.blade. There really isn't much of a liazard in slack ing paper. When the third hand throws the (Kiivr up llicrc on the top roll, unless he jumis or goes too high, he is bound to hit tlic doctor with his liand. Chairman Adams: He throws the tail? Mr. Cox : Yes. You couldn't go fast enough to climb up. You have to throw it. Chairman Adams: Have you ever had a device to feed the tail into the Slack, a chute with compressed air? Mr. Cox : Not in the mill I work in, but one of the company mills tried tliat at International Tails, don't believe it worked very well. We have only had one severe accident on our stack in twelve years. Chairman Arams: I think we had better get along to the reels. I just jotted down the stacked reels and the drum reels. 1 know tlicrc are other types, and I guess there arc hazards in connection with all of them. Wliat type reel do you have? Mr. Reiter: We have both. Chairman Adams: For a minute let's slay on the stacked reels, because I think quite a number of them are left. Our com pany has several. Tlie winders are right up against the wall, and we haven't room to spread them out. When you don't have the spare, you arc out of luck and have to con tinue with the stacked type. The reels arc one above the other and fixed. When this one (illustrating) comes up and is full, the paper is broken off and put on this reel, and this one, staying in its same position, is wound off on Die winder, and vice versa when this one is full; that is, they can't be taken off and put on the stand over here. When the paper is coming up on this reel, it is going off on this reel, onto the winder, and when they get close enough together here, particularly if you get a little behind on your winder and the two rolls approach dose to each other, you get a very bad hazard, in that you gel an iuninning nip formed that doesn't ordinarily exist. I heard of an accident just this year where a man went through stacked reels. Of course, he was crushed to death. There is no escape from it. Would you describe how you over come that hazard on mill stacked reds? Mr. Reiter : We iiaven't put any guard or anything on it. We have a very strict rule. If the nip get* dose, so that it is dan gerous. we shut the machine down. Chairman Adams: How dose do you allow the rolls to conic? Mr. Rkiter: l couldn't say offhand. We have never had to do it. hut I think if it would happen to me 1 would use my own judgment. I know nobody would say any* thing if I shut it down. Secretary Koiiinson: In the mill where Mr. Reiter is working they come closer than the Wisconsin law permits, namely eight inches. We do not have a guard there yet Pa/>er ami Palp 483 at the Kimlierly mill, but we will have one. We tried out the gnird. I believe your compaiiy developed, at our Niagara mill, and. with some changes, adapted it to our machin ery. ami it is working hue. They arc going into the other mills. The other guard that >crvc< to keep the>c reels from coming cto*e enough together for a man to get into the nip. 1 believe, 5s the wheel that you have at your plant, isn't it. Fran*? Ma. Roseblsk : Yes. Secretary Rom x sox : That breaks the paper as soon as the distance between the two reels becomes eight inches. Chairman Adams; You have a wheel right in here, Franz, and it stays there all Die time? Mr. Roseri mi : Yen, fasten the >kJe oi the frame on sort of a balance, with a weight on one end, so the wheel just idle> there and is really a balance between the two reel*. They can't get closer than eight inches. Chairman Adams: How many here have stacked reels in their mills? Quite a num ber. How many have guards on (hem to prevent this from occurring? (Three.) This type of guard is very effective, that Mr. Rosebush has in his mill. But we get an awful kick from production men when we try to put anything in there. Men on the machines don't like to liavc around the reels anything that is going to interfere with them. I might dcscril* what we use in our mill*. It can be adapted particularly if these reels are directly above each other. We just put a bar in liere, a piece of pipe, that extends across the width of the machine, and it is adjustable up and down. They can move it with a finger. It is countcrwcighted. The only thing it docs is to serve as an immov able surface. I remember only one accident occurring at that point where the reels did get down very close to each other. This pipe was in here, and the back tender did go into the reel of paper and was caught between the pipe and the bottom reel. He got a friction burn on his hand and was out of work for two or three days. There is one back tender who won't work around a pair of stacked reels unless he lias something between them, be cause lie knows lie would Iwvc been a dear! man if that pipe liadn'l been there. The advantage of the pipe is that if you can install it satisfactorily, the production met! won't kick very much because it doesn't hold up their production. In other words, it is mly a two-inch pifie, and your reds can come down very close together without shut ting down the machine. It does not meet the requirements of the Wisconsin law, docs it. Frttl? Secretary Robinson : They gave me an interpretation saying tliat that would apply under their law. I didn't put it in at all until 1 got that interpretation. H. L. Ui RNS (Carbide and Carbon Chem ical Co*>. South Charleston, W. Va.): I don't see how you get a hum from that pipe. We have the same thing on one of our ma chines. In fact, it is the one Fred sficaks of; we got it from you. The pipe is counter balanced so that a hand going in there would push it up. What position was that pipe in t>> make that bum? ITi aikua.v Adams: The two reels were very close together, ami the pipe was here. Ili> hand went into that space between the pipe and the lower reel. It couldn't go any tardier because the pipe held it from going in. Mr. Bcrxs: The pipe goes up against the next roll. Chairman Adams: Yes. They were dosed right up. He got a friction burn on the back of his hand. Mk. Burns: Your pipe is counterbalanced so the movement any place on this pipe will raise it up ? Chairman Adams: That is right. J. A. Moore (Paterson Parchment Paper Co.. Bristol, Pa.): Just this past year we had a man killed. The two reels were fillet! up pretty well. We were making good sized rolls. It is more or less speculation, but we assume that the tip reel broke off and the flying tail dropped down ami was going to run into the lower reel. The man reached in, apparently with his left hand, to catch tliat, and in some way lie was driven for ward. The space between the two reels was just enough to snap him in, crush his skull and shoot hint back out again onto the floor. He must have lain there probably two or three minutes before he was found. He wasn't dead yet. We rushed him to the hospital, and lie died about two hours later. We learned then tliat about two years be fore another man had been shot through the 484 Tiocnty-sixth National Safety Congress rolls in the same manner, but there was enough room to shoot him through to the other side, and all it did'was knock the wind out of him. To overcome that hazard wc extended the bearings of the two reels, allowing sufficient room so that if a man got in there at all it would he too wide to pull him through. Now wc arc negotiating for one of these revolving reels, and that, wc think, will eliminate any danger of that condition again. Chairman Adams: That is the cure. Do away with stacked reels. Chairman Adams: Do we have any haz ard in the operation of the drum reel? You know what I mean, it is a huge drum, and the reel rules ami is driven by the power of the drum revolving. Has anybody had any accidents? You Itavc those tip in Minnesota and Ontario. Mm. Cox: There is a certain amount of hazard there, but wc don't know of any way to overcome it. Wc put tire paper up there on the reel by hand, and the man has to be very careful and wide-awake. He follows the edge of the drum around and takes the winder side of the reel; that would be the stack side going that way. He has to take the sheet along up so it will follow the drum around. We have stands on both sides, stacks on the winder side. When the stack side is full, you let your winder wide reel down and start on that and take your hoist. We carry five reels on each machine; that is, we can have <me coming up and one on the winder and still Itavc three spare reels. In 1928 or '29 a man went through there. He got his arm caught. We have to carry six hand* mi our machine; for the sire and speed, wc need then). This sixth hand came over from the other side of the mill, that is the other machine. (We liave two differ ent mat-him's. tine a Canadian Dominion and the other a Haglcy-Scwcll, which is an American machine. This sixth hand let the reel down, instead of lifting up, and the fel low got his hand caught. He was under neath the stacked reel, putting on the winder reel, and instead of lifting it up, he let it down. It knocked the man out and broke four teeth and his collar-bone. The only thing wc can figure that saved him was that when his hand went into the winder reel, die reel jumped, and the speed was enough to take him through before that reel came back down; otherwise he would have been dead. A third hand wifi put his fingers in. He will probably get a finger or two fingers caught in there and pinched. If there is any paper on the reel, it doesn't hurt very much. If it is a bare reel, you will have a pretty badly smasiied finger. Mr. Gleason : Every try to put it on with air? Mr. Cox: We have never tried it. Cnairman Adams: There are air jets directing the paper. Some mills have this. It is a little chute like this and blows the paper right up into the space. Mr. Cox : We use air in ri)anging from one reel to the other; the only liazard we have is when taking from the stack to the reel. Chairman Adams: There are several different types of drum reels. There is one important point wc found in one of our mills. We had a man killed. The front end of the drum was exposed; it just happened to be tlttt tyj*. Most of them arc guarded by equipment, that is by the framework in con nection with the installation of the reel, but this front end was revolving absolutely open. You know, there are bolt-heads all around the outside of the drum. This fellow leaned against there and the motion of the drum threw him in. Ilis head went through between the drum and the reel and, of course, he was killed instantly. We just covered that over, put a shield in front of it. Mr. Simpson1: Is that the end of the reel or the side that was exposed? Mr. Reiter : How much pressure do you use on tlie air, and do you use a certain type of nozzle? We have tried air on our drum rfcel, and we either don't use it right or there ik something wc don't know about it. We couldn't make it work. Cn airman Adams: Shooting the toil of paper where it comes off the stack onto the drum? Mr. Reiter : Taking the paper from the stack to the winder reel, how do you do that? Mr. Cox: Have you ever tried slacking off your belt? Mr. Reiter: Wc haven't a belt. Wc have a motor on it. Mr. Cox : The way we overcome that, we Paper and Pulp Section 485 use full pressure air, but we have a reel belt that we slacken off and then tighten up when changing reels. If you have a slack, it isn't so tight that it will take the pressure of the air. Chairman Adams: What do you do down in the board mills when the paper comes off through the stack? What kind of reels do you have? Mr. Wright: We have die single reefs. Chairman Adams: You don't encounter any hazards? Mr. Wright: Wc bring the paper over the top. When we are going over the stack, we bring it clear from the top, so that a man cau carry it over there without getting near the reels at all. Chairman Adams : We can leave the reels now and go to the winders. There arc so many different types of winders and so many different types of accidents in connec tion with them that I don't know just how to start. Let's take the slitters. Does any body know of a decent slitter guard? Mr. Bosaks: Wc have pictures of slitter guards, winder guards, inrunning guards and all those things. On the winder and rewinder wc use a hinged barrier that moves outward as the roll builds up. There arc aluminum wheels running up against the paper roll. It is made so that, being hinged, you can turn it down at right angles to the floor and get your paper off without any trouble. When you bring it halfway down through an electrical interlock, it will stop the machine. We have even used that guard and built it heavy enough so that it acts as a skid, so that you can roll the. paper off on certain machines. On the slitter wc do practically the same thing. We make a hinged guard that you can raise instantly, to adjust your slitter knives without any trouble, no loss of time. We interlock that electrically, so that when you raise the hood, when the machine stops are interlocked, if it is a mechanical shift, belt or something, it would have to be brought back into place before the machine could be started. We don't have mauy acci dents on slitters. We have a lot of them on the winders and rewmders. It is simply a hinged guard interlocked. We find that the only one drawback to that guard is that in threading tlie rewinder on the start, you have to do it with the machine stopped and bring the paper over and glue it on, or fasten it on in some way. Thcu you have to bring your guard up, and then you can start the machine. You can't start it otherwise. You must start threading the re winder or winder with the machinery sta tionary. A lot of people don't like to do that Mr. Rosebush : Is that rewinder guard suitable for the nine-inch counter rolls? Mil Boraks: Yes, it doesn't make any difference. Mr. Rosebush : Can you use it on a Cam eron winder? Mr. Boraks : Yes. Mil Henderson : When you tip the guard back, is it heavy enough to come down on a man's toes ? Mr. Boraks: It never reaches the floor. Wc recommend making them light. Wc use duraluminum frames. Angle iron or channel stock makes a very solid, substantial frame. Mr. Winslow: That guard is for the in running nip and not for the slitter. Cn airman Adams: He said it will fit the Cameron, that has (he slitter here, as welt as the other type of machine, that has the slitter on the slitter board before the drum. Mr. Reiter : I wish somebody would say something about the use of rope. Chairman Adams: All right, I will tell you an expci ienoe in one of our mitts. The other day I met the general superintendent in front of the machines. We stood there talking, and along came a fourth hand, with a big coil of rope. He threw a loop over and let it go. He knew the roll was going to slip. They had safety collars, but they were a little bit out of kilter. That same mill, just about three years ago, was using rope on a winder to keep the roll from tele scoping. A fellow got one of His fingers caught in the loop, and when it came off there was a tendon that long on it (illustrat ing). They didn't learn a lesson. They are not using rope in that mill now. I think the problem is wliat kind of safety collar you can devise to use instead of rope. Can anybody describe something success ful? Mr. Cox: We used to have that trouble with rolls slipping and the boys putting rope on, the same as you say there. Though wc 486 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress had no really serious accident, it was a dan gerous practice. On our shaft we put the one collar on and screw it down. Chairman Apams: Do you shut down to do tliat? Mr. Con: Wc carry two staits all the time. When we put a shaft on the stand alongside the winder, outside the guard, we tave a guard running around down into the tlntiljlc drum and off tJie hack drum. We have a plate guard tliat runs right around. On the old style we Jtave a collar on the one end. The otltcrs are stationary collars iM-iltcd right through the shaft. If you put a collar on your shaft and screw on your nut. a lot of time* the fourth hand won't gel them on tight, and if they want to tip the ndl, it will start slipping. Instead of having one collar, wc liave two, the first one on tight, and wc take up a little hit extra: the next one we ]ut on the same way ami hold that with a wrench and slacken the other one. Tltrn you have it tight, and it will never slip. Mk. Writer.- What I had in mind i$ if the* roll of iMiwr starts to slip from not being started tight on llc cire. Chairman Adam*: 1 think there is a little nsnv to f-omc oi our problems than there is to yiur problem. On some of our machines it is impossible to put a collar in place until you get three or four inches on the core, because tlc collar will ride on the driving drums. Isn't that right? Mr. Kmtlk; That is right. Mr. Cox: Our taxes where the staffs fit in have so much space between them ami the drum. The core* go on the drums. We use two different cores. Wc have collars exactly the same thickness as the cores. The collars themselves arc actually outside the drmn. We can drop on down to the staff. We use rider rolls up tlierc. The shaft will go down ami fit right in between the two drums. Wc have the space to do that, between the drum and the end of the framework, where the taxes are. CanChairman Ai*ams: riivIhmIv help us with this other problem where wc don't liave that space? Merc arc your two drums (illustrating!. Your core sits down in this (Mtsitinn. When you start your paper on the core, that core is right down in this position, riding on those drums. If you tad a collar that would keep your rolls frum telescoping, it would be like this. Your core would be up this high off your drums. When you get tliis much paper on your core, you can put a collar on. Mr. Reiter : That is right. Chairman Adams: How many use col lars on their winders? (One). Mr. Wright: We use a square wooden block tliat runs slowly until we get it large enough to put the collar on. We have never had trouble with telescoping. Chairman Apams: You don't have any trouble with telescoping until it gets large enough to put your collar on. Then you shut down to do it? Mr. Wright: That i* right. Chairman Adam*: Tliat is what they don't like to do. shut down. Mr. Wright: Wc are on rcwitidcrs, so we have time enough to shut down to do it. Chairman Adam*.: Has anybody had any experience with a collar that will work without shutting down? We had one, but it wasn't very successful. Most of die collars will do the trick but you have to shut your machine down to put them in. Mr, Wi NSl-QW: Wc don't use rope and wc don't use collars. The rolls don't slip. Why they don't, I can't tell you. Chairman Adams: You arc lucky. Mr. Winslow: It nay Ik* the tyjic of winder, I don't know. Chairman Adams: It nay l>e the grades of taper. Yon go on for months, and then you get a certain grade of paper that will slip. Mr. Henderson: I think they use a little gummed patter to start it. Chairman Adams: What I am talking about is a roll of paper when it gets up above, like tliat (illustrating). There ts (lie edge of the roll. It will slip out like this. Mr. Henderson : You have to slip on the core first. Chairman Adams: Xot necessarily. The sheet will slip on itself. Mr. Bailey : Wc have (tat trouble to some extent, but we don't u*e any collars or ropes. The boys take a piece of plank, iwo by eight, hold it against an end and bold it back. Chairman Adams: You have a very Paper ami Puip Section 487 slow moving machine compared with some of our book and bond and print machines. Mr. Koserush : We use rope and two men. One man takes the end of the rope and walks up to the end of the machine as the other fellow feeds it out. One man had his thumb taken off with the rope clipping around it. Stafford A. Blnf.uict (Southern Ad vance Bag and Paper Co., Hodge. La.): I use the rope on our rewinders that come off the machine in making the back rolls. Wc liave some rewinders in the finishing room tliat wc use rope on. Wc have had the same experience that Mr. Rosebush has had. Wc use nvo men on the winders and the rewind ers in the finishing room in making counter rotls. The rewiuders roil at sucli speed that wc can only use one man there. \Ir. Benedict . We found one thing to use to take the kinks, the whipping knots that might be thrown into the rope, out of it. As a secondary safety measure we have in stalled on our machine, on our winder that comes off the machine, two little rods, two complete circles. The boys take tlc rope and throw a half-hitch around the circle, and any knot or kink will stop at the circle be fore it gets to their hand. They are not likely to get their hands into, the rope or the shaft. :Chairman Adams We are all agreed it is a hazard, but it doesn't seem to me that we have anything but the use of rope in a safe manner, or slopping the machine to put a collar on when it gets to the point where this is possible. That would be a good problem for tltc en gineering committee for this year. Mr. Grant: Mr. Secretary, I would like lo make a motion that wc go on record as commending George Adams (or the excellent way lie has handled these meetings. 1 would also include in that motion the Chairman of the Program Committee. Mr. Winslow : l second the motion. (The motion was put to a vote and carried. Chairman Adams expressed his appreciation, and the meeting was adjourned.) ADJOURNMENT Petroleum Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--A. W. Breelaxd, Lone Star Gas Co., Dallas, Texas. Vice-Chairman--A. J. Martinson, Union Oil Co. of California, Los Angeles, Calif. Arvs Letter Editor--J. H. Biown, Tide Water Oil Company, New York, N. Y. Engineering Committee Chairman--E. D. Murpkey, Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp., Tulsa, Ok(a. Health Committee Chairman--Dr. V. C. Baiiu* Humble Oil and Refining Co., Houston, Texas. Porter Committee Chairman--H. T. Maumee. Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, Okla. Program Committee Chairtnan--R. B. Roapek, Humble Oil and Refining Co., Houston, Texas. Publicity Committee Chairtnan--Glenn Byers, Shell Petroleum Corp., St. Louis, Mo. Statistics Committee Chairman--J. W. Myers, Standard Oil Co. (N. J.), New York, N. Y. Atlantic Division Chairman--R. L. Simpson, The Texas Company, New York, N. Y. Great Laker Division Chairniau--F. R. McLean, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., White Star Div., Detroit, Mich. Gulf Division Chairman--D. B. Hiatt, Texas Pacific Coal Sc Oil Company, Fort Worth, Texas. Afid-Coulittcnt Division Chairman--Kraus Earhart, The Texas Company, Tulsa, Okla. Pacific Division Chairman--L. K. Butler, Union Oil Company of Calif., Los Angeles, Calif. Rocky Mountain Division Chairtnan--B. V. Osborn, Standard Oil Co. (Ind.), Casper, Wyo. Past General Chairmen-- R. W. Black, Standard Oil Co. of N. Elizabeth, N. J. R. S. Bonsib, Standard Oil Co. (N. J.), New York, N. Y, V. R. Curve, The Texas Company, Houston, Texas. R. E. Donovan, Standard Oil Co. of Calif., San Francisco, Calif. C. L. Hichtower, United Gas System. Houston, Texas. G. O. Lockwood, The Empire Companies, Bartlesville, Okla. Geo. F. Prussjng, Union OH Co. of Calif., Los Angeles, Calif. R. B. Roaper, Humble Oil and Refining Co., Houston, Texas. E. J. Senne, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., New York, N. Y. C W. Smith, Standard Oil Co. (Ind.), Chicago, 111. D. J. Wallace, Sinclair Prairie Oil Co., Tulsa, Okla. Secretary--H. N. Blakeslee, American Petroleum Institute, New York, N. Y. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--H. W. Boggess, Sinclair Prairie Oil Co., Tulsa, Okla. Vice-Chairman--J. H. Brown, Tide Water Associated Oil Co., New York, N. Y. f/ews Letter Editor--F. R. McLean, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., White Star Div., Detroit, Mich. 489 490 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Engineering Committee Chairman--R. D. MuaniEY, Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp., Tulsa, Okla. Health Committee Chairman--P. E. Ketoan, Shell Petroleum Corp., Houston, Texas. Program Committee Chairman--A. \V. Bkeelaxd, Lone Star Gas Co., Dallas, Texas. Publicity Committee Chairman--J. L. RjsiNCE*, Magnolia Petroleum Co., Dallas, Texas. Statistics Committee Chairntau--J. W. Mveis, Standard Oil Co. (N. J.), New York, N. Y. Visual Education Comnut'rr Chairman--C. A. Miller, The Texas Co., Houston, Texas. Atlantic Division Chairman--L. C. WoOOURiDCE, Socony-Vacuum OH Co., Inc., New York, WY Great Lakes Dhnsion Chairman--R. T. Hkndehson, Standard Oil Co. of Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio. Guff Division Cha'trman^~\\\i. Grant, Jr., Humble Oil & Refining Co., Baytown, Texas. Mid-Continent Division Chairman--J. D. McCamky, Jr., The Carter Oil Co., Tulsa, Okla. Pacific Division C. J. Noiujank, Shell Oil Co., San Francisco, Calif. Pocky Mountain Division Chairman--R. O. Traylor, Standard Oil Co. (Ind.), Casper, Wyoming. 1`ast General Chairmen-- R. W. Black, Standard Oil Co. of N. J., Elizabeth, N. J. R. S. Honsih, Standard Oil Co. (N. J.), New York, N. Y. A. W. Bkkki.and, Lone Star Gas Co., Dallas, Texas. V. R. Cumkik, The Texas Company, Houston, Texas. K. E. Donovan-, Standard Oil Co. of Calif., San Francisco, Calif. C. L. Hightower, United Gas Pipe Line Co., Houston, Texas. G. O. Lockwood, Cities Service Oil Co., Bartlesville, Okla. Gra>. F. Prussint,, Union Oil Co. of Calif., Los Angeles, Calif. R. R. Ro.miK, Humble Oil and Refining Co., Houston, Texas. E. J. Skxxf., .Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., New York, N. Y. C. \V. Smith, Standard Oil Co. (Ind.), Chicago, 111. D. J. Wau-acr, Sinclair Prairie Oil Co., Tulsa, Okla. .V,vrrZury--H. N. BI-aKLSLEF., American Petroleum Institute, New York, N. Y. MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October II. 1937 The session was called to order by Ceil- Gas Co., Dallas, Texas, who introduced the end Cluiirman A. W. Brcclamt, Lone Star speakers and directed the discussion. Industry's Responsibilities in Community Safety By HENRY 1IV. BOGGESS Superintendent of Safety, Sinclair Prairie Oil Company, Tulsa, Okla. During 19.V 111,000 American citizens died in accidents. Sixteen per cent, or 18,000 of them, met death white employed at occupations from which they earned their livelihoods and so arc called industrial fatalities. Tl>e remain ing 93.000 accidental deaths are broadly re ferred t> as public fatalities; at least, they w ere non-occupalionaL The ratio of public to industrial deaths is more than six to one. It is obvious that the broadest need for safety is outside and not within the ranks of Industry. Whether or not industry has any responsibility for these public or outside accidents, whether or not it has within its power tlte ability to prevent any of them, is the question. Petroleum Section 491 That there is a close relationship between accident causes classed as public and those classed as industrial is recognized by all stu dents of Uie subject. That relationship causes one to ponder over the right and the wrong of arbitrarily segregating industrial and public accidents. Safety men have long realized that the fundamental causes of industrial accidents differ not at all from those that kill people in the home, on the street or at the seashore. If hazardous equipment leads to injury in the plant, it wi(l lead to the same thing on the highway or in the home. From the standpoint of society at large there can be no basic difference between giv ing a green and wholly untrained industrial worker a well guarded jointer to operate and giving a green and wliolly untrained citizen a modem, safe motor vehicle to operate. Trouble is potential in either instance; irre trievable loss is imminent in either case. The question should not be, '`Who is responsible?** --the question should be, "Why are such fool ish things done:" It docs seem that a united front should be brought to bear upon the fundamental causes of accidents as a whole; not entirety in lieu of, but at least in connection with, the many piecemeal thrusts and parries at contributing causes that are now flying in all directions. It is altogether probable that a closely knit and well organized onc-front safety movement will appear on the horizon eventually. It is readily granted that certain necessary legislation must conic if safety is to grow more efficient. The Uniform Vehicle Code is an outstanding example of the right kind of leg islation. Much necessary legislation will in deed be s(>onsored and fought for by safety men. But all such legislation roust be sound and based upon scientific knowledge of the subject. Aside from industrial safety men devotedly entering the so-called public accident field, just what else can industry do to help minimize accidents outside its gates? Just what are industry's responsibilities u*hirh it has not yet recognized and accepted? One critical view is that the so-called tech nological development in this country, to which so many of our ills have been charged, is the result of research and development by American industry-. It is said that through this research and development, the entire so cial tone of America has been changed from a Beethoven sonata to a Duke Ellington swing. To attempt to free industry from re sponsibility in even the more remote reactions, due to this increased national tempo would be difficult--if it Could be shown that industry had both the antidote and the authority to administer it. The thought seems to be that, having changed the environment in which men live, it would follow as a logical sequence that industry should so train men that they can live securely in that cliangcd environment. The answer to such a charge is not difficult: The limits to which industry may go in training humans to safely use its products arc very well defined by the liberties that society grants to its citizens. Factual information, detailed in structions and pointed warnings just alxmt exhaust industrial limits. Persuasion is pos sible but coercion is impossible. Mandatory requirements must be left to society. But there are criticisms that are more prac tical and less idealistic. It has been suggested that the individual consuming the product of industry is entitled to as much protection in its use as is the workman in its making. Unless industrial safety is a lucre monetary gesture, unless it was devised and is being maintained ior purely economic reasons, this thought must be accepted as true. What right has industry to sell a fanner a water pump with unguarded gears that wilt sooner or later mangle his hand? What right lias industry to sell a housewife a |>orcelain bathroom fixture that is known to frequently break and sever arteries? What right lias in dustry t sell a road commission an asplialt road that will be slick in wet weather and result in broken necks and broken hearts ? If the water pump can be guarded; if the bathroom fixture can be made of nou-breakahle material; if the asplialt rand can he built so that it will not be slick in wet weather, then industry should nut be iiermitted to plead economic or competitive pressure, nur even the value of replacement business. It will not even attempt to do so when the time comes that the accident problem is looked upon a* one problem and the safety efforts of America are united in a one-front, efficient drive to slop preventable accidents witliout regard to where they occur. In a few quarters, industry yet covers up behind the old English Common Law prin ciple known as "caveat cmplor" which means, "Let the buyer beware." But this is rapidly being recognized as poor morals, poor ethics 492 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress and rotten business. Letting the buyer beware lias caused pain, destitution, deaths and great financial losses; it is an unchristian principle, an unprofitable practice and should become the object of every honest safety man's right* euus contempt. If it is wrong to sell poison meat that wilt be eaten by an Innocent purchaser, it may also he wrong to sell an unsuspecting housewife a wringer that may ruin her life. Especially, when wc know how to guard that wringer and fail to do so. Consumers hare rights of protection which Uie law does not as yet recog nise and it is to be hoped that industry will see to it that legislation is never necessary* Happily, facts prove that accidents coming from industry's failure to protect consumers comprise an infinitesimal part of the whole ncrident problem. The number of people hurt as a direct result of using unsafe industrial products constitutes but a fractional per cent of lire ten million yearly injuries. Happily, too, American industrial concerns arc few and be coming fewer where safety of products is secondary to fad and fashion, secondary to competitive fears or secondary to selfish in terests. Most establishments do recognize their public responsibilities. Whole industries plan, research and spend with a view of con sumer protection which is equal to if not greater than the protection afforded employees. Every individual producer of American products would make money by following the lead of the automobile industry. Tlie develop ment of safety in the motor car has been a very potent factor in the increased sale of it. Mr. R. H. Grant, vice-president of General Motors recently observed, "It is to the best interests of the automobile industry to do its full share in the safety movement for the sake of the public and for the preservation of its own business." The oil industry can sell more asphalt when it insists that each and every road contractor adhere to a formula that will insure friction surface for automobile tires in wet weather. Safety among employees is not the only safety tiiat industry can practice and make money in the bargain. And there are other angles to the monetary value of public safety, not the Wa>t of which is the increase in the number of customers that will automatically follow in the wake of truly efficient safety. It seems difficult to realize, but it is never theless true, that approximately one million American people have died in accidents since January 1,1927. Industry has not caused these deaths, to be sure, but industry has lost because of them. Each of tliose million who have died in accidents since 1927, was an American cus tomer. How many water pumps would they have bought ? How many bathroom fixtures ? How many automobiles? How many million gallons of gasoline and million quarts of oil ? A million dead customers in the "last ten years and, unless the increase is cheeked, more than another million customers will be lost In the next ten years. Hot only have we lost and are losing the buying power of this vast army of die world's best spenders, but the destruc tive effects of their deaths on those near and dear to them diminish the survivors' abilities as producers of wealth. Again, industry loses. Social losses, industrial losses, individual losses due to accidents comprise an unexplored field. After twenty-five years of organised efforts, it Is evident that entirely too little is known of the economics of safety. We know, to be sure, that the accidental dead are but a smalt part of the economic loss compared to the millions tiiat have been permanently and totally disabled and most of whom, coincident with their injuries, not only stop producing but, what is worse, start sapping wealth--and compared to the millions sustaining less con sequential but nevertheless costly injuries-- and compared to the untold, the unknown losses In property. Even in the absence of scientific treatment of the subject, it is quite obvious that industry cannot exist without society and that anything that seriously harms society and affects its well-being is also a hindrance and an encum brance to industry. To preserve itself, industry must interest itself in those influences that are detrimental to the social structure. Thus, of all of industry's responsibilities, the duty of self-preservation points as strongly as any other to the necessity for increased community safety. It may seem that the tone of this discussion lias pointed to the importance and the value of money in the campaign for the conservation of human life and limb. Certainly, It is under stood that the safety of to-day and tomorrow is only partly dependent upon financing and it sliould not be inferred that such responsi bilities as properly belong to industry are confined to money. The future progress of safety U more dependent upon the men who carry its banner than upon the dollars that pay its way. Inasmuch as industry develops Petroleum Section 493 and employs eight-tenths of all men devoting their lives to accident prevention, its contri bution in leadership in safety is of utmost importance. As an illustration, there seems to be a gen eral belief that, inasmuch as the accident prob lem came to the front rapidly, grew to alarm ing proportions by leaps and bounds, it can be subdued quite as suddenly. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The rapidity with which the menace of accidents has arisen does not by any stretch of the imagination infer that it will end quite as quickly. The accident problem is definitely destined to follow in the footsteps of the human race, as long as it remains a mechanized race, even onto the very brink of eternity. Safety men, unequipped as they are today, cannot be expected to suddenly solve a prob lem of such magnitude as tlie accident prob lem ; they will do exceedingly well to mollify its full force and effect a hundred years from now. One of rise more important things tiiat exponents of safety can do to-day is to prepare for tomorrow; they can lay a firm foundation for safety so that the generations of tomorrow and all of the tomorrows to conic may add to, detract from and otherwise improve upon the science that is now in the process of formation. And this thought, unimportant as it may seem, is uttered with the full meaning tiiat the words imply. To-day, there should be a code of ethics to guide us and to point out pitfalls for those who will take our places tomorrow; we need such a code as much for ourselves as for the generations to come. We need to agree upon our objectives, we need to understand our purposes, wc treed to respect our responsibili ties and we need to bind ourselves together to faithfully fulfill them. A code of ethics for exponents of safety would dispel petty mi understandings, solidify efforts and imbue all of us with the spirit of human service which is our only real reason for existence. The Worker's Health in the Petroleum Industry By a. E. KASSEBAUM, M.D. El Dorado, Kansas Foot major division* of the oil industry combine to bring the oil and ils varied prod uct* to the fofcfic 1. Production, with its geological, drilling and pumping operation*. 2. Transportation, with its pipe-lines, frump station*; ships with their terminal facilities, automobiles with their garages and tank cars with their shops. 3. Refining with its stills, natural gasofew. grease, and other plants, tank farms, test and research laboratories. 4. Marketing, with its storage tanks, ware-botucs and service stations. One hazard is common to all four major divisions--gas fumes, which are given off by the oil and its products. The effect of these is not so much incipient and cumulative, as it is sudden, due to the nature of the poisons in the gases. We have several kinds--the gaseous hydrocarbons such as butane, meth ane, propanes, and ethane. These groups are harmful to health. They act as asphyxiants and irritants--and even in small quantities are poisonous. The hydrocarbons in gaseous form are found more in natural gas and refining gas than in crude petroleum. Their composition is related to the temperature, consequently appreciable quantities are not present until the temperature is near the boiling point. Air atmosphere containing small amounts of hydrocarbon gas may be considered dan gerous. Then we may have hydrogen sul phide in petroleum or its products. Here is a real health hazard, for its poisonous effects are well known--even when the air contains only 0.0005 per cent. This is commonly known as "sour gas" and fortunately is found in but few oil districts. The light oils in Mexico have the highest per cent. Those in Ohio and the Mid-continent fields have considerably less, while scarcely any is found in the oils in California. Carbon dioxide, of course, is here, there and anywhere, because it is the chief prod uct of complete combustion. It is found 494 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress primarily at alt wells, in wash gases, from furnaces, and engines. This gas is not con sidered deleterious to health--but it surely will put one out if he gets enough of it ami (lie recipient remains sick for several days. Unlike carbon dioxide--carlton monoxide is <nic rf the most insidious of the poison ous gases. It is produced by the burning of carbon containing materials such as natural us, coal coke, wood or gasoline whenever the supply of air is not sufficient for com plete combustion. One to the outdoor na ture of the oil industry and proper disposal of the waste, concentrations of this gas are not likely to occur. Sulphur dioxide is a product of combus tion when sulphur or any fuel containing sulphur or sulphide is burned, and it is the chief irritant present iu Hue gases when natural gas or any ga. containing hydrogen sulphide is used as fuel. It is also formed when lubricating oils arc treated with sul phuric acid. It is used as a treating agent in purifying gasoline, kerosene and lubri cating oils--so is primarily used in refiner ies. It is handled in' cylinders, as it is poisonous in very small concentrations. It is so irritating to the eyes and lungs in minute quantities (hat it warns a person of its presence. Ill refining--add (o the gases amt vapors already described, ammonia and chlorine. This will complete the gas hazards of re finery workers. What has been said about the other gases holds true for these also. They present primarily accidental hazards --and not health hazards as we define them. Ammonia and chlorine, however, in haled over a period of time will produce a chronic catarrhal condition of the respirnimy passage. They should therefore be kept in their proper tanks and storage ves sels and all leaks prevented. If necessary to In* exposed to the gases, of course,* the ]>roj>cr gas inasks should be provided1--and the worker will remain healthy and safe. Another liarard claimed to be common In all the major division* is the production of skin rashes, and acne from direct contact with oil or its products. This affects em ployees in varying degrees. Some not at all, while others cannot be allowed tn work in contact with oil or its products. However-- this is not a hazard of oil per se but rather a special sensitivity of the individual. I oc casionally see cases of this type and in nearly all there is a history of allergy* in some form and these people just happen to develop more sensitivity to those substances than the average individual. Then tlierc is the question of acne--x* called petroleum acne. Frequently these eases come to inv attention. Here again is a condition that is easily preventable. In variably it is seen in an employee who is slovenly in his personal care and hygiene. He finds the oil accumulations difficult to remove so makes little more than superficial effort to do so--consequently his skin is not thoroughly cleansed for weeks at a time. He frequently looks as though he is made up for a stage appearance with the dark sludows around his eye; and ears and in the hair line. Eventually the pores of the skin revolt-- lesions form due to the infection dammed up, pustules develop and all stages of the condition become apparent. Pro|>cr cleans ing of the skin will prevent all of this. Now let us su vcy the hazards incident to the production division. If you stand on the floor of an oil rig while drilling you are impressed with the possibilities of the acci dental hazards. But what about health? Well, the men seem healthy, they arc out in the open, subject to fine sailing and fair weather--but also they slay there through wind or rain, heat or cold, day Or night. Theoretically such exposure is certainly not conducive to good health. These men however develop into a hardy lot and while they are subject to many of the upper respiratory diseases, yret we find compara tively few cases of pneumonia. The less severe respiratory maladies seem to build up an immunity which gives them protection frpfn the more serious diseases. The eases of pneumonia among the field men are far less than In the office vorkcr or iu the families of these men. I found that in 683 of my consultations with field worker*. 314 or about half were for respiratory infections, influenza, colds, bronchitis, grippe, etc., and only 15 cases of pneumonia. Now iu 469 time loss illnesses among refinery workers exclusively there were 199 respiratory infections, or about one-fourth of the total and 15 of these were pneumonia. In another group of 506 con sultations with other than petroleum work ers 175 were for respiratory infection* and 31 for pneumonia. Petroleum Section 495 You will see there are a great many more respiratory infections of all types among the field workers. After a careful study 1 have come to believe that much of this is due to the housing conditions existent iu most of the oil fields. At best they arc inadequate. These men throw aside their heavy clothing worn in the field and lounge around in drafty cold houses. The frail construction of these houses makes proper heating difficult and certainly increases (he respiratory health hazards of the employee. Most of these houses are constructed by the oil companies during a boom because tlierc is no place for the workers to live. Usu ally considered temporary dwellings they are very poorly constructed. Practically they turn out to be quite permanent dwell ings in most fields. This condition exists in nearly alt of the housing in production de partments and to a certain extent in the refining department. Should companies furnish satisfactory housing they would be far ahead in the end because it would greatly reduce the time loss illnesses with the attendant loss in training new or temporary help to carry on the same work. Thus the industry by assuming its obligations regarding their employees' health is in reality improving its own efficiency and production. The repeated exposure of the eyes to foreign bodies and chemical irritants may be detrimental to vision. Frequent washing of the drill pipe and greasing of cables re duces this hazard in the case of the drillers and tool dressers; but it is still present to some extent. These workers, as well as (he pumpers, roustabouts, and gaugers are also in contact with various chemicals, such as pronax, tretalite. caustic soda, tannic and hydrochloric adds. There also is the dirt from blowing dust which is constantly pres ent in out of door work. These factors create an accident hazard primarily, but by constant recurrent irritation it may mean a definite health hazard as to vision. We fre quently have to treat eyes because of the above conditions and not uncommonly we see cases of trachoma following such situa tions. Reduction of this hazard of course will follow in the wake of safety education and proper equipment. Pumpers and roustabouts are quite free from further health hazards after those due to natural elements are eliminated. Regu lation of health habits is sometimes difficult for production and refinery workers be cause of shift work. In the transportation department (be main hazard is exposure to gases ami vapor*. Storage tanks, reservoirs, railroad lank cars --pipe lines and their pumps have to Ik: cleaned. Opening them up to fresh air, washing than down and steaming than out is not always enough. It must be possible to have through and through ventilation. The gauger or workman may inhale enough fumes from a man hole to make him ill, but the main danger is not there--nor is it a full tank, but rather the partiully filled or empty tank where there is room for an ac cumulation of gas. This gas, usually a mixture of petroleum vapors and hydrogen sulphide, is very deadly and works very rapidly. It is both asphyxiant and irritant. There arc other materials used iu oil pro duction that may prove to be health hazards, such as sand, lead, tar, acid and alkalies. Sand and carbon black may produce a sili cosis. Lead iu the form of tetra ethyl lead is very hazardous--but it is handled iu a certain prescribed manner so that the oil worker has little contact with it in poisonous quantities. The finished product is received at the refineries in tanks and under super vision of the Ethyl gasoline corporation. It is mixed into the gasoline by specially selected worker*. It is interesting to study the following analyses of three comparative tables. The first table is taken from the files of a mutual health insurance organization rn a local re finery. Of 469 consecutive time loss illnesses, we find most prevalent the following 10 con ditions: influenza 156, tonsillitis 41, appen dicitis 30,* gastro-enterilis 34, bronchitis 18, sinusitis 13, arthritis 14, hemorrhoids 13, pneumonia 37, and peri-rcctal abscess 10. The next table covers 683 private con sultations in all walks of life. Hect the conditions were influenza 180, common colds, 75, tonsillitis 53, bronchitis 38, pneumonia 18, sinusitis 31, grippe 30. heart disease 18, syphilis 10; hypertension 22. The third group is one ot 503 private consultations with oil workers only. Here we find influenza again at the top with 130 cases, colds 56, tonsillitis 46, pneumonia 15, 496 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress bronchitis 24. grippe 22, hypeet 22. heart disease 18. zonhe 15 and sinusitis 15. Here we find no great difference in the diseases of the refinery workers, the field workers and the community at large aside from the respiratory infections. These seem to be more prevalent among the field work ers. probably because of their exposure to the elements. More predominantly on the increase seems to be sinusitis. All of these conditions have quite likely been aggravated to a great extent in the midcontinent field by the severe dust storms of the past few years. NText but by no means less important is the problem of venereal disease. With the recent drive being made by Surgeon Gen eral Parran of U.5.P.H.S. against syphilis it would be a colossal mistake not to talk about it. Dr. Parran claims that one in every* 10 adults lias syphilis. To me it has been an interesting phase of my work. Early in the development of the field with the great influx of new people in the com munity the incidence of syphilis was quite high, but as new development subsided and the field settles down to a pumping field primarily -- the incidence of syphilis has dropped nearly 50 per cent. Whether this i* due to the fact that during boom day* prostitution rides high and with a shifting of developments to new fields, the prosti tute moves on or whether people who de velop new production arc more loose m iheir sexual activities is a question. But even at that it seems that syphilis is very prevalent among nil field workers. To tell a wage earner in these times of small wage income that he needs treatments tor syphilis is creating a great mental haz ard unless treatment can be obtained afvery low cost. Furthermore, the majority of cases are past 40 years of age. married and have families. Thus social as well as mental and financial problems arc created. Here then is a large overwhelming problem. What arc we going to do about it? At the same time wc must mention gonor rhea. ft is probably three times more prevalent than syphilis. The symptoms of this disease arc more acute and disabling in the early part of the disease; consequently the sufferer seeks medication. Gonorrhea causes a great deal of time loss illness-- however the employer is little aware of it because the employee never reports the true cause of His absence. Here again is created a social as well as a physical and economic problem. And an answer should be sought. Successful industry* depends largely upon the mental and physical fitness of its em ployees. It is conservatively estimated that it costs approximately $200 to train an em ployee Naturally then time loss illnesses are expensive. Much has been said about preventive medicine. It is not sufficient for industry to make safe all supplies and equipment within its gates--as more than two-thirds of the employee's time is spent elsewhere. Hence it is necessary to visualize--first his home and then his places of recreation. Is the home comfortable, dean, does it keep out the elements, and can it be prop erly and adequately heated? These factors should be considered when the company undertakes'building projects in a new field and will greatly reduce the illnesses due to improper exposure to the elements. Is the water supply good? Are the members of the family including the wage earner well nourished? If not, why not? Perhaps education along the lines of budgeting and spending should be provided. Notation should he made of the use which the employee makes of his spare time and the kinds of recreation he pur sues. Too much idle time leads to mental unrest and improper recreation often makes an inefficient employee. This is already be ing cared for in some places through the introduction of interdepartmental sport competition, i. e. soft ball, baseball, howling, golf, etc. First aid classes and team compe tition are offered and are in many places compulsory. To thus occupy a man's time improves not only his knowledge of such things but dispels his mental torpor as well and helps to keep his thinking straight. To this we might add instruction in hygiene. Such provision would go a long way in solv ing the problem of venereal diseases. Such instruction should be frank open discussion so all classes of employees would be able to understand. Periodic examinations of employees should be made with a follow up to see that defects are remedied. The examina tions should not be made with the idea of discharging the defective--but to encourage the removal of defects as arc found and Petroleum Section 497 thus prevent many time loss illnesses. This ally help in controlling venereal disease as would create an improvement in the mortal the course and progress of tame could be outlook of the employee and would mateti- watched. Can the Safety Engineer Make Effective Motion Pictures?-- What One Company Has Done By A. L. ANDERSON Standard Oll Company of California, San Francisco I wonder how many of you have played with the idea of making safety motion pic tures but have given it up saying, "We haven't the staff to handle it--we haven't the facilities or the equipment--the cost would be too great." You need not have given up the idea. If the cost of a safety picture made by a professional producer is beyond llte limits of the safety budget, the safety engineer can, in my opinion, make effective motion pictures at reasonable cost by using amateur equipment and methods. Of course, his picture will not compare in quality with the photography and editing of one made with Hollywood type cameras and professional personnel. It trill, however, put over his safety ideas m an interesting effective man ner. There i one thing in favor of the safety mginrtr hr knows his subject bet ter than the professional photographer. I will try so sappeet my statements by telling yoa atone a picture I made. 1 had had no prerioea experience in motion picture making, bet tfwq^t we could use motion pictures in oar saicty educational work. A limited brnlglt made it necessary that I write the scenario, direct the acting, take the picture*, sake the animated diagrams and do the tiffting, in fact the entire job. Of coarse, having no knowledge of the techntqoc of mlrig notion pictures, I found it necessary to do tome studying be fore starting the work. Malting the picture was not easy, hot it was interesting work and we were amply repaid by the increased attendance at safety meetings and by the greater interest shown. The TTT^*~*Tf of the picture was not a spe cial job. It was made daring the course of routine work. The scenes were photo graphed at various points during regular in spection trips. Material is being gathered for our next picture while the present one is being shown. Wc believe that what we have done any safety engineer can do. To those among you who have already made safety motion pictures, what I have said is not new. I can only hope you may carry away a useable idea. The motion picture was made during the reenactment of motor vehicle accidents by the use of toy automobiles on diagrams drawn to scale, the toys traveling at actual speeds on the basis of the scale. This was done by means of stop-motion photography. You may be interested in knowing why our men like this type of safety picture. They like it because it is based on fact-- reenactments of our own accidents. The actors are not professionals, and that is an other reason our employees like the picture. They like to sec themselves and their fel low workmen on the screen. We try to include a scene or two from each district. The picture was made for our sales de partment, but was shown by request in nearly every department of the company. Please don't think that Standard Oil men are a bunch of careless and rcckless'drivers. In our picture we show two or three serious accidents we had in one year, but please keep in mind that we drove 3,100 vehicles 40 million miles on all kinds of roads and in all kinds of weather. Under the circumstances, some accidents were to be expected. The picture was made to teach our men the need for safety. 498 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Efficiency and Safety in Oil Field Transportation By J. U. TEAGUE Petroleum Engineer, Humble Oil & Refining Co., Houston, Texes It is a mnlicr of record tliat wells arc being drilled deeper ami faster and at a lower unit co*t today i1ia.it ever before; but what lias this new efficiency meant in accident prevention? Some of the most important safety problems arc found in field transpor tation. A well organised aud operated held trails* (torlalicm system is absolutely essential to conduct a major drilling program effec tively. Drilling rigs must be moved from a completed well to a new location and necessary supplies must be delivered under all weather conditions, day or night, and without interruption. This in itself is a huge task and certainly one of the most hazardous of field operations. Moving ilc average heavy duty rig re quires the handling of about twenty large truck Inail-s of machinery weighing nearly one-half million pounds. The time element is important; the move must be completed in from tour to six hours in order not to dclaj the drilling crews. Another half mil lion pounds of nml supplies must be delivered to the well while it is being drilled. I low well this problem is being met is il lustrated by the decrease in time required to dismantle, move and reassemble the drilling rigs in one of the typical Gulf Coast Fields. There have been 175 wells drilled in this field by one operator. On the first ten wells drilled, these operations required 5.4 days; on the middle leu, 1.9 days, and oti the last ten, only 1.4 days. Several factors have been primarily re sponsible for this increased efficiency. 1. Improvement in design and arrange ment of drilling equipment. 2. Improved transportation equipment and methods. 3. Most important of ail, the promotion ot better cooperation among the field personnel Drilling Equipment The most important changes made in drill ing equipment are the unitization of equip ment and the adoption of standard procedures for dismantling, moving and assembling the rigs. Whenever the nature of the equipment permitted, the various pieces have been as sembled into units designed to increase their portability. This has simplified transporta tion by decreasing the number of loads to be handled, and it has furthered the safety of operation by' decreasing the number of indi vidual pieces of equipment to be bandied by band. Equally as important in simplifying rig moving, as well as reducing the hazards of the operation, has been the development of standard procedures for dismantling, mov ing and assembling equipment. Special at tention has been paid to the elimination of alt unnecessary equipment and the arrange ment of essential pieces so that they are easily accessible to the drilling and trans portation crews. For example, the procedure followed in dismantling the rig, after the well has been completed, is to strip the derrick of all hoisting equipment first. The rotary, crown block, travelling block, rotary hose and swivel are laid into u specially constructed rack. This is done while the well is being washed in. As soon as the well starts pro ducing, the drawworks, slush pumps and boilers are dismantled. The smaller pieces of equipment such as valves, pipe fittings and bolts are placed in special steel boxes which can be easily handled. As each piece of equipment is dismantled, it is placed at a predetermined location, easily accessible for Petroleum Section 499 loading, aud when it is moved, it is unloaded in the tame position. The equipment is moved from the completed well to the new location in (lie >amc order that it is to be assembled. It i* customary' to f>cgin with the boilers, tlien the slush pumps, and last the drawworks and engine. This moving schedule eliminates congestion of transpor tation facilities at the old location, and at the same time assures the arrival of the equipment at the new location in the order needed. The adoption of this standard procedure has promoted closer cooperation between the drilling and transportation crews. Each man knows precisely what his duties are and how he can best do them to insure safety in the quick completion of the job. An incident which occurred in the Com oc field several years ago illustrates how doing things in a systematic manner appeals to the men. We were doing the preliminary' work toward developing a more satisfactory method of moving drilling rigs. As the idea was new, on the first move made each man was given an instruction sheet outlining his specific duties and it was explained to him that perfect coordination of efforts was nec essary if the plan was to succeed. Shortly after this move, some other work came up and several of the men came to the office and requested that they be given ``slips of paper" on tliat job too. The adoption of systematic procedure of operation, together with full explanation to the men why the procedure is followed, has aroused a spirit of team work among the personnel which has been of prime importance in increasing the efficiency of transportation. Transportation Equipment The development of latge tractors and trucks with four wheel and tandem drives, has been an important factor in achieving speed in transportation The trend toward deeper drilling has necessitated the con struction of heavier drilling equipment which can be handled successfully only by heavy duty transportation equipment. This equip ment has also peimitted the grouping of related pieces of equipment into large loads, which reduces the total number of loads and unnecessary handling. Transportation Equipment and Loads Handled in Typical Heavy Duty Rig Moves Equipment No. Pieces Type 2 95 HP tractors with 2 tractor wagons 1 10-ton truck 3 1^-ton truck 2 Crane trucks Loads Handled No. Nature of Loads 2 Boilers, Engine and Engine Platform (leach) 4 Rotary, drawworks, slush pumps, crown and travelling blocks and other heavy equipment 15 Light equipment, piping, accessories, etc. (5 each) -- Assisting in loading and unloading trucks and handling equipment for drilling crews This equipment moves the drilling rig as fast as the drilling crews can dismantle and reassemble it, and avoids the confusion of having too many trucks and tractors stand ing idle waiting on loads. Other items and practices which have con tributed to safe and efficient performance arc: the development of special racks and skids for grouping small pieces of equip ment; installation of guards for the safety and convenience of truck operators; the use of gas Hares for lighting the location when rig moves are performed at night; and the frequent inspection and maintciugicc of automotive equipment.' Field Road* and Drainage Regardless of how well formulated the moving program may l>c or how adequate the transportation facilities, reliable trans portation depends on a well planned field road system. First it is necessary to determine to some 500 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress extent the trend of the field. Afterwards, permanent roads may be constructed which will give access to all the wells to be drilled. When diversified lease ownership makes it difficult for one operator to build a satis factory road system for properties, a system may be worked out for an entire field by cooperation among the various operators. In most eases an all-weather road system may be constructed economically. In the coastal area where the terrain t9 compara tively fiat a suitable road with a gravel or shell lopping can be built for $5,000 to $6,000 a mile. To supplement the permanent road system a temporary board roadway may he built from the road to the well location. After completing the well the board road is taken up and used for another location. In areas not naturally well drained it is advantageous to provide artificial drainage to care for normal rainfall. The cost of these systems in most cases lias been moder ate, and the investment more tlian returned by uninterrupted field operations during the rainy seasons. Cooperation of Personnel The cooperation of the personnel has probably been the greatest single factor in attaining the present degree of efficiency in oil field transportation, in our own com pany an extensive program of developing better cooperation has been under way for some time, with encouraging results. In addition to developing standard pro cedures of doing things, regular safety meetings arc held, individual initiative is en couraged and a closer relationship between the supervisor and his men is promoted. Each department has its own safety meeting at least once a month and more often if necessary, where the ways of doing work more clV '!***' and safely are discussed. The chairma * these meetings is a mem ber of the group, selected periodically by popular vote. There is a safety engineer available to assist the chairman in planning the meetings. Everything possible Is done to promote a free discussion among the men. It is significant that from these discus sions have come many of the ideas which have been incorporated in the standard pro cedure. A general safety meeting, which all departments in the field attend, is held peri odically* Although more formal than the meetings held by individual groups. n to promote a better understanding and closer relationship between the men in the various departments. In addition to the safety meetings, fore men's meetings are held monthly at which the superintendent and the foremen of the various departments discuss their operating and personnel problems. The better under standing which results is revealed in the conversation I had with one of the trans portation foremen recently. I asked him how he went about handling a new job which his men were not familiar with. He said that the crew selected to do the work had a five or ten minute meeting with him in which they discussed the details of the job and how it might be done most effectively. This supervisor insisted that I go out to the garage with him and look at some of the devices his men had worked out. He went over in detail with me each device, how' the men had made it, and what its advantages were. He displayed a per sonal pride in what his men had been able to accomplish. The initiative of the individual worker lias also been encouraged with gratifying results. Our own company has a "Com- Your-Ideas" program, which gives monetary awards for worthwhile ideas submitted by the men. This plan has brought out ideas which have proved of real benefit to the company's operations and at the same time has liad the result of increasing the interest of the worker in his job. A man who has developed a device, takes a pride in its suc cess and consequently becomes more inter ested in his job as a whole. We have used many ideas developed by the men which were of somewhat doubtful operating value simply to encourage them to take a greater interest in their work. Safety and Efficiency The natural question is, what has been the actual safety experience since these methods were adopted? In 1935, during 32 rig moves, one accident occurred in every eight moves; in 1936, 92 rig moves were performed with one accident occurring in every 13 moves; and so far in 1937, 51 rig moves have been performed with an accident frequency of only one in 17 moves. Petroleum Section 501 Unusual Refinery Accidents By R. T. HENDERSON Safety Engineer, The Standard Oil Company of Ohio, Cleveland Cable Failure Men were preparing equipment to paint steel stack after inspecting cable by attach ing rope to one end and pulling other end to ground. One end of rope falls was then at tached to other end of cable and cable was pulled back so that block of rope falls touched hanger on top of chimney. Boatswain chair attached to other end of block falls was then tested by two men springing their weight on it and painter then sat on boatswain chair and was hauled up the stack. When 68 feet above ground, the ropes folded and it was necessary to stop and free them. When freed, hoisting was resumed and after being pulled up several feet the cable supporting the rope falls broke just below the supporting hook on the stack and the painter felt to the ground, dying shortly after of his injuries. Investigation disclosed that a seven strand guy cable was used and three outer strands at the break were projecting away from the cable and the rest were wound together so tight they showed discoloration from heat. Apparently when the falls fouled a twisting strain was transmitted to the cable, which was not designed for strains of that kind and the cable failed. In this case the wrong kind of cable was used and no swivel was placed between the cable and the rope falls. Chemical Poisoning Chemist in control laboratory had a small amount of analine oil in a test tube and he accidentally cracked the bottom of the tube. A few drops of analine oil dropped on his shirt over his stomach but he did nothing about it. In the course of an hour the men working with him noticed his lips, finger nails and tongue had turned blue. He was immediately taken to a doctor who ordered him to a hos pital and after remaining there several flays was released. In this case the analine oil was readily absorbed by the skin and, if enough had been absorbed, death would have resulted. The only remedy for accidents of this type is to see that laboratory men wear protective clothing, such as rubber aprons and gloves, immediately remove clothing on which poisons of tills type have been spilled and wash the skin thoroughly as soon as possible. A periodical safety discussion by the lab oratory staff of the methods of analysis and chemicals used will develop methods of pro tecting the men as well as keeping the risks involved in their minds. Gas Explosion Equipment consisted of centrifugal water pumps located in a pit in a pump house cir culating water from cooling tower through coolers at D. & S. Plant and discharging back into tower sprays. Electrical equipment in water pump house consisted of a 2300 volt, 150 H. P. synchronous motor with push but ton control starter switch of type as installed in non-hazardous areas. The water pump had lost suction about 6:30 P. M. and again at 8:00 P. M. Pro cedure of starting pump both times was to close suction valve and vent the pump through Yin valve on top of pump. After pump was started the second time, the operator noticed strong gas fumes in the pump room and walked over to pump motor switch to shut the current off. As he touched the switch an explosion occurred, wrecking one side of the building. The operator was painfully burned and injured by flying bricks. The cause of die accident was a leak in the water cooler which allowed light gasoline at 300 pounds pressure to leak into the water circulating system operating at 80 pounds pressure and accumulate in the pump which caused loss of suction. Remedy would be to install explosion proof motors and electrical equipment in the pump rooms of this type and extend all pump vents to outside of the building to yent any gas to the open air. Explosion in Tank Car "Loading rack man was steaming out tank car to remove several inches of ice in the bottom. After ten minutes steaming the steam was turned off and a violent explosion Oc curred in the tank, burning the rack man slightly. 502 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Investigation showed that the steaming out line consisted of a piece of YaT pipe a foot shorter than the car diameter with a tec on the bottom end and two nipples 10" long screwed into the run of the tee. When the steam out line was placed in the car tank the lower end was insulated from the car by the >ec in the bottom of the tank and the top of the line was insulated from the car with the rubber covered steam hose. Wiien the steam was turned on, it may have kicked the end of the pipe away from the shell of the car and when the steam was turned off the pipe prob ably cliargcd with electricity by the steam jets jiwtmg over and touched the car shell and the static spark ignited tlte gas fumes in the car. While it is hard to see where there could be enough air in the car tank after the steaming operation, air may have entered through the bottom outlet. The answer to a case of this kind seems to be that tlx pipe extending to the bottom ol the car be long enough to touch tlte top manliole opening, thereby grounding the steam out line at the dome manliole. Explosion of Boiler Fan Just previous to the time the fireman was injured, the steam pressure at the boiler house was soincwlutt high, and it was decided to bank No. 9 boiler. The engineer in charge instructed tlie fireman to shut down this boiler. The fireman proceeded to No. 2 boiler first to examine the coal feeder in connection with the burning of pulverised fuel, and as he was standing in from oi Xo. 2 boiler, he reports that he lieard a noise at No. 9 boiler, and saw a piece of metal fly from the locatiou of the forced draft fan into the passageway between boilers 9 and 10. He hastened to No. 9 boiler for the purpose of shutting off the steam supply valve to the fan. However, just as lie was about to reach for the valve, which was located over the fan, an explosion occurred to the steam turbine which resulted in completely wrecking the turbine, tearing off the <!>or to the turbine location and fragments of flying metal striking fireman. His engineer's attention was imme diately attracted, and lie shut tlte steam off the turbine by going up on top of the boiler. He then removed the fireman from tlte pas sageway between the boilers where he was lying, and made arrangements to liave him taken to the hospital. Tlte equipment, consisting of turbine aud fan, was very badly damaged; in fact, the blades of the fau were all broken ofT into small pieces and scattered about. We have recently had a representative of a Blower Co. visit our plant and give his opinion as to the cause of the accident. This man informs us that this is the first accident of this nature that they have ever had or heard of, and it is his opinion that the blades of the fan must have broken first, which allowed the turbine to run wild, and that this threw such an extensive load on the turbine tliat the turbine itself exploded. We, ourselves, cannot see any possibility oi anything striking the blades in the fan, which was screened in. However, our machinist foreman suggested that it might possibly have been caused by an accumulation of dust upon the fan blades, and he has suggested that we arrange to shut down the fans once a week, aud blow off the grease, dust, etc., by means of a steam liosc, and our boiler house foreman has been instructed to carry out this pro cedure. We might advise that in the past, upon sev eral occasions, we have found cracks in the blades of the fans. Upon one or two occasions we have found that one of the blades have been broken, however, this lias never been accompanied by any damage to the turbine itself. We had considered the. possibility of the shaft driving the fan breaking, due to crys tallization, probably caused by lack of lubri cation. However, upon inspecting the fan after the accident occurred, it would appear that the bearing was receiving sufficient lubrication. Laboratory Explosion A chemist was making a test of freezing (joint of a sample of aviation gasoline. Ap paratus and materials used consisted of a closed one quart thermos bottle containing liquid air. The bottle was provided with a two-hole stopper, to one outlet of which was connected an aspirator bulb, the other hole being used for a siphon tube leading from tlie bottom of the bottle to a copper liquid evaporator cell 45d" long and 5 cu. in. in volume. An outlet tube led from tlie evapora tor cell to atmosphere. The evaporator was immersed in a bath of petroleum ether, con tained in a widc-mouth thermos bottle. A test tube containing 40 CC. of aviation gaso line, in which was immersed a thermo-coupler, Petroleum Section 503 was also immersed in the petroleum ether bath. A small copper rod was used to stir the aviatiou gasoline. The liquid air in use had been weathered to some extent, and was probably almost pure oxygen. Shortly after the operator had started to pump the liquid air or oxygen through the evaporator by applying pressure from the aspirator bulb to the surface of the fluid in the first thermos bottle, a violent explosion occurred inside the evaiorator. The appa ratus was totally wrecked, petroleum ether and gasoline were scattered around and ignited and the chemist was rather severely burned. Investigation disclosed no apparent source of ignition in the vicinity. Fragments of the evaporator indicated that it had been repaired by soldering, and it is presumed that sufficient petroleum ctlicf had leaked into the evaporator to provide an explosive mixture of ether vapor and oxygen. Ignition may have resulted from rapid oxidation of some foreign material, such as resin, remaining inside the evaporator after the soldering had been done. This, however, is pure conjecture. In order to avoid similar occurrences, in the future, pure liquid nitrogen will be used as a -cooling agent wherever it can be ob tained, and investigations are being made of the feasibility of developing small motordriven refrigerator equipment with portable coils and a totally enclosed system, by which such work can be accomplished. (A.P.T. Fire Protection Circular No. 24.) Explosion While Welding Tank A 115 foot tank, In which gas-oil was stored, was found to be leaking. Examination dis closed that its bottom had corroded so that the oil leaked out. The tank was blanked, steamed, cleaned, washed and gas freed; and an electric welder was sent inside to weld the holes. Welder had been working some thirty minutes or so when a sharp report under where he was at work was heard, following which the tank vibrated quite noticeably. The welder, uninjured, came out of the tank im mediately and awaited instructions as to what procedure should be followed. explosion. Instructions were issued to drill holes through the bulged places of the tank bottom and steam thoroughly through these holes to free the pockets of any oil or gas before the hot work was resumed. While the occurrence was of a minor nature, it would seem to be advisable, before doing hot work on a bottom of a tank liaving con tained volatile stocks, to steam thoroughly the pockets on the underside of the bottom. Gas Free--But Man was preparing face of flange on the bottom nianhead nozzle of Evaporator Tower, prior to bolting up the head, when he was blown off scaffold to the ground, probably due to explosion in vapor line which was trans mitted through tower to the open manhead. The explosion was apparently due to welder working on outside of vapor pipe, same getting red hot. Line had been gas freed. New gas was formed, apparently from scum or grease on side of vapor pipe. Tests made on similar towers liave since proved that vessels once completely gas freed may become explosive again due to release of gas from apparently solid scum or grease sticking to side of vessel or pipe. This mate rial is such that steaming or washing with water at time of gas freeing will not always remove it. Danger of Unanchored Lines A recent accident in an eastern refinery In which three men sufferer! fractured legs and the fourth a fractuccd skull clearly points out the danger attendant to steaming of blowing out plugged lines when the ends have not been securely anchored. Three men had parted a plugged wax line and turned on the steam, retiring to a presum ably safe distance to protect themselves from hot wax or steam when the line opened. A few seconds after the steam was turned on, the pressure caused the line to whip, striking the four employees. All parted lines should be securely anchored, to prevent line whipping, before pressure is turned on. After investigations, it was concluded that oil which lud leaked through the corroded places in the tank's bottom had been pocketed underneath and heat from the electric arc (or possibly sparks falling through the holes) had ignited the oil or gas, causing a minor Carbon Monoxide A sand-blast operator was found uncon scious on the floor of a sand-blast room in a plant. His mask was removed and he was taken immediately to the plant hospital where 504 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress artificial respiration was given and an oxygen inhalator applied. He never recovered con sciousness and his death was pronounced due to carbon monoxide. The report states tliat this operator was wearing the approved type sand-blasting hel met supplied with air from the compressor air line used for the operation of the sand blasting equipment. An examination of the compressor revealed tluit a valve had broken on the high pressure side. It was, therefore, concluded that the air, while passing back and forth through the broken valve, raised the temperature sufficient to ignite the lubricating oil and carbon deposit in the cylinder. The carbon burning with a deficiency of oxygen produced carbon monox ide gas together with other fumes which were passed through the air system to the sand blaster's helmet. In checking into this explosion, I found that the chief chemist was preparing to run a D.T.U. test oo a sample of coal and had hooked up his bomb calorimeter to the oxygen system. However, after turning on the oxygen he found that there was insufficient pressure in the present tank to produce 30 atmospheres of pressure in the bomb. He therefore shut off the valve adjacent to the bomb and requested dial the oxygen supply tank be replaced with a new tank. The supply tank is located out side of the laboratory and the oxygen is piped into tte laboratory through a system ( steel valves and piping. Full tank pressure of 2,000# per square inch is carried in this sys tem up to the pressure regulator located at the calorimeter. The valves in the oxygen system were shut off on the outside of the building while Jhe boilermakers changed the oxygen tank. After tying in the new tank, the valves in the sys tem were opened first, after which the valve on the oxygen tank was slowly cracked open. Immediately after this valve was opened, an explosion took place within the line, which blew all of the fittings apart and completely wrecked the entire piping system up to the calorimeter bomb. Luckily, no one was hurt by this explosion and the only damage was to the oxygen system itself. The investigation indicated that undoubt edly the cause of this explosion was the use of oil and graphite asbestos packing in the valves. The gas manufacturing company's representative stated that where it is neces sary to use valves other than those furnished by their company, the valves should be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned of all gTease and oil by washing with either caustic soda or carbon tetrachloride and repacked with "Special UUrwer Packing." The correct pack ing for the valves can he secured by furnish ing the gas manufacturing company with the type of valve, name of manufacturer and size of valve that is to be used, and they will furnish the packing designed for that valve. It was also found that die joints in this system at this refinery were made up with red lead, which is also a very dangerous material to use in connection with oxygen, and the gas company's representative advised that all threaded joints should be made up with lith arge and glycerine paste. Before the system is used, it is also recommended that the entire piping system be purged again with carbon tetrachloride to make sure that all grease and oil has been removed. The gas manufacturing company's repre sentative also recommended that a regulator be installed next to the oxygen tank. This reg ulator will reduce the pressure from 2,000# to 500# and in this way will maintain a maxiimutp pressure of 500# in the system, which obviously is less hazardous than maintaining a 2,000# pressure in this system. The Handling of Pipe as It Applies to Oil and Gas Pipe Line Work By o. R. BURDEN Division Superintendent, North Texas Division, The Texas Pipe Line Company, Wichita Falls, Texas Regardless of the nature of the work, there are some general rules applicable to liandling pipe which should be followed: (a) A workman should never get under a joint of heavy pipe for the purpose of moving it, because something may break, slip, or fall. Petroleum Section 505 causing severe injury or death. (b) Hands should not be placed over the ends of pipe joints because an unexpected longitudinal movement may jam the hands against the end of an abutting pipe or some other object and cause an injury. (c) Palms of the hands should be kept away from pipe threads because they are sharp enough to cause severe lacerations. (d) Proper equipment for doing the work should be selected and a schedule for periodical inspection of the equipment should be .set up and observed. (e) Some persons are naturally awkward and think more slowly than others. Such per sons should not be assigned to the handling of pipe. (f) Foremen and workmen should elimi nate every element of chance. The safest way is the most profitable in the end. (g) Neither intoxicating liquor nor persons under its influence should be allowed on the job. (h) Workmen should be protected by ade quate appliances to minimize accident hazards. (i) Much handling of pipe is done by the use of wire cable; badly damaged cable or cable of insufficient strength should be avoided. (j) Skids should be made of straight grained hardwood free from serious defects and of sufficient size to carry loads safely. If used to support pipe over an open trench, they should be long enough to support the load without the trench walls caving. (k) Often pipe is liandlcd where explosive gas or oil is present; if artificial light is neces sary, forcmoi should select only gas proof electric lights or lanterns. (l) Many pipe line activities demand die use of goggles. Foremen should see that the proper type of goggles is selected and Insist that workmen wear them. (m) Wheu welders or others are working about oil or gas wltcre there is danger of fire, carbon dioxide or other suitable fire extin guishers should be provided. (n) The hazards of obstacles such as tools, loose boards, and rubbish should not be per mitted. Men handling heavy material are con cerned with their load and cannot always select their footing. (o) Last but not least, all persons should become safety minded and not only avoid danger to themselves but should also aid in protecting their fetlow workmen. Loading Pipe on Cars Pipe Manufacturing plants arc customarily equipped with traveling cranes and other facil ities for loading pipe intended to reduce acci dent hazards to a minimum. The following are some general rules: (a) Tlie cars being loaded stiould be long enough to permit working room between the ends of the joints and tlie ends of the car. (b) If electric magnets are being used for loading, close attention should be exercised to see that each joint is securely caught by the magnet. (c) Wire rope slings should be of adequate strength. Chain slings should be carefully in spected for defects because a severe side strain may break a link or hook. If chains arc being used, under no circumstances should there l>c any knots tied in them. A sling should be spread to proper distance by means of a spreader to keep the lift from tilting with spreader ends the same distance from their respective ends of Hie pipe. A sling may be placed under one end of the lift and tlie end raised to a height of about 2x/i or 3' while the other slings are being placed beneath the lift. The lift should then be lowered before slings are hooked on. (d) If hooks are used they should be made with long shanks so that workmen can seize shanks instead of curved part of hook when attaching hooks to pipe, thus protecting Uicir hands. Some contractors bronze the curved end of the hooks to give protection against wear and provide a more flexible surface to contact the end of the joint, thus protecting the beveled surface of the pipe end. If threaded pipe Is being loaded, hooks should be securely caught in the ends of the pipe. This avoids damage to threads and eliminates possibility of hooks slipping out and pipe falling. (c) For cable slings the best grade of wire rope of adequate strength should be used and the `TJ" of the damp should bite ipto the loose end of the cable. (f) A simple set of signals should be ar ranged. Usually one of the employees han dling the slings or hooks is selected to give the signals to the crane operator. When all is ready for the lift to be raised he points his thumb up; if not ready, he points his thumb down. Before giving signals it is his duty to see tliat any other slings and hooks being used are in proper position. 506 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress (g) When pipe is being loaded, either in single or multiple joint lifts, a flexible guy line should be attached to the end of the lift to control lateral motion. (li) Extreme care should be used in stack ing pipe either in cars or in temporary slacks. Wiicu the lift is lowered to the pipes already piled no attempt should be made to remove slings from die crane hook until the pipe set down tuis conn* to a complete rest- The pipe wilt usually roll after the tension is removed from the slings, and a man dose enough to the lift tu remove the slings might tiavc the pipe roll on his foot. In a stack or pile of pipe joints there is the possibility of a slight jar causing one or more of the top joints to roll down. To prevent this Itook* should he used to remove sling from crane hook so that the sling can be pulled out from under the lift. Workmen should always remain out of the way of joints which are likely to roll. (i) When loading cars, where load extends above the sitics of the cars, straight grained hardwood upright stakes of sufficient sire should be used. These should he bound across like lop of the toad with a sufficient number of strands of No. 8 or licavicr iron wire. Care uui>t be taken to see that tlie stakes arc lteld securely in a vertical position. If slakes are not vertical there is danger of their falling sideways*-- longitudinally with the car --ami perhaps striking a man. (j) It is poor practice to allow *iuen to remain in the enr or on the pile wlicii pipe is living lowered into the car or onto a pile as (here is danger of squeezing them between tlic load and the side of the car or knocking them from the pile. (k) If the car is to be removed before com pletion of loading, men sliould get out of the car because motion might cause load to shift with consequent danger of accident. (l) If pipe is being loaded into car with gin pole it is important to select the proper type of gin pole. A joint of 6" line pipe nr 6r:" casing is recommended. This should be guyed securely with heavy wire line. The guy anchors sliould he placed at least two lengths of the gin |k>1c away from its base ami the K-ttom end securely anchored to tl>e track rail. Only steel blocks sliould fie used and these of 8* or 10" size. Unloading Pipe onto Piles or Stacks Small pipe, 2". to 4", is generally liandlrd by hand and rolled from car to pile by means of skids. Larger pipe is raised out of car by means of cranes or booms powered by trucks or tractors or winched out of car by means of truck, winch, and gin pole. The same gen eral safety rules apply when unloading as when loading. When skids are used for unloading they should be of sound straight-grained hardwood of sufficient size to carry the load of pipe safely. If the unsupported length of skids is too great to avoid overloading they should have intermediate supports. They should be fas tened at each end and spaced about 3 feet from each end of Mack or pile of pipe. Skids should not incline too much ver tically because the speed of the rolling pipe increases In direct ratio of increase in vertical angle. To insure proper safety, flexible rope guides should be used for lowering the pipe. The guide lines aid in prevention of accidents and give added protection to threads and couplings. Protector* should be used on male cuds of threaded pipe joints, and it should be empha sized that workmen sliould not grasp the end of the joints because threads or steel slivers may cut their hands. Leather or leatherpalm gloves should be worn. Men have bceu hurt by standing between skids and being struck by joints being lowered, pipe rolling off skids between car and pile, or while attempting to stop rolling pipe on the pipe pile by means of a club or piece of timber held in front of rolling joints. All such accidents arc avoidable and are the result of carelessness. If each man will remain in the clear of rolling pipe and outside the skidway the percentage of accidents will be greatly reduced. When piling pipe on the ground it is essen tial that the bearing value of the ground be sufficient to sustain the load. There liavc been incidents where the strain on the upright car stakes was too great after all tie wires were cut, causing stakes tu break and allowing the pipe to roll off the car. By first removing the two stakes nearest the ends of the car and replacing them with heavier stakes before cutting intermediate tic wires, such accidents may be avoided. Short lengths of pipe should not he piled in the same pile with longer joints without suit ably indicating the location of the short ones, because later if a list of more than one row of Petroleum Section 507 pipe is being made and one of the lower rows contains a short joint, this will be held by only one sling end and can easily slip out oi the lift. In preparing the pipe pile, sound lumber should be used for layer .strips or separators. Size l"x4* strips are suitable. For cleats, which should be nailed securely to the sepa rators, 2* x 4" x 4* blocks are suitable. The layer strips should be cut oil even with tltc outer edge of the cleats to prevent workmen or trucks from running into them and knock ing pipe from the pile. Keeping both sides and one end of the pipe pile even and vertical improves the appearance of the pile and pipe yard; makes more passage way between the piles; and facilitates measuring and checking pipe. Pipe should be placed in the center of the pile and roiled to position against cleats to prevent upending of separator and joint falling off the pile. No loose separators should be left on top of stack because some one climbing the side of the stack may grasp a separator, pull it from the stack, and perhaps suffer a bad fail. When cleats are removed from separators, nails should be removed to prevent persons steppiug on them. If height of piles of pipe is in excess .of 16' the last five rows should be tapered in to prevent stack from becoming top-heavy. Unloading Pipe to Truck The truck should be placed parallel to the side of Ihe car at a suitable distance. Small pipe, size 2" to 4", is usually unloaded by hand, using a short skid. Larger pipe, or double length smaller pipe, is usually unloaded with truck or tractor equipped with booms. A crane may be operated from either side of the car. If cranes are not available the usual method of unloading is with team, truck, or windi line and gin pole. When trucks are loaded from pipe stacks along railroad rights-of-way, the loading of small pipe is usually by hand and the large pipe by truck or tractor boom in about the same manner that trucks arc loaded from railway cars. Loading trucks front stacks of pipe on the ground is more difficult lor many reasons. Often the ground is rough or slop ing; sometimes it is muddy, causing pipe to become slippery, and it is difficult to move trucks or tractors. At times pipe stacks are scattered and working space between obstruc tions is limited. To give more protection under these con ditions all trucks equipped with a winch should also be equipped with suitable winch guards to protect workmen from flying winch lines and shifting pipe. The winch line on a crane truck should never be pulled until the tail chain hangs in the pulley. When a rope and power arc to be used in rolling pipe up a skklway the free end of the rope should be dead-ended to the truck or car. When pipe is to be loaded on truck from stack, heavy hardwood skids should be used. The truck should be stopped as close as possi ble to the rack or stack avoiding the need for steep skids. Workmen at each end of Uie truck sliould make sure the skid is securely placed on the bolster and laps over far enough to prevent slipping. A truck with part or full iuail should not be moved until the bolster uprights arc in place and the load boomed down. Tlte boLlcr stakes should be securely fastened and after each joint is rolled onto the truck it should tie blocked to prevent its rolling bark on the workmen. The truck driver should see (hat his load is properly balanced and distributed. He should also supervise personally the boom ing of the load. This is hazardous work and workmen should stand well back when pulling down the boom handle. Sometimes truck drivers load tlte trucks with winch line powered by anutlier truck. This is dangerous and hard on both material and equipment. A workman should never stand on or at the`side of the truck being loaded. There should be at least one boomer chain on a toad before anyone places himself under the load to fasten a chain, and all truck loads should be boomed with at least three booming chains of proper sire And strength. Truck loads should be boomed on the right side if possible so that the driver may work on side opposite highway, traffic in evenksomc adjustment of boomer is necessary. A load of pipe will usually settle and clamps will become loose after traveling a short distance anil truck should then lie stopped and the chains retightened. No wire lines ur chains should be allowed to drag and if load extends over the rear end of die truck it should be flagged with red bunting. All trucks should be equipped with 508 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress flares regardless of whether so required by state laws. Before a truck or wagon load of casing or pipe is unbound the load should be examined closely to sec that all slakes are secure in order to prevent pipe from rolling when boomers are released. Hauling Pipe Economy in handling longer joints of pipe is attractive to many users; therefore, the per* centage of longer joints is increasing steadily. This type of joint is, of course, more diflicult to haul either on cars or trucks. If pipe joints arc longer than available freight cars, two gondola type cars may be tied securely to gether with the inside ends of the two cars dropped making one long car. When long joints are loaded onto a truck, the trailer is forced so far back that it makes driving difficult, especially along crooked or narrow roads, through rough country, etc. It is necessary to procure special highway permits to move these long loads over high ways if their over all lengths are greater than l>crtnittcd by local or state laws. Truck drivers should be well trained, and with these long loads they must uivderstand the necessity for driving slowly, leaving ample room for turning curves. They should never forget that half the road belongs to vehicles traveling in the opposite direction or more rapidly moving traffic moving in the same direction. Unloading Pipe from Truck When pipe is being unloaded onto racks in pipe yard skids arc generally used in a manner similar to unloading from cars onto trucks. In the field and along the pipe Hnc rightrof* way, pipe is often dropped from the truck to llic ground. This method is objectionable and should be permitted only in special cases. If one end of the pipe strikes the ground or a Itard surface before tlte other aid it may damage the threads, couplings, or its beveted ends; or, if the pipe should strike heavily on a ruck, stump, or any raised hard surface, it would probably injure same necessitating expensive repairs. Titere is also the danger of (lie pipe falling on a high center which might warp it or cause it to rebound and strike some one or-damage the truck. By using a side boom to lift the pipe from the truck to the right-of-way the pipe is subjected to less damage; the hazard of the entire toad rolling off where the surface Is uneven or sloping is eliminated; and the chance of injury to em ployees is reduced. Every precaution ihooM be taken against the possibility of pipe roBing onto the legs or feet A reasonably safe procedure for unlmdBec pipe from a track depends on the drcs stances; however, in every case the work should begin at the top of the load and AwAt should be used to prevent the reminder of load from rolling off or kicking oat as the joints are removed. Connecting Pipe Laying threaded pipe with tongs or with pipe machine i|irira cuoshlerable man power. especially if laid with tonga. Coordination of work is essential if accidents arc to be pre vented and good results obtained. The pipe crew should properly understand the work to be done and should be furnished with proper tools in first class condition. Workmen should not be allowed to use faulty or makeshift tools even though the job be of a temporary nature. If pipe is to be moved or carried by Itand. "U" shaped carrying bars ami carrying tongs should lie used. Substitutes for these have resulted in many broken bones, mashed fingers and toes. When a joint is to be moved the carrying irons and tongs should be placed on the pipe. The men carrying the load should take a firm grip, bend the knees so as to place tl>e load on the leg and thigh muscles instead of the back, and all lift in imisou. The foreman or some one selected by him siguats when tlie joint is to be raised. The men should watch each step so as not to fall or stumble. While stabbing threaded coupling pipe the carrying iron should be held under the male end of the joint until the threads arc caught and, if the pipe diameter is large, the stabber should be assisted at the collar or female aid of the connected pipe by other pipe carriers with another carrying iron. This relieves the stabber of too much lifting and the front carrying iron prevents the pipe from falling to the ground in case the free end is pulled from the collar by the rolling rope before it is caught. Pipe is laid under many hazardous con ditions; therefore, pipe jacks, jack boards, growler boards, etc., should be made from sound materials and kept in first class condi tion. Tongs should be carefully inspected and tried on die pipe before using. Dull jaws, pins loose in the handles, sprung reins, and de- Pctrolcum Section 509 tacts** keys shotld be repaired or replaced. bk T--ffirif kiirtiit keys a cloth or some idw i4t arid should be placed over the end of rib* key before it is driven in or out mi the map timins tbe hard brittle material km the key is made may shatter and qbx isjoy to the eyes and face. Workmen are often bust by pinching fingers between toog reins while they are being closed ; bruisng fingers or toes under falling tongs; or suffering a bad sprain if the tong key fails to hold while joint is being made up. If the tong crew will keep time with the collar pounder, and each member will perform his particular task properly and in coordina tion with the other members of the cresv, many accidents will be avoided. he works in this hole on the weld above him. The welder must protect his eyes, neck, and ears from the hot metal, and the supervisor should see that suitable protective devices arc used. Blaating on Right-of-Way The preparation of the right-of-way and trench generally requires some blasting in order to remove stumps, large rocks and other obstructions. If pipe has been strung or connected ahead of this work the tine should be moved far enough to one side to protect it from damage by explosions, flying rocks, and pieces of stumps. Ditching of Pipe Lines Welding Pipe Welding is the preferred practice for joint ing oil line pipe. In a welded line, joints are lined up and welded into sections of desired lengths and later the sections are tied together and make a continuous line. The greater portion of the work, other than the welding, is done with tractors equipped with booms which move the pipe about or place it on rollers or dollies along,the right-of-way to facilitate welding. Sections are pulled together so that they may be welded. By using ordinary care in keeping clear of booms and cables and keeping hands and feet from between and from under the skids and joints, no unusual danger is in volved. The firing-tine welding is simple and if the welders and helpers will wear helmets and goggles when welding, and if other work men will use goggles when viewing the weld ing operations, there should be few accidents. Field bending of pipe is difficult but, by doing tbe work carefully and placing bending blocks properly, most any size pipe may be bent readily by the use of caterpillars and winches. Torches for heating the pipe at sharp bends will reduce the possibility of buckling it. Careful and periodic inspections of cables and other equipment used under heavy strain and subjected to much wear are essential. After the firing line sections have been welded they are connected by bell-hole weld ing. No welder should be assigned to bellhole work unless he is properly qualified and experienced. Bell-hole welding is difficult. In order for the welder to get at the bottom of the pipe a hole is dug below the joint and While ditching by hand if men will remain far enough apart to prevent striking each other with their tools, and use only tools in good condition, there will be few accidents. Any rocks should be thrown well back from the ditch. Where the ditch is several feet deep or in soft earth it should be well shored. Tools not being used should be placed in a pile out of the way of the workmen. On ditching machines, operators and their helpers should wear goggles and respirators to prevent injury by dust, dirt, and small particles of rock thrown out by the trenching wheel and belt conveyor. This exposure is increased if strong winds arc blowing. Only experienced men should be allowed to operate trenching machines. The machines should be shut down for making repairs. The use of a stick to hold out the dutch in order to stall the machine for making minor repairs should, be avoided. When the trenching machine is in an inclined position going up or down grades no attempt should be made to prime the carburetor with gasoline m order to keep the engine running. The gasoline tank should be located high enough to provide gravity without priming, thus avoiding back-fire. Machine operators should ascertain in ad vance where other pipe lines are located and allow plenty of clearance when passing^over them. If the line has been connected in ad vance of the ditching machine the operator should use care in avoiding damage. If dam age cannot be avoided, he stsould immediately notify tle foreman so that repairs may be made ahead of the insulating crew. There are several types of plows or ex cavators for use in ditching lines, usually short field lines. As long as the ditch rs kept 510 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress straight and squared up at the bottom to allow for expansion and contraction of tltc pipe, this equipment is satisfactory. Tltc striking of stumps, roots, or rocks, causing the plow to be thrown out of control ami probably striking the curator, presents the ]iriiici|)al luzard. Insulating Pipe Most pipe lines are protected by some form ol protective insulation which should he applied after removal of mill scale, dirt, and moisture. The revolving brushes and discs of a cleaning machine will throw off small particles of hard matter dangerous to the eyes; lltcrcforc, operators should wear goggles. A guard should lie provided on each side of the machine to protect operators from the revolv ing brushes and projections. Guards can be placed so they will not interfere with changing t)>c brushes. The balance pole projecting from one side and passing through the machine should be securely fastened. If caustic liquids arc used, tl>e eyes, hands, and arms ol men handling them should be protected. If the insulation is to lie applied cold there is little danger of accident except wlien the pipe is being raised by pry pole or boom in order to patch bare spots cm the bottom; however, if hot material is to be applied, more caution is required. No fire* for heating the coaling should he lit without first ascertaining that there is no danger from petroleum gases or exposure to otltcr flammable material. All employees handling hot material should wear goggles, gloves with tight wrist bands, and suitable high shoes. Kettles sliould be free from water .and should be equipped with draw-offs with ells on end pointing downward so that dipping of the hot contents may be avoided. Two or more kettles will permit itenting of one kettle while material is being drawn from tltc others. This expedites the work and reduces fre quency of accidental burns. Whether Itot insulation is applied by Itnttd or machine, workmen sliould always bear in mind that tltc material can cause severe bunts. aikI they should avoid splashing it on them selves or others, or falling down while car rying it. Unnecessary haste, buckets overfilled, buck et filler standing too close to draw-off when filling buckets, defective or dirty burners, trucks or teams jerking kettles too suddenly and causing them to splash, have all caused numerous accidents. J>u>t ajhJ fumes from some enamels are harmful and in sueh cases the use of fume and duM respirators is recommended. At time* <lu>t ami fumes injure the face and arms, for which zinc oxide ointment or any good cold cream in helpful. Kttough workmen sliould be assigned to each job to permit adequate rest periods. Tired men are awkward and susceptible to accidents. Many accidents to eyes have beat caused by a workman wiping away perspira tion with a soiled hand. Lowering Pipe into Ditch Caterpillars with side booms or tripods and hand power jades arc frequently used iti lowering jhpc into the ditch. Such equipment ffc capable of handling the line with little strain and is not particularly hazardous. Op erators of jacks should be thoroughly warned of the danger of permitting tltc jack handle to get away from them amt cause accidents. Men should not be allowed to enter the ditch beneath the pipe while it is being susttcttdcd by booms, jacks, tripods, etc., except when unavoidable, in which event the pipe should first be lowered onto suitable skids. There is no other part of pipe line work, except at river crossings, where so much weight or strain is applied to side boom trac tors, slings, and cables as tliat of lowering the pipe. This is especially true with largepipe when several lengths of pipe arc lifted simultaneously. .The best cable should lie used and all equipment should be kept in proper condition, sliarp kinks in the cable particu larly to be avoided. Two to four-inch pipe is sometimes crowded or lowered into tltc ditch by means of a pry pole called a mope pole. This is poor practice because it often damages the pii>e and the pule may get out of control and strike some one. Repairing Pipe Lines Much of this type of work is done while lines are full and frequently under pressure. The work is dangerous and only skilled labor should be used. After the line has been located it may be exposed by use of hand tools or ditching machinery. Care should be exercised to avoid striking and damaging the pipe. After the pipe has been exposed and raised Petroleum Section 511 on skids it is then cleaned and inspected. If pits the depth of one-half or more of the wall thickness are found they sliould be patched. If the pits are less titan one-half the wall thickness they may be spot welded. Leaky couplings, if not too bad, may be welded; otherwise, a sleeve may be welded over them. Spot welding requires a welder of judgment and skill. Much bell-hole work is necessary and welders and helpers should make sure tliat all bdl holes and their inuttediale sur roundings are free from gas. Arc welding generators should be stationed as far from the work as the cable will permit, preferably not less than 100 feet. No smoking should be permitted and only approved electric flash lights or lanterns should be used, as any kind of a spark is dangerous. Any oil or oil soaked soil should be removed from a bell hole and replaced with fresh dirt before welding is started. When welding a sleeve over a collar or coupling a vent hold should be provided on the bottom side of sleeve to permit escape of gases. A steel plug or patch is welded over the hole after welding is completed. Before cutting a section of line for any purjiose, if line cannot be flushed with water, block gates should be closed at the higliest elevation first and the line drained before other block gates are dosed. After draining the line is cut with pipe cutters, and if any oil then flows from the line it should be piped or carried a safe distance away. Interior plugs should then be placed altout IS inches from the tree ends ol tltc pipe. Plugs may be of clay but shredded asbestos is preferable ami this should be tightly tamped. After weld is completed pipe should be jarred with ham mer to release plugs which can be shoved by liquid pressure to next scraper trap. When any welding is being done on a line full of oil or gas, fire extinguishers of suitable type sliould be available for instant use. If the pipe is in a hole several feet deep a rope should be tied about the welder and handled by men on the bank who could pull him out quickly if necessary. Taking up Lines Taking up ahatidoned lines requires the same careful attention as laying or repairing. The line may contain pockets of gas or oil which might ignite if the line were cut with a torch. The foreman sliould see that the line is flushed with water and drained before any cutting is done. Salvaged pipe is rougher titan new pipe and better protection for the hands is desirable. Reconditioning Pipe in Shop An overhead carriage or crane and an ad justing stand to support the pipe in lining it up with pipe cleaning and threading machines should be provided for reconditioning pipe In shop and all gears or other hazards should be equipped with guards. Brushes sliould be used for removing cuttings, and while clcaniug, chipping, or grinding, goggles should be worn to avoid accident from flying chips or scale. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Lessons from Marketing Department Accidents By F. R. McLEAN Manager, Safety and Insurance Dept., White Star Division, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., Detroit, Mich. There are two types of accidents which teach valuable lessons on Safety. One is the serious, spectacular accident, often unusual and of catastrophic proportions. The second is the constantly recurring relatively minor accident which disables only one employee usually oitl> for a short lime, or causes small property losses. ' An accident of catastrophic type oerurred in a new station. The station was designed 512 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress with a basement hi which the lube oil tanks were to be installed with outside fill pipe. The station had begun operations but the lube in stallation was not complete. A new driver began to dump a load o( gasoline in what proved to be a lube oil line to which no tank was yet connected. A heating unit in the base ment did the rest. The station was blown to hits and the station man killed. This is not the only instance of the kind. Similar accidents have occurred because pump test men have dumped gasoline down lines in stalled but not used for air and water hoses leading from the basement to the island. Leaks in old tanks have let gasoline or vapors enter basements. Small containers of gasoline or naphtha have been stored in basements. Spills have gone into basement windows. AH with the same result. Let us sec what "lessons" can be learned. From the construction standpoint, a safe pol icy would be to eliminate all basements or be low' grade unvcutilated areas in future station construction. In many cases we have elimi nated hazards by filling existing basements. Incomplete lines should be capped securely at both ends and be marked or labelled and, if possible, locked. Abandoned lines should be removed or permanently plugged. Heating cquijMncnl and electric switches or motors not of explosion-proof type, located in basements, always bcs(>cak danger to me. Sonic of these we have to live with but the lesson we slioukl learn is 10 build no more of these ancient set ups. Safe practices to be followed in preventing such accidents include the driver always check ing with station operators before dumping and live use of product identifying color codes on lilt caps and pipes. Rigorous inspections should be made. After one of these catastrophic* in which two were killed and twelve injured, authorities found several similar situations where the tragedy luul not yet occurred. One more lesson from this last accident. This was a new driver that made the dump. Mo matter how much we or our organizations learn about safety, our new employees must begin back with the first fundamentals. Fatalities still occur in the operations of even the most safety conscious companies from such obvious things as washing floors with gaso line. Another class of serious accidents where the cause is ih faulty construction is found in relation to vent pipes. Poor judgment in locating these or subsequent alteration of buildings without relocating vents have brought tragedy. An explosion wrecking a new station occurred where a contractor terminated vents inside an ornamental tower with an open lop, not knowing or everlooking the fact that gasoline fumes are heavier than air. Excellent vents, but badly located above lavatory windows, have placed smoking cus tomers in hospitals. We have found several cases where dealers have built covered lubrication rooms onto stations and, in some cases, vent pipes and also fill pipes have been enclosed in the new struc tures. We have acquired stations with vents ter minating inside of pump housings. It took an explosion and fire, fortunately not serious, to impress us that we should take nothing for grunted. There is.no "lesson" here from the con struction standpoint not already known in detail to the industry, but the point is this-- newly constructed, altered or acquired prop erties should be rigorously inspected. Drivers should be eternally curious as to where die 1G00 gallons of vapor is going wlien they dump 1000 gallons of gasoline. Another serious accident involved a truck tank with excellent equipment consisting of a self-closing valve to be held open by the operator while delivering gasoline. How ever, the driver placed a convenient hooked iron bar over it to hold it down and went elsewhere, having also failed to measure the contents of the tank into which he was dump ing. A spill and fire occurred. What is the lesson in this potentially tragic situation? Was this failure due to lack of supervision? We can only determine this by knowing if llvts human failure Itad occurred before or even frequently enough to have be come an habitual unsafe practice. Was the failure that we Itad not aroused in this driver a sense of moral responsibility? Certainly we might hope to find the answer in checking our training procedure. Did we tell the driver how, show him how, and explain why? Did we have him practice the correct procedure and repeat to us what the correct procedure was and the reason for it? And, finally, did we check his actual performance to insure that safe habits only were being formed? Two accidents to children occurred from abandoned gasoline tanks at stations. One Petroleum Section 513 where a six year old dropped a match in an inadequately closed abandoned undergroimd tank and was badly burned in the resulting explosion. In another instance, a contractor was removing a tank which was not entirely empty and it was laid on the ground in a way that permitted some gasoline to run out. A youngster lit it. He was burned seriously and will be permanently disfigured. The end of the tank blew out, fortuuately striking no one. Safe procedure would be to remove all liquid gasoline from any tank to be either abandoned or dug up, by means of a pitcher pump and, if necessary, adding water. Then, if it is to be abandoned, fill it with water or sand and remove the pipe connections and plug (Item at the tank. If the tank is to be used again or removed from the ground, a quan tity of carbon tetrachloride equal to three times the gasoline content (cither liquid or vapor) will produce a non-explosive and at least slow burning mixture, even with proper air mixture, and would probably effectively exclude oxygen so no fire could occur. Tight capping is necessary to retain this relative proportion as the carbon tetrachloride would evaporate more rapidly than the gasoline if air was circulating through the tank. A wholesale department accident illustrates how. in spite of outlined safe procedure and good physical equipment, accidents can oc cur from human failure. A foreman and four men were given orders to empty and clean a steet tank which contained gasoline. Nothing unusual occurred iu the draining operations and the tank was opened at all manholes, and left open and hosed out with cold water three times from the outside, during a seven day period. At that time, the crew entered the tank and scraped, swept and carried out scale at intervals, a total of about one and onehalf hours out of four, at which time they con sidered the job complete. On the night and day following the joh, the whole gang showed signs of gasoline vapor poisoning ami ware confined to tlie hospital from three to seven days. The point is, that contrary to exact orders on tank cleaning operations, a gas indicator was not used. It was claimed that the gas indicator was out of commission, but that does not alter the fact that there was human failure. While I am not directly acquainted with die further circumstances of this case, it points to the lesson that outlining safe procedure alone is not enough but that foremen particu larly must be fully aware of the rvitsons why uch procedure is necessary. Turning now to the second type, the re curring or repeating industrial |>crsonal in juries: No station accident is more common than slips and falls. A particularly dangerous place for these to occur and a place showing a high frequency and severity of injuries from this cause was the old fashioned lubrication pit and particularly tlie stairs and ladders into them. Here grease, oil and moisture on shoes and steps, frequently poor lighting, stooped posi tion, hurry to render service all combined to produce accidents. Cleanliness and care alone did not elimi nate these accidents but when these were combined with the engineering development and installation of a special lion-slip stair tread with abrasive surface and self-cleaning grooves and perforations, acidents from this cause dropped enormously. These safety treads are now used to eliminate similar acci dents on steps of trucks, tank stairs, and for stairways, ladders and walkways around plants and oil tankers. Wlien the study ol accident records revealed a high frequency of minor injuries to eyes and cars from battery acid, lubrication pro cedure was changed so the lottery was serviced last instead of first and the trouble disappeared. A rather new problem is presented by pit lift jacks which ti addle pit and lift rumvays in the normally clear working space. One division where a large number of these are in use has developed a frequency of minor but potentially .serious injuries to the head. Analysis showed that employees were striking the bottom of the jack cylinder as that part protruded the farthest down and was central in the working space. A molded sponge rubber cap that snaps over these cylinder bottoms has been developed and while not preventing the accident, it does prevent the injury. Present day lubrication procedure,especially on certain older drive-on hoists, has resulted in accidents from cars jumping over or push ing along wheel chock devices. A new type chock has been developed, giving greatly in creased efficiency and eliminating all chance of failure except the human failure to use it. Some accidents of this repeating type conic purely within the range of those which can best be corrected in original construction. The 514 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress recent trend to metal sash has produced a hazard of this kind. Most windows of this type open outward from the bottom and on first floors, when ojieiied, are at a most haz ardous level. Instances in new stations have Itccn found where they extend out at head height over the walkway to rest rooms. Such windows sltould be permanently dosed or walkways relocated and shrubbery' or other device used to prevent persons walking into them. One accident which occurred with great fre quency and considerable loss of time particu larly interests me because of the combination of "lessons" the experience taught. It required construction and equipment changes, training, enforcement and special safeguarding. In (lie early days of the rapid change over of pits to hoists, our division had a number of broken great toes from operators working on cars while they were being lowered- Investigation showed that foot-operated safety releases were being blocked open and that instructions were none too dearly presented. Safe pro cedure was outlined and the men trained. Supervisors enforced the rule of no one ap proaching a descending car and of operators releasing the air only by means of holding the .self-closing valve open with their hand or foot, according to type. Finally, as an ultimate precaution, all operators were urged to buy safety shoes. About the same time hoist manufacturers redesigned their runway sup ports so that it is now almost impossible to get toes crushed under the new type. An interesting by-product of this "lesson" was tint our tests to select safety shoes by subjecting the toe cap to the combined weight of a car and a hoist, and the publicity given the shoes for the protection of station men, tad to their wide adoption among drivers, main tenance, warehouse, and refinery employees and toe injuries have virtually disappeared. There is one other kind of "lesson" to be learned from a study of these accident fre quencies. Not only do accidents from par ticular causes show a repetition but certain individuals arq found who are repeaters. Causes, Prevention and Control of Petroleum Fires By JOHN T. HOWELL Fire Protection Engineer, Union Oil Company of California, Lot Angeles Before we can have fire at all, we first must have something that will burn. We call il fuel. 1 propose to carry out someexperiments, and I will ask the reader to visualize these a* I describe them, as though he were sitting before me and watching what I do. On the table here we liave a number of pieces of common fuels, things which burn every' day somewhere. Yet 1 can take this Muck of wood and hold it over the flame^f a burning candle and wc see it does not. take fire. Of course the block is heavy and solid but here is a piece of cloth. We substitute it for the block of w'ood aiid tlte results are the saute. Now let us try a liquid. In this bottle there is some kerosene. I shall pour some of it out in a pan. The pan is filled to a depth of about If we,hold a match over the surface there is no burning. Even when we dip the match directly in the kerosene the result is the same. Complete immersion of the match flame extinguishes it. If we substitute a lighter product such as Stoddard Solvent the result* are the same. A match flame held directly above the liquid causes no burning; dipped quickly into the liquid, it is extin guished. The same with a burning card. To carry this experiment further I shall moisten this calling card with a little of die liquid--just enough to form a thin film. If wc hold a match to the card we find that it bums slowly. But again by dippiug the card in the very liquid with which it is moistened, we can extinguish it. Now we are beginning to learn something. When we held that match flame against the calling card, a tiny portion of the thin film of solvent was heated to the point where it gave off a vapor, and it was the vapor which burned. Because the solvent in the pan has not been heated it did not give off vapor so there was nothing to bum. We know now that solids or liquids do not burn, it is only their vapors which do so. If we heat all of this solvent Petroleum Section 515 on a stove, then all of it will be at a tempera gasoline, below the liquid, above the liquid, ture dial will produce vapor. It will not take and in the mouth of the jar is no different from very long, for it needs to be heated to about what would happen in a tank truck under (lie temperature of the water you use for similar circumstances. Fire exists solely be shaving,--105 to 110* F. cause of an immutable natural law. For Some oils will give off vapor at the tem example, just because wc are afraid a fire perature of the surrounding air. This may will occur does not cause it to occur. he as low as 40 F. Included in these are Now that we have gone through the problem gasoline, naphtha, benzine, alcohol, paints and of ordinary fires let us take up another pliasc numerous other household articles. If we of our subject,---Explosions. pour gasoline into a pan and hold a match flame above it the vapors will immediately burst into flame. Every so often we hear of a tank truck "explosion." Did you ever hear of one ex ploding while it was traveling down the high Here I have a jar of gasoline. On top of way? While parked at the curb? Neither tiie jar is a sparking device connected to a have I! Wc do know of trucks which have battery. With it we can produce the same sort had fires on them because of burning brakes, of spark we get in the motors of our auto flat tires, faulty wiring, collisions or over mobiles. Notice that when a spark is pro turning. You nor I have ever known of even everyduced beneath the liquid level there is no one case where the fire originated in or because burning. Here we have a positive proof that of its gasoline cargo. Yet in almost the liquid does not burn. instance we are told "the gasoline exploded." But. we say the vapors do burn so let's Let's see what is behind that statement. move tins spark up into the vapor space. Again we see there is no burnings That may be surprising. Let us try something else. This time we move the spark to a point just above the mouth of the jar and there burning occurs because that is the only point where the vapors, inside the jar liave an opportunity to combine with AIR. So we establish another fact: Unless there is air present, there wilt be no Here I have an ordinary 100 cc. capacity test tube. The liquid in the tube is plain water. We all know tiiat when plain water or any -liquid i* heated il expands, increases in volume. So if we hold the tube over this caudle flame the water will heat .up and expand. If we gel it hot enough the expansion will be sufficient to cause the water to overflow the tube. I shall draw a crude picture of the tube on the burning. blackboard: Alongside, I shall sketch a sec What else do we need to build a fire? Here in this pan of gasoline we have FUEL (Vapor) above the gasoline and AIR all tion of a tank truck carrying gasoline. Due to a collision, a spill or other reason, gasoline is burning underneath the truck. around that vapor--and yet wc have no fire and won't liave until we add one more thing-- HEAT. When this is done we have a FIRE whether we want it or not. That combina tion will cause it regardless of what other condition may exist; whether it be hot or cold, wet or dry, makes no difference. Also, the fire will be the same whether the fuel was gasoline vapor, wood vapor, coal vapor, or vapor from any other combustible substance. Tills is good to remember--to save for the time when that fire is to be controlled. Notice that the general conditions in each case are the same. .Therefore, we have an identical situation to deal with; in the case of the tube, expanded water would overflow the top while m the truck the gasoline would overflow the dome. If we were to pu* a cork in the tube, which I will now do, wc know that just as soon as expansion takes up all the vacant space in the tube a pressure will be built up. Eventually this pressure would increase until the cork would be blown out of the tube. The same thing would happen in The fires which we have seen here were the case of the truck if we were to place a relatively small yet they came into being and tight cover over the dome. behaved in exactly the same way they would have had they been larger. The gasoline vapors, in the small pan, combined with air and ignited from the match flame in the iden tical way that vapors from a large body of gasoline would take fire. But, if we drill a hole up through the center of the cork any procure which tends to build up will be relieved through that hole. Like wise if we cut an opening in the tight dome cover of the truck (a pressure relief valve), any pressure generated will be relieved The behavior of the spark In the jar of through that opening. Provided, however. 516 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress that the opening in the cork or the dome cover is large enough; certainly a pin-hole opening uould not be sufficient for adequate relief. But so much experience and competent knowledge is at hand that calculation is easy. The most generally accepted data for emer gency relief venting is found in the NFPA Recommended Ordinance. Whenever adequate relief has not been provided and the truck is involved in a fire, accompanied by a rupture of the tank, we are told "the gasoline exploded.'' Such a state ment is definitely untrue. What really oc curred was identical to what happens to a toiler that has no "pop valve" or an air com pressor tank whose relief valve is stuck. The presence of the gasoline had nothing whatever to do with it except to follow the natural law of expansion just as water, milk, or any other liquid might do. These "explosions" are no inure than "boiler explosions." I*robabty the greatest fear having the least foundation is the almost universal belief that a spark may get inside an underground tank and cause it to explode. Such fear is shared nut only by the public aud a large portion of their fire authorities, but also by some oil operators. No man in this room or elsewhere can point to a single instance where an under ground tank, in service, has exploded. I.et us look into the possibilities. In the following diagram let the flask "A" represent an underground tank. Notice that it has a small quantity of gasoline in the huitoui. 1 think it is fair for us to assume that any underground tank in service will never be completely empty. The funnel **B" can represent a compartment in a tank truck. Let line "C" represent a hose leading from the tank truck to the fill pipe of the tank. The tuto marked "V" will represent the conven tional vent pipe running to some point above ground. Tto space above the gasoliue in the flask will naturally be filled with vapor* a vapor too "rich" to burn. Being heavier than air. as all petroleum vapors arc, it simply lies quietly until something occurs to force it out nf the tank. This is the condition which pre vails during normal operation. Under such conditions a match flame or any other source of ignition may be produced at or near the vent terminal without fire occurring at that point. Sooner or later a dump of gasoline will be made into tlial tank. As tto gasoline fills die tank, vapor is displaced to make way for it. This vapor is forced up die vent ("V"). Just so long a& it is in the vent it is still too rich to bum. There is no air present. But as it issues from the vent air is supplied from (to surrounding atmosphere and a burnable mixture is formed. This time if wc strike a nutch, a fire will occur--there will be burning at the vent. All this can be demonstrated by simply opening the valve on funnel "B". I do so and gasoline runs into the flask, vapor is forced from the vent, it combines with air and ignites from the match flame. Here we have an un friendly fire burning, say at a service station. We do not, however, call out tto fire depart* ment to make a $25 run for a 25c fire. Instead we simply dose tto truck faucet, shut off the flow of gasoline into the tank. Vapor is no longer forced through tto vent and so the fire goes out for lack of fuel. Obsolete practice was to provide these vent terminals with a gauze-like screen to guard against flatties or sparks entering the tank through the vent pipe. This is an unwarranted precaution. I dare say every nun lias seen a service station or garage fire in which the vents and even the vent pipe itself became so hot they practically melted and yet the tank did not explode--did not because it would violate all physical laws if it did. JK/iy not have vent terminals free and often in order to insure adequate venting of these vapors at a point where they are less subject to ignition rather than have the openings clogged with screens blocked with scale, paint, wasp nets, etc. Now we come to tto third type of explosion about which tliere is great concern but like the others there is little if any evidence to support tto popular theory. The contrary is true. As a matter of record, there is no instance in tto history of oil storage plants on the Pacific Coast where an explosion lias occurred in a tank because of a spark or flame entering the tank. There have been two instance* where tanks have ruptured from internal pressure ("boiler explosions" again) generated by heat from flames outside tto tank. In both of dine instances which oc curred several years ago, the failure of the rank was caused by inadequate venting--a fault that has long since bent corrected. The storage liazard in a bulk oil plant should not be confused with the greater haz- Petroleuin Section 517 ard of tanks in a refinery or other processing plant. In the latter facilities a great deal of experimental work is carried on because of necessity. The development of the automobile has come along, hand m hand, with petroleum refining technique. The car manufacturer cannot build a better car unless the oil industry can make a suitable product with which to operate it. Because of this experimental work and its accompanying handling of what are sometimes unfamiliar products whose charac teristics are not definitely known, as they are known in the finished products handled in bulk plants, explosions may occur. Whenever they do, tore is an illustration of what usually happens. This lube which I hold in my hand will represent tto tank. I shall drop a few drops of gasoline into it and insert tto cork in the top. Anchored at the bottom of the tube I have a piece of small chain. This chain serves to break up the drops of gasoline, causing them to vaporize, and the resultant vapor combines with the air already present in the tube. Now we fire the spark plug and we see the cork is blown from the tube. Wc have had an ex plosion--the same sort of explosion that takes place in a tank. Tn this explosion the cork was blown out. In tto case of a tank the roof would have blown off. There would not be and never has been a rupture of the shell in a conventional vertical storage tank. After the roof is gone the tank stands until all its contents are burned out. Even a tomato can filled with gasoline will burn itself out without melting Its soldered seams. Try it sometime--you will find that to be true. Let us try again.. This time instead of putting in 7 or 8 drops let us try 20 drops. Wc repeat the shaking process. Now wc fire the plug and to our surprise, nothing happens. WHY? Because this time the tube is filled with a mixture too rich to bum, the same sort of mixture that was in the glass jar aud in tto underground tank; a mixture containing too much gasoline vapor and not enough air. We can prove that by inverting the tube and pour ing out some of the vapor. It will pour be cause it is heavier titan air. Notice that no liquid comes out. Now we have changed the mixture and we replace tto cork. This lime we get an ex plosion. We leant from this that we not only need a combination of air and vapor to get a burnable mixture, we need an almost exact proportion of both. In every 100 cu. ft. of mixture, if we have more than 6 cu. ft. of vapor it will be too rich to burn. If we have less than 1)4 cubic feet, the mixture will be too lean to bum. This fact will almost en tirely explain why explosions never occur in bulk plant tanks. Such a tank in service will probably never have an explosive mixture in its vapor space. So much for explosions. Wc have learned much in the analysis wc have made. We know a great deal more of the actual hazards. Perhaps we can sum it all up in one simple test. Wc have learned: 1. That the fuel for every fire must be in vapor form. 2. Gasoline will give off that vapor without heating. 3. These vapors arc heavier than air and accordingly will seek a level as water does, and 4. exposed to the surrounding atmosphere will combine with air to form a mixture which will burn when 5. it comes in contact with heat. Now let us demonstrate all these. We take a ball of cotton and place it in the upper end of a trough. At tto lower end of the trough we place a lighted candle. We moisten the ball of cotton with gasoline. Vapor flows down the trough, combines with air and finally reaches the candle flame. There is a slight puff, flame travels back up the trough, and tto cotton bursts into flame. Wc arc familiar with two types of fires in an oil plant The first, and the desired type, is of course the friendly fire which may exist under a boiler or be a part of the necessary operating requirements of tto plant. The second, and undesirable type, Is the unfriendly fire which may occur in a tank truck, at a loading rack or in a pump hose. Naturally our first thought should be to encourage the friendly fire and discourage the unfriendly fire. The most effective means of discouraging a fire is to prevent it altogether. In other words, we may have fuel (in vapor form), plus Air, without Heat; or we may have Air, plus Heat, without Vapor; or we may have Vapor, plus Heat, without Air-- and still be on the safe side. We may have any two we like anytime we like but never all three at the same time. 518 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress The prevention of Air is a practical im possibility and yet it is not extremely difficult in our operations to prevent Vapor or Heat. Whenever in our operations it becomes neces sary to produce Vapor, for example, by ex iting gasoline to atmosphere because of drawing it off in a bucket or for any other reason, the obvious thing to do would be to ask ourselves first if we are producing the Vapor in the presence of Heal. Tlie reverse would be true whenever wc were committing an act which produced Heat. By that I mean striking a match, throwing ait open switch, striking a heavy blow with a hammer on some other metallic object, or doing any of those things which produce Heat. Before doing so wc should always ask our selves the question, "Am I doing this in the presence of Vapor ?'* These are simple illus trations but I am sure they convey the general idea. Occasionally, and sometimes frequently, prevention fails. Prevention fails because men fail. Either the man who designed the equip ment. or tltc man who operates the equipment, or the man who maintains the equipment has failed. With failure, comes fire. Once a fire is under way the thing we need most is control of that fire, control of the three things which go to make up the fire, that is, Vapor, Air and Heat. In starting out to control a fire wc first devote our efforts toward control of the thing which is most important to its existence, that is its fuel (Vapor). In asmuch as Vapor is a product of the liquid, obviously this becomes a matter of control of the liquid in most cases; shut down of pipe lines and systems which contain liquid. On the oilier hand, there arc times when Vapor, it self can be controlled, just as was illustrated in the discussion on underground tank ex plosions. We have said that it was not practically possible to prevent Air but once the lire is underway the control of Air is sometimes relatively simple. For example, if we had a fire huniing in a tub o( gasoline and the tub was mly partially filled, we might direct a stream from a foam extinguisher into the burning gasoline. This would result in very little effect insofar, as extinguishing the fire was con cerned for the force of the stream as it struck the surface of the liquid would naturally splash the tiquid and expose more of it to atmosphere, thus creating more Vapor and intensifying the fire. Also the foam would be submerged beneath the liquid and become coated with oil which in itself would burn and break down the foam as it returned to the surface because of its buoyancy. If, however, we were to direct our foam stream against the side of the tub, foam would then build up and of its own weight slide across the surface of the liquid and give us something which would be a substitute for a blanket. Of course if at the beginning wc had placed a wool blanket over tlie tub, the fire would have been extinguished because in this way we would have controlled the Air,, controlled the amount of Air being permitted to combine with the Vapor, thus creating a deficiency of Air to support combustion. - Air may be con trolled in other ways through tlie use of gases Such as are produced by vaporizing carbon tetrachloride fluid, from the small pump type extinguisher or tlie gases delivered from a COs extinguisher. Both of these gases arc much heavier titan air and displace it in tlie burning area and, being inert, suffocate tlie fire. One mistake often made in the use of a foam extinguisher is in utilizing it on a tank truck or tank car dome fire. Consider for the sake of our argument that a fire is burning in the dome of a truck, we could very quickly see the futility of directing a foam stream down onto tlie surface of the liquid in the truck. In doing this we are simply shooting the stream post the fire and attempting to cover what might be a large surface area, particularly if the truck was only about one-half filled. Even tliough we had sufficient foam to completely cover the area, we can readily see that the fire would still bum because of its being fed by the Vapors in the Vapor space above the liquid level. The failure of a foam extinguisher in this instance, however, need not be a cause for great alarm as extinguishment of fires of this type is relatively simple. All that is required is some means of effecting a closure over the dome opening, which even in tlie case of a tank car is relatively small. This may f>c done through the use of blankets, sacks, articles of clothing, boards, or by any other means. If I were asked to recommend an extinguisher for this type of fire I would liave no hesitancy in selecting the smatl size CO* extinguisher. I have repeatedly cxtinguislied such fires in test trials. Petroleum Section 519 THURSDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 14, 193? The Petroleum Section met jointly with the Marine Section at a noon luncheon session. A statistical review and forecast of the petroleum industry was presented by II. N. Ulakcslee, director, Department of Accident Prevention, American Petroleum Institute, New York City. A Statistical Review and Forecast of the Petroleum Industry By H. N. BLAKESLEE Director, Department of Accident Prevention, American Petroleum Institute, New York The Petroleum Section safety-contest re port for 1937 indicates that the upward accident-frequency trend of 1936 has at least been checked. The frequency rate for some 230,000 petroleum workers who participated in the contest is 13.82, compared with 14.09 injuries per million hours reported for the 1936 contest. Although improvement in injury fre quency . has been only 2 per cent in the petroleum industry, ours is the only one of six industries holding contests which docs not show an increase in the injury frequency rate. Departments which contributed to the im proved injury-frequency rate are marketing, pipe-line, tanker, and drilling. Refining, pro ducing, and natural-gasoline departments showed a slight upward trend. Declining Accident Seventy Information on injury severity is not given for the period of the contest. Never theless, company records indicate that dur ing 1937 the severity of injuries in the pe troleum industry, as well as the frequency of fatal injuries, has probably declined; and so far this year no major catastrophe in volving the lives of a large number of oil* industry workers has been reported. It is true that circumstances over which wc have tin control influence the severity of accidents. A man may die as the result of having fallen only 4 ft.; on the other hand, he may not be injured at all after having fallen 10 It. An increasing injury-severity rate, therefore, does not necessarily follow an increasing injury-frequency rate. It is, however, the controllable circumstances which should enlist our attention and con tinuous vigilance. Reports during recent years have shown a marked reduction in the severity of injuries and in the frequency of fatalities. Credit belongs to the vigorous accident prevention programs within the industry. Accident-Prevention Programs Many accident-prevention programs arc initiated by a first-aid training course. Men are taught how to care for an injured per son, and how to expedite that person's re covery after an injury. They are taught to administer artificial respiration. This train ing has resulted in the prevention of some accidents, and has definitely saved lives and reduced the severity of injury through more intelligent care after accidents have oc curred. Another important contribution to the re duction of injury severity has come from the intelligent use of protective equipment. Let us mention just one item, goggles. It is true goggles do not prevent accidents, but they do prevent injury to the eye if. for instance, babbitt explodes or a rivet head smashes a lens. The trained oil-industry worker, fully conscious of the hazards of his jab, no longer resists wearing goggles. Other protective equipment includes hardtoe slioes--which do not prevent accidents, but which save many toes from being crushed. Hard hats now take the blow from falling objects which frequently used to 520 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress fracture skulls and result in death. Objects still fall occasionally, but the hard hats con tribute to the improved record on severity. Inspection of equipment is a most impor tant contribution to safety. Higher pres* >ures and temperatures in distillation processes necessitate constant check and close inspection of equipment. Thu care and vigilance have done much to obviate those equipment failures which sometimes killed or injured every man in the vicinity of the accident. Standardization, because it makes available to all equipment of known strength and capacity, plays a most important r61e in obviating equipment failure. Does not the real credit for our improv ing record belong, after all, to the entire personnel of the industry? High wages, reasonable hours, and reasonable working conditions have made ours a most attractive industry to intelligent and ambitious work ers. With oil companies increasing their efforts in accident prevention, it seems reasonable to predict that the petroleum industrialinjury record for 1937 should compare favor ably with the records of other industries having comparable operations. Constructive accident-prevention programs should pro duce even more gratifying results in the future. Petroleum Section Safety Contest Of the 206 units entered into the Petro leum Section Safety Contest, 20 completed the six months' period without a single dis abling injury. The average frequency rate for all con testants was 13.822. The wholesale marking division had the lowest rate, average 8.833. The drilling units had the highest rates with an average of 51.977. In the six months* period 213,209 employ ees of the 206 contestants worked a total of 229,199,817 man-lrours. Twenty-six plaques were presented to first place winners; fourteen certificates were presented to second and third place winners. Awards were presented by John E. Long, Past President, National Safety Council. Winners of plaques were as fol lows ; Manufacturing Department, Croup A (over 1,000,000 man-hours)--Continental Oil Co.. Ponca City, Okla. Manufacturing Department, Croup B <50,000 to 1,000,000 man-hours)--Five tied for first place--Colooial Beacon Oil Co., Inc., Everett, Mass.; Pan American Petro leum Corp., New York City; Shell Oil Co. of Canada. Ltd., Montreal, Que.; Pan handle Refining Co., Wichita Falls, Tex.; Stanolind Oil & Gas Co., Tulsa, Okla. Marketing-Wholesale Department, Group A (over 1,000,000 man-hours)--Continental Oil Co., Ponca City, Okla. Marketiug-W.holesale Department. GronP B (50,000 to 1,000,000 man-hours)--Two tied for first place--Indian Refining Co., Lawrenccvillc, III.; Panhandle Refining Co., Wichita Falls, Tex. Marketing-Retail Department--Union Oil Co. of California, Los Angeles. Drilling Department--Broadwater Drill ing Co. of the Globe Oil & Refining Co.. Wichita, Kan. Producing Department, Croup A (over 1,000,000 man-hours)--Continental Oil Co., Ponca City, Okla. Producing Department, Group B (50,000 to 1,000,000 man-hours)---Three tied for first place--Hope Construction and Refining Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Co., Fort Worth, Tex.; Wirt Franklin Petroleum Corp., Ardmore, Okla. Natural Gasoline Department--Five tied for first place--Shell Petroleum Corp., St. Louis, Mo.; Shell Oil Co., San Francisco, Calif.; Lone Star Gas Co., Dallas, Tex.; Hope Construction & Refining Co., Pitts burgh, Pa.; Gulf Companies, Houston, Tex. Pipe Line Department, Croup A (over 500,000 man-hours)--Stanolind Pipe Line Co., Tulsa, Okla. Pipe Line Department, Group B (50,000 to 500,000 man-hours)--Four tied for first place--Tide Water Pipe Co.. Lid.. Bradford, Pa.; Tidal Pipe Line Co., Tulsa, Okla.; Ajax Pipe Line Corp., Tulsa, Okla.; Barnsrlall Oil Co., Tulsa, Okla. Tankers Department--Lago Shipping Co., Ltd., Aruba, N. W. I, Petroleum Section THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 521 The Art of Giving Complete Instruction By RAY L. MARTIN Director, Industrial Education. State Board for Vocational Education, Austin, Tex. No man is educated who is not a continu ous student. The kaleidoscopic changes in thought, in industry and in government make it imperative for each individual to be alert and refresh his store of knowledge from day to day. Progress is au inexorable law. He who pursues it will remain in the race. He who rests on his laurels will be out distanced. As industry becomes more complex, the need for new knowledge increases. Not only are there more things to be taught, but the task of teaching becomes more involved. The breaking in of new men, the inaugura tion of new company policies, the institution of new processes, the installation of new equipment, the inculcation of safe work habits all call for a high order of teaching. For the individuals charged `with these re sponsibilities, the job of teaching looms big in their daily tasks. No man with administrative or super visory authority can shirk the responsibility of teaching. It is ait essential function of his job. If he ignores it or fails to do it well, he will minimize his effectiveness as a leader. It is idle to assume tliat formal schooling can prepare an individual for engineering, carpentry, machine shop practice, the law or business administration, and that once ex posed to and indoctrinated with the ideas of the schoolmaster he will )>c able to dis charge his chosen occupation without a further pursuit of occupational knowledge. Adult education lias come to be recog nized as an essential part of all education, and industry* is its greatest school. The world of industry is teeming with problems. Workers must face them every' day. How well they cope with these problems depends upon how well the process of job education is carried on from day to day. There was once a widespread notion that all knowledge was acquired during the formative period of childhood and that after reaching his maturity a m.iu could be taught little or nothing. Wc now know that adults can and must learn every day of their lives in the school of hard knocks. Wc know, too, that adult learning cannot be left to chance. It must be planned and made purposeful. There is a modicum of truth in the face tious statement that 5 per cent of the people think, 10 per cent think they think, and the other 85 per cent would rather die than think. The masses of men in any organiza tion will be found among the 85 per cent unless their bosses see that they acquire sound habits of thinking. These, like habits of doing, are developed by practice. Just as a person becomes adept at shifting the gears of an automobile by practicing the process, so may he acquire skill in thinking. It is a sound psychological law that we learn to think by thinking. M) did not think" is tle feeble excuse of men who get Into difficulty because they have not been taught to think. Job instruction begins when the new em ployee comes on the job and continues as long as he remains as an employee. Perhaps the most Important Instructional responsibility' is that of breaking in new men. A new employee approaches a new job with fear and trepidation. He does not know exactly what he is supposed to do. He may be acquainted with few or none of the men with whom he is to work. His ideas of company policies arc vague, and it is quite likely that he is uncertain as to persons from wliom he is to receive orders and instructions. H ever a man needs a friend, it is during lii* first few days in a new situation. No matter how well qualified lie may* be for the job, he must have extensive instruction to enable him to get off to a good start, make friends with his fellow work ers, avoid embarrassments and work safely. It is foolish to assume that because a man lias proved his ability as a workman he does not need instruction. First of all his su perior should give him a complete analysis 522 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress of liis job, preferably in writing. This analy sis should include a list of duties, possible liazards to anticipate and standard proce dures to follow. It should be accompanied by an organization chart, showing the line of authority and the place of each worker in the organization. Every pay roll job should be so analyzed. It is impossible to estimate the appalling loss of life, the waste of time and materials and the 111 will of personnel that is caused by poor instruction. Incomplete orders have sent many a man to his death or caused the wreckage of valuable property. When such things happen, it may be said with assurance that somebody has failed in Itis teaching responsibility. A foreman in a large steam plant told a comparatively green man after a week-end shut-down to open a gate valve on an 8 inch line. The man had never been told how to admit steam to a cold line or the probable consequences of admitting steam too rapidly. Water hammer had never been explained to him. He spun the valve wide open. Water hammer started immediately, and the inno cent offender took to his heels before the line ruptured and came down. A king and expensive shut-down would have been avoided by giving complete instruction. White most instruction in industry is and should be given on the job, group instruc tion off the job is also necessary. Let us consider some of its techniques. The average man with managerial or su pervisory responsibilities is reluctant to undertake a teaching responsibility. Teach ing, to him, seems a job for old maids and effeminate men, but not a part of the work of a busy executive. No wonder he shrinks at the idea of assuming the role before men with whom he Is constantly associated in an informal way. He believes he will have to assume an artificial attitude and will appear ridiculous to his men. He fails to realize that in giving instructions to men he lias for years been a teacher. An instructor of industrial men, when he gives group Instruction, sftould regard him self as a leader of a study group, not as a dispenser of abstract facts. He will suc ceed as a teacher in proportion to his ability to get his men to think about and participate in the topics of discussion. He cannot do this if lie is too much on his dignity or tries to make the meetings with bis group formal and stilted. Men will look askance at any training program if the instructor does not show en thusiasm for it. Enthusiasm begets enthusi asm. Men will attend a class because attendance is made compulsory; because it is endorsed by popular men on the force, and therefore seems the proper thing to do; or because they think that training will im prove their work and enable them to cam more money. Only when a man can be made to feel a need for training is he in a recep tive mood. Therefore, the first and most important job of the instrnctor is to sell the idea of training and make the men realize that they will benefit by attending the meet ings. It is poor poticy to announce that attendance is compulsory. -The man who has to be forced to attend is poor training material, and the sooner he is replaced in any organization the better. Experienced teachers ail agree that we learn to do by doing. This is obviously true of manual skills. A man cannot learn to be a good golfer without practicing with golf clubs. Neither can he acquire skill in think ing without using the stuff with which he lias been given to think. An instructor must use all the tricks of the teaching trade to get a man to think about the ideas he should absorb, and to think about them repeatedly until they become firmly fixed in his mind. Telling is not teaching. Mere exposure to information is a waste of time. Some of the methods of teaching are lec tures, demonstrations, and conferences. The device selected for a particular study will depend on the aim of the study. More often than not, more than one device is necessary- The lecture method alone seldom accom plishes much in industrial teaching. A man does not fully appreciate ideas that are pre sented, then interpreted for him. It requires too little effort on his part, and it is very easy for him to relax and indulge In day dreams or peaceful slumber. Subjects can be well introduced and summed up by short talks, but the instructor should not do all llie talking. As a teaching device the demonstration method often serves well. For example, in teaching artificial respiration or the tying of a bow line knot demonstration is most effec tive. Adequate preparation must be made in advance, however, so that the demonstration is given in a natural and serious way and Petroleum Section 523 so that the men will not be standing around waiting for the instructor to get ready. Be fore starting a demonstration, the aim should be clearly explained. This will focus atten tion on what is being done. In industry the conference method has proved to be the best tool of the instructor. Its object is to modify attitudes, promote habits of thinking and pool the best ideas of individual members so that the best thought on the subject will be available to all. The conference gives each man the benefit of the experience of others. Ability to lead group discussions is a rare accomplishment. Men who are recognized leaders in their fields often fail miserably when asked to direct an open forum. The conference method provides an easy way for a bashful man to become accustomed to presiding before groups of people. Its informality tends to inspire confidence and to create a sense of fellowship between the leader and his group. He finds it much easier to guide the discussion and record other people's ideas than to speak as an authority with a view of getting his own ideas accepted. Conference leadership ability, however, is not easily acquired with out a study of its technique and observance of some of its principles. There Is no better was to describe a con ference leader than to say that he is like a suction pump. The ideas he wants presented are held by the group. It is up to him to draw them out and get them clarified and summarized. He need not necessarily be an authority on the subject under discussion, and if he is, he should not advertise it. Some of the men may know more than he does. His skill consists in getting others to talk. To preserve the ideas developed and to keep the discussion on the track it is es sential that there be a blackboard or an easel with large sheets of paper fastened to it in the conference room. The easel ba certain advantages over the blackboard. The sheets may be turned over the top of the easel for reference when the leader wants to sum up a discussion. Also, they may be preserved If it is desired to furnish group members with copies of the ideas developed. The following chart headings illustrate approaches to different kinds of problems: Kinds TOPIC--ACCIDENTS Causes How to Prevent TOPIC--APATHY OF PUBLIC TOWARD ACCIDENT PREVENTION Possible Causes Remedies TROUBLE SHOOTING--TO DETERMINE CAUSES OF INCREASED HIGHWAY ACCIDENTS Kinds of Highway Accidents Probable Causes Suggested Ways of Preventing 524 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress CASE PROBLEMS--ACCIDENT RESPONSIBILITY Facts Regarding Accident Conclusions JOB ANALYSIS--INSPECTING A BOILER Procedure by Steps Hazards Precautions to Take Having set up his chart headings, the con ference leader is ready to introduce his sub ject. Before he can proceed with the analysis, he must get the group's attention focused on his subject. He can do this by calling attention to the importance of the subject, or the immediate and pressing need for a solution to a problem. Or he may tell a humorous story and tie it up with his subject. Great care should be taken, how ever, to select a story whose point can be really applied to the subject. Sometimes the reading of a communication or news article, or recalling a recent order or incident, will direct attention to the subject. When ready to call on the meu for ideas, the leader must set an example of infor mality. Men will think best in an informal atmosphere. Big words and high sounding phrases should be avoided. The leader should let ideas be expressed in terms that would be used in casual conversation. There are certain devices a conference leader can employ to bring out discussion. Analysis charts are the most reliable. Ideas should be written down promptly and in ^s few words as possible to convey the meaning clearly. When it is desired to reach a conclusion by discussing the advantages and disadvan tages of a topic, the leader must use his judgment as to which side of the question should be discussed first For example, if he wanted to sell the idea of group insurance to a gathering of mm, he would ask for their ideas as to the advantages first. By listing advantages first, the chances arc that there would be so many good reasons for the plan that few objections would be offered in the "disadvantage" column. So, without expressing an opinion himself, the leader can lead a group to sell themselves on an idea, which, if he tried to force on them, might cause objections. Some conference topics can be handled best by developing the negative side first. For example, if a leader wants to develop the qualifications of a good supervisor, he might set up the following conference topic heading: "The kind of supervisor men do not like." It is easier for most men to point out faults than to see good qualities in men, and so a good long list will soon develop. It is easy, then, to set up the positive side of the topic, as the negative points will suggest the opposite. Case problems, either real or hypothetical, arc always calculated to arouse Interest. A real case hi which the men are interested at the time is best It may be a case of an outstanding accomplishment or an unusual situation. Questions skillfully used are the confer ence leader's most effective device. A good question will set men to thinking, and think ing is the object of a conference. A question which can be answered by "yes** or "no" has little value. It encourages men to guess in stead of think about the problem. If a ques tion is assigned before it is stated, only one man thinks. The same is true when the leader asks questions in alphabetical order or goes around the table in a regular order. Most questions in a conference should be overhead questions--that is, questions di rected to the group rather than to individu als. Questions are valuable to draw out men who arc not participating, or to get an ex- Pctrolcum Section 525 pression from a man who the leader knows has a good answer. Graphs and illustrations are also very use ful. A crude drawing helps men visualize, and sometimes its very crudeness lends a comical aspect and attracts attention better than any other device used. There are men in every group who have good, constructive ideas but who will be re luctant to talk because they cannot express themselves well. A good conference leader will be quick to catch a man's meaning and express his idea for him, thereby relieving him of embarrassment and encouraging him to talk more. A good story at the right time is also a good device. When the conference lags, an appropriate story sometimes instills new life in the group. Another case where a story can be used to good advantage is when a bitter argument develops. A humorous story will relieve the tenseness of such a situation and avert personal clashes. If a topic is to be discussed and the leader believes the group will agree at once, he may want to start an argument to stimulate think ing. An argument forces men to think to defend their views and is one of the leader's most effective tools. The leader may arrange with a member of the group to take a nega tive stand before the meeting opens. Of course, the other men must know nothing of the arrangement, and the device should not be used too often. The following questions may be used to check one's ability to lead a conference: 1. Was the objective made clear in the opening remarks? 2. Were the chart headings worded so as to bring out the best discussion without confusion? 3. Was the proper attitude shown toward the group, and did the leader maintain his composure under trying circum stances? 4. Did the leader talk too much and thereby keep members of the group from participating in the discussion? 5. Was skill shown in questioning? 0. Did the leader himself become involved in arguments with the group members? 7. Was the discussion kept mi the subject? 8. Was one man permitted to do all the talking? 9. Was the interest of the group main tained? 10. Was the leader quick to grasp and re cord ideas? 11. In summing up the discussion, were the high points emphasized? The industrial teacher must be adept at job analysis. If he is a good conference leader, he can with the aid of experienced workers break each pay roll job down into its component parts and arrange operations in a logical sequence. Such an analysis will reveal teaching points and call attention to instructions which should be given. As an example let us take the job of a machinist. An analysis chart will serve well here. The chart might have three columns with the following headings: What a Ma chinist Docs, What He Must Know, and What He Should Know. In the first column the major duties of a machinist are listed. In the second column opposite each duty will be set down the knowledge that is essential for its safe, efficient performance. The third column is intended for recording knowledge which, while not essential for job perform ance, will make a man a better workman by creating interest in his job. Here will he recorded the sort of knowledge which will help him understand tl. ignificance of what he does. In analyzing a work job to be done by a crew of men, some one must lay careful plans. Ia job planning, six definite steps should be followed. The first step is to spot the problem; the second to gather all facts bearing on the problem; the third to select the functioning facts which are pertinent to the problem; the fourth to formulate a plan of procedure; the fifth to execute the plan; and the sixth to check results after the job is completed. This orderly procedure will prevent many failures. Before starting a job of major inqiorlance it is well for a foreman to go into a huddle with'his men and take advantage of their experience in laying plans. Not only will this experience help in planning, but the oppor tunity to have a part in planning will raise the morale of a group and enhance interest in the work. The conference procedure affords an ex cellent means of job analysis. We will as sume that plans are to be made to pull rods and tubing from an oil well. Obviously, the foreman wants to carry this job through with the least possible expenditure of lime, effort and materials and avoid accidents. A chart can be developed which will reveal all 526 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the teaching points. In one column, the op* trillions to be performed may be set down in their logical order, such as rigging up, taking the well oil the beam, pulling the rods, stringing up the tubing block and so on. In a second column may be listed the tools ami equipment needed for each opera tion. A third column may be used to list precautions for avoiding accidents for each operation. To make sure nothing will be overlooked in giving instructions and to dis cover things which should be taught to in sure a thorough understanding of the job, a fourth column should be added. In this will be listed the trade mathematics, trade sci ence. trade drawings, and trade terms involved in (lie performance of the various operations. A good foreman or teacher with a fine background of industrial experience may be able to make an excellent job analysis un aided. To do this he must he able to enact in his mind every detail from the beginning to the completion of the work. He must see clearly in his imagination each step of the process, with each workman taking the part he is best fitted for. He must anticipate mis steps and determine what instruction should be given to prevent accidents. He must con sider costs and make his plans accordingly. Knowing his men, he must think of the special instructions which should be given each one. A common mistake of a foreman is to make tentative plans and then trust to memory in carrying them out He believes he will give certain instructions at different stages in the progress of the work, but unless he keeps a written record of his plans he will likely overlook some information that should he given. A thorough job analysis which Is carefully followed will serve a foreman in the same way that a blueprint serves a builder. Much inefficiency and frequent misunder standings arise from the fact that orders are not properly given. Foremen seem especially weak in issuing written orders. These have many advantages over oral orders, provided they give attention to detail. A good order will reveal what the job is, where it is to be done, when, who is to do the job, how it is to be done. -why. and what results are ex pected. No one is prepared to issue an order for a job who has not first analyzed that job. Habit Formation Through Supervision By 0. B. BADGER Director, Industrial and Adult Education, Tulsa Public Schools, Tulsa, Okla. Every supervisor has three distinct respon sibilities, managerial, supervisory, and in structional. As a manager, he makes plans; as a supervisor, he secs that his plans are carried out by those under his direction; and if there is some information or skill his men do not know, he is obligated to teach I licni. things to prevent injury, he should be aware that the majority of accident* are due to mental reactions of the workmen. This implies, then, that he should know the laws which control the formation of mental and physical habits which make for safe work habits for the benefit of the workman him self and for those about him. Under these responsibilities he is charged with giving of safety information and su pervising safe practices, a very important phase of his work The supervisor must know what informa tion will function on the job; how to do work safely; and under ccrlniu conditions, furnish safety devices. After doing all these Four major factors are to be considered in acquiring new habits or breaking up old ones, maturation, motivation, the situation, and the opportunity for the learner to prac tice. By maturation we refer to mental and physical development of the individual. On certain jobs there is required a physical Petroleum Section 527 maturity where the muscles of the arms and the legs must be fully developed to insure perfect coordination. On the other hand the individual may be too old for the necessary coordination to perform certain tasks with out danger to himself or to otliers. The nervous systems of some adults never de velop to that of the average person. The supervisor should be constantly aware of those people, as they are extremely danger ous on almost any job. A person must possess a healthy nervous system to have normal muscular reactions. Motivation The second factor is motivation, such as the social approval of fellow workmen, ambition to succeed, money rewards, ad miration for the supervisor, loyalty to the company, and similar incentives. A nega tive incentive is fear of disapproval of fel low workmen, fear of losing his job, fear of loss of income, and fear of the super visor, The good supervisor will nsc positive incentives in the development of safe work practices. Occasionally he may he forced to use a negative one. The rate of habit formation depends upon the interest in learning it. Arousing that interest requires initiative, tact, and often perseverance on the part of the supervisor. Situation Often the situation in which a person finds himself determines what he does. Some accidents, seemingly unexplainable, can be traced to the fact that the conditions and place are new and strange to the worker, or at least different from what they were the week before, the day before, or even the hour before. His financial condition or some emotional stress may be disturbing him. Again he may be musing over the hilarious time he had had the previous night, or thinking of the good time he expects to have in the future. An individual may be angry at his boss or angry at himself or at his tools. When this happens, accidents often occur. The super visor can made the situation as congenial as is physically possible fay having tools in good working condition and all necessary guards in place, but he cannot always con trol the mental condition of the worker. Tbc fourth major factor for the super visor is providing adequate time for practicing a new habit. The practice should continue until the habit becomes fixed lo a level of achievement satisfactory to llic supervisor and to (he workman. The wuikman must be taught the correct method of doing a job, from the beginning to tlic end, and the supervisor should see that the learner never deviates from instructions. A habit should be practiced under actual working conditions if it is to be most effec tive. Sometimes it is necessary to give training under pseudo-conditions, which is better than to give no previous instructions before the employee enters upon Ins task. It is much better, however, for the super visor to take his man out on the job and give safety instructions where he can see and experience what lies before him. Depends on Satisfaction Doing a job safely depends in a measure upon whether the worker derives satisfac tion from doing it the safe uay. Sometimes a short cut method gives greater personal satisfaction, but the results often arc an injury to either man or machine or both. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to point out tliat satisfaction should come only when no one is in danger. Many workmen are seldom required to do dangerous tasks. While the supervisor may have given adequate instruction the first time the job was done, when the task is repeated an accident occurs due to the fail ure of the supervisor to be present and see that safety precautions are observed. Re peating the job correctly will strengthen the right habits. Progress Not Continuous Progress in any habit is not continuously regular, but by periods of rest and advance ment. Too often supervisors forget this fundamental law in training workmen. Fre quently they become irritable, and the effect on the workmen retards the development of new skills. Those of us who are supervisors must admit, whether we like to or not, that the best measure of trainer's efficiency Is the performance of the learner, provided the worker has been carefully selected for the job. 52K Tzi'tnty-sixth A'ational Safety Congress Resume of Safety in Natural Gasoline Plants By c. w. McCullough Chief Manufacturing Eafioeer, Natural Gasoline Department, Phillips Petroleum Company, Bartlesville, Okla. Prol>laiu of safety in natural gasoline plants come under one of three (leadings: (1) new construction; (2) old and existing installations; (3) education of personnel. New Construction The designing engineer must comply with the various construction codes and all state and federal regulations, yet he must be willing to depart from tradition in the selection and care of materials, if necessary, to place the safety factor foremost during the construction ixriod and keep it there. Whether it be additions to existing plants or an entirely new or independent installation, wc must know the service for which the equipment is intended and the properties of its materials. Wc must work with the manufac turer to sec that the fabricating process gives uniform properties or characteristics to the material. And last, wc must consider mainte nance by operating the finished unit within the limits of its material and design. The spacing of buildings and equipment is ol vital importance with reference to fire, explosion and personal injury hazards. We certainly would not place boilers or other open fire equipment adjacent to tanks holding flammable material such as storage tanks, dis tillation. or treating equipment, nor would wc locate these same units on higher ground titan the open fired units where any leakage would <lraio into tiie fire zone. The general plant layout must consider existing oil and gas wells, separators, tank futicrics and ground terrain with due regard i prevailing winds, for the majority of natr nral gasoline plants are located in the heart of a producing field. Since well locations are fairly uniform and usually spotted in north and south lines, it will usually work out, and luckily for sound engineering, to locate the plant equipment similarly. Liy drawing a plus sign on the proposed plant contour map. the plant can be laid out on two lines: East to West--Storage Tanks, cooling towers, processing equipment, engine rooms, office, laboratory and camp. North to South--Cording towers, proc essing equipment, fire stills and boiler houses. While it may become necessary to reverse the equipment on one line, operating expe rience has shown the desirability of such line layouts. A general inspection of existing plants, keeping these locations in mind, will impress on the most casual observer that while the layout being considered may have partially followed this plan, deviations have generally resulted in crowded equipment, ob jectionable piping and hazardous conditions and, in many cases, are responsible for poor operating performance from proved equip ment. Gasoline Storage Tanks Tank requirements fur storing natural gaso line can be classified into three services: raw material, finished natural gasoline (12# to 20# R.V.P.) and by products. The vapor pressure of the material handled raises an economic issue requiring tank de sign for proper shell thickness hut forcing the tank size to a minimum necessary to act as a flywheel to the process. Experience has shown that for raw storage in individual plants 5x18 or 10x40 horizontal tanks usually prove adequate; however, to compe tently cope with a large group of plants, it may become necessary to install as large as 12,000 barrel tanks. Where past practices have been to place tanks underground, or under sheds for protec tion from sunlight and atmosphere, these developments in steel tank fabrication and the use nf heat reflective paints, insulation, water sprays, now show it is economy to build tankage to withstand the vapor pressure of tlie product stored, at a location advantageous for operations nf blending and loading yet creating the minimum hazards. While there are considerable differences in opinion, it has been the accepted practice to space large gas-tight steel tankage at least one lank diameter, shell to shell, considering this spacing very reasonable and a safe pre caution against exposure hazard. Petroleum Section 529 The majority of batteries of small tankage (7 x 30 and 10 x 40) have been laid out with two foot shell clearances, with center line of tanks north and south to provide protection to the operator when reading gauges. This is most desirable on both aboveground or under ground batteries and prevailing winds will normally prove adequate to maintain ventila tion through the alley-ways. Hydrocarbon vapors, particularly propane and butane are heavier than air and will there fore flow to low levels, hence, tankage should be placed so that should leaks occur or vapors be released, there would not be a direct valley for these to flow toward open fires. Drains from tanks or equipment containing a flam mable liquid should not tie into drains from other tanks or buildings, nor into plant or camp sewer lines. While water seals and manhole vents are usually provided, tliese are apt to lail from lack ol maintenance and the leakage of such flammable vapors presents a treacherous fire hazard. All equipment, including tankage, should be built for the maximum operating pressure with a reasonable factor of safety, adhering to A.S-M.E. or other construction codes. In supporting any tankage, the foundation should be adequate and as precaution against break age from settling or contraction and expansion due to temperature conditions, it is fast be coming common practice to provide swings in the connecting lines, steel gates and wckled instead of screw fittings. The use of anti freeze drains of inside tank construction, alloy trimmed gauge glass fittings and relief valves and vents will assure filar protection par ticularly in cold climates and areas where cor rosive materials are ewoaatrtd. On all liquid tankage, spring loaded vapor relief valves should be in duplicate, one set at slightly lower pressure than the ocher, vented to the atmosphere and with the discharge lines extending beyond any building*. It should be emphasized that relief valva, vents and lines should be free of low spot* or pockets to prevent freeze-ups m cold weather and of adequate capacity to relieve both pressure and vacuum that might exist m pmaping into or out of storage. Where ftamr arrestors are to be used only Underwriters* Laboratory ap proved types should be installed. Submerged inlet or blending fines in nat ural gasoline storage tanks that "breathe" air when being emptied or when used as standing storage are very desirable and will prevent occurrence of static etectricity that occurs from falling streams of gasoline. Providing de inlet or filling line with an autofnatic back pressure check valve and the outlet line with an automatic excess flow valve are added safety measures to prevent back flow in case either connection is broken. The regulations of the N.B.F.U. for the liquified petroleum gas industry require the fill line to enter the top and discharge above the liquid level. However, since other con nections such an thermometer well, vapor and liquid outlc. ;iues and relief valve connections are usually grouped with the fill line in the manhole cover a conductor is in the vapor zone to effectively ground any static sparks that might be set up. Similarly "grounds" sliould be provided on every steam hose used in the plant or for cleaning tankage, as this same static electricity is formed due to friction. The corrosion rate of a storage tank holding liquid containing hydrogen sulfide and sulphur compounds is dependent upon the percentage of oxygen aitd water vapor present at the same time. Hence, we strive to eliminate these m the inlet gas and from all step* of the plant processes, inckahng the storage tanks, thus prolonging thr Sic o* all equipment. The plant masaeemnre txpoi e will he governed largely by this mow cormton angle. From experience we have hunt that adding \%* shell thickness over dnt required for operating pressure whew purchasing new tank* will assure a factor id saieey fur at least eight years m sour gas aim One essential precaution in cleaning tanks used in "soar" or cuneuw terrier, is to remove rust or ocher foreign matter Mud in the tank to a point remote fruoi the tank being cleaned. Such nattriaJ, if analysed, will be found to contain free sulphur, organic sulfide, iron sulfide and iron oxide. \Yhen exposed to the air in the open, the irun sulfide, being pyrophoric, will absorb oxygen readily, heat to incandescence, burst into flame and ignite any vapor or combustible gas present. The greatest fire hazard on large tanks is from open gauge hatches, manholes, defective screens or other non-gas-tight conditions that allow vapors to be ignited outside and flashed back into the tank. The increasing number of breather balloon and vapor recovery sys tems installed on standing and working stor age indicates that not only are such systems 530 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress reducing the hazards of vented vapors but are economically sound. An adequate Arc wall with capacity for the contents of the tanks should be provided and any drains from tankage or fire walls should Ik; diverted away from the plant, boiler house, office, laboratory, camp houses, incinerators or other points of open fires. Provision of steam snuffing lines, open ended and free draining, around tank connections, headers, and pump manifolds, with the master supply valve located remote from the tankage lias proved most practical for plant batteries. Water can be used to keep connections cool and possibly prevent breakage, but care must be taken to prevent floating the gasoline or other hydrocarbon products away from the point of fire or into an even more dangerous location. Foam type extinguishing systems work admirably where a smothering condition can be obtained and carbon dioxide can be used where the flames are small or confined to allow blanketing oxygen off the combustible ma terial. A large number of plants are now equipped with a remote control snuffing system with strategically located control valves througliout tltc plant, which in from 8 to 12 seconds will close fuel supply to boilers and fire stills and inject steam Into the fire boxes to cool same down speedily and before a floating vapor can reach them. A dtcck on this system every three months assures its reliability. Cooling Towers, Transformer Banks, High Lines In the Southwest, prevailing winds arc either soutltcast, south or southwest, hcticc, cooling towers must run cast aud west to pro vide maximum exposures to air currents. -In alt cooling towers, the great mass of circu lated water is cooled by the evaporation of a small part of its volume. This lost portion saturates the air as it blows through the tower, and, since the sides of the tower are open, as Meh winds are encountered, increas ing quantities "ater are mechanically car ried out of the tower in the form of mist and small droplets unless the pit water is dumped occasionally. With coutiuued make-up to off set tliese losses, the concentration of solids, salts, etc., will increase in the water and the windage will contain these solids resulting in incrustations on whatever the mist falls upon. Since this entrained water will carry from 50 to 200 feet, depending upon wind velocity. all plant equipment sltould be kept 50 to 100 feet away from cooling towers and under no circumstances should a transformer bank or high voltage line be located in litis driftage area. ladders and walkways on aud around every tower must he rigid, slip and skidproof. and provided with protected rungs aud handrails to cope with the needs of cold, windy and freezing weather conditions. If water distri bution is adjustable aud practically every tower has such provisions, the mechanism should be installed ou the ground with exten sions to vital control points for every operator is human and on a cold night with a freezing rain necessary changes will be made conven ient, if not, our operation and production suffers. Processing Equipment. Spacing, Safe guards, Ventilation Equipment should be so spaced that the operator or repairman can work conveniently. Physical safeguards and walkways are abso lutely essential to moving machinery and elec trical apparatus. Where new material and machinery is used, we should work with the manufacturer in designing and installing gear guards, rails or other protective materials, making them a part of the equipment and, as on old or existing equipment, take necessary precautions to see that the guards protect ratlter than increase the hazard already exist ing. Safeguards or rails should be installed with the original construction as there are more hazards when starting up moving equip ment than after same is operating. Ventilation should be given thought from the health standpoint as well as from its ability to keep buildings and manifolds clear of flam mable gases and vapors or explosive mixtures and at reasonable temperatures. Not only should hot equipment and lines be insulated for heat economy purposes, but surfaces that the operator or repairman may lay their hands on when making inspections or adjustments should be covered. Expansion joints in variable temperature lines and welded connections will largely eliminate line breaks, leaks and hot water drips. Location of lines, headers and valve wheels or boxes should be watched to eliminate both stumbling blocks and overhead headache posts. The provision of a reasonable amount of con crete floor area, walks, steel grating and walk ways will repay in better operation as the Petroleum Section 531 result of easier and more convenient access to equipment and controls requiring continu out checking. A small increase in initial cost of recording and control equipment will often allow favorable location of adjusting points and reduce hazardous trips for the oj>erator up ladders, on lines, etc. Electrification, Transformer Banks, High Lines Transformer bank locations must be kept clear of plant build up liazards and a clearance of 50 to 100 feet from other equipment is desirable. While pole leads can be used, power service to buildings and equipment, particu larly within hazardous areas, should come from the transformer bank through lead cov ered cable installed in underground conduit thus giving free areas around buildings and equipment without danger. A protecting fence with locked gate should surround all trans former banks. The greatest boon to the "graveyard" tour men has been the adoption of lights with re flectors distributing light over the desired area without shadow*. It is a proved fact that the nearer approach to natural lighting, tlie casier'and better the operation and the less the attitude for neglect. Lights with or without reflectors should be enclosed in vapor globes and conduit wiring, vapor tight or oil immersed switches and safety outlets should be employed. Swinging the entire conduit and fixtures on springs, cushion hooks or other cradle effect in engine and pump rooms will greatly reduce filament breakage. If possible, no fixture or bulb should be so located as to require climbing over mov ing machinery to adjust or change bulbs. Engine Room* and Auxiliaries The engine rooms represent voe of the targe investment areas in a plant and should be given attention scconfiayly. All pipe and fittings should have a high ahty factor over the normal and nainM working pressures. Cooperation should be firm tt> State Depart ment of Labor in their campaigns to safe guard equipmeit and perso--wl by insisting upon qualified welder* performing such work. The tack of proper tiedowns and expansion joints to compensate for vftrarira and tem perature differentials causes many fine breaks. Scrubbers with mist extractors far removal of entrained liquid and foreign matter will eliminate cylinder head breakage and increase operating life of rings and cylinders. Spring loaded relief valves should be pro vided on the discharge of each compressor cylinder having ample capacity for each cyl inder. These valves relieve ou discharge into a relief header which extends past the com pressor building or other equipment and ends in a riser allowing disposal of relieved vapors in a non-fire or non-hazardous zone. While not imperative in sweet gas areas, it is essential to use closed top and packed lift ing lever type relief valves on units handling sour gas or vapors containing hydrogen sul fide, for such units allow the operator to hand check the valve without creating the Itazard of escaping vapors or gas at the point of oper ation. Such valves arc tested once each month by the plant repairman or chief engineer by closing the compressor discharge valve and clteckhig the pressure at which the relief valve operates. Boiler House and Fire Stills The insulation of both boilers, feed and blowdown lines covers both hazardous surfaces and saves heat and fuel to increase engineering efficiency. Expansion joints or swings must be supplied to all three lines and welded fit tings, lines and steel fittings do much to elimi nate leaks and line breaks. Two spring loaded safety valves must be on each boiler and one safety valve on each superheater, the first two with capacity to re lieve the maximum steaming rate of the boiler with a minimum rise in steam pressure. Plac ing the weight of the exhaust line entirely on the safety valve Invites a simmering, leaking action after the first pop, for when up to operating temperature, the added weight of the exhaust line tends to egg-shape the valve and seat. Hence, each safety valve sltould be provided with a special drip all on the exhaust and support of the exhaust Hue independent of the valve itself. Correction of this point on old boilers will eliminate seemingly incurable troubles. The provision and use of both quick and slow opening valves on the blowdown line will add justified life to every boiler. The in stallation of automatic non-return valves on the steam line off each boiler, steel blowdown columns with high-low water alarms, depend able feedwater level controls, fuel regulators and pressure gauges will repay their cost in better operation and more satisfied personnel. Ventilation should be provided in the boiler 532 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress house roof to remove both excessive heat and products of combustion that may be present and leaking from cracked settings, fireboxes, etc. Locating fire stills in the boiler zone and providing the same quality of fuel or firing control, snuffling facilities with an added firewall protection will reduce the hazards nor mally considered pieseut with this type equip ment. Plant Laboratory All plant and laboratory tests must be con ducted fully in accordance with A.S.T.M., A.G.A., or N.G.A.A. accepted procedure, ropics of tlwsc manuals included in laboratory library. Summary of laboratory highlights are: 1. Build Distillation room and blending, pouring, Keid Vapor Pressure testing room separate without inside doors requiring sep arate outside entries. The ceiling of both rooms should be provided with ventilator con nections extending separately through the roof. 2. Provide adequate laboratory space, care ful setup of equipment with minimum con gestion. 3. Use A.S.T.M., A.G.A. or N.G.A.A. ap paratus. Demand Pyrex glass flasks and con nections with steel, iron or metal apparatus in laboratory at minimum while prefenred for pilot scale operations recommend housing same apart from laboratory. 4. Limit open flame distillations to gasoline, kerosenes, and oils, utilizing indirect itcating where feasible, flat top closed hotplates, coil and submerged electric heaters, steam, oil or sand baths. 5. L'hC fireproof wire reinforced screens or ctfn|>artmcnt4 with suitable ''safety'* pans of adequate size to retain volume of sample and prevent spread of fire. Provide outside acces sible shut-off valve for fuel supply. 6. Limit size of laboratory samples and prop vide adequate storage facilities for same. Stor ing containers in cold room refrigerators or on open shelves, in glass or metal containers, depending upon vapor pressure of liquid handled, providing drainage pan far drop and leakage with outside container for residue from tests. 7. Provide dry or carbon dioxide fire extinguisltcrs conveniently located in labora tory. These have proved more satisfactory than liquid or foam extinguishers for com batting laboratory fires. & Require a written report of every fire and accident to determine cause and allow setting up suitable regulations to prevent occurrence. 9. Provide competent personnel in the lab oratory, familiar with the hazards involved, the safeguards and the technique of testing. Office, Laboratory and Camp Safety measures must not be confined to the plant alone for an accident in the office, lab, or camp involves lost time and expense to both company and employee and has a greater psycliological effect on the employee and his efficiency than if occurring in the hazards of the plant. The flagrant disregard for fire hazards in these two areas has required the rebuilding of many offices and causes very painful bums of face and hands to both the careless individual and to innocent workers. A company house row should have its street separate from through highways or roads, cattle guards protecting its entrance, side walks at least of minimum amount from the camp to the plant. Provision of this last will promote cleanliness in both plant and home and when coupled with provision of a few trees, shrubs and flowers will tend to bring out the best in every man. Incinerators should Itave childproof guardrails and their shut-off valves out of reach, or locked. Care should be taken in providing community wash and bath houses to see that open fires or stoves burn with complete combustion and in sour gas areas, it wall pay to provide treated gas and regular inspections to these conveniences rather than hazard the asphyxiation of a child or woman. Loading Rack While usually located remote from the plant, safety features must be considered on every loading rack. In the general equipment lay out, if a steam heating boiler, rackman's house or other point of open fire be necessary, rn conjunction with tire rack proper, same should be located south of, and at least 200 ft. from the rack itself. Every rack, regardless of whether it has a vapor recovery system or not, should have a vapor disposal line which will allow loading the cars without dome covers on and conducting the vapor loss dur ing loading to some point away from the rack and preferably being released from a riser at a height that will allow dissipation of vapors without creating a fire hazard. The best of Petroleum Section 533 lighting is justified upon not only the runway of the rack itself, but on the underneath side of the rack where the rackuien are required to tighten any connections or install unloading rap. Since there is always some leakage from the unloading connection until the seat is ground in and the cap installed, drainage should be provided from the rack to conduct both water and other liquid away from the rack proper, but not onto the railroad rightof-way or towards houses or other point of open fire. Two or more carbon dioxide fire extinguishers and at least two blankets and one or more barrels of water should be pro vided on top of the rack for most fires around racks are flashes igniting from lighting and if extinguished immediately can be handled by the rackman without undue hazard. Inspection and Employee Education If the highest safety standards are to be maintained, there must be an adeqnae and regular system of inspection. No concern should leave the matter entirely to the state or insurance carrier inspectors. While a com pany's scope of operations may not justify a full or even part-time safety inspector, we have found that mechanical safeguards will not In themselves prevent accidents, but the men themselves must be made safety conscious. The impulses, interests and energies of the workers themselves must be properly guided and some encouragement given them to put forth their best efforts. The inauguration of monthly operators' meetings, in which a com bined program of safety, discussion of plant processes, both practical and theoretical, an open forum on safety needs of the individual plant, combined with the customary eats and entertainment will make every mart look for ward to these nights. Favorable recognition by both company uanagcsicm and supervisors for the employees successfully pursuing the vocational training courses which arc bring supported by the L*. S. Government would, no doubt, create mure interest m this form of training. Em ployee sponsorship alone will go far to sell the idea that trained men who can do their wurk thoroughly, quickly but safely are build ing security into their jobs. ADJOURS&IEXT Power Press Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--P. G. Hunter, Motor Wheel Corp., Lansing, Mich. Vice-Chairman (in Charge of Posters)--B. E. Rockhoff, Detroit Steel Products Co., Detroit, Mich. Vice-Chairman (In Charge of Membership}--H. C. Howsaw, Hubbard Spool Co., Chi cago, III. Vice-Chairman and Secretary--G. H. Berry, Western Electric Co., Chicago, III. News Letter Editor--V. G. Pendleton, West Lynn Plant, General Electric Co., West Lynn, Mass. Engineering Committee Chairman--Louis Bokaks, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. Exhibit Committee Chairman--E. C. Schui.tes, Jw., C. Hager & Sons Hinge Manufactur ing Co., St. Louis, Mo. Health Committee Chairman--Dr. A. L. Brooks, Fisher Body Co., Detroit, Mich. Program Committee Chairman--R. M. Zecder, Edison General Electric Appliance Co., Chicago, 111. Publicity Committee Chairman--E. H. Mceks, Transue & Williams Steel Forging Corp., Alliance, Ohio. 5h`d*.r and Safety Kinks Committee Chairman--G. S Thompson, Central Mutual Insur ance Co. of Chicago, Detroit, Mich. Statistics Committee Chairman--J. R. Cox, Fairbanks Morse & Co., Beloit, Wis. Members at Large-- P. J. Brand, Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Corp., Pullman, Chicago, III. W. J. Graves, Michigan Mutual Liability Co., Detroit, Mich. J. W. Henning, Automatic Electric Co., Chicago, 111. G. A. Kuechenmfistek, Dominion Forge and Stamping Co., Walkerviile, OntH Canada. C. E. Libby, Scintilla Magneto Co., Sidney, N. Y. J. D. Lyle, Fisher Body Company of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio. T. 0. Meisner, American Can Company, Chicago, IHST. H. Slaymaker, Fairbanks Morse & Co., Beloit, Wis. H. L. Vits, Aluminum Goods Manufacturing Co., Manitowoc, Wis. E. J. Wallmak, Great Lakes Forge Co., Chicago, III. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--H. C. Howaam, Hubbard Spool Co., Chicago, 111. ' Vice-Chairman for Slides and Safety Kinks--B. E. Rockhoff, Detroit Steel Products Co., Detroit, Mich. Vice-Chairman for Exhibit--M. R. Zki.dkr, Edison General Electric Appliance Co., Chi cago, III. Vice-Chairman and Secretary--G. H. Berry, Western Electric Co., Hawthorne Works, Chicago, 111. 535 536 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress XtU'j Letter Editor--L. W. Ljttrei.l, Agfa Ansco Corp., Binghamton, N. Y. Engineering Committee Chairman--Loins Boraks, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. Health Committee Chairman, Da. R. DeMott, Pullman-Standard Car Mfg. Co., Pullman, Oiicago, IN. Membership Committee Chairman--E. C. Schultes, Jr., C. Hager & Sons Hinge Manu facturing Co., St. Louts, Mo. Poster Committee Chairman--J. R. Cox, Fairbanks Morse & Co., Beloit, Wis. Program Committee Chairman--V. G. Pendleton, West Lynn Plant, General Electric Co., West Lynn, Mass. Publicity Committee Chairman--J. D. Lyle, Fisher Body Company of Cleveland, Cleve land, Ohio. Statistics Committee Chairman--P. J. Brand, Pullman-Standard Car Mfg. Co., Pullman, Chicago, III. Members at Large-- J. D. Berman. Western Electric Co.. Hawthorne Sta., Chicago, III. W. J. Grayes, Michigan Mutual Liability Co., Detroit, Mich. J. W. Henning, Automatic Electric Co., Chicago, III. P. G. Hunter, Motor Wheel Corp., Lansing, Mich. G. A. Kuechexwejster. Dominion Forge and Stamping Co., Walker vilk% Ont., Canada. C. E. Libby, Scintilla Magneto Co., Sidney, N. Y. T. O. Meisneb. American Can Company, Chicago, III. S. H. Slaymakkr, Fairbanks Morse & Co., Beloit, Wis. H. L. V'its, Aluminum Goods Manufacturing Co., Manitowoc, Wis. E. J. Wallman, Great Lakes Forge Co., Chicago, III. The Power Press Section met jointly with A record of the joint meetings will be found the Automotive and Machine Shop Section, on page 225 this volume. Public Utilities Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--John J. Barada, The Laclede Gas Light Co., St. Louis, Mo. Vice-Chairman for Telephone and Telegraph Interests--W. P. Elstun, American Tele phone and Telegraph Co., New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman for Gas Interests--E. P. Durfee. Consolidated Edison Co. of N. Y., Inc.. New York, X. Y. Vice-Chairman for Electric Interests--Wm. H. Brown, Northern Slates Power Co.. Min neapolis, Minn. Secretary--H. A. Ptoi.kuv, Public Service Co. of Northern Illinois, Chicago, III. Sett's Letter Committee-- D. C. Duncan, Chairman, Appalachian Electric Power Co., Blucheld, W, Va. P. L. G. Hasskarl, Pennsylvania Power Co., Allentown, Pa. James D. Hall, Atlantic City Electric Co., Atlantic City, N. J. E. R. Kropp, Union Electric Light and Power Co., St. Louis, Mo. E. S. Licht, New York State Electric & Gas Corp., Geneva, N. Y. D. E. Woods, Central Power & Light Co., Corpus Christt, Tex. Engineering Committee-- W. H. Muujgan, C/unYtuai!, Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Toronto, Ont., Canada. A. A. Klinge, Public Service Co, of Colorado, Denver, Colo. Paul R. Kuhn, Penn Central Light & Power Co., Altoona, Pa. John P. McCann, New England Power Assn., Boston, Mass. W. J. McVav, Consolidated Electric and Gas Co., New York, N. Y. Health Committee Chairman--Dr. Hart E. Fisher, Chicago Rapid Transit Co., Chicago, III. Visual Education Committee C7ioirwni--C. L. HuiHTowkR, United Gas System, Houston, Texas. Publicity Committee Chairman--R. S- Meteger, The Toledo Edison Co., Toledo, Ohio. Membership Coinmittcc-- H. W. Lueck, (Chairman), Commonwealth Edison Co., Chicago, 111. Harry Berman, Consolidated Gas & Electric Co., Baltimore. Md. M. T. Carter, Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Co., Lincoln, Nebr. K. P. Noyes, Central Maine Power Co., Augusta, Maine. L A. Rust, Erie County Electric Co., Eric, Pa. M. E. Shedd, Appalachian Electric Power Co., Bluefiekl, W. Va. K- Steele, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, Oklahoma City, Okla. P. K. Stiles, Compania Cubana de Electricidad, Habana, Cuba. Program Committee Chairmatb--C. H. Dinsmoue, Wisconsin Power & Light Co., Madison, Wis. Statistics and Contest Committee Chairman--Charles S. Bowden, Ohio Public Service Co., AHiance. Ohio. Special Representatives---W. A. Buchanan, Appalachian Electric Power Co., Welch, W. Va. (E. E. I.) Charles J. Gefvert, Chairman, Accident Prevention Committee, American Gas Asso ciation. 537 538 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Councilors-- F. S. Bfaumovt, The Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co., Chicago, 111. C. B. Boulet, Wisconsin Public Service Corp., Milwaukee, Wis. C. A. Doellf.r, Tltc Dayton Power & Light Co., Dayton, Ohio. James B. Douglas, The Philadelphia Gas Works, Philadelphia, Pa. Roy M. Godwin, Philadelphia Electric Co., Philadelphia, Pa. E. J. Kacn, Philadelphia Company. Pittsburgh, Pa. Wills Maclacjuan. Electrical Engineer, Toronto, Out., Canada. H. |t. McCulloch, Bureau of Safety, Chicago, 111. George Orr, Detroit Edison Company, Detroit, Mich. F. M. Pkim-er, Illinois Bell Telephone Co., Chicago, III. C. J. Rutland, Texas Power & Light Company, Dallas, Texas. C. B. Scott, Bureau of Safety, Chicago, III. J. L. VandegbIFT, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co., Washington, D. C. H. F. Went*, West Penn System, Pittsburgh, Pa. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--W. P. Ei.stun, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman--E. P. Durfee, Consolidated Edison Co. of N. Y., Inc.. New York, N. Y. Secretary--H. A. Ptolemy. Public Service Co. of Northern Illinois, Chicago, III. .Vnw Letter Committee-- D. C. Duxcax, Chairman, Appalachian Electric Power Co., Bluciicld, W. Va. H. H. Bfrman, Consolidated Gas, Electric Light & Power Co. of Baltimore, Balti more, Md. S. C. Dickinhj.n. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.. San Francisco. Calif. K R. Kropf, Union Electric Company of Missouri, St. Louis, Mo. W. J. McVay, Stone St Webster Service Corp., New York, N. Y. P. K. Shlf.s, Compania Cubana de ^Electricklad, Maximo Gomez No. 1 Apartado 1715, Habana, Cuba. D. E. Woods, Central Power & Light Co., Corpus Christi, Texas. Procjranx Committee Chairman--R. S. Metzger, Toledo Edison Co., Toledo, Ohio. Publicity Committee Chairman--C. H. Dinsmore, Wisconsin Power & Light Co., Madison, Wis. Visual education Committee-- H. W. Lueck, Chairman, Commonwealth Edison Co., Chicago, 1IL E. S. Mints, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., New York, N. Y. C. N. Rakf-stkaw, Tire Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Cleveland, Ohio, F.ngineerinti Committee-- W. H. Muu.tn.AN. Chairman, Wydrn-F.lectric Power Commission of Ontario, Toronto, Ont, Canada. E. C. Bookman, Virginia Electric & Power Co., Richmond. \'.i. C H.-Davis, Commonwealth Edison Co., Oiicago, 111. J. D. Hall, Atlantic City Electric Co., Atlantic City, N. J. P. L. G. Hasskakl, Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., Allentown, Pa. Paul R. Kuhn, Pennsylvania Edison Co., Ahoona, Pa. Public Utilities Section 539 J. F. McCabe, Duquesnc Light Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. John P. McCann, New England Power Service Co., Boston, Mass. Health Committee Chairman--Dr. Hart E. Fisher, Chicago Rapid Transit Co., Chicago, Membership Committee-- E. J. Hanla.v. Chairman, Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co., Chicago, III. W. H. Brown, Northern Stales Power Co., Minneapolis, Minn. M. T. Caster, Lincoln Telephone and Tcclgraph Co., Lincoln, Ncbr. R. A. Edwards, San Diego Consolidated Gas & Elec. Co, San Diego, Calif. A. A. Klince, Public Service Co. of Colo., Denver, Colo. E. S. Licht, New York State Electric & Gas Corp., Geneva, N. Y. C. E. McBride, Northern Indiana Public Service Co., Fort Wayne, Iml. E. P. Noyes, Central Maine Power Co., Augusta, Maine. H. E. Siiedd, Appalachian Electric Power Co., Blueficld, W. Va. J. R. Steele, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., Oklahoma City, Okla. Statistics and Contest Committee Chairman--Charles S. Bowden, Ohio Public Service Co., Alliance, Ohio. Councilors (Past General Chairmen)-- John J. Barada, The Laclede Gas Light Co., St. Louis, Mo. (1936-1937) E. S. Beaumont, The Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co., Chicago, III. (1930-31) C. B. Boulet, Wisconsin Public Service Corp., Milwaukee, Wis. (1932-33) G. A. Dueller, Dayton Power & Light Co., Dayton, Ohio (1931-32) James B. Douglas, The Philadelphia Gas Work* Co., Philadelphia, Pa. (1910-17) Roy M. Godwin, Philadelphia Electric Co., Philadelphia, Pa. (1935-36) E. J. Kreh, Philadelphia Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. (1934-35) Wills Maclachan, Electrical Engineer, Toronto, Ont., Canada (1919-20) B. B. McCulloch, Bureau of Safety, 20 N. Wacker Drive., Chicago, III. (1925-26) George Opp, Detroit Edison Co., Detroit, Mich. (1926-27) F. M. Pepper, Illinois Bell Telephone Co.. Chicago, 111. (1933-34) C. J. Rutland, Texas Power & Light Co., Dallas, Texas (1927-28) C. B. Scott, Bureau of Safety, 20 N. Wachcr Drive, Chicago, Til. (1917-18) H. F. Wehh, West Penn System, Pittsburgh, Pa. (1928-29) Special Representatives-- C. J. Gcfvekt, Consolidated Edison Co. of N. Y., Inc., New York, N. Y. (A.G.A.) L. M. Siiaocett, Georgia Power Co., Athens, Ga. (E.E.I.) TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Tlie opening session was called to order St. Louis, Mo., who introduced the speakby John J. Barada, Laclede Gas Light Co., crs. 540 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress What Are We Doing? By CHARLES B. SCOTT President, Bureau of Safety, Chicago, 111. it would seem appropriate at this anni versary meeting of the National Safety Council to consider seriously what Is being done in the work for which it stands and to measure the accomplishments of the past nnd look at the problems and objectives the future will bring. No one can deny that the Council is largely responsible for initiating organized clTorts for the prevention of public and industrial accidents and that it has been and is now recognized as the most effective agency in our country to stimulate interest, to correlate standards of procedure and to provide a forum of education so necessary in a cause which lias become of such im portance and of mutual interest to all Citi zen*. It has not been the privilege of many of those present to experience the conditions which brought about the safety movement nor to follow its successes and failures. Due to the nature of the cause fostered by the Council, its work lus enlisted and Has been dependent upon those who, without a selfish interest, were prompted to contribute to the welfare of society and to prevent a deplor able and useless waste of life and property. The Council has been kept alive and ac tive by the volunteer services of industry' nnd citizenship, unselfish and earnest in their support. Whatever has been achieved has been made possible by such sincerity of purpose and freely given service. The com pensation lias been accomplishment in a worthy cause, designed to help mankind. Pioneering at best is slow, difficult and with frequent discouragement*, and the cause of safely during the post tucsitv-fivc years ba proved to be no exception to the rule. It h particularly discouraging, after so many years of faithful work prompted In' un selfish motives, to contemplate the toll of lives yet being sacrificed to carelessness. Unfortunately the measurement of suc cess in safety work is usually made by the comparisons of records of failures rather than by record* of successful attainments. These become less dependable as a basis because they cannot lake into account the constant material changes in hazards and risks brought about by the different condi tions which come into life and industry as a result of scientific advancement. Statistics of this year are of little value for compari son with the records of next year and cer tainly even less value ten years hence. A* an example, if it were possible to compile automobile accident statistics on an accurate basis of the number of cars and passengers, mileage, conditions of roads and weather and numerous other factors including the provision for increased speed, then such records would serve as a comparison. How ever. such accurate statistical information is impossible. Also, in the field of public utility, con struction, maintenance and operation, many changes are prevalent, making comparable records m accident prevention difficult and uncertain. If failures in prevention work cannot be accurately determined, how then can the successes be known without knowl edge of the lives saved or property sal vaged? If thoughtful consideration is given to the difference between the present life in public and in industry as compared with that of tw*enty-five years ago, and due weight is given to the hazards and exposure created within that period, then it is certain that the intensive efforts wliich have been made to conserve life and property and to prevent useless waste have not been in vain. From this logical point of view, the labors and expense of these years have more than been justified. The public utility industry' las demon strated the value of safety work not only by the saving of life and limb but by the achievement of a more considerate manage ment, an improved personnel, scientific application of safety measures to the im provement of equipment and mechanisms, improved employee relationships, and better and more courteous service to the public. Underlying the present day methods for the control of accidents are certain essen tial fundamentals which have always been, and will continue to be, necessary* of con sideration and which should constantly guide those who direct safety work. They are so well known that repetition would Public Utilities Section 541 seem to be unnecessary and yet so impor tant that emphasis is always justifiable. These fundamentals arc that working conditions should be made safe and that the earnest cooperation of competent managers, su|>crvisors and workers should be secured. Everything necessary* seems lo fall within one of these two classifications and almost all of tire accidents which occur seem to be due to the failure of one or both of these admonitions. The assistance of the manage ment and engineers has been demonstrated by the improved material changes in plants and equipment These improvements have much to do with the success attained in the public utility industry- ft has been a slow and difficult process because it has involved new and experimental ideas and consider able expense and yet it has largely been done in the interest of safety and certainly altogether in the interest of safety, efficiency and an improved and economical service by which the public, the investors and the em ployees have been benefited. It is no mean task nor light responsibility to work for and accomplish such an attainment. In the realm of public safety this point may be more readily comprehended by con sideration of the wonderfully improved highways and cars which have contributed not only to safety, but to the whole scheme of better living and increased happiness. The outstanding difficulty of accident prevention in the electrical industry is the control of the human element. No plan has yet been conceived nor panacea yet devel oped for such control, and it is doubtful if such discoveries or cures will ever be forth coming. But other factors are involved, such as safe working conditions and prac tices, selection, training supervision and other elements. It would be presumptuous to attempt to state the ways by which human behavior can be controlled, and yet it may be of valoe to give attention to some of the ways by which this element may be favorably infladkwL There is perhaps no more effec tive influence than that of personal contacts upon which personal influence largely de pend*. No safety' director can achieve any -`E-Trfrit measure of success in his work tmlrs* hr carefully utilizes his personal con tact* with ki felkm* employees in building a ry>pni iMc and honorable association, zlay tvihavd by a sincere purpose and desire upon his part to contribute to the welfare of these associates. The establish ment of such influence cannot he prescribed by any fixed formula Irccausc of the nat urally great variance of personalities of safety directors nnd the similar differences in the personalities of employees. Each di rector must determine his own qualifications and the requirements of his associate em ployees and hence create the proper meth ods of procedure. There arc, however, certain qualities of mind and character which arc necessary in any situation. Some of these qualities are sincere purpose, unselfish interest in fcllowmcn and the desire lo contribute to the happiness of mankind. These arc usually evidenced by friendliness, kindness, humility and a strong sense of right; all qualities which can be evidenced only if they arc in the nature of the man, sincere and honest. Today, as in times past, safety work is most dependent upon enlightenment and an appreciation of personal responsibility. In the future, improvements in public and in dustrial safety will be attained by building up such an appreciation among employees and the public. Objectives and hopes for their accom plishment arc usually underestimated. It was impressive to read a recent article con cerning the experiments completed for stratosphere travel jtid to note the care fully studied precautions developed for such experimentation. Scientific mech anisms have been perfected to overcome the hazards of extreme temperatures and rare fied air conditions. These path-finders arc developing safeguards against dangers which would seem lo be impossible of human endurance, and yet no one can say but what such marvelous precautions may enable these men to make possible safe transportation through the world of strato sphere. It is just such faith and confidence that leads to a progress of civilization and su premacy of man over seemingly insur mountable difficulties: It is true that the conceived objective in great undertakings is hardly comprehensible until after their at tainment, and yet the time will come when many of the visions now had with reference to the safety of the public and of employees in industry will be facts rather than visions. It is the duty of those now engaged to contribute their part toward this perfection. 542 Tiucnlysixth National Safety Congress Such objectives should not only contentplate (be gradual improvement of records of accidents and tlac elimination of tragic waste, but should also take into account (he service being rendered to mankind for a better and happier life and for a citizenship which will ultimately enjoy the fruits of present labors. Safety in Connection with Flood Emergencies as It Relates to Electric Operation By JL J. SA1SBURY Superintendent of Operation!, Duquesne Light Co., Pittibnrgh We ordinarily think of safety in the opera tion of an electric utility as a somewhat formal setup of rules and procedure to cover the operation of switches and the repair of machinery* We may begin to take it as a matter of course. Only when it is put to the test of a great emergency* can wc judge its real value. Such an opportunity* was pre vented to the safety organization of the Duquesne Light Comiwny, which serves the Greater Pittsburgh Area in Allegheny and Heaver Counties, Pennsylvania. The entire company met the greatest emergency in its history' with no disabling injury during the anxious days and nights when its power plants and a number of its substations, trans mission and distribution lines were com pletely* out of commission and during the weeks of reconstruction which followed. Pittsburgh experienced the most disas trous flood of its history' on St. Patrick's Day, 1936. It came almost without warning anil was four and one-half feet higher than the legendary flood of 1763. So far as the l>owcr system was concerned, we were pre pared for floods beyond any* ever before ex perienced, but this one was so great that all of our power plants, one third of our sub stations, and many of our lines and cables were inundated, forcing us to shut down completely. For several hours we had no power whatever for a community of more than a million people. We had very little power for three days. Most of the city had no water. It had no street car or street lighting service. Food was stored in warehouses which, even when they* were not flooded, had no elevator serv ice. Gasoline stations had plenty of gasoline in tanks under ground but they had no power to operate their pumps. Neighboring companies, even though seri ously crippled and with major problems of their own, extended such sources of power as were still in operation. They curtailed the supply to some of (heir ou*n customers so that as much as possible could be trans mitted to Pittsburgh. it was considered that the most essentia: service was communication, civic function such as water service, hospitals, dairies, and bakeries, followed by street services, news papers, domestic lighting, commercial and industrial power. It is interesting to note that service was reestablished in the same order in the cities flooded along the Ohio River this year. The first available power was brought into the city in a novel manner. A 22 Kv inter connection was available at the southeast comer of the system. It was brought into the McKeesport Substation, then to Dravosburg Substation where it was stepped up to 66,000 volts. All the normal load switches along the way were opened so that no power was taken from the line, not even for lights at the substations. From Dravosburg it went to Woodviile Substation, where it was again stepped down to 22,000 volts to Chess Sub station, where it stepped down to 113100 volts, to Grant Substation and then to the Main Telephone Building to be used for the batteries and the telephone system. Meanwhile (tom the westerly side of the system a 66 Kv line was available except that it had a tap to the Ambridge Substation where the oil breaker was under water. To open it, the operators had to cross a creek which was then 200 feet wide. When a boat was finally obtained, it was necessary to detour it in a truck for 15 miles over coun try* roads. The men had to maneuver the boat around the switches, transformers, and steel structures, to get to the breaker. They Public Utilities Section 543 tried to reach the tripping lever down through the icy water but it was too deep. They finally located it with a hook stick and operated tlie breaker. Imagine the Super visor's relief when they had reported safely back at the station and the line was ener gized into the northern part of the system. As soon as the waters subsided the magni tude of the tremendous job of rehabilitation became evident Speed was essential, and so it was decided to dispense with many of the routine forms such as "Request for Equip ment Outage" which in normal times are necessary for the orderly procedure of work. However, some features were insisted upon. All crews were accompanied with a qualified electrical man familiar with the layout. No work was to be done without getting in communication with System Op erator, no matter how difficult that might be. No work on electrical equipment was to be done until it was proved to be dead and had been tagged out of service. All feeder and distribution cables where either end had been under water were im mediately tagged out of service. Station equipment was tagged as crews reported to work on it. The real danger was in restoring service. Some large customers had turbines of their own connected to our system. They picked up load to the limit of their capacity. This further complicated the situation and increased the danger to the men on account of "feed backs.** At one time we had seven separate radial systems in operation. Most of the men in the field did not know what was "hot" or where the feed came from. We learned later that no matter in what substations the men worked, they tested for voltage and in most cases applied protective grounding before working on equipment. Their training had taught them to do it. No line or equipment was placed in serv ice until all crews had reported "off" by telephone, m person, or by written note with messengers, and not then until a qualified switchman had personally patrolled the cus tomers* stations in a loop. As soon as service was approximately normal, it was decided again to use the regular operating procedure. For our ordinary work wc believe our safety routine to be conservative. During the flood we let the bars down, but not too far--t1e record proves that in all this rush and confusion, where was safety* ? Frankly, it was coasting, but it coasted through. For the duration of the flood the entire company* of about 2,000 men and women had not one disabling injury. How was sue!) a remarkable record possi ble? How could 2,000 men and women work ing day and night restore a system of over 300,000 Kva load in eight days practically without supervision or telephone communi cation? How could they do it without a single lost-time accident in the field, not only during those eight days but during the months of reconstruction which followed? Beyond any doubt, the answer is to be found in two short sentences ; 1. The attitude of the management re garding safety. 2. The previous training of the men. The management was particularly con cerned with the welfare of the employees. A department store executive was routed from bed at 3:00 A.M. to get cots, bedding, and blankets to place in offices, substations, power plants, and shops. Some of these were taken in boats to ilic station where I was working. A section of the William Penn Hotel was taken over completely for a din ing room. At the Manchester Headquarters, which is the location of the general shops and general storeroom, (lie employee's restaurant which normally served five lunches a week, was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for more than a month. Girls ordinarily occupied with filing records and typing letters put on aprons, peeled po tatoes, and served at the counter. The employees^required no urging. Rather, orders were sent from the Vice President that no one was to work more than sixteen hours consecutively. Before wc could get word to all the men in the field by messenger, many had worked 24-30-48 hours. We sent them home for at least 24 hours. Orders were issued to stop wading in water in base ments. Transformers and cables were hastily repaired and energized during the first few days. Some of them failed. Management's concern was, "Did anyone get hurt ?" In variably, the answer came back: "No!** Messages were broadcast over the radio as suring the employees' families that they need not worry. Alt possible care was being pro vided. In the event that an employee became sick or injured, the family would be im mediately notified. Not one such notification went out--it was not necessary. 544 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress . Although we did not realize it, we had been training the men for a number of years for this emergency. This training developed along four lines: 1. The training of additional workers due to lire adoption of the 40-hour week. 2. Job training ot personnel. 3. Strict enforcement of the safety rules. 4. The adoption of a clearance permit In common with other electric utilities, we adopted the 40-hour week at tire time of the M.R.A. To do this, certain departments (particular})' among shift workers) required additional employees. Some of these were former employees. Others were young tech nically trained college graduates. These had been absorbed in the operating departments. The)- had thus become familiar with the equipment and with operating practice. During the emergency, every employee of the company worked up to the limit of his or her endurance, taking lime only for essential rest. This was approximately at the rate of 100 hours per week per employee. This was the equivalent of adding instantly the normal output of 2.500 additional trained, experi enced workers familiar with all the details and hazards of our company's particular problems. To illustrate, all of the substations arc operated by four or more men on a 40-hour basis. By placing most of these on a 12-hour basis per dny, some 50 men were released for duty in the rehabilitation of equipment. Many had had experience in electrical main tenance, construction, wiring, and other crafts. Those, together with office boys, clerks, statisticians, draftsmen, engineers, brick layers, plasterers, plumbers, carpenters, and salesmen were organized into crews under an experienced electrical maintenance man. With buckets, brooms, mops, and hose, they cleaned out the mud. With solder, tape, wire, and tools, they rebuilt (lie stations. With enthusiasm and high spirits, they re stored the service. Seven hundred temporary men, most of whom were former employees, were more adequately supervised nt the shops and power plants. For some years our company has made extensive efforts to train not only the new men, but also those already on the job. This has served to stimulate the interest of the men In their every' day duties. Each major department lias carried on its own program of training under conditions best suited to the type of work carried on in that depart ment. As an illustration of the general pro gram, the one used in the substations and shops department may he of interest. This program, while intended to cover pri marily the work of (he substation operators, was extended in some degree to maintenance employees as welL Jt was designed along three separate lines of procedure: 1. A class In practical electricity. 3. Reviews and examinations. 2. Lectures and demonstrations. The class in practical electricity is con ducted by a member of the operating force at a time convenient to the majority of the members. About twenty attend for an aver age of \y3 hours' instruction per week from November to May. As soon as they have completed the work, another group is started. The attendance is voluntary, on the men's own time. Four or five limes a year a more elaborate meeting is held, when written lectures and visual demonstrations are presented to as many members of the department as care to attend. Tlte average attendance last winter was about ninety. The lectures are mimeo graphed and a copy given to each man who attends. Enough have now been prepared to serve as a rather complete library of operat ing practice and maintenance routine. Sub jects discussed are of general interest, such as transformer fires, relay applications, wel fare subjects such as life Insurance and budgeting of income. As a man is promoted or his duties change, he is given an oral examination to determine his experience and qualifications for ihe contemplated change. A substation operator is not permitted to lake over a station shift until he has been approved by an examining committee. Beyond any doubt, the safety record of the company during the flood was achieved be cause of the use of the clearance permit. This form is used universally in the substa tions and power stations. It is not used on line work, but its procedure is followed most careful))'. The clearance permit is some what elaborate. It is essentially a contract between the persons operating equipment and those who repair it. Even though a foreman opens and clears a switch, then repairs it and returns it to service, he makes out a per mit designating himself as operator and as Public Vtililies Section 545 repairman. The permit itself does not pro vide the greatest value--it is the procedure which must be followed when electrical, me chanical, or Steam equipment is taken out of service. We make it somewhat of a ceremony. Tf it is electrical, the open points of clearance must be visible. The equipment must be tested for voltage, and generally protective ground cables applied. Finally, all points of clear ance are posted with red "danger" tags. When the work is done and the equipment is to be returned tu service, these tags are re moved only after the foreman in charge of the work has communicated directly with the operator through the system operator as a third party monitor. This, in brief, was our system of clearing and blocking prior to the flood. When the water hit us, we had about 12 hours' warning that probably we would go down. The power plants went out completely; so did most o( the 11 Kv cables feeding the downtown dis trict, and most of the telephone circuits. Fortunately, a greater part of the outlying stations retained their telephone communica tions, although the two most vital points where interconnected power was available lost contact for a time with system operator. For years our men had been accustomed to doing switching only on orders of one central dispatching office. Suddenly, they were on their own with no one to direct them. Then did we receive dividends in the form of a perfect safety and accident record, paid by the years of supervision and training in safe procedure and proper working condi tions. Safety in Connection With Flood Emergencies as It Affects Water Utilities By HAROLD F. WEBB General Safety Director, American Water Works and Electric Co., Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa. The American Water Works and Electric Company lias some eighty subsidiary com panies under its management, many of which are located on some of the largest rivers in the United States. These water companies have, in the course of numerous flood emergencies, gained much knowledge and experience from the stand point of safety during periods of inundation. I might almost say that our organization has developed a technique of operations during periods of high water from minor rises to floods of major proportions. Low service pumping stations and other water supply works must be located on banks of the rivers from which the raw water is drawn. Thus, in extraordinarily high waters, pumping stations must be shut down and service temporarily interrupted. It would not be economically possible to provide pro tective facilities of sufficient size to guard against floods of the height which occur once in only a hundred years or more. Complete stoppage in water supply oc curred in and around Pittsburgh in the spring flood of 1936. The city's own water supply plants were forced to shut down, as was the low service pumping statiou of the South Pittsburgh Water Company, one of the properties with which l am connected. Fortunately, the great majority of our customers live on high grounds, so that their homes were not damaged and there was no danger to life from the flood. The chief discomfort was caused by stoppage of vital utility services. Realizing the plight of thousands of homes without water supply, yet entirely inhabitable in every other respect, our company organ ized a house-to-house delivery service of pure water, by means of trucks .and con tainer*. The water used for this purpose was drawn from the clear water basin, where a sufficient quantity had been retained against this eventuality. The utmost care was taken in this houseto-house service. Containers were sterilized with lire steam and our men used gloves and generally exercised all poxniblc sanitary pre cautions in the handling of the job. Sufli- 546 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress cicnl water was delivered lo each home, twice a day. for all drinking and culinary purposes. Danger of Epidemics One of the greatest dangers of a Hood is (lie menace of epidemics caused by the Use <*i polluted water. Water works officials, knowing this, arc careful to warn (lie resi dents ot a city when it becomes necessary to take precautions with the water in the sup ply mains, as when a dislocation occurs in t Ik* normal purification processes, or when the possibility of seepage exists. From a safety sUmdjoint there are many do's and don't's when dealing with flood conditions. As in any other emergency, prob ably the Imt advice is lo keep cool and use cntntmin sense. However. 1 should like to li-t a few of the more obvious precautions: ). Don't drink any water hut assured supplies. 2. Watch the newspaper*;, if they are pub lished. or keep vour radio tuned in for advices on this matter. 5. If you arc not sure of the safety of your water, lioil every drop that is used for drinking or cooking pur|osc*. Don't just bring tbs* water to a l*il. lml allow it to boil iitr 10 or 15 minute- Thi- longer loiling jhtio'I will almo-t a--ure the elimination of injurimi* bacteria. 4. Slav out of llu* water as much as |H>"ihlf. Flood- u-ually occur in llie early -pring vthen the weallier i- sliU cold and the human IkhIv. unle-- it is exceedingly tnii!>ti. i- apt to -ulTer from frequent wet ting-. with tin* |--ilulity of pneumonia or -c\ ere cold. Another good don't i- to avoid wading where you are imi ah-olutcly sure of the (^graphy of the ground beneath the waters. It is much letter lo use a 1oat, hut if you must wade, u-e a -trong stick, feeling your way in advance of your progress, much iti the same maimer as a blind man. i. Another point to be stressed is the cleaning tip after the flood waters recede. This is sometimes a seemingly hopeless task, hut it must he douc. It is essential that everything that has come into contact with polluted flood waters be scrubbed and then carefully dried. * 7. One final point--BE CONSIDERATE. This is particularly important in the use of water. In tltose instances where water is rationed, draw* only enough from your pipes for your absolute needs. Remember that thousands of your neighbors need water just as badly as you do and that if everyone tries lo obtain all the water he can by opening every tap, the supply will probably run short. When floods arc threatening and the possi bility of a shutdown of the water works be comes apparent, don't turn on your taps and start to store water. This sometimes has placed an almost insuperable burden on water works pumping stations and has com plicated an already difficult situation. Storage of Water You can rely on your water works officials nr the city government health authorities to notify you in sufficient lime to store water tor drinking purposes. If this notification is sent out, don't try to store sufficient water to last for six months or a trip across the desert. A few gallons, depending on the numltcr in the home, carefully drawn in clean containers and kept away from con tamination will be sufficient. Water kept in small quantities for long periods is likely lo become stale ami flat, and the longer it is kepi, the more il is subject to contamination. In serving this water to (he members of your home and family be careful lo keep your hands away from contact with the water itself ami use clean glasses for drink ing pur|K>scs. Notwithstanding the severity of the 1936 and 1937 floods, we, as an organization, look liack will* some satisfaction on the results of our safety training. Our employes emerged from these great floods with no accidental injmtcs or disease epidemic sufficiently serious to cause loss of lime from work. Working under emergencies, tlc chances for accidents increase greatly. Many of our men had to work in water up to their hips, handling intricate machinery or covering territory with which they were unfamiliar. It seems almost a paradox that no one was injured during these periods of frightful strain and stress. We like to think that our constant safety training contributed in no small measure to this very satisfying record. Public Utilities Section 547 Safety in Connection with Flood Emergencies As It Affects Telephone and Telegraph By T. D. LEDWITH General Plant Employment Supervisor, Indiana Bell Telephone Co., Indianapolis Floods arc unique among public emergen cies in the extent to which they disturb the human contacts which communication facili ties provide. Rising waters place a premium on the maintenance of telephone and tele graph service which reaches into homes, offices, factories, and farms, tying them to gether and giving them access to physicians, hospitals, police, fire department and other agencies upon which the protection of life and property depends. Local telephone service becomes in such an emergency the nervous system of an or ganization which must be swiftly set up to handle relief problems, safeguard health, and prevent further destruction. Telegraph and long distance service perform the same func tions on a wider scale; provide the means of allaying the anxiety of friends or relatives of those within the flooded area; and permit the mobilization of a nation's resources to aid the suffering and needy. With the very loginning of wire communi cation there was n recognition of its im portance in time of emergencies, and many stories arc written of voluntary acts of hero ism and devotion lo the service. Late in January of this year the Ohio River reared its crest to new* heights, spread its inundation on either side to miles of ter ritory never before touciicd by the water of any previous flood. Immediately there was mobilized every means to bring aid to the striken territory -- National Guard, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, Army engi neers, CCC and WPA workers, and the Red Cross. Mobilized also, as matter of course, were the resources--the man power, the supply service, productive capacity, and operating, engineering and administrative capabilities-- of the telephone and telegraph companies. The men and women of these systems know that catastrophe places upon them a double responsibility. For the same forces that inflict damage and destruction on all other property arc no more sparing of the telephone and telegraph plant, while bring ing at the same time all the more urgent need for communication. Telephone calls and messages within, into and out of affected areas by individuals, by industry, by the press, by rescue and rehabilitation forces were multiplied many fold, making abnormal demands upon plants battered by the flood. Crews swung into action on a front that in cluded not only the flood area but such distant points as New York City, Chicago and New Orleans -- operators, plant men, engineers, commercial people, and execu tives, the combined forces of the Western Electric Company, power supply and other specialists from the Bell Laboratories, as well as many from the headquarters of the A. T. anil T. Company. A systematic mobilization of man power ami woman power was directed at these as pects of the one great task ; (1) To take in advance every possible precaution to protect the equipment and the service against the flood. (2) If and when these precautions are unavailing, to maintain the service as long as power and the switchboard and a line were left to use. (3) And if the plant finally went dead, to restore the plant and resume service at the earliest moment possible. Throughout the whole vast flood area, rapid surveys of damage were followed by the assignment of plant forces set up in spe cial organizations to meet the critical neces sity of restoring service. Closely coordinated with this rallying of man power were the emergency shipments from Western Electric factories and distrib uting houses and other suppliers. Poles and crossanns by the thousands, line and pole liandware by tons, thousands "of feet of caLle and wire, pumps and other cqui'inncnt needed were sped by truck and train to places in the stricken area where they were most needed. For the full length of the Ohio River the flood story, as it affected telephone and tele graph, can be told in terms of damage done; of lines under water or washed away; of central offices inundated or even carried away; of service continued under the utmost .vl8 Ttvcuty-sixih National Safely Congress difficulties and often danger; of work car ried on through utterly trying circumstances ; of emergency generators which maintained power, where otherwise there was none; and of water being brought in tanks because the regular supply had failed. So also can it be told in terms of ingenuity and quick thinking, of central offices kept in service with water deep on the fnmemnm floors, with the frames and test desks hauled up to the ceilings; of towns kept in touch with the outside world through magneto switchboards hurriedly installed in ice cream parlors and the like, when the central offices went out of service. Most certainly the story can be told in terms of heroism and devo tion to duty far beyond the strict require ments of the jnh. No Major Injuries In our Indiana organization, during the flood and during the period of rehabilitation, not a life was lost, nor was there an injury to a worker requiring more than ordinary first aid treatment. Some of the credit for this splendid accomplishment should prop erly be given to the men and women for strict adherence to the principles of safety. Most of it, however, should go to the vision and foresight of men who years ago laid the foundation of safety In any emergency by instituting the basic principles of safety into the everyday normal job--for the pur pose of accomplishing in the end, "A safe plant, operated by safe workers, under any and all conditions/' To meet this high objective, the estab lished safety policy must be accepted and followed by every employee. Safety in emergencies comes only from preparedness. Hy systematically applying the dements of safety into every phase of today's normal operations, we arc prepared for the emer gency of tomorrow. The standardization of safe practices, tools, and materials, the proper selection of employees, the use of accident data, the thorough training of em ployees. and the provision of adequate, com petent supervision, all contribute to the safe and efficient restoration and maintenance of vitally important service at the time of an emergency. Also important arc: Tools, materials, and equipment manufac tured to specially prepared specifications. with safety features incorporated The selection of men and women who will accept and carry out the principles of safety, and who a;e physically and mentally quali fied to perlorm satisfactory work under any and all conditions. The training of each employee so that lie will know how to perform safely each task to which he will be assigned; so that he knows how accidents are caused and what to do to avoid them; and so that he will exercise good judgment in meeting abnormal conditions likely to be encountered. Competent supervision that will carefully analyze and plan each undertaking, guard against hazards, and see that only safe and sane practices are followed. Health Protection Needed There is one other safety problem, how ever, which invariably presents itself during flood emergencies. With business operation at a standstill and the normal life of a com munity entirely disrupted by a flood, protect ing the health of workers in the devastated area is of major importance. In our own experience, before the flood had reached its crest, arrangements were being made to house and feed the army of telephone workers to he sent to the various locations to aid local forces in reconstruction work. On the Jeffersonville-New Albany front in southern Indiana, a former night club was obtained for this purpose. One room was used as a mess hall, while 150 cots placed in another provided sleeping quarters. Every employee before entering the territory was inoculated against typhoid. Drinking water was hauled in five-gallon cans from a filtration plant fifteen miles distant until the local supply could be analyzed and found safe. Carefully selected food was shipped from Indianapolis and prepared into wholesome meals in the kitchen of the temporary bar racks. Medical headquarters were set up for treatment of minor illness or possible in juries, and strict sanitary' regulations pre vailed throughout the establishment. Only three cases of sickness were recorded dur ing the entire reconstruction period, each of which was immediately isolated to prevent the spread of any possible disease. Public Utilities Section THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 549 Public Utilities Section Safety Contest The outstanding facts in the 1936-1937 Public Utilities Section Safety Contest were presented by Charles S. Bowden, Gen eral Safety Chairman, Ohio Public Service Co., Alliance, O., and statistics and contest committee chairman of the Public Utilities Section. Nine oi the 148 companies entered in the Public Utilities Section Contest went through the one-year period without a single disabling injury. During the year, 169,450 employees of the participating units worked 361,944,767 hours and experienced 3,774 in juries. All divisions liad an average frequency rate of 10.427. Combination gas aud elec tric companies had the lowest frequency rates, averaging 9.729. Gas companies had the highest rates, with an average of 11.490. The number of companies enrolled and the number of hours of exposure were higher than for any previous contest. Thirteen plaques were awarded to win ners of first place; eight certificates were awarded to winners of second and third place. Awards were presented by C. B. Scott, President, Bureau of Safety, Chicago, and past president, National Safety Coun cil, Winners of plaques were as follows: Combination Gas and Electric Division, Group A--Wisconsin Public Service Corp., Milwaukee, Wis. Electric Division, Group A--Ohio Edison Co., Akron, O. Electric Division, Group B--Six tied for first place--Laclede Power & Light Co., St. Louis, Mo.; Fall River Electric Co., Fall River, Mass.; Mississippi Valley Public Service Co., Winona, Minn.; Worcester Su burban Electric Co., Uxbridge, Mass.; Houghton County Electric Light Co., Houghton, Mich.; Gloucester Electric Con Gloucester, Mass. Gar Division, Group A--Hope Natural Gas Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Gar Division, Group B--Dallas Gas Co., Dallas, Tex.. Activities of Public Utilities in the Prevention of Accidents to the Public By F. R. JAMIESON Publicity Director, Public Service Co. of Colorado, Denver Utilities have attempted both by publica tion and by example to impress upon the public the importance of safety. First-aid classes are conducted for the community and cooperation with the local Red Cross is maintained. Safety precautions and information are published and otherwise disseminated. Company automobile fleets are driven with care, that they may serve as ex amples of safe driving. Street excavations and installation work are performed'with a maximum number of safeguards, both for the public and for the employees. In the manufacture and design of appliances the utilities confer with manufacturers to incor porate safety features in the construction of this equipment. Under the leadership of our own safety department, more than 2,000 men are care fully trained and adequately equipped to 530 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress render first aid emergency treatment, pend' ing the arrival of the doctor. Among the women employees the same character of work is carried on. At least a dozen specific cases appear nu our records of suffocated persons wlio w ere restored to life by tire timely treatment of one of our company crews. Cases of ar terial bleeding, with the injured persons near death, arc listed in even greater number. We arc also proud of the record estab lished by our industry in times of great stress and disaster. Notable among such eases is the very recent Ohio Valley flood. The lives saved because safely-trained men and women were able to apply their training and knowledge in clear-headed, unflustered manner, have a value greater than any mone tary estimate. Utilities spend a great deal of time, thought, and money in protecting the public for purely humanitarian reasons. Quite nat urally, we find that it is also good business. Communication agencies and electric power companies share the dangers incident In their need for long stretches of wire either supported hv poles or laid under ground in conduit. Their pole lines arc in danger from storms, from erratic motorists, and from disgruntled hunters with shotgun*. These lines parallel city alleys, some times within reach of windows or roofs, and country highways where picnic parties try to climb poles and demonstrate the abilities f their arliorcal ancestors. If someone manages to reach the charged wire*, it can hardly he characterized as an accident, yet the utility is summoned into court to show why it is not to blame for an injury or death. It is no wonder that a very considerable amount of thought, inge nuity. and money have Ivcn expended by utility engineers to render pole* and towers as hard to climb as possible. A wire down in the street or highway is something to be feared and avoided. It may lie a telephone wire, hut it may also lie draped across a high tension power wire somewhere along its length. So the public utilities make a contribution to public safety in their maintenance of lines, in their I requent .patrols, ami in immediate response to cates ot service failure. They also try to keep the danger of live wires in the public mind, sometimes with a certain degree of success. People do not realize that they are con stantly being guarded by the utilities. Whyarc electric plants and substations equipped with automatic circuit breakers, grounding devices and overload relays? Why are lines made doubly strong at crossings? Why arc lightning arresters installed? To maintain service and protect equipment, certainly-- but even more as a means of protecting the public. Utility meter readers remove pennies from behind fuse* at customers' meters for the sole purpose of promoting safety to per son*, appliances, and property. Power lines must be protected from public curiosity and the urge for adventure. That is why we have danger signs on poles and transformer cribs, why visitors to electric plants are given a guide to show them through the plant, why utility men tell the danger of careless kite-flying to each new generation of school-bovs. We try to keep our wires up and away from the public. We try just as hard to keep the public down and away from the wires. Underground Hazards Once underground, ottr wires offer little hazard to the general public. To be sure, there is always danger in the congested un derground system* of large cities that com munication circuits may accidentally lie connected witli power circuits or that some agency such as explosion, fire, or flood may send high tension currents through low ten sion networks, a danger front which the public is guarded by the continual vigilance and skill of utility employees. These thing* arc the ordinary, expected, run of hazards, although the utilitj' safeguards arc more bars in the tiger's cage. But getting these wires underground is another matter. Con struction problems run all the way from the careful excavation and cribbing necessary to keep tall buildings from sliding into our trenches, to the diplomacy needed to con vince small boys that manholes are not de sirable as pirate eaves. The gas industry has similar problems in the locating, laying arnl maintaining of its distribution systems. Here, too. the matter is complicated by the ease with which gas finds the smallest opening and escapes to fill a pocket somewhere and set the stage for a disastrous explosion. Gas companies meet this problem by continuous maintenance pro grams and frequent leakage surveys, carried Public Utilities Section 551 on not to save a few thousand feet of gas, but to protect the public. In addition they have contributed money, time, and ideas to find better pipe materials, better joints, and greater safety. Once our service actually readies the cus tomer's home, we have a new set of dangers. The tremendous energy in the form of gas or electricity is still our caged tiger. Prop erly controlled, it will cook the dinner, wash the clothe*, and sweep the floor. But it will destroy the house or the owner with equal nonchalance. So utilities have worked hand in glove with the manufacturers of electric and gas appliances. They have designed, suggested, tested, and re-designed these appliances, largely with a view to rendering them more safe and satisfactory for the customer to use. Nor is this all. The utility is interested in the performance of these appliances long after the Iftst payment is made; it has to Jive with them I So utilities in their mer chandising program* arc always trying to sell the best, the most reliable, the safest appliances. They work hard to have the ap pliances properly ami safely installed, to have them inspected and repaired whenever they ueed it. To these ends, they have cooperated actively with city inspection bureaus and underwriters' agencies. Speaking from my experience with my own company, t know that our gas depart ment has done endless research work in adapting gas-burning appliances for opera tion under high altitude conditions. They have designed and perfected equipment used to introduce an odorant into natural gas, and carried on extensive tests to determine the amounts required to give the best warning of leakage. They carry on a regular schedule of inspection of theaters, schools, and other places of public assembly, using combustible gas indicators. These inspections, plus the odortzing of the gas and a constant program of distribution maintenance, go a long way to insure the public against such disasters as recently occurred in a Texas schoolhouse. Our company has also cooperated with the city inspection bureaus in drawing up codes requiring safe installation. Appliances must l>c properly vented ami certain oxygen-con suming appliances arc not permitted in small rooms under any circumstances. Installations are made with a view to eliminating fire hazards insofar as possible. These things are not' dramatic nor exciting, but they help to protect the public. Employee Training Another major contribution of the utili ties to public safety has been through their training of employees in accident prevention and first-aid. Here again, the need for safety programs became evident as workmen's com pensation laws were passed and as increasing complexities of employment have raised the cost of accidents. The utilities were early in the field in inaugurating such training and their efforts have paid handsome dividends in employee safety. Out of these employee activities have conic numerous contributions to public safety. Utility employees have come to be safetyminded and to see and correct hazardous conditions in places where the average per son would have no idea of danger. Tlioy have given first aid in innumerable instances of Hrownings, automobile wrecks, and home accidents. In almost every city in the coun try the drivers of utility fleets have taken the lead in safe driving and in sponsoring auto mobile safety campaigns. Utility trained men have become scoutmaster* and passed on their training to the rising generation. Women employees have done the same for Girl Scouts and Campfire girls. Utility firstaid teams have given their time and effort to demonstrations before Parent Teacher meet ings and have assisted in training courses open to the general public. When the C. W. A. was started, one of the first need* to be recognized was that for a safety program. Among the men drafted to design such a program and to start it off were an amazing number of utility men. These men with others drawn front oilier industries, built up a system of safely train ing which has carried on through the E.R.A. and W.P.A. with notable success. They trained other men to take their places as they returned to their own jobs. I believe that nearly everybody who knows the facts will admit that this was a good job, and that the utilities contributed more than their share toward making it a success. So much for the |ast; now what of the future? During the past fifty years our business of daily living has become more complex, more crowded, more dangerous at an ever-increasing tempo. And this is a con tinuing process. 552 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress In the future we may expect immensely increased use of power, whether this is elec tric power as we know it today or some agency now unknown. We may expect vastly greater and more complicated com munication systems. We can expect the expansion of radio into the fields of televi sion. More and more homes and other buildings will be air conditioned. We may expect great changes in methods of lighting. in the raising and preparation of food, and m means of transportation. These changes will bring into being new dangers to the public. We will have new and difficult problems of generation, transmission and use of this greater power. To an in creasing extent we will have to render these services fool proof, surround them with safeguards which will operate without the understanding or cooperation of the public. Typical Public Utility Accidents By A, B. TAYLOR Superintendent of Construction, Kansas City Power ft Light Co., Kansas City, Mo. Some accidents wc expect to have--we look forward to having them in the normal course ut cvcuts. Tins is not, of course, because they cannot be prevented. As a matter of fact, most of them ure prevented, because we know what to look for and what measures should lie taken. Pick up loose boards and no one will step on the nails in them. Wear goggles when grinding, and metal particles won't get in your eye. Pick up lieavy objects with your legs bent, and you won't strain your back. Acci dents from such causes have high frequency in spite of all precautions, merely because there arc so many opportunities for them to occur. Prevention is a matter of doing every thing iti rise pro|>cr manner. There is another class of accidents, less frequent, but none the less serious. Because they seldom occur their prevention is overlonkrd more often than not. The rule, Itowever, for preventing these "accidental" acci dents is the same as the rule for preventing expected accidents. It is to do things iu the proper manner. Changing bits on a jack-hammer, for in stance, is a relatively harmless procedure-- une constantly done with no harmful results --as a general rule. One bit-change recently made in the course of our construction work, however, was at the cost of one human eye and nearly $1,500. At the Kansas City Power ft Light Comlauy's Grand Avenue Station a new turbo generator unit was being installed last year. Foundation work on this job called for the excavation of 100 cubic yards of solid rock. Drilling was'done with Ingcrsoll-Rand jack hammers, with hollow drill steel and the somewhat new removable bit. This particular type bit is joined to the stem by means of a tapered thread connection. Screwed up tight, this joint is solid as Gibraltar, unyielding to jarring, strain and vibration. When once started loose, though, it unscrews easily by liand. The bit we were using was an IrtgersollRand "jack-bit," about 2% inches in diameter, with four cutting edges which dulled from time to time, necessitating removal of the bit for sharpening. Naturally, the only problem in removing die bit came in getting it started, and the quickest way to do this was by jarring it loose with a hammer--the rest was easy. Ignorance came into the picture Iierc to some extent as a contributing factor. To the metallurgist, or to anyone with any technical knowledge of tools, different grades of steel and iron have widely different characteristics, ranging from tough and malleable to glasshard and brittle. For the ordinary workman, however, these distinctions do not exist. If lianimering one grade of steel is safe, it tt then safe to luunmer any other. Consequently, these bits were often ham mered loose with no misgivings. The danger factor was not recognised as being present in even the smallest degree, so naturally, no pre cautions were taken by the men doing the work. Finally the inevitable did happen--a chip, fracture from the hard, brittle steel of the Public Utilities Section 553 bit, flew off and lodged itself in the eye of a helper who was steadying the shank of the drill at the time. The bit was loosened satisfactorily and in good condition--the losing of the little broken fragment did it no harm. However, the joint efforts of a conference of the Middle-West's leading eye specialists could not restore vision to the helpers eye. A series of delicate sur gical operations did enable him to retain his sightless eyeball, which was a help to his appearance and comfort, but small compensa tion for his loss of vision. Offhand, there is no obvious reason why a driller should not have hammered this bit loose. Hammering is by far the easiest way, and had been done repeatedly without injury to either man or tool. Looking at the situation, however, in an abstract way, without allowing ourselves to be prejudiced by considering what methods actually urc in use, the cause and method of prevention ave apparent. A screwed joint of this sort should be loosened by unscrewing, for which the proper tool is a wrench. Therefore a wrench, and not a hammer, should be used. Basically, the prevention of such unex pected, out-of-the-way, disastrous accidents lies in the observance of the same rule that prevents the "exacted" accidents. That Is, simply, to do things in their proper manner. There is a right way and a wrong way to perform every operation, and the dif ference between them is always obvious. Even though nobody is expected to walk by, the floor is not the proper place for a board with nails in it. And similarly, even though no apparent harm can come from its use, a ham mer is not the proper tool for unscrewing a screwed joint. A wrench is. So use a wrench. Typical Public Utility Accidents and the Lessons Learned From Them By W. C. LOUNSBURY Safety Director, Minnesota Power and Light Co., Duluth, Minn. I will describe an accident which had no particularly serious results and in which no one was injured. Perhaps it isn't an accident at all according to your definition. But it illustrates our method of investigation and our typical approach to such an investigation. At our regular district safety meeting the accident had been discussed freely, as all accidents arc. without animus, with the men involved being present. No attempt was made to fix responsibility. John /ones, one of our linemen, had a very narrow escape from severe, if nut fatal, injuries. A special investigation was under taken, and the district manager, the chief engineer, the superintendent, and I, accom panied by the entire crew involved, visited the scene of the accident. A preliminary' in spection had been made by the chairman of our general safety committee and myself on June 8, and other investigations were made at the site by the district manager and engi neer. On the morning of May 31 a squirrel grounded the 33 KV power line. Both the power and telephone circuits fell to tl ground. Following the repairs, the crew moved along the line and found one tele phone conductor broken near the insulator on another pole (a steel pole). Between these two poles the telephone wire was on the ground. Tlte rest of it remained ap parently undisturbed. The foreman, leaving iiis crew to replace the broken telephone wire, went further along the line. Mr. Jones climbed the steel pole and fastened his safety belt. He wore rubber gloves. The lineman on the ground spliced an ample piece of telephone wire to the wire on the ground and Jones drew it up, doubled the end back on itself and then looped the doubled wire around the steel crossarm to hold the wire in an accessible position. On the intact side of the pin insulator was a johnny-ball for testing purposes, and around it was a jumper. Jones unserved one end of the jumper leaving the jumper dangling. At this time the telephone wire was still properly attached to the insulator but the broken end was too short for splic- 554 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress jng. The wire down was described as hav ing considerable slack, hanging at the top of the brush along the right of way with its end grounded on the crossarm by means of the double loop. Jones started to attach his come-along to the secure telephone conductor to hold this wire while making the necessary splice. As he attached the comc-along a flash occurred, burning his glove protectors and clothing at liis waist and chest. The metal parts of Jones' belt were also homed. The flash was witnessed by the groundman and oilier line man. None of those working saw any other flash. The crossarm showed signs of bums, as did the three 33 KV power wires and tele phone wires about 100 feet from the pole on the broken side. The telephone line also flashed to ground at the substation, destroy ing one of the cutouts at tliat point; the johnny-hall insulator was punctured and the telephone conductor burned off just beyond the line insulator. It is certain the telephone wire received power and that this power flashed to ground, in part through the temporary connection on the crosartYi at the pole and in part through the telephone terminals at the Substation. The position of Jones, leaning far back from the i>ole, and the grounding of the telephone on the steel crossarm at the pole, is apparently all that saved a most serious situation. This episode makes very clear the neces sity for grounding telephone lines on both sides of a repair job. Tt is good practice always to have a hand line over any dead wires likely lo make contact with live wires, to prevent a wave or snap from carrying the wires together. To ground the telephone wires as provided by the rules of the Company, should be the particular re sponsibility of the foreman and of the lineman before making repairs on such circuits. You will note that the scene was visited by those in operating authority, with the entire crew present; all of whom were requested to take up their respective places held at the time of the short circuit. Many questions were asked, but no mention was made of discipline, nor was anything suggested to in dicate blame, nor that anyone might be covering up facts which would clarify the problem. (Just how the telephone and power wires made contact was not ascertained). Other safety departments may sec our handling of this as an unsatisfactory investi gation, but we believe it best not to argue and frequently not to try to fix specific blame. 1 think you will agree that in most eases the matter of blame is very involved, and seeking it may make embarrassing repercussions. I believe it is important to save "face " It is important to retain the confidence of the men, and more important than all to pre vent a repetition of a similar accident. Be cause of the kind of investigation made we believe with that crew a similar accident is highly improbable and through the open dis cussion of the facts, without prejudice or blame in our other district safety meetings, all our crews became more careful workmen. Our company program is definitely the prevention of accidents, not a series of post mortems. Post mortem* arc essential in some cases, but with us the emphasis is not laid ou the accident itself hut on building into our men a desire not lo have accidents of ^ny kind. Typical Public Utility Accidents and the Lessons Learned From Them By S. C. DICKINSON Safety Engineer, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco, Cal. Mv .company buy* annually about 12,000 poles. These arc delivered to the various pole yards on flat cars and are unloaded by the line gang*. The lengths of the poles range from 30 to 70 icct. A number of years ago the j*oW- were unloaded as follows: The car was spotted at the proper |Kiini. Brakes were set and blocks placed. The nec essary skids were then placed and the tie Public Utilities Section 555 wires cut. All the car stakes ou the un loading side were removed except two. Two men, each with an axe, would chop the two stakes to a point of failure. The two men would then ruii into the clear or duck under the car. But in many cases they were not successful in their getaway and were fatally or permanently injured. Sometimes one stake would break before the other, anti again serious injuries would result The first method we adopted in our effort to prevent injuries was as follows : 1. The car was spotted in the proper loca tion, the brakes set, aud the wheels blocked securely in both directions. 2. A inch by 150 foot guy wire was at tached to the underside of the car, taken over the top of the load, and anchored to some suitable stationary object. 3. A 1J4 inch by 150 foot manila rope was attached to the car in a like manner on the opposite or unloading side, taken over the top and anchored to the track or to a truck or some other suitable stationary object. Sufficient tension was then taken on both the rope and guy tackle to bind the load to gether. 4. The necessary skids were placed, tie wire were cut, wooden car stakes removed, and then the rope tackle slackened off, allow ing the poles to descend. Although this method was an improve ment over the old method, considerable trouble was experienced hecau.it sufficient tension could not be exerted to prevent the load from settling, and occasionally some one was injured because of this. We then resorted to a derrick. This method is not satisfactory because it is very expensive and none loo safe, as evidenced by a number of injuries. It takes a line gang about 5*/ hours to unload a car in this man ner. At present we are using still another method. Daring the past few years at least six men have been saved from fatal injuries and 15 from permanent disabilities by this method. Since its adoption only one em ployee has been injured. While standing on the end of the car, preparing to move one of the last few poles with a cant honk, he fell off the car. The method is us follows : 1. The car is spotted in tfic proper loca tion, the brakes set, and the wheels blocked securely in both directions. 2. Four car pocket fittings which arc de tachable from the binder are inserted in the car pockets, two on each side, each near one end of the car. Pins are inserted so that the fittings cannot come out of the car pockets. 3. Four tubular stakes, officially known as Cojo Binders, arc attached lo the fittings and bolted. 4. A short piece of chain is attached to the clevises on top of the two binders on the unloading side Blocks and rope arc then attached to tltc chains and to the clevises on flic binders on the opposite side of the load. 5. Binders are raised to a vertical position with a hand line and locked. A strain is taken on the rope atxi blocks to bind the load together and sufficient lo permit re moval of the wooden shipping stakes on un loading side of the car. The rope is snubbed to a truck, the railroad track, or some suit able stationary object. 6. Two or more skids arc hooked into the car pockets. The number placed is governed by the size and weight of the.poles. 7. With the aid of a ladder the binding wires arc then cut and the wooden car stakes removed. 8. Locking pins on the binders arc re moved on the unloading side only. 9. The blocks are then slacked off so that the load is allowed to come down slowly and evenly. The binders become skids. 10. Finally the load comes lo rest. The blocks and ropes are then disengaged from the short chains, and the poles arc rolled into position with the aid of cant hooks. This method not only has eliminated in juries but has made it possible to unload a carload of 61 poles in 55 minuteS. The old cut and run method required, if no one was injured, about two hours. ADJOURNMENT Quarry Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--Alexander Foster, Jil, Warner Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Vice-Chairman--Russell Rarey, The Marble Cliff Quarries Co., Columbus, Ohio. Secretary and News Letter Editor--N. B. Sire, J. E. Baker Co., York, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--H. F. Yotter, The General Crushed Stone Co., Easton, Pa. Publicity Committee Chairman--J. R. Boyd, National Crushed Stone Assn., Washington, D.C. Statistics Committee Chairman--W. W. Adams, U. S. Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C. Members at Large-- V. P. Ahearn, National Sand and Gravel Assn., Washington, D. C. William H. Baker, J. E. Baker Co., York, Pa. O. M. Graves, The General Crushed Stone Co,, Easton, Pa. S. Walter Stauffer, National Lime Association, Washington, D. C. A. L. Worthen, The New Haven Trap Rock Co., New Haven, Conn. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--Alexander Foster, Jr., Warner Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Vice-Chairman--Russell Rarey, The Marble Cliff Quarries Co., Columbus, Ohio. Secretary and News Letter Editor--N. B. Sipe, J. E. Baker Co., York, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--H. F. Yotter, The General Crushed Stone Co., Easton, Pa. Publicity Committee Chairman--J. R. Boyd, National Crushed Stone Assn., Washington, D. C. Statistics Committee Chairman--W. W. Adams, U. S. Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C. Members at Large-- V. P. Ahearn, National Sand and Gravel Assn., Washington, D. C. William H. Baker, J. E. Baker Co., York, Pa. O. M. Graves, The General Crushed Stone Co., Easton, Pa. S. Walter Stauffer, National Litnc Association, Washington, D. C. A. L. Worthen, The New Haven Trap Rock Co., New Haven, Conn. The Quarry Section met jointly with the ings will be found on pages 249 to 270 of Cement Section. A record of the proceed- this volume. 557 Refrigeration Section Officers 1936-37 Geuerat Chairman--Ha hold M. Toombs, Armour and Co., Chicago, III. Vice-Cltairman--C. II. Harper, Southern United Ice Co., Jackson, Miss. Secretary--John T.. Spf.f.rs, The City Ice & Fuel Co., Cleveland, Ohio. \Tezos Letter Editor--A. A. Rall, Kansas City Power & Light Co., Kansas City, Mo. Educational Committee Chairman---L. C. Roberts, Kclvinator Corp., Detroit, Midi. Engineering Commiller Chairman--H. L. Lincoln, The Union Tee Co, San Francisco, Calif. Membership Committee Chairman--L. T. McArthur, Peoria Service Co., Peoria, III. Assistant Membership Committee Chairman--Rav M. Seeker, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., St. Louis, Mo. Program Committee Chairman--Emerson A. Brandt, National Association of Tec Indus tries, Chicago, ID. Publicity Committee CViatVina/j--Ivan L. Scott, Bureau of Safety, Chicago, III. Statistics Committee Chairman--Herman Hii.u^nhach, Knickerbocker Icc Co., New York, N. Y. Afembers at Large-- T. A. Adams, Union Terminal Cold Storage Co., New York, N. Y. G. D. Allman, United States Cold Storage Co , Chicago, HI. C. A. Bowen, Cutler Ice Co., Binghamton, N. Y. George B. Bright, George B. Bright Co., Detroit, Mich. L. W. Dawley, Southern United Ice Co., Jackson, Miss. W. O. Ham, Southern Ice & Utilities Co., Dallas, Texas. S. R. Kaluns, C. HolTberger Co., Baltimore, Md. K. D. Knoblock, American Utilities Service Corp., Savanna, Til. J. F. Nickerson, American Institute of Refrigeration, Chicago, 111. P. J. Nolan, Libby, McNeil & Libby, Chicago, III. R. B. Oakley, Chicago Ice Producers Mutual Liability Co., Chicago, 111. W. M. O'Keefe, American Warehousemen's Assn., Chicago, III. Gardner Poole, American Institute of Refrigeration, Boston, Mass. T. W. Rodes, Carbide & Carbon Chemicals Corp., Whiting, Tnd. W. H. Senyard, Louisiana Power &. Light Co., New Orleans, La. M. J. Ulink, The M. J. Uline Co., Washington, D. C. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--C. H. Harper, Southern United Icc Co., Jackson, Miss. Vice-Chairman--John L. Speers, The City Ice & Fuel Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Secretary--Emerson A. Brandt, National Association of Ice Industries, Chicago, 111. 559 560 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress AVaj Letter ftditor--A. A. Rail, Kansas City Power & Light Co., Kanui City. Mo. Engineering Committee Chairman--D. E. Woon*. Central Power & Light Co.. Corpus Christi. Texas. Health Committee Chairman--H. L. Lincoln, The Union Icc Co.. San Francisco, Calif. Membership Committee Chairman--Kay M. Sekuc Anheuser-Busch, Inc_ Sl Louis. Mo. Program Committee Chairman--Ivak L. S<vtt, Bureau of Safety, Chicago. lit. Publicity Committee Chairman---L C. Rorarr*. Kelrinator Corp., Detroit. Mich. Statistics Committee fhairnau--Hckmax Hioemach Knickerbocker Ice Co., N> York. X. Y. Visual Edmeatitm Committee Chairman--R. B. Ouacv, Chicago Ice Producers Mutual Liability Co. Chicago. HI. Members at Large-- T. A. .\ham\ liiuua Trrmmal Cold Storage Cu. New York. X. Y. ( It. AiiMiK, l-fitted Statr* Cold Storage Co, Chicago, 111. C. A. lkM'tx. ('utlrr lev Co. Hmchamlan. K. Y. liuwo. 11 lUttum, ijvurge V. Unriit Co. Detroit, Midi. I.. U I Iamu'!, Sootbma United Ice Co. Jackson. Mi**. \V. <1. H*, Somlirru Ice & IHilitict Co, Dallas Texas. S. K. KatJJas. C. HoffWger Co- Baltimore. Md. I'. H. Umx Public Service Co. of Oklahoma. Tulsa.'Okla. I. |\ NiojawiK American ln*rilu1r >( KefriKenlion, Cliica^*). 111. < tusmrx. Cx.MKTtii, City Ice Co. Kansas City, Mo. Jay Alan Kuu Southwestern Gas & Electric Co- Texarkana. Ark-Tcx T. \V. Hopes Carbide ft Carbon Chemicals Cons Whiting. Ind, \li KosiiChC. California Contuners Corp., Los Angeles, Calif. H. I). Sakfoko, Peoples Ice Co.. Sjtscux, X. Y. W*. H. SchAU>. Louisiana Power & Light Co- Algiers, La. IIakou> M. Twmimk, Armour & Co. Chicago, HL M. J. Uijxe, The M. J. Ultnc Co- Washington, 1A C. \Y. C. W.OHViKK, Sheftield Farm* Co- Inc- Xew* York, X. Y. MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 11, 1937 Cent-ral Chairman Harold M. Toointa, during the speakers and directing the disArtiK*ur and l o, Chicago, prctiiictl. intro- cushion. Mental Causes of Accidents By A. A. BALL Safety Director, Kansas City Power ft Light Co., Kansas City, Mo. Did you ever meet persons on the side- were completely passed by? Suddenly the walk nr probably while you were driving thought w'ould come to you, like an exployour car and not recognize them until they sion: By George, that is old Bill Jones I Refrigeration Section 561 What actually happened was that you saw with your eyes but not with your mind, be cause your mind was somewhere else. This truth has been brought out in recent years in the investigation of severe and fatal accidents. Trusted ami normally careful em ployees, familiar with every hazard con nected with the work to which they have l*ccn assigned, have been seriously injured or killed in a moment of inattention. Those who were injured and have lived to tell the story* truthfully state: "I forgot." XIany* of those who have been killed would say the same thing if they could speak. To devise ways and means of protecting "a mam against himself" is indeed a tough KuUtn. Die good teacher "Mother Experience" wtU certainly tell you that personal follow up of aU new employees and beginners is firvr*ary. Remember your own experience at the &rt job you ever had, or your change tv aoutbrr and different type of job. Do ,iua ncswaLcr bow* clumsy you were? That i to *y, yeas were all thumbs until you got the "bang of things." This must be kept in mmd with the new employee. It in ooC every new employee that will fit into the riche you want him to, although, he may have many fine qualifications. Any jub suwdte a man who will not injure him self or others. It should not l*e said of those who made a sacrifice that they did think and it was mil their fault. It may be that their burdens were too heavy- A foreman must use think ers on hazardous jobs but a foreman who allows himself to be interrupted and fails to concentrate on his thinker's safety is headed for sorrow. Then too, a foreman who does the most hazardous parts himself without insisting that his best man concen trate on his protection will suffer from misplaced sdf-confidcnce. Faulty Habits In the field of accident prevention, the business of breaking bad habits and sub stituting good habits may be sifted down to four rules. 1. Rule of intensity. Clear tlic mind of everything else except the problem on hand. 2. Rule of repetition. Know every detail operation. Ex ample: Did you ever notice closely the operator of a bus or trolley who brings you down to work? livery movement is almost mechanical. 3. Rule of invariability. No variation in doing his ojjcration. If the motor-man was not instructed to do his part of the job in a particular manner just think what might happen in an emergency. 4. Rule of Satisfaction. Some feeling of satisfaction by giv ing an award or some praise. So few foremen and very few supervisors fail to give even a little praise when it could pay such large dividends. From, experience and from reviewing ac cident reports for a period of years, hurry lias been the cause of many a serious acci dent. The hour before quitting time and the hour before the lunch period are two fatal hours. Watch them. While closely allied to "hurry" the short cut to perform a piece of work without the necessary tools or equipment items to head the list. Substitution of a box for a ladder, a pair of pliers for a wrench, etc. Carefully plan out the work. Know the tools neces sary to perform this job safely and use them. It should not be necessary to bring to the attention of the foreman that standard metliods of doing work are necessary. To safety engineers "every job 'can be done safely." Reports show that not following a job in a standard method causes many un warranted accidents. Sense of Defects How many of you can recall individuals who drive a car but cannot see well, and also some who cannot hear well? Do you feel secure if they arc driving and an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance, fire truck, or police car is coming at full speed? How many of you have friends who have other physical defects? Do you know what their reaction time will be .in an emergency? Right here I wish to add a word about the wonderful blessing of a physical examination once a year. Much has been written on the subject of worry but let me add this. Many an acci dent was caused the day \;r night previous by a disturbed mind filled with worry over personal matters, quarrels, financial affairs, and business matters. 5r,2 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress Disease I'oor eyes and other physical defects make many an employee unfit lo do certain types of work safely. Have you over stopped lo think that the more you know about the dangers from disease today the quicker you arc to react ami go to a physician or to a clinic for advice and for treatment ? The earlier a ]>crson goes the less chance there is Tor disease to gel its hold. Naturally, there are persons today, just there have always been, who liave a mentality which causes them to imagine they have every disease they read about; this cannot he helped. But take any normal, sane person ami tell him that bleeding from any part of the body may be a sign of cancer, a disease uMially painless at the start. When such bleeding occurs such a normal person will go to a physician or a clinic. If it should he cancer there is lime to end it before it gets a start. It it is nothing of the sort isn't that person happier to know that his health is all right? Do not gtus. Find nut, and remember that you can give nut good health as welt as disease, and in the meantime make cvcrylKKly you conic in contact with much happier. Find nut--don't guess. Interview the Doctor One of the problems is lo get men to go to the doctor in advance of trouble. But it i'i cti-nnmary for men not to do anything about their health until definite symptoms np|H*ar. "We ought to diangc ihnl." The solution for him is to consult his physician while lie is well. He sltould have a com plete examination at regular intervals. If au employee of middle or mature years can only be induced to take this precaution, the problem of "degenerative" conditions will be materially reduced. Correct Working Conditions This is where the safety engineer should be alert and sympathetic. Glare from bad or uncontrolled lighting affects the employee. Will this glare protect him from danger of getting his hand into revolving machinery? The foreman should go about the plant or property lo see if he can note any such conditions existing in your plant. Fatigue A!any an employee must work in a stooped position most of the day. A rubber pad to stand on, a stool built just the right height would prevent fatigue before the day is even half over. His fatigue may cause him to let down on his safe practices and cause an accident to himself or some one working on the same piece of machinery. Fumes and Vapors An employee in the presence of fumes certainly, will, in time, be affected with drowsiness, which may even lead to a more serious state. Adopt a good ventilating system and see if it doesn't pay big divi dends in the attitude of your employees. These arc hut a few of the simple points about which much can be done lo lessen the toll of accidents due to mental causes. The Human Klement in Accident Prevention By H. L. LINCOLN General Plant Manager, The Union Ice Company, San Francisco, Calif. This iaj>cr will relate 10 years' experience unit a group of 83 rather small factories stretching 750 miles along the Pacific Coast, north from Mexico almost to Oregon. Dur ing the summer nearly 1,900 men arc em ployed. thus creating enough exposure to form a worth while statistical record with out concentrating a suflicieul number of men at any one point to justify a personnel su pervisor or safety engineer, a condition that is representative of a great many plants throughout the country. That there has been measurable success following the year?* of work is not onl\ gratifying, but also makes it possible to outline what has been planned and to indi cate that the accomplishment is attributable to two characteristics of human nature: Refrigeration Section 563 ]. To learn, a man must have an idea register and this results if he contrib utes something to demolish ate the theorem. 2 The inspiration of competition induces in men an appreciation of what may be done. Tiic first has been prompted by using an investigation report as a tool for instruction ; the second, by giving the result of the year's work in terms the average man can visualize rather than as mathematical statistics, then by comparing the performance of the several groups. From observation of the conference method of study it seems dear that to pro duce an effective group it must contain at least 12 men and is cumbersome if over 30, nor can 100 per cent attendance be expected. Hence, if there are only eight men em ployed in a town, little progress or enthusi asm may be expected; consequently, interest is likely to fail. When, however, several such groups combined and made something of an event out of each meeting, attendance has been good, reports of plant hazards contained constructive suggestions, and the study' of accidents proved an effective edu cational method. That these meetings arc seriously con sidered is evidenced by the attention given the reports of previous meetings and of the meetings of other groups. Then the safety committee presents its observations and recommendations, concluding with a formal report of any accidents that may have oc curred, frequently starting lively discussions. When these have been disposed of, the speaker of the day is introduced. The investigation itself has several deftnite objectives and may develop a discussion of several hours. As a reminder of things to investigate, a form of report has been pre pared that provides a concise record and a standard form of investigation, featuring four essential items along with necessary' routine information. The points emphasized are: 1. How the injured was doing his work before the accident. 2. How it could have been prevented. 3. Who was responsible. 4. Instructions given to prevent recurrence. The day of the accident the local accident committee makes its investigation and starts to prepare the report. The injured man is questioned, the conditions under which he was working examined, ;uul wiliicsM' quizzed. Then the rcjKu i> reviewed h> the district council which may call fnr help (torn the management. Finally, it is sent to (he executive committee of the safely contc.st. A representative ot the casualty com pany' serves oil tiii> committee. The object of the meeting is to Hud a way to prevent or nt least reduce Hie recurrence of like acci dents, using such educational or disciplinary measures as may be appropriate. The manner of studying the reports of in vestigations adopted by' the several groups depends on the seriousness of the subject studied. Ordinarily, the discussions arc very informal, and conflicting explanations arc examined and often argued until conclusions are readied and recommendations decided upon. In case of a serious accident in which there is uncertainty concerning the tme^ cause and a difference of opinion develpplC a more formal procedure may be iliwifable. Then a committee of the most experienced men will listen to the report of the investi gation, the "defense" of the injured man, call for expert opinions, and finally prepare the local council's report. Frequently, the manager will side with the injured mail, con tending that the foreman faded to give proper instructions or to train his men in a safe manner of doing the work. It is not easy to develop skill in analyzing how a man was doing hi$ work just before getting injured. This includes position and actual motion and often requires a demon stration, perhaps using a chair for a machine and a waste tiasket for n block of ice. Then it is not hard to obtain suggestions indicat ing how the accident might have been avoided, and with some skill or practice a group chairman can do very effective edu cational work. When it comes to placing responsibility, there is likely to be a tendency to dismiss it by saying "injured titan's carelessness." Sadly enough, there is usually a large meas ure of justification in so doing. Even so, those careless habits may well go back to inadequate direction by the foreman who perhaps limited his instructions to remark ing, "Now, remember, we do not want any accidents. Be careful!" Not only should workmen have had habit* corrected when reporting to a new job, hut the foremen and safety' committee should watch for and cor rect unsafe practices that may develop. 564 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress During the year 1936 this method of study was applied to 384 accidents. Some were of a trivial or minor nature, and only 90 re sulted in loss of time. White only the lost time accidents are posted m the safety con test, all accidents are reported. One reason is to insure a discussion that will bring to light hazardous conditions or potentially dangerous habits. For after all a serious accident resulting in long time disability is only a minor accident grown up. As a matter of statistical information, it might be desirable to analyze all of the three hundred odd accidents, but we are not approaching the subject from that point of view even if such figures would be convinc ing. Therefore, I am only going to call to your attention a single group of accidents that amounted to nearly one-third of the total, those pertaining to sprains and strains. There were 109 investigated. The natural comment concerning many of them is, "Oh well, they are trivial and probably due to the injured man's own fault He knew how. It was his carelessness." However, 48 or nearly half resulted in lost time. An analysis of all of them develops the same background or contributing cause, easily dismissed as carelessness or heedlessness or with the injunction to "Watch your step." Going further back of that indicates the need for continuous attention by the workman to what he is doing. That means where he steps, that he observe the condi tions around him, and his position when undertaking to lift any weight, if only twenty-five pounds. The total lost time of these 48 accidents amounted to 566 days. Indicating that this indifference of human nature or possibly the personal over-confi dence of the workman is a contributing factor to the recurrence of accidents and presents a very definite problem to the safety engineer, far more baffling to solve than the design of guards for the machinery. The hazard is so commonplace and so frequently recurring that it seems to have the same fundamentals as driving an auto mobile on the highway. Both seem to re quire continual education of the workman as he too often fails to appreciate the haz ardous conditions around him. Hence, these investigations are considered more as a means of education than as a report to the management or statistical department. We consider it the function of those col lecting the experience to compile it in shape that it may be used collectively for educa tional purposes. Of course, the department management inherently carries die responsi bility for reducing the cost of doing its work, but the man to man relation between foreman and workman should stress more greatly the personal hardships, suffering and possible after effects resulting from avoid able injuries. Accidents Involving Carbon Dioxide and Their Prevention By DR. J. C. GOOSMANN Carbonic Engineering, Inc., New York City Liquid carbon dioxide was commercially used in the U. S. in 1684 and was imported for that purpose from Germany. It lias since become familiarly known as carbonic acid be cause of its slight acidulous tendency. Carbonic acid is generally considered harmless by the public because it is largely used in the preparation of carbonated waters and other summer beverages. But in cases of carbonation a certain ele ment of risk is involved, in breakage of bot tles. Thus, special precautions are required to protect the workers in factories where carbonic acid Is handled. The extent of such accidents increases with the rise in the pressure at which car bonic add is saturated into the water. Ordi narily a temperature of 50 degrees is suffi ciently low to cause effective carbonation at 30 to 50 pounds of pressure; depending upon the character of the beverage. Seltzer water is ordinary water saturated at a very high pressure of carbonation. At a temperature of 40 degrees a pressure of 100 pounds is necessary to carbonate the water successfully. With higher tempera ture, the charging pressure increases rapidly and. In consequence, the danger of breakage likewise mounts. But accidents of this type now seldom oc- Refrigeration Section 565 cur because safety devices arc being used which eliminate the danger of explosion and bursting. Shortly before the end of the past cen tury the carbonic add refrigerating ma chine appeared in the U. S. Having none of the hazards associated with ammonia re frigeration, it gained rapidly in the favor of engineers, particularly in installations where large numbers of people congregate, as in hotels. While the pressure of operating this sys tem was considerably higher than was cus tomary with ammonia machines, the only precaution necessary to insure safety was substantial and correct construction. The eventual leakage and losses of the gas hardly ever amounted to 10 per cent and as this is considered within the limits of permissible gas content in the atmosphere, it was a very simple matter to provide for the atmospheric air conditions by which the presence of the above quantity disappeared in the total vol ume. High pressures do not affect the user, and the few safety requirements as to safety valves and volume of space to insure the necessary purity of the atmosphere were easily complied with, so that since the be ginning of the century carbonic acid acci dents have been parctically unheard of. Dry kc is carbon dioxide solidified. It is well-known m physics that each gas can exist in three phases or states: gaseous, liquid and solid. It Is, therefore, a simple matter to produce a pure gas, liquefy it and by partial evaporation solidify it. In this condition car bon dioxide has found a ready market, and since its temperature is very low, --109 de grees F-, it has found great favor for all maimer of refrigeration where low tempera ture is a necessity. Modem refrigeration requires a degree of humidity which many years ago was entirely neglected. However, such high humidity In duces the growth of fungus, and to combat it, carbon dioxide is added in a controlled percentage. One of the beneficial actions of this gas is its strong bactericidal tendency which inhibits the appearance of spores and fungi, but it is necessary to control the percentage of the gas, varying with the character of the cargo. Moreover, it is nec essary to provide for adequate means of ventilation of the cargo whenever the volume content of COj exceeds 15 per cent, before it is entirely safe for attendants to enter the hold or storeroom. The percentage of this gas which can be endured by human beings for any length of time is IS per cent. Higher gaseous contents result in increasing respiration which be comes successively more apparent as the gas content rises. At 30 per cent or over, the percentage of CO* gas becomes deadly within half an hour. The effect of carbon dioxide is similar to that of drowning. If the victim is promptly removed from exposure and taken into fresh air, the symptoms arc rapidly destroyed and no after-effects are encountered. Carbon di oxide tends to replace the 23 per cent of oxygen in the air. As the carbon dioxide in creases, the oxygen is forced out until at high CO, content there is no more oxygen left. For this reason, the danger point has been fixed at 30 per cent, which can be en dured half an hour, during which time plenty of warning will be experienced. Children are naturally inquisitive, and since dry ice has become so widely used, they are anxious to see and feel its effect upon the skin. Often they gatlter where dry ice is distributed and pick up small pieces of it for experiments of their own. Cases have been recorded where a child placed small pieces of dry Ice in a bottle, together with water, shaking the bottle vigorously to re lease the gaseous volume. Tile result was an explosion which grevously hurt the child. A small piece weighing not more than a few ounces releases enough gas to break an ordinary bottle quite easily. The only way to save children from this danger is to keep dry ice scrupulously from passing into their tiands. Education is ineffective in such cases. Warnings are dis regarded against the inquisitive desire to see * what happens. But the danger of asphyxiation can very well be guarded against, by educating those handling dry ice. Ignorance is a great con tributing factor and can be very well over come with the help of tire dry icc manufac turers. A case showing the need of intelligent in formation was that of the motor ship "Em pire State," which was loaded with a cargo of frozen cherries at Traverse City, Michi gan, about November 27, 1936, and pro ceeded toward New York Harbor. The trip consumed five days. The boat 566 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress went through the Great Lakes and llic New York State Barge Canal. In Phoenix a new supply of dry ice was taken on. The evidence showed that the quantity of dry ice spread over the load of cherries was much greater than actually required, it took three more days for the ship to reach New York. Unloading uf the hold containing the cherries started in the evening. No precau tions were employed to ventilate the hold or to determine the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air and whether it was safe for the men to enter the space. The hatch of the hold was uncovered, and within two or three minutes a number of men started down to the bottom. Cries of assistance from the hold were soon heard, hut were at first ignored. When they continued, a rescue squad went down hut did not get very far before the men also felt themselves overcome by the high per centage of carbon dioxide gas in the air. A gas mask was then used, but since it had no connection with a new oxygen supply, it was of no value. When the police emergency squad arrived it was equipped with efficient masks and oxygen supply tanks, so that the men were independent of the air in the hold lor breathing purposes. Some of the men, meanwhile, had made heroic attempts to rescue their comrades, several of whom were lying at the bottom of the hold face downward--where, of course, the percentage of carbon dioxide was highest. All the men overcome were bleeding pro fusely at the mouth. Post raortems showed that the lungs were highly congested with blood. The examination of other organs such as the brain, liver and kidneys showed no in dication of poisoning. The men were simply drowned in an atmosphere from which the oxygen had been forced by very high per centage of carbon dioxide. Test tubes of which a number were filled with the air in the hold at various levels and places showed carbon dioxide gas con centration between 35 and 60 per cent No traces were found of carlmn monoxide, hy drocyanic acid, ammonia, phosgene or sul phur dioxide. Five men were dead when taken out. Three who were still breathing when tlicy readied the deck were immediately taken to a hospi tal and have since entirely recovered. Another man who was partly overcome needed no attention and went home. Simple means are now' in existence where by the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air is indicated by Instruments located out side the hold. Warning signals arc attached to these instruments, and it is even possible to start automatically ventilators which will evacuate the highly charged air and replace it with fresh air. The holds of ships are particularly dan gerous as points of possible asphyxiation be cause they arc almost hermetically sealed and because air infiltration from the outside is practically nil. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 Accidents in Delivering Refrigerated Products and Their Prevention By G. L. GORE Chief Safety. Engineer. Bruce Dodson A Company, Kansas City, Mo. Accidents in the delivery of refrigerated products and their prevention opens up two distinct topics for discussion; namely, injury tu the employee himself and injury to the person or property of others tlirough the use of teams and trucks. Refrigeration Section 567 In many plants, particularly the smaller ones, the deliveryman's hazard begins before he gets into his truck. For the unwary, the vault is a dangerous place. Floors are slip per)' because of chips of ice and natural frozen moisture. There is the hazard of falls caused by a cake breaking, tongs pulling out or the employee becoming overbalanced by improp erly handling a heavy cake. Floors should be kept as free as possible from chips and moisture. Many concerns equip their men with creepers fastened by means of a strap to the soles of the shoe. Toe injuries may be guarded against by safety shoes or metal guards placed over the toes and instep. Tongs should be kept sharp so that they will readily cut into the cake, thus preventing slipping. To handle a cake of ice without injury is an art. No man should be permitted to do this work until some experienced man has fully demonstrated the safe way. Very frequently the deliveryman is required to score his own ice. This materially increases his hazard. The scoring machine lias been involved in some very serious accidents. The exposed side should be guarded so that one will not cotnc in contact with the saws or permit his trouser leg to become engaged in the sprocket. Should a cake become lodged, the power should be shut off so that it can be safely loosened. To attempt to dislodge a cake by giving it a shove with the foot is extremely dangerous: I have known of many cases where the injuries have been serious enough to warrant amputation. In one plant of my acquaintance a driver and his super intendent each lost a foot on successive days due to this practice. We all remember the old time ice delivery man who tarried his tongs suspended from his shoulder. Fortunately, most men now carry their tongs in their hands when not in use. A recent case coming to my attention involved an employee who had his tongs on his shoulder. He stepped on a small round stick which caused him to lose balance and fall. The point of tltc longs punctured one of his lungs, the injury resulting in death. Another dangerous practice is to carry the pick in the trousers pocket with the point up. A serious puncture or a severe scratch might be the result. This brings up the matter of infection. The wound might heal in a day or two or it might cause death. Medical authorities claim that an infection can develop in eight hours. This emphasizes the importance of carrying a small first aid kit on each truck or wagon. A small bottle of mercurochroine and a few adhesive tipped compresses will suffice. A whole fleet could be so equipped for a few dollars. The coloring--red or yellow or wliatevcr it might be--on the compress gauze is merely the result of sterilizing the gauze and docs not make the use of mercurochrome on the wound unnecessary. The use of a pick scab bard will greatly reduce the possibility of a scratch or puncture. The deliveryman, burdened with his product --weighing anywhere from a few to three hundred pounds, always is subjected to the falling iiazard. This can be best cUminuted by the eyes finding safe places for the feet to walk, but as an added prevention, shoes should be equipped with non-skid soles and heels. We have found these real aids in reducing the slipping hazard. A deliveryman should wear shoes with wliat is known as the safety toe-cap. I prefer the metal toe because of strength and durability, although much can be said in favor of com position toe caps. Safety shoes have met with so much demand that today it is possible to get them In almost any weight, style and cost. Many present as attractive an appearance as a dress shoe or slipper. As a matter of iirecaution,' however, tto deliveryman should become oversold on the fact that the toe cap will not break down. The possibilities of wrenched hacks and hernias arc causes- for considerable concern. .Physical examinations are desirable. It is very' dangerous work for a man with a tendency toward hernia or a weak back to be engaged in this work. All old employees should be periodically examined, and any defects coming to light should be repaired, or the employee placed in some work where bis defects are not so likely to result seriously. No new employee, regardless of the fact that lie might be used for only a few .days, should be put to work unless he has passed a satisfactory physical examination before a physician des ignated by the prospective employer. Portable ice crushers present a very serious problem. Here is a report of a typical acci dent : "Our employee was feeding the crusher to fill an order. He was standing on the step 568 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congress in the rear of the truck, bracing himself its complete sense. The same degree of with his left hand on the left side of the bed. tireless effort directed toward truck acci He was reaching Into the bed of the truck dents as was put forth in the plant would with a pair of tongs in his right hand, attempt develop the best record in the country. ing to drag toward him a 50 lb. cake of ice. when his left foot slipped off the end of the step causing him to lose his balance and throwing his left hand into the hopper of the crusher which was in operation at the time. For a time it was feared amputation would be necessary." The problem of seasonal help is a serious one. Many companies have made a practice of hiring athletes to work during the sum mer months. The purpose is laudable and from an engineering standpoint satisfactory, providing the youth can drive a truck. Regardless of educational qualities, past his From time to time we hear of an ice man tory, or what he might say about his experi being knocked down simply because he failed ence, no man should be placed in charge of to look in both directions before going across a truck until he has gone through a series the street. Such accidents can be eliminated of actual tests, proving that he is a capable only by caution. driver. Too often a prospective employee is Dog bites are still somewhat prevalent. merely asked whether he can drive a truck, One company of my acquaintance has almost and if he says he can, he starts out lo entirely eliminated this hazard through tlse deliver ice. ``trial and error" method. Their men were Giving human nature its due. we know that instructed to report any bad dogs on tlieir wlien a man is seeking a job, his eagerness respective routes, following which their fore quite often leads hint to make claims with man made a call either in person or over the reference to bis ability with the thought he pltone, asking that customer to keep his dog can later leant or cover up after he has the tied up between certain hours. Strange as job. We are left to luck as to what seddaii it may seem, this plan met with little opposition he might have or people he might 1oU m on the part of the customer, although I must the meantime. admit some of the customers were unreason able. This simply meant no service to those homes for a few days. This firm also taught its men how to conduct themselves around dugs. There are many articles written by various autliorities on the subject. Tlte physical examination mentioned earlier should include tests fur sight and hearing. The former should include tests for color blindness. Many eye specialists are nowequipped to give tests for depth perceptxxv-- that is the patient's ability to judge distance Insofar as the vehicle end of tle ice indus --which are quite helpful in determining try is concerned, we can almost entirely con ability to drire a vehicle cern ourselves with the truck; since the In selecting employees to be retained after horse drawn vehicles are now the exception the rush season is over, consideration should rather than the rule, their problem is almost be given the accident record of each. insignificant. There is a great opportunity to effect many economic* through a study One company operated a fleet of 30 to CO oi the accident situation in the fleet. trucks in a principal southwestern city with 10 minor accidents in two years, none involv Some plant owners feel that they lave ing personal injury. Tltat company reli fulfilled their obligations to tlieir employees by fully guarding the plant. I have one such * giously follows the practice of holding a meeting exclusively for the discussion of instance in mind. This plant is the last word in safety. The scoring machine was built with full safety in mind, on the owners' own design. Other machines were similarly developed. No one can be hurt by machinery in that plant, except almost deliberately. Brakes, lights, horns, etc., are inspected daily and the fleet kept in the best possible condition, -and yet the- vehicular accident frequency rate is quite high. safety once a month during the off season, but weekly during lltc summer months. Bul letins and placards from the National Safety Council and the insurance carrier are used. As a means of further encouraging interest, a monetary award system is used. Each driver who has had tto accident of any kind during the month is eligible for the drawing. Three awards arc made each month for $12.50, $7.50, and $5. The employer, of In that case the management simply has course, benefits many times the amount of failed to recognize its accident problem in expense in the way of lower insurance Refrigeration Section 569 costs, avoided damages to equipment, good will, etc. Proper discipline and supervision are of the greatest importance. Trucks should be used only for their prime purpose, and when the driver is through with his deliveries, the truck should be returned to the garage and left, there. Some companies follow the prac tice of permitting the drivers to take the trucks home with them, thinking that they will be used only as transportation to and from work. However, the temptation to use them for social purposes is pretty great, and occasionally one will become involved in an accident while it is so engaged. Drinking in any degree should be strictly forbidden, and the drivers' superintendent should interest himself in seeing that there is no drinking on the job. Siuce saloons, night clubs and taverns are heavy users of ice. a drinking man might be inclined to imbibe as he went along. On December 25, 1933, there occurred an accident which appropriately describes what might happen in this respect. A theretofore reliable colored driver was delivering ice on his route. It being Christmas day, many of his Customers left out various drinks to be taken after icing their boxes. He with stood the urge for the first several times, but finally hb appetite overtook him. The first was the one be should not have taken, h called for company, and it wasn't loaf mstil dm driver himself tired of work aad thuevht of companionship. He qmt detrrering ice, took his truck and went . He picked up three Negro women and two men. and the six started ottL Alt went well until late in the afternoon when it was necessary to descend a rather steep grade. He lost control of tlte truck, which struck a coupe in which a young man and his lady friend were visiting, almost demolishing the coupe and severely injuring the occupants. The truck glanced from the coupe, across the street, and hcad-ou into a tree, killing three of the Negroes outright and injuring the other two. The driver escaped with little more than scratches. Such an accident is purely a supervisory problem. The two greatest vehicular hazards are backing without making sure the way is clear and intersection accidents. The first hazard can be substantially reduced by the use of proper type of rear vision mirrors and edu cating drivers to the fact that they must know the way is clear before backing. Should the driver back into some object or person, responsibility, according to law rests absolutely upon him and his employer. The second must be met by the realization that there is no recognized law of right-ofway. The best rule to follow is to educate drivers to (lie fact that they must always yield the right-of-way to the other party. There are three fundamental reasons for this: In the first place, in case of an acci dent between a car and a truck, the truck almost invariably receives the majority of the blame, regardless of the actual fault. In the second place, yielding the right-of-way will eliminate many accidents. In the third place, it creates public good will and good will means more sales. An ice truck holds a certain attraction lo children. I have seen trucks with several children riding on them. The driver should accept the view' that this is a dangerous practice and keep children off. This calls for salesmanship on hU part. He won't lose any friends by keeping them off, hut he certainly will if one is injured. Fatigue in Its Relation to Accident Prevention By J. R. GARNER, M.D. Chief Surgeon, Atlanta and West Point Rail Road Company, Atlanta, Ga. While the provocative causes of accidents due to man-failure are numerous, one, fatigue, stands out preeminently. Fatigue has been described as a physio logical condition of the cells or organs of the body which have undergone excessive activity with a resulting loss of power. More correctly speaking, however, fatigue should be considered from both the psychical and the physical aspect. Psychically, one who has been active for a considerable time, either mentally, or 570 Tzoenty-sixih National Safety Congress physically, or both, develops a condition familiarly described as "a tired feeling"; this sensation is truly a psychical phenom enon, conveying no comprehension of any physical changes in the body (issues although important material changes have, in fact, taken place. Physiologists have been given much concern in their endeavor to determine in just what these changes really consist, and even yet some arc not fully understood. Physically, tlie phenomena of fatigue within the living body are exceedingly com plex ; all organs and tissues must of neces sity work to a greater or less degree in unison, and excessive work upon the part of one body structure will increase the func tional activity of others. Thus, the action of ihc central nervous system is demanded in order that any muscle or group of muscles may be brought into play, the muscular action in turn de manding increased work on the part of the heart and respiratory organs in order that the augmented demand for oxygen be ade quately met. At the same time various glands are stimulated to increased activity, inducing more secretion and demanding an acceleration of function on the part of ihc climinatory sySIftn. The internal or inherent |*ower which undergoes a kiss following excessive bodily, mental, or nervous activity is described as "energy." Decrease in this energy is attribut able to changes lutvtng taken place in those yet unknown energy-holding compounds of the body as well as to a reduction tn the available number of such compounds. This really constitutes the first etiological factor in the production of fatigue. The other prime factor in fatigue pro duction is the accumulation of poisonous waste materials within the body, these being the so-called "fatigue substances." We may only briefly outline here the clianges winch occur when muscular tissue is brought into action. Glycogen is the chief source of mus cular energy. When muscular contraction takes place its available oxygen enters into a chemical combination resulting in the dis integration or combustion of its glycogen, followed by the formation of carbon dioxide .iihI lactic acid. both -of which are powerful underlying contributors toward the induction of'muscular fatigue and constitute the etio logical factors while the exciting factor i.< work. Resultant upon fatigue, the individual's ability to perform is lowered, his output decreased, the quality of his production di minished, his mental aptitude lowered, his susceptibility to disease increased in a direct ratio to the lowering of his vitality', his liability, to commit errors is heightened, and, last bui by no means least, his liability to sustain personal injury is greatly enhanced. In all body activity a certain degree of fatigue is developed which is harmless so long as complete recuperation occurs. That is so long as oxygen and glycogen are sup plied in adequate quantities to compensate for the combustion that is taking place in the activated musculature, and the "fatigue sub stances" are promptly and completely elimi nated. When these requirements are not fully met the condition known as fatigue reaches a pathological status. While carbon dioxide and lactie acid have been mentioned as being the "fatigue sub stances" developed in muscle tissue as the result of work, there arc, under similar con ditions, formed and accumulated in the brain and nerve tissues somewhat analogous katabolic substances productive of mental and nervous fatigue. Mental fatigue follows exertion which re quires deep and prolonged thought particu larly along some single line. Nervous fatigue is induced by the expenditure of nerve force and follows the prolonged enforcement of body exertion beyond that point where physi cal or mental fatigue has become manifest. The exhausted brain worker or one whh an overly expended nerve force is m no con dition to continue the performance of physi cal labor and his accident hazard is greatly increased. To understand the relation of fatigue to accident prevention, attention must be di rected toward the individual conditions known as bring inductive of fatigue: Para mount among such factors are the following: Environments The workers* environments play so im portant a role in the causation of fatigue (fiat his home surroundings and general liv ing conditions become of as great importance as arc those connected with his work. A workman, whose home is unsanitary and unattractive, whose family relationships are causative of anxiety, or who is continually harassed by the worry attendant upon some Refrigeration Section 571 Severe illness in his family, becomes an active candidate for very early development of fatigue. Such a person is a hazard to him self as well as to others in close working relationship. The physical status and mental bearing of his fellow workers reflects upon the indi vidual to such an extent that it may become productive of fatigue and is therefore to be considered from the environmental stand point. The inadequate or improper delivery* of heat, light, and ventilation in plants and offi ces add greatly to the rapidity with which fatigue becomes manifest. Such conditions are always remedial and may be readily de tected during the progress of an engineering survey. General Health Those whose physical standard is impaired by poor health, with the consequential lower ing of vitality, will exhibit fatigue in a much shorter period of time and with much less physical and mental exertion than do normal beings. They are, therefore, more prone to sustain accidental injuries. Attention to the physical status of employees will accomplish much toward economical improvement as well as accident prevention. It is impracticable to deal here with all the ailments which might be recognized as being productive of fatigue; only passing mention can be made of those which are most im portant. Tuberculosis, while affecting all classes, is unquestionably more prevalent among those engaged on the labor side of industry. Not only are tubercular subjects prone to present a lowered vitality which renders them more subject to fatigue and accidents, but the transmissibility of the disease makes of them potential hazards for fellow-work ers. Regular periodic reexamination of em ployees will greatly aid in the early detection of incipient infections when they are most amenable to arrest. Diabetes, another systemic disease accom panied by early fatigue manifestations, may also be readily detected during a physical examination. Not only is the accident hazard, through fatigue, greater in diabetics, but wounds sustained by these persons arc slower in healing and convalescence may be very greatly prolonged. Cardio-vaKular-rcual conditions include all of the generally so-called heart diseases, kidney diseases, and circulatory disturbances --including blood pressure. An)* one of these conditions wilt sooner or later be followed by an associated condition in the other organs, and arc generally considered as a single syndrome for general purposes. The case and rapidity with which these subjects become fatigued renders them of interest in this survey. Syphilis stands out preeminently as the greatest industrial hazard from the stand point of disease. It is in (lie first and third stages of syphilis that its industrial relation is of more importance. During the first stage a sense of shame, a certain amount of fear and ittxiety, and a realization of the seriousness of the malady reacts upon the individual's mental faculty to such an extent that fatigue is more rapidly induced. Throughout the second stage the disease is usually sufficiently quiescent to produce little or no disturbance in the subject's mental equilibrium. The third stage is most hazardous from the industrial standpoint since it is at this period that the brain and spinal cord be come involved and neural manifestations appear. There is an actually diseased men tality. The subject becomes inefficient, mani fests fatigue under extremely slight provocations and becomes exceedingly liable to sustain accidental injuries from which recovery is generally greatly retarded. Until recently, syphilis has been under such a moral and social taboo that every effort lias been exerted to keep its presence hidden and much irreparable damage has re sulted. It is now becoming recognized as a physical ailment which requires intelligent handling and scientific treatment from its incipiency. Detected in its early stages syphilis is curable and the catastrophic* at tendant upon the tertiary stage may be averted. Adaptation to Work By force of necessity many individuals seek any available form of employment with out having regard for their own adaptation to the work. Any person unfitted for the labors he is required to perform will become fatigued with a remarkable degree of rapidity. Industrial heads, when considering the employment of men, should see that each individual is adapted to the class of work assigned to him. This will result in 572 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress the lessening of fatigue, increasing of efficicncy and decreasing of the accident hazard. Working Hours Those u*Ik> have had actual and practical experience know that in some instances shortening of tire day's work has actually resulted in an increase tn the amount of work done. One occupation will be found far more fatiguing than another. Our pres ent interest is centered upon over-fatigue which is recognized as being causative of accidents. There are in general use many`labor-sav ing devices, the operation of which produce much noise and vibration and require high speed attention on the part of the operators. Such inventions unquestionably save much labor and yet they have a tendency to greatly increase fatigue. Monotony, another cause of emotional fa tigue, deserves consideration under this heading. Rest periods Invt been found to prevent and relieve fatigue when inter spersed with the day's work. These rest periods may often be of no more than five or ten minutes' duration and their fre quency governed by the nuniotonous nature of the employment. Actual experience of industries where such rest periods have been instituted has shown that fatigue has been lessened, production increased, and accidents minimized. Noise Though scientific experiment lias not yet demonstrated that working under conditions of continuous noise is productive of fatigue, it is generally accepted as an axiomatic fact. Exceedingly loud noises, those of a droning nature rapidly repeated, and monotonous noises are particularly prone to induce far tigue. It would appear that the character and quality of noise is of the greatest im portance and, where they cannot be elimi nated, efforts at changing or supplanting the character of sound have met with remark able success. By means of loud speakers installed throughout many factories in Germany the rhythm of music has been used to overcome the hum of machinery. The practice is just beginning to permeate American industry; in English and South American factories it has been in vogue for some time. Posture Incorrect posture is a most important fac tor in the causation of fatigue and its attendant accident hazards. Man having as sumed the upright position, all studies of posture must consider this as being his normal attitude. A perpendicular line drawn alongside of the standing figure should pass through the center of the ear, the center of tbe shoulder, center of the hip, center of the outside of the knee, and center of the ex ternal malclous at the ankle. Such a posture requires the minimum of physical exertion for its maintenance since the parts of the body are so superimposed upon each other that the force of gravity replaces much muscular effort The correct seated posture maintains the above relation with the head, torso and hips; the thighs are at an angle of approximately ninety degrees with the body, while the knees are flexed so that the feet rest firmly and comfortably upon the floor. When work requires that the body be inclined forward so as to accommodate itself to a desk or machine, this position should be assumed by a pivoting at the hip joints and not by per mitting a slouch in the spinal column. The general ill effects of an improper sit ting posture result from the disturbances of function of the organs of the body resultant upon a flattened chest, rounded shoulders, obliteration of the natural curvatures of the spine, protrusion of the abdomen, removal of the natural support provided for the heavy abdominal viscera fay a natural shelv ing of the spine where these organs rest and are retained by the abdominal muscles, undue stress upon supporting ligaments, re tardation of circulation, undue pressure upon that sensitive area surrounding the lower end of the spine and the coccyx, and undue pressure upon the nerves, arteries and veins passing through the popliteal space at the back of tlie knee joint. When, due to im proper posture, the heart's action Is impeded there is noted a diminution in both the quantity and quality of the blood's supply with a corresponding depreciation in avail able oxygen and glycogen accompanied by a retention of the "fatigue substances." The invariable result is a rapid manifestation of fatigue symptoms. The subject begins to feel sleepy, yawns frequently, responds but sluggishly to external stimuli, lags in the performance of work, becomes inefficient, and is far more liable to accidental injuries. Refrigeration Section 573 Many workers have been provided with no seat whatever, others with improper scats or chairs which do not admit of adjustment either to the individual's anatomy or to the work entailed. Due to the exceedingly in efficient character of such seats, piece work ers can rarely be induced to use chairs of ordinary construction while doing their work. Muscles will respond to an enormous amount of action before manifesting s>mptoms of fatigue. When, however, during muscular action, oxidation has been incom plete and the supply of glycogen inefficient, a rapid increase of the "fatigue substances" will occur in the muscle cells ami fatigue will increase in direct proportion to the re duction of muscular efficiency. Muscles that have become fatigued will not be accurate in directing movements; there will be incoordi nation of action with other muscles--this uncertainty of movement and non-conccrted action increases the accident hazards of the individual as the elements of fatigue increase. Safety Control In Air Conditioning By A. G. HILLEN Engineer, Carrier Corporation, Chicago In our discussion wc will deal only with the safely control which sltould be practiced in engineering design, which constitutes safety in material, safety in controls, and safety in physiological reactions of the oc cupants of the space. To obtain these safety measures the designing engineer must be selective in the materials used and lay out the system to produce comfortable condi tions without hazards to the occupants. The engineer operating the system must maintain in the conditioned area the temperatures and humidities to produce comfort. In comfort conditioning, refrigerating ef fect is required to produce cooling and dehumidifying of air, which in the majority of cases calls for a refrigerating machine. The refrigeration machine is used either for the direct expansion of the refrigerant in the path of air or for the cooling of water to cool the air. The types used today are ab sorption, rotary, reciprocating, centrifugal and steam ejector water vapor. Absorption systems are seldom used for air conditioning and the rotary' type is seen infrequently. The most commonly used refrigerants arc freon, ammonia, carbon dioxide, sulphur di oxide, methyl chloride, water vapor and carrene. Due to their toxic or irritant values, in case of a leak, methyl chloride, ammonia and sulphur dioxide are seldom used in air conditioning. Carbon dioxide is used less and less, due to its high working pressure and the high temperature of condensing water found in some sections of the country. This leaves freon and carreuc as the most generally used refrigerants, and while they are similar in some respects they arc quite different in operating characteristics within the cooling range required for comfort air conditioning. Freon is used in a reciprocating com pressor which produces the cooling at a differential in pressure, both high and low side above atmospheric; while carrcnc is used in a centrifugal machine which pro duces its cooling at a differential of vacuum. Of course, water is sometimes used as a refrigerant. It is used in the steam ejector and water vapor centrifugal machines. To produce the refmgerating effect, cooling water to 50 degrees, a very low vacuum is required, approximately 292 inches of vacuum. Water, without a doubt, is the safest refrigerant which could be used, but has its limitations due to its refrigerating characteristics. Freon and carrene are considered safe refrigerants. Both are considered non-ex plosive, non-flammable, and non-toxic. The National Board of Fire Underwriters has made an elaborate report entitled `The Comparative Life, Fire and Explosion Haz ards of Common Refrigerants." Due to the safety of freon, it is acceptable to use for direct expansion work, as under normal operating conditions the amount of refrigerant leak would be so readily diffused and diluted that it would not be harmful. Since with the use of freou the refrigerating 574 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress effect is produced by a differential in pres sure, both high and low .side being above atmospheric pressure, any leakage of the refrigerant is outward. process. In this type, explosion proof motors and starters must be used. The fans should also be equipped with copper scrolls to pre vent the generation of a static spark. The centrifugal machine using carrene cools water or brine direct. This refrigerant is not especially suitable far the direct ex pansion in coils of an air conditioning sys tem. With this type of refrigeration the refrigerant is kept entirely within the bounds of Hie refrigeration apparatus room and docs not come in contact with the air being cooled or otherwise conditioned. The centrifugal machine using carrene is always at a vacuum on the cooler or evaporator side where the refrigerant is evaporating; lienee any leak age. no matter how slight, is inw*ard rather titan outward, which effectively prohibits the cscai>c of the refrigerant gas into the sur rounding apparatus room. In certain eases ammonia has been, and is still being, permitted for use as a refrigerant in air conditioning, such as in meat jiacking, breweries, and other industries, where the occupancy in relation to floor area is rela tively small. Tt presents a definite hazard when used in direct expansion coils in the path of air, and certainly should not he used in any form as a refrigerating medium in an air conditioning system for auditoriums or public buildings. In those industrial establishments men tioned, where ammonia is used for industrial and commercial purposes, it should never be utilized for comfort conditioning except by means of the indirect system, namely, cooling brine or water which in turn is used for comfort conditioning. Must Adapt to Conditions Controlling of sound level in air condi tioning installations has become quite im portant. Such installations as broadcasting studios, sound stages, theatres and courf houses require sound treatment. The engi neer designing the system should make certain that the materials used in sound treatment in ducts are fireproof. There lias been a tendency toward using an acoustical material inside a duct to perform the func tion of iusulation and sound absorbing. This material likewise should be fireproof, other wise a haiaid is always present. Air conditioning installations play an im portant part in plants where solvents with explosives arc used in the manufacturing The space requirements to permit ade quate servicing of equipment is another detail requiring careful study by the design ing engineer. He should exercise care and .thought in the location and spacing of the apparatus. Conservation of space is some times over-emphasized, making it hazardous for the operating engineer to render the re quired service to motors, compressors, etc. Safety control begins with the first nut or )x>lt that is manufactured for the apparatus, right on through to the rigging and installa tion of the equipment which necessarily must be regulated by insurance companies, under writers and city ordinances, etc One particular detail in the installation of re frigerating and air conditioning apparatus is often overlooked, and that is the safe work ing stresses of the floors upon which tlie equipment is being erected. In many eases it has been found that the floor load was designed for 100 to 150 pounds per square foot and not suited for the actual equipment of over twice that weight which was in stalled. Then too, suitable vibration absorb ing pads of cork or rubber, or mechanical types using springs, should be installed to absorb the hazardous vibration that some times exists. Belt guards and pipe rails around apparatus have often been neglected due to lack of experience or "penny wise and pound foolish" economy. Standard refrigerating apparatus requires the installation of certain safety devices to protect equipment against overload, break down and Are. Every installation should have hjgh ami low pressure gauges so that an inspector or operator can determine at a glance if the pressures are within the safe limits of operation. Likewise, every motor driven compressor should have the proper starting equipment with overload relays and under voltage relays to stop the apparatus in ease of overload. Where water is used for condensing pur poses a positive supply should be provided. If this is pumped, the electrical hookup should be such that the apparatus will not operate unless there is sufficient and con tinuous supply of water to prevent building up of high refrigerant pressure beyond safe limits. A simple electrical hookup or a water Refrigeration Section 575 failure switch can be installed at nominal cost. Then too, thermometers arc important so that the operator or inspector can make proper chcck-up at any time. Safety relief valves of the pop type should be provided on the condenser and connected to outside; suitable plugs, set to relieve at a reasonably low temperature should be provided to pre vent excess pressure and possible explosion of the condensers and receiver in ease of Arc. Safety relief valves of the pop type only should be installed between the suction and discharge connections of the compressors as well as combination high and low pressure cutout to stop the compressor should the discharge valve be shut off. Where shell and tube apparatus is used for chilling water, safety relief valves of the pop type should likewise be connected to the outside to pre vent explosion in ease of Are because of excessive pressure. All motors on all air conditioning appa ratus should be provided with suitable safety switches as well as overload and undervoltage starter |*rotection. Where automatic temperature control Is used, safety thermo stats and regulating thermostats must be provided to safeguard the operation of the equipment as well as to prevent excessive hcatiug or excessive chilling in either sum mer or winter time. In certain manufacturing, process condi tioning, 5jn*cial mechanical laboratories, theatre projection booths, and wherever duct work extends through Are walls, suitable fusible link dampers must be pro vided on bosh sides of the wall to automati cally close off in ease of Are, thus retarding spread of smoke, fumes, or Arc. - Drafts Must Be Avoided It is necessary that the designing engineer take precautions lo distribute the air in the conditioned area so that drafts will not occur on the occupants of the room. The suggested maximum velocity over a person at rest is 50 feet per minute. The design of outlets and method of distribution should be such that this maximum is not exceeded. This is particularly true in air conditioning installa tions in hospitals. Sufficient outside air for ventilation should always be taken through the air conditioning equipment to dilute odors and smoke which may occur in an air conditioned space. This naturally requires rchcalcr* and preheater* where the system is installed for year hound air conditioning. In hospital installations, especially in operating rooms, the air sup plied should preferably be all outside air. In apartment houses special precautions should be taken to avoid the contaminated air from one or more apartments being re distributed throughout the building; thus eliminating, or, at least minimizing the possibility of contagious diseases being transmitted. The system of control for preheaters should be such (hat they will not freeze up due to low temperature outside air ami the rchcatcrs should be sized of sufficient ca pacity to heat the conditioned space to the desired winter temperature. Automatic con trol of temperature and humidity must be installed to obtain the correct conditions in the occupied space. The engineer operating the system should be thoroughly instructed and competent to operate the air conditioning system correctly. The conditions maintained within the con ditioned area should eliminate the spectacu lar over-cooling which is so often resorted lo in conditioned spaces, A differential of (5 degrees with a relative humidity of 50 per cent, when outside temperatures arc 95 de grees, are considered ideal conditions tor comfort. As Lite outside temperature increases this differential should increase slightly and as the outside temperature decreases the tem perature differential should decrease. This is particularly desirable in public buildings for the comfort of the' continuous occupants, as well as those who enter only to slay a short time before returning lo outdoors. This will avoid the shock so often experi enced due to the too great change in temperature. From the safety point of view the record of the air conditioning industry is an excel lent one, for the public interest in safety has in most eases been adequately protected. With tlie increased use of refrigeration for comfort conditioning, even greater precau tions are being taken in the development of proper refrigerants and control. Has Safety Value There arc a number of applications in which air conditioning has had a definite safety value. In the operating rooms of 576 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress hospitals where air conditioning is installed, the doctors and nurses are comfortable, which tends to promote a steadiness of the nerves. The freedom from perspiration avoids the possibility of a wound infection from that source. Since some types of anesthetics are definitely known to have ex plosive characteristics, it is important to prevent the generation of a static condition that may prove disastrous. This is accom plished by maintaining a relative humidity of 50 per cent at which condition static is en tirely eliminated. In mines, air conditioning has been bene ficial to the health and well being of the men working. In deep mines, without air condi tioning, temperatures and humidities are excessive! which frequently cause prostra tions. In shallow mines the roof and walls are at a temperature of approximately 50 degrees the year round and in the summer, when moist air is induced for ventilation, rapid condensation occurs and accumulates on the shale rock which increases the hazard due to falls. By supplying dehumidified air with a dewpoint equal to or below the shale rock temperature, moisture condensa tion will not occur, disintegration and falls are minimized. Many tur conditioning installations have ljccn made in industrial plants where exces sive process heat is generated, such as enameling rooms witcrc materials to be enameled are at intensive temperatures. Air conditioning has reduced the number of prostrations and hence benefited the health and increased the comfort of the employees. Another important application is the re moval of dust and small particles of irritant chemicals, such as are found in uncondi tioned match factories, some departments of chemical, paints and pharmaceutical plants. fit the manufacturing of rayon, an acid solvent is required in the process. Unless an exhaust system is tied into the air con ditioning system, the acid fumes contaminate the air, producing unhealthfu) working con ditions. The fumes affect the throat and eyes it* particular. Fuse loading departments in ammunition plants is another application where air con ditioning produces safety for employees. The humidity is kept high enough to prevent a static spark. Cooling and dehumidifying in summer eliminate perspiration from the worker's hands, w*hich prevents the powder from adhering to the steel dies. Some lacquering processes require a sol vent having explosive properties. Since in some plants dome this type of work the solvent has explosive properties, and dehnmidifying is required, an exhaust system U installed and sufficient outside air sup plied to prohibit an explosive mixture. Humidification in tobacco plants keeps down dust, which otherwise would be haz ardous to employees. In the drying process of manufacturing matches, uniform drying, which requires air conditioning, prevents flaring or sparking when ignited. ADJOURNMENT Rubber Section Officers 1036-37 General Chairman--J. Id. Kucucak, U. S. Rubber Reclaiming Co., Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Program--R. A. Bullock, Corduroy Rubber Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Secretary--R. W. Morse, The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. News Letter Editor--Oliver Hopkins, TJ. S. Rubber Products. Inc., Providence. R. 1. Engineering Committee Chairman--J. G. Polm, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Health Committee-- Dr. W. S. Ash, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Detroit, Mich. Dr. J. Newton Shirley. Arrow Mutual Liability Insurance Co.. Watertown, Mass. Membership Committee Chaimtou--Paul Van Cleef, Van Clccf Brothers, Chicago, 111. Publicity Committee Chairman--W. H. MacKay, Dunlop Tire Ik Rubber Corn., Buffalo, N. Y. Statistics Committee Chairman--D. G. Welch. Hewitt Rubber Corp.. Buffalo, N, Y. Members at Large-- Ralph S. Farnum, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Detroit, Mich. John L. Giuder, American Hard Rubber Co., Butler, N. J. John J. Lock, The General Tire & Rubber Co., Akrort, Ohio. John E. Lovas, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Passaic. N. J. Urban L. Moler, Inland Div., General Motors Corp.. Dayton. Ohio. W. P. Spanton, American Hard Rubber Co.. Akron, Ohio. C- `W. Ufford, Ohio Rubber Co., Willoughby, Ohio. Past General Chairmen-- E. W. Beck, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., New York, N. Y. A. M. Dietz., Pennsylvania Rubber Co., Jeannette, Pa. C. F. Horan, Hood Rubber Company, Watertown, Mass. J. T. Kidney, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. H. W. Low, Miller Rubber Products Co., Inc., Akron, Ohio. \V. L. Schneider, The B. F. Goodrich Co., Akron, Ohio. Charles F. Smith, U. S. Rubber Reclaiming Co., Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--J, M. Kerrigan, U. S. Rubber Reclaiming Co., Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Program--R. A. Bullock, Corduroy Rubber Co., Graml Rapids, Mich. ^ Secretary--R. W. Morse, The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Nexus Letter Editor--Oliver Hopkins, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Providence, R. I. Engineering Committee Cluitrnwn--J. G. Polm, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Health Committee-- Dr. W. S. Ash, U. S- Rubber Products, Inc., Detroit, Mich. Dr. J. Newton Shirley, Arrow Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Watertown, Mass. 577 578 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Membership Committee Chairmot*--Paul Van Ci.fef, Van Cleef Brothers, Chicago, III. Publicity Committee Chairman--\V. H. MacKav, Dunlop Tire & Rubber Corp., Buffalo, X. Y. Statistics Committee Chairman--D. G. Welch. Hewitt Rubber Corp., Buffalo, N. Y. Members at Large-- Ralph S. FarnL'M. U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Detroit. Mich. Johx L- Gudck, American Hard Rubber Co., Butler, N. J. loiix j. t-#wari The General Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. John E. Ix>vas, U. S. Rubber Products, Inc, Passaic, N. J. fituAN L. Moles, Inland Div., Genera) Motors Corp., Dayton, Ohio. W. P. Spavton*. American Hard Rubber Co., Akron, Oliin. C. W. Oroeo. Ohio Rultfer Co., WiHotijhhy, Ohio. Past Genera! Chairmen-- K. W. Reck, lT. S. Rubber Products, Inc., New York, N. Y. A. M. Diet*. Pennsylvania Rubber Co., Jeannette, Pa. C. K. Hoak, Hood Rubber Company, Watertown, Msf. J. T. KlUNtrv. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. II. W. bm-, Miller Rubber Products Co, Inc, Akron, Ohio. \\ I.. Sooiui*a, The It. F. Goodrich Co., Akron, Ohio, t HAKUs F Smith. I S. Kttl4*rf Reclaiming Co, Inc.. Buffalo, X. Y. Kubbcr Section 579 first place; two certificates were awarded to winners of second and third place. Awards were presented by Lew R. Palmer, conservation engineer, Equitable Life Assurance Society, New' York City, and past president. National Safety Council. Plaques were awarded to first place winners as follows: Groups A and B--U- S. Rubber Products, Inc., Saugatuck Footwear Plant. Saugaluck, Conn. Groups C and D (under 125,000 average monthly man-hour exposure)--Four tied for first place with perfect records--Van Cleef Brothers, Chicago; Providence Insulated Wire Co., Pawtucket, R. I.; The Gobi Manu facturing Co., Middlcboro, Mass.; U. S. Rubber Products, Inc., Fabric Fire Hose Co., Sandy Hook, Conn. "Rubber Industry Problem** was the sub ject of a round table discussion which toucltcd on the following points : 1. What is a workable plan for good housekeeping ? 2. What are the outstanding fire liazards? How can they l*r minimized ? 3. How can hand tool injuries be pre vented? 4. Wlial protective apparel is necessary for the worker*? 5. What tvpo of mill and calendar safe ties are most satisfactory ? Why? 6. What hazard* are involved iu molding small rubber part'? How can they he over come ? THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 The session was called to order by JL M. Buffalo, N. Y,, General Chairman ol the Kerrigan, U. S. Kuhlwr Reclaiming Co., Inc., section. Rubber Section Safety Contest Chairman Kerrigan briefly reviewed the mitMandiog facts in the 1937 Rubber Section Safely Contest. Thirty-seven participating plants worked 03.696,394 man-hours during the six months* period of competition in the Rubber Section Contest and experienced 642 disabling in juries for an accident frequency rate of 10079. The 37 plants employed 67,874 men. Roth the accident frequency rate and man hours of. cxi>osurc were higher than for all previous contests. Plants averaging 125,001 or more manhours per month, composing Groups A and B, made the best records in the contest with an average frequency rate of 10.05. Groups C and D, composed of plants with 125,000 or less man-hours of exposure per month, had an average frequency rale of 10.424. Two-thirds of the plants in both divisions had frequency rates below the averages. Perfect records for the entire contest period were made by four plants. Seven of the 22 large plants in Groups A and B had frequency rates below 2.00 for the contest period. Five plaques were awarded to winners of Safety Device for Horizontal Heater By K. C. LOOMIS Manager, Runningboard Div., The Ohio Rubber Co.. Willoughby, Ohio The need for a safety device for locks on the doors of horizontal vulcanizers, com monly called open steam heaters, was im pressed upon us last year when a door blew off one of our largest heaters. The door, weighing more than a ton, was shot through the air like a paper plate. Luckily, no one was injured. The operator couldn't explain what had happened. He was thinking about the spoiled job in the vulcanizer. We were think ing in different terras--how much more serious this could have been and what could be done to the heaters so that the steam could not be turned on unless the door was properly closed. Not Fully Closed Examination of the door and the door locks exposed as the reason for the acci dent the fact that the door bad been closed just enough to withstand nearly a full head of steam. As the pressure built up lo this point, the door lug slipper! back and the door blew' open and off. Positive Device Sought The engineering division was instructed to correct this hazard, and if we wrere un able to buy a safety device, to make one. We Tound that there was no positive safety mechanism available which would make it impossible to turn on the steam if the dqpr were not properly closed nor to open the door before the steam bad been completely exhausted from the heater after the cure. A safety device that will Uo just this has been developed and is now in use on all heaters in our plant at Willoughby, Ohio. (Illustrating with a large copy of the drawing shown here, Mr. Loomis gave the following explanation of the device.) 580 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Safety Equipment Section Part I. Door is moved into position on heater and locked by turning door to the left. C am (1) operate* roller (2) opening valve (.t) w hich releases air pressure to line (10) which leads to lower inlet of three-way diaphragm valve (8). Operator then sets cure time on time cycle regulator (9). This regulator automatically shuts off air pres sure on line (11) allowing direct acting valve (7) to open. Shutting ofT the air on tine (11) also 0|>cr;tcs three-way valve (8) which opens lower inlet allowing air presMire from line (10) to enter reverse acting diaphragm valve (4) opening same, and al lowing steam to enter heater. Pari II. When heater is in operation, 'team pressure built up inside of il will operate the diaphragm valve (5) pushing Imlt (fi) down behind door lug. Part III. When cure time is up, time cycle regulator (9) turns air pressure into line (11) closing direct acting valve (7), also dos ing lower inlet of three-way diaphragm valve (8) which shuts air pressure from air line (10) aud vents air from reverse acting diaphragm valve (4) causing this valve to close. Part IV. As steam is exhausted from the heater and the pressure has reduced to less than 12 ox. on diaphragm valve (5), spring (12) will pull bolt (6) up, and heater door can be opened. Note, (a) Tension on spring (12) can be adjusted either to raise or to lower the 12 oz. factor. (b) Steam line has two valves, one clos ing with air pressure and the other closing with air off. ADJOURNMENT Accident Prevention Equipment Manufacturers Who Exhibited at the Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress and Exposition Kansas City, Mo., October 11-15, 1937 Exhibition Hall--Municipal Auditorium Acme Protection Equipment Co., Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa. Gas Mask.*. Advertising Displays, Inc., Covington, l\y. Safety Education Materials in Display Form With Moving Messages. Aetna Casually 8c Surety Co., Hartford, Conn. Safe Driving Tests, Safety Educational Filins. A. S. Aloe Co., St. Louis, Mo. First Aid and Hospital Equipment. American Abrasive Metals Co., Irvington, N. J. Safety Treads for Walkways and Safety Gratings. American-LaFrance and Foaniite Industries, Inc., Elmira, N. Y. Fire Protection Equipment. American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. Insurance, Workmen's Compensation, Properly Damage and General Automobile. American Optical Co., Southbridge, Mass. Head and Eye Protection Products. American Safety Tank Co., Kansas City, Mo. Automotive Fuel Supply Tanks. Arutzen, Inc., Chicago, III. Auxiliary & Emergency Stretcher First Aid Equipment. Automatic Traffic Control Corp., St. Paul, Mum, Traffic Actuated Control Equipment Bear Manufacturing Co., Rock Island, III. Safety Inspection and Correction Equipment. Bendix Products Corp.. South Bend, Ind. Automotive Equipment. Black-Sivalls & Bryson, Inc., Kansas City, Mo. Safety Heads, Tanks and Pressure Vessels. Bradley Wash fountain Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Group Washing Equipment. Brown Shoe Co., St. Louis, Mo. Men's and Women's Safety Shoes. Stewart R. Browne Manufacturing Co., New York Ciu. Safety and Special Purpose Lights and Lamps. 581 582 TuVHty-sixtli National Safely Conyress K. H. Uulirkc Co., Chicago, 111. Safely Equipment for Construction and Maintenance. E. D. Bullard Co., San Francisco, Calif. Personal Protective Equipment, burroughs Wellcome 5: Co., (U.S.A.), Inc., New York City. First Aid Kits and Medical Equipment. Champion Brake Corp., Chicago, III. Hand Brakes for Freight Cars. Chicago Eye Shield Co., Chicago, III. Head, Eye ami Respiratory Protective Equipment. Columbus McKinnon Chain Corp., Tonawanda, N. Y. Alloy Steel Sling Chains and Safety Hoists. H, S. Cover, South Hem!, Ind. Respirators ami Safely Goggles. Crousc-Hinds Co., Syracuse, X. Y. Traffic Signals ami Floodlights. .M. E. Cunningham Co., Pittsburgh, JJa. Safely Steel Stamps a>ul Type Holders. Davis Emergency Equipment C., Inc. Xcw York City. First Aid ami Industrial Safety Equipment. C. H. Dockson Co., Detroit, Mich. Head and Eve Protection. DoMorc Chair Co~ Inc.. Elkhart, Ind. Posture-Health Chairs for Office and Factory. Dual Parking Meter Co.. Oklahoma City, Okla. Parking Meter Equipment. Donald F. Duncan. Inc , Chicago, ill. Parking Meter Equipment. Eagle Elgin) Corp., Moline, III. Traffic Signal'. Electronic Control Corp., I^clroh. Mich. Electronic ;md Photo-Klcctric Equipment. Elliott Service (V, New York City. Promotion of Efficiency and Safely. KmcrMin Drug ('., Baltimore, Md. Hruim>-Sc)l/er. Employers Mutual*. Wausau. Wis. Fire and Carnally Insurance, Workmen's Conipotsiliotl. Enameled Steel Sign Ct*.. Chicago, III. Day and Night Steel Reflecting Signs. Fairway I.alx>ra1<*rii'*. Inc.. Mcllcvillc. 111. ' Anti-Fatigue and Heat Exhaustion Aiitidolt Tablets am) Dis}>ciisiiig Eqtliptnci Harlcy-Davtdson Mntur (V, Milwaukee. Mis. Police Motorcycles ami Accessory Equipment. Hercules Friction Grip Co.. Kansas City, Mo. Brake Dressing, Hild Floor Machine Co., Chicago. III. Electric Floor Scrubbing Machines amt Vacuum Cleaners. Holcomb Safetv Ganficnt Co.. Chicago, III. Industrial Safety Clothing. Hoof Products Co.. Chicago, HI. Motor Vehicle S|*ccd Control Governors. Safety Equipment Section Huntington Laboratories, Inc., Huntington, Ind. Disinfecting and Sanitation Products. Hynson, Weatcott & Dunning, Inc., Baltimore, Md. Mercuroehrome First Aid Antiseptic, Thantis Lutenges. Indian Motocyclc Co.. Springfield. Mass. Police Motorcycles and Equipment. Industrial Gloves Co., Danville, III. Industrial Safety Clothing. Industrial Safety Equipment Assn., New York City. Association of Manufacturers of Industrial Safety Equipment. International Shoe Co., St. Louis, Mo. Safety Shoes. Jutikin Safety Appliance Co., Louisville, Ky. Power Press Guards. Juvenile Wood Products, Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind. Automobile Safety Scats for Children. The Karpark Corp., New York City. Parking Meters. Keystone View Co.. Meadville, Pa. Visual Safety Tests. Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., New York City. Fire Protection Equipment. Kimball Safety Products Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Industrial Safety Clothing and Supplies. Lehigh Safety Shoe Co., Inc., Allentown, Pa. Leather and Rubber Safety Shoes. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. Automobile and Industrial Safety Service. The Lima Cord Sole & Heel Co., Lima, Ohio. Non-Slip Soles and Heels. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., Chicago. 111. Automobile, Compensation and General Casualty insurance. Maewhyte Co., Kenosha, Wis. Wire Rope and Braided Wire Rope Sling*' The Marlindale Electric Co., Cleveland. Ohio. Dust Respirators and Highway Safely Signals. McCloskey Torch Co., Toledo, Ohio. Bomb Shell Torches and Truck Flare*. II. F. McDonald Co.. Los Angeles, Calif. Safety Hats and Respirators. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York City. Life Insurance, Industrial, etc. Michigan Malleable Iron Co., Detroit, Mich. Traffic Stop Signs. Mitburn Co., Detroit, Mich. Protective Creams for Prevention of Occupational Skin Diseases. Mine Safety Appliances Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Safety Appliances and Fiist Aid Materials. Modern Engineering Co.. St. Louis, Mo. Welding Torches and Safety Goggles. Murray Safety Sling Co., Inc.. Pittsburgh, Pa. Plated Wire Rope Slings. 583 584 Twcuty-sixth National Safety Congress National Bureau of Casualty & Surety Underwriters, New York City. Safety Service, Casualty Insurance. National Safety Council, Inc., Chicago, 111. Tosters. Bureau of Information, Research and Education Division. (. H. Packwood Manufacturing Co., St. Louis, Mo. Soaps ami Cleaning Compounds, Panthcr-Panco Rubber Co., Inc., Chelsea, Mass. Safety Soles and Heels. The Patent Scaffolding Co., Chicago, ill. Safety Ladders and Scaffolds. The Phistcr Manufacturing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. I;ire Protection Equipment. Protcctoscal Co.. Chicago. III. Safety Devices for Hazardous Liquid*. Pulmosan Safety Equipment Corp., Brooklyn, X. Y. Respiratory Protection and General Safety Equipment. Railway and Industrial Engineering Co., Greensburg, Pa. Interlock Systems. Potential ami Phase Detectors, Insulator Testers. Kcccc Wooden Sole Shoe Co., Columbus, Nebr. Wooden Sole Safety Shoes. Rich Signs Corp., Wichita, Kan*. Highway Reflecting Traffic Markers. Kockwood Sprinkler Co., Worcester, Mass. Fire Protection Equipment. Rose Manufacturing Co.. Denver, Colo, fndustrial Safety Equipment. Safeguard Electric Co.. Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y. Shockproof Portable Lamp Guards. Safely Engineering, Alfred M. Dost Co., Inc., New York City. "Safety Engineering," Insurance Publications and Reports. The Safety Equipment Service Co.. Cleveland. Ohio. Goggle* and All Types of Accident Prevention Equipment. Safety First Shoe Co.. Holliston, Mass. Safety Shoes. W. H. Salisbury & Co.. Inc., Chicago, III. Linemen's Rubber Protective Devices. Shepherd Safety Shoe Corp., Chicago, III. Safety Shoe*. The Spencer Turbine Co.. Hartford. Conn. Industrial Vacuum Cleaners and Dusl Collection Equipment. Standard Safety Equipment Co., Chicago, IJI. Industrial Safety Equipment. Stoneliousc Signs, Inc.. Denver, Colo. Accident Prevention Sign* and Tag*. The Straus* Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Safety Hells. Safety Hat*, ami Foot*Guards. Sugar Beet Product* Ci., Saginaw, Mich. Industrial Soaps. The Surety Rubber Co., Carrollton, Ohio. Linemen's Safety Equipment ami Synthetic Rubber Industrial Equipment. The Surly Manufacturing Co., Inc., Chicago, III. Dust Counters, Exhaust Units, Safety Guard* and Shields. S-W Supply Co., Girard. Kan*. Highway Railroad Signals. Sajely fc.quif'nitiit S*'Ction Threeway Signal Co., Oklahoma City, Okla. Safety Signal Equipment. Traffic Boy, Inc., Canton, Ohio. School Zone Traffic Warning Signs. United Stale* Steel Cor|oration Subsidiaries, Pittsburgh, Pa. Steel Products and Cement. Wahlert Products Corp., Brooklyn. N. Y. Industrial Safety and Fire Protection Equipment. Weaver Manufacturing Co., Springfield, 111. Automotive Testing Equipment. West Disinfecting Co., Chicago, III. Products for the Promotion of Industrial Sanitation. The Western Union Telegraph Co., Kansas City, Mo. Communication Service. Willson Products, Inc., Reading, Pa. Personal Protective Devices. 585 Steam Railroad Meeting WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 The session was called to order by W. \V. more, Aid., who presided, introducing the Wood, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Balti- speakers and directing the discussion. The Past, Present and Future of Railroad Safety By J. M. SYMES Vice President, Operations and Maintenance Department, Association of American Railroads, Washington, D. C. No industry in the world requires more diversified study and more exacting applica tion of safely principles than the steam rail road industry. Picture a quarter of a million miles of railroad line covering in a virtual network the vast expanse of the United States. Over this network are operated a billion train miles annually. Vast yard and terminal operations arc necessary to make up the beginning of the journey of passengers and goods, and to break up at the end of that journey the )2|ni]lion trains that accumulate that billion miles. These trains carry 500 million passengers and one billion tons of freight annually. It requires more than one million railroad employees to run the trains, make them ready for road movement, su pervise and safeguard their movement and maintain the equipment and roadbed, as w ell as perform die many other duties incidental to the production of railroad transportation. Safety has in the past, is today, and always will be the first principle in railroad opera tions. But it is within the past fifteen years that greatest advances have been made in railroad safety. During that period wc have seen a complete remodeling and moderniza tion of railroad physical properties. Road beds have been strengthened; bridges, trestles and culverts rebuilt; tracks have been laid with heavier rail and with treated ties of greater service life and de pendability; grades and curves have been eliminated or reduced; signal systems have lern modernized and extended; other safety devices have been installed; nciv and more powerful locomotives, embracing all modern safety devices, have been purchased; new cars, both freight and passenger, have been installed. This capital improvement program has cost the railroads about eight billion dol lars since 1923, and a large part, if not all, of that huge sum had a beneficial effect, di rectly or indirectly, on the safety of opera* lions. But the engineer's- job is never done. As soon as new equipment, new rail, or other devices are installed the engineers go to work to develop more efficient and safer units. The railroads spend millions of dollars annually in research and laboratory work experimenting with engineering improve ments. In all this work safety is of primary importance. An invention which might mean great economies to the railroads would not find its way to a single locomotive or car if its use in any way lessened thopportunity for safe operation. Conversely, any improve ment, mechanical or otherwise, promoting safety of operation immediately commends itself to railroad officers and employees. The search for greater safety will continue so long as railroad transportation is used. About a quarter of a century ago, the 587 588 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Safety Movement had its inception in this country. From the first, railroads were a part of that movement, and no industry has ap plied itself with greater zeal or greater Miiccfity to that splendid humanitarian objective. Out of this movement grew understanding and knowledge of the basic cause* of accidents, and it was found that a Mirprisingly large percentage were due to so-called "human failure/' in other words, negligence, carelessness, or hccdlcssticss on the part of individuals. In the earlier years of the movement, vari ous methods of combating that evil were tried out. Safety posters, bulletins, and other literature, designed to appeal to the emotional side of employees, were widely distributed. Then followed the use of safely rallies, safety talks, safety committees, and Anally (he appointment of safety officers who devoted their entire time to the matter. As early as 1915 a Steam Railroad Section of the National Safety Council was organized. Here railroad safety workers gathered peri odically to exchange ideas among themselves and with representatives of other industries. Here. aha. was the beginning of organized study of mutual problems. By 1921, safety work on the railroads had come lo be such an important function of 'peratiou* that a Safety Section of the American Railway Association, now the Association of American Railroads, was or ganized. Meanwhile, the Steam Railroad Section of the National Safety Council con tinued its splendid cooperative work with other industries. With the creation of the Safety Section, intensive and exhaustive study of the causes of railway accidents was pursued with vigor. At the 1924 annual meeting the Committee on Statistics presented a most comprehensive and thorough report on railway accident sta tistics. The committee concluded that most injuries to employees were chargeable to thehuman element and that "by improved train ing. supervision and discipline," which implied the enforcement of safety rules, a 5 per cent reduction in the casualty rate could Itc effected each year, which, by the end of 1930, would be equivalent to 35 per cent. By unanimous vote, safety agents pledged them* m-Ivc* to work toward that goal. The concerted effort on the part of all railroad employees--from the highest to the lovr*t rank--to reach the safety goal gave a tremendous impetus to safety activities. When final returns for the year 1930 were compiled, it was found that the original goal had been far surpassed, and instead of a 35 per cent reduction for the seven-year period the actual results were just short of 70 per cent. An equivalent reduction was made in the frequency of passenger casualties, and evidence was at hand to indicate that the increasing toll of grade crossing accidents was at least halted in spite of a steady year by year increase in motor vehicle registra tions. The railroads were not alone in reducing the frequency of accidents during this period. All major industries made similar reductions aid it is through the medium of the National Safety Council that the experi ences of each industry were made readily available to every other industry for such help as could be developed therefrom. This cooperative spirit has characterized the hu manitarian side of the Safety Movement from its very beginning. Reduction* in the frequency of railroad accidents Of all kinds continued pretty gen erally down through the year 1935, although the annual rate of reduction was not as great as during the period 1923 to 1930. This, of course, was to be expected, as the phe nomenal reductions of earlier years could not be continued indefinitely. In 1936, after six lean years of business lltcre was a sharp upturn in volume of both freight and passenger traffic. This was ac companied by a slight increase in the fre quency rate of accidents, when measured either by hours of work performed or by volume of business handled. Concern has been expressed in some quarters that this slight upturn in accident frequency rates reflected a general let-down on the part of the railroads in their safety work. This is not the case. Railroad managements are more alive to day to their responsibility in safeguarding passengers and employees than at any time in the history of rail transportation. The Safety Section, backed by 15 years of ex perience in the scientific study of accident causes and in the intelligent application of remedial measures, is more effective today than at any time in its history*. The sudden upturn in business activity* was necessarily accompanied by the return of furloughed men to the service, and by the employment of new men. This tended to increase slightly the frequency of accidents. Steam A'aitroad Meeting 589 but I have sufficient faith in the basic sound ness of the carriers' safety organization to vision this slight upturn as of only temporary duration. Preliminary figures for the first six months of 1937 bear this out. What about the future of railroad safety? We know, of course, that much remains to he done and that much can be done. In the first place, the frequency of casualties on all roads is not the same, and there is an oppor tunity on some roads to decrease casualty rate*. Those roads that are lagging a bit are gradually being brought into tine, and as the spread in casualty rates between the leading roads and the lagging roads is narrowed there is an improvement in the rate for the country as a whole. We may expect also continuing progress in engineering, with both direct and indirect benefits to operating safety. This applies to the design of locomotives and cars, the in stallation of safety devices thereon, im provements to rail and roadbed, better tools and machinery in shops, etc. These things are under * constant study by the railroads, and the discoveries and refinements of one road are immediately availabe to all other roads. The Dollars and Cents Side of Safety By FITZGERALD HALL President, Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway, Nashville, Tenn. Let us ascertain, if w*e can, how much safety is worth in money. Take the case of the railroads--what arc the financial re sults of safety; what is the monetary differ ence between safety and non-safety? By safety in railroading I mean those fa cilities, those practices and those acts which make possible the running of a railroad with the minimum of damage to life and property. In 1920 unsafe practices, unsafe facilities, and the unsafe or careless acts of men were largely responsible for the American rail roads' paying out for injuries to employees, passengers, trespassers, and others, $56,237,- 476. These same factors in the same year were largely responsible for the railroads' paying out $20,687,933 in clearing wrecks; $10,046,734 for damage to property; $7,168,579 for damage to livestock; $120,643,409 for loss of and damage to freight and baggage ; or a grand total of $214,986,131. Now the honest man makes no profit out of being hurt and compensated therefor; the honest shipper makes no profit out of being paid the exact amount he has been damaged because his property* has been lost, damaged or destroyed. In other words, eliminating the racketeers, there is no profit to anyone because of unsafe practices, unsafe facilities, and the unsafe or careless acts of men. To put it another way, the American railroads, in paying out some two hundred and fifteen millions of dollars in 1920, largely as a result of a lack of safety, created no new wealth, added nothing to national income, produced no taxable wealth. What they did was waste, and waste alone. Realizing this, they took common counsel. They determined (I am using the year 1920 merely as illustrative) to turn this loss into profit, because money saved is money earned. They adopted "Safety First" as a mode of railroad life. But they did not stop with that mental decision. They knew that it would take years to replace carelessness with safety--they knew that it meant long, pains taking study and labor. So they went to work. Incessantly they preached and practiced "Safety First." They bought safer machines and tools; they built safer equipment and facilities; they installed safer devices, from goggles to automatic signals; they held safety classes; they analyzed accidents, showing their cause and prevention. They kept this up for a decade and a half. What have been the monetary returns for their ex penditures and labors? I.et us look at the record again, taking 1936 against 1920. They reduced payments for personal in juries from $56,237,476 to $24,218,508. They reduced the cost of clearing wrecks from $20,887,933 to $2,965,079. >90 7 wcnty-sixih XationaJ Safety Congress They reduced proixrty damage* from $10,018.734 to $2,631,735. They reduced livestock payment* from $7,168,579 lo $1,563,027. They reduced freight and baggage claim payments from $120,613,409 to $21,353,971. To sum up. whereas the railroads threw away most of two hundred and fifteen mil' lions of dollars in 1920 through carelessness, they so wasted only fifty-three millions in 1936. Safety in one year (1936 compared with 1920) produced for the railroads dividends in the sum of $162,253,811. at a relatively mail monetary cost. Now it is true that there was some les* liositirs* in 1936 than in 1920, but it is equally true that there were counter-balancing fac tors--notably, more automobiles and more grade crossings; and it is a fact that this saving was due, almost entirely, to safety work--and I cmpliasize the word WORK. There were Other results of this safety drive--financially valuable but not to be as sayed with absolute accuracy ; i.e., ihc safety oi railroad travel is increasing the passenger revenues of the railroads; safe tools, safe places to work, sensible safety rule*, enable men to produce more ami Iretter work; safe men. that is, uninjured nun. Iiave a higher esprit <lc corps, a greater loyalty, a greater cOieicitcy. 1 have oot undertakes to point out each place where safety in the railroad field has (aid monetary dividend*-. 1 lrc hit only the high spots. But our work i* tar from finished. Con sider one of the railroad safety problems alone, namely, the existence of some 234.000 grade crossings, over which rtm more than 28,000,000 automobiles f Let Ut return to ilx cuunut table. The railroads are again taking tock of their safety efforts. Of lie mi) mt-rc-ting facts disclosed, two bear jetlk uukc. l'*irt. safety, a* nearly everything else. Iia> ib racketeer*, ilrsirr sf thor preaching safety merely tu obtain *tcac wbully different end. Take the so-called Train 1 Bill as an example. Arbitrarily limiting the number of cars in freight train* for all railroads, un der all conditions, will add nothing to safety. but it will add largely to railroad costs, it ts, in point of fact, a political `'make work" measure disguised as a safety device. Scrcnd. safely, like liberty, is not static. Both may flower and wither. Ktemal vigi lance is the price of each. Rule*, laws, edicts, even devices, are not enough. Automatic sig nals. automatic iraio control, any device, to function safely, must, in the ultimate, depend upon a trained, experienced, and careful man. Employee Training and Its Relation to Accident Prevention on American Railroads By ISAIAH HALE Superintendent of Safety, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Topeka*, (Cans. Safety aiul all it im|4ics, regardless oi wln-rc the may lx set, begins, ami all tttit ends, in l\<hicatton and Training. Since railroad time licuan we have all regarded injuries t<> railroad men as some thing that had to lx and accepted them as a nutter of course, through the years nursing tin* delusion that all injuries arc due tu acci dent*. While it is true that in these later year* we have come to regard as an "acci dent" anything and everything that happens unexpectedly, we would lx well advised to remember the original definition of the word as "anything due to an unforeseen or un avoidable circumstance." Asked once how 1 would defux what is commonly called an industrial accident, 1 said it is something that happened because there was permitted the hazard which even tually caused it. However, on the back of one of Use monthly sheets of the National Safety Council calendar for 1938 is a far better defi- S/L-ani Railroad Electing 591 nition. "A-c-c-i-d-e-n-t: A word used to excuse our neglect, to hide our weakness, case our conscience and cover our failure"--de cidedly more forceful, truthful ami conclusive than using the word as is now so generally done, as fixing the cause of all industrial injuries. On basis of cither definition, the man who violates a rule and meets with an injury has not, by the widest stretch of one's imagina tion, met with an "accident." His injury is due solely to tlx fact tliat he was not a good enough soldier to obey orders. I am opposed tu uur present use of the word for the simple reason that if an injured man is permitted to feel his injury was due to an "accident/* that lx was the unfortunate victim of a combina tion of circumstances over which he had no control, I do not believe he will take from his experience the lesson lx might have taken if he had been made to understand his injury was wholly due to the fact (hat he had done something not much to his credit. duction in our startling toll of casualties than is likely or possible through any other means. Teaching Must Be Positive F.dncators agree that any subject can be more successfully taught from the positive than from the negative side. When we stress "accidents," we stress the negative, so instead of stressing the dire results of so-called "acci dents" to a comparatively few, why should not wc stress the greater good sure to come to the much greater number through an in creased Safety in service? Wc must never cease to be sympathetic with misfortune, but if wc would make it plain tu the men who incut them tliat their injuries were sell-iiitficted, 1 wonder if il is nut possible that some of them might come tu look upon injuries more as a mark of shame than as the glorified misfortune sonic now regard them, and might not then more siieees-ifnlly guard against them. "Excuse" for Injuries We can prevent injuries, but neither you nor we can prevent an accident, Ixcause if it cuuJd be prevented it would not, it could not be an accident--if you get me. In a word, 1 am upposed to putting into the minds of men an excuse for their injuries when in 95 cases nut of 1UU tlxre is no excuse for tlxm. A recent incident with us which may more clearly point to the absurdity of' the "acci dent" alibi, was an injury to a laborer who was pushing a wheelbarrow; his nose itched; liabii whispered "scratch it"; he let go of one handle of the wheellnrrow and kept on walk ing--Init not far---and we made out an "acci dent" report covering the injury which fol lowed. Absurd? Quite so, and about equally absurd is the self-pity in which the workman undoubtedly indulged because of his belief tliat misfortune had come to him through an "acci dent." I hope we may eventually expunge the word accident from our Safety vocabularies, and that we will be honest enough to quit kidding ourselves and each other and begin to regard a prepondcratingly large proportion of our employee casualties as what they are--manfailures, self-inflicted and inexcusable. Psy chology? A whole lot of it; and an intelli gently directed campaign along that line will more promptly and surely bring about a re Supervision to Blame I uni not prepared tu believe that many, .f any, of our injuries are due to an irregu larity being indulged in for tlx first time. 1 believe tlxy are the cumulative result of long continued slipshod working habits, aixl made ixissible only by lax, or lack of, intelli gent and efficient supervision. It is a pity tliat too many supervisors today think they arc too busy to give their men the ixrsonal attention which a systematic course oi training must have* I ask our foreman, you might a.sk yours, if it is not quite possible that some of the things they arc duing, which they regard as highly important, may not actually be of less importance that some of tlx things they arc leaving undone. A lot of foremen are functioning today exactly as did the foremen under whom they served their lime twenty or twenty-five years ago, and are doing tilings in a certain way only because they have always done them that way. Anything that is being done t< ;y just as il was even five ycurs ago needs uu investigation. Foremen Must Be Trained As a prelude to any educational Safety program we must recognize certain fuuda- 592 Txvcnly-xixth National Safety Congress mental essentials; First, definitely satisfy any event "It is not possible for me to watch yourself that your foremen are qualified to every man every minute." junction as teachers. About the biggest fallacy in Safety work today is the thought that heads <>i departments and foremen fo not need train' ing hut tliat all other employees do. For 25 years I have freely conceded that impossibility and never lost an opportunity to ;ioint out the absurdity of a foreman's lack of confidence in a workman's honesty and loyally Second, no man can be taught anything tn think he must be watclwd. When a foreman unless he wants to learn it. The creation of tells me that much of his time is spent as a desire in the mind* of men is the toughest watdiman, my sympathies immediately go out problem you will encounter. to his men, because 1 know they have never The Big Stick sliouhl have no place in our liad any leadership worthy ot the name. Safety programs. Through kindliness, If we will hire the right man and start him through painstaking teaching and training, we right by putting him at work for which lie is must continue an hottest effort to get work physically and temperamentally fitted, and men wholeheartedly to add their efforts to keep him right, we will be surprised to find urs rather tlvm di it A<a//-hearlcdly through what a short time lie will have to be watched. fear of discipline or discharge. One of our Iro!>kms which must be taken increasingly mure seriously, is that of making men Safety* Lesson Needs Repeating minded, not punishment-miiKlcd, because avoidance of an injury would automatically remove the need of punishment, either by man or Nature. The average man is about as decent at heart as you or I; he is not indifferent to the value of human life, lie docs not know what has been dune in the prevention of injuries, nor does he realize the need and the potential Visualize Results value of his interest and cooperation in what must still be done; and he does not know all Part of the training of men must be the effort to get them to see the picture too often found in the wake ui U inure serious injuries. 1 am a frequent visitor at our hospitals and see so many instance* ill which, while the this because he has never been told--ami retold. Some foremen nurse the perfectly absurd idea that if they tell a workman a thing once, he ought to understand them and remember it forever alter. men themselves are getting tlie best of care, well prepared food and suclt comforts os come with in<Mlcrn conveniences, their families, To emphasize 1 quote from the booklet "The Human Side of Safety in Foremanship," published by the National Safety Council: ifteti left wit!tout a thin dime, show, and u'Utally confess, nut only their urgent need ui their actual want. "Intelligence is the ability to grasp, under stand and use an idea. The jierson of less intelligence naturally must take more time to we must not hesitate to point out to leant even the simpler tilings. Those people 'iijHTvisors the weed of their education of self. ivlio are authorities on teaching and learning \ large proportion of supervisors have that point out tliat the less intelligent people must re-valent human ability (o look square at a )>c trained father than taught. In Safety work, liing and mu see it, and remain unaware of therefore. |f you arc dealing with a man who rrvgulariiics until something hap]>cus, and is not as smart as he should be, you must hen, by raising a great hulabuloo, atteuqK show him. He will remember the things he lay down a .mukc-screcii to distract atlen- sees better than the things he hears. You must loii from their failure to have noticed the nut only tell hint and shuw him the danger `regularity and correct it. The wise foreman spots, but you must do it painstakingly be cgularly aiqt often looks out over his depart* cause what may seem to you an uimcccssarily lent or gang mul asks himself: "Wliat fs slow tempo may be too quick for his mind. uitig on out there which I do not see?" That One foreman, asked how often he repeated icrc is something 1 can promise him. his Safety lessons to individual men, said: `Just as often as I can figure out a new way Foremen are seldom or never eye-witnesses of explaining and demonstrating the same old i an injury, their unfailing alibi being, ` I idea of keeping your eyes open and using a* at the other end of the section/' and in your head."* Steam Kailroad Meeting THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14. 1937 593 Safety. An Executive Operating Problem By R. C. WHITE Assistant General Manager, Missouri Pacific R. R., St. Louis, Mo. Safety is an obligation of management. Without the constructive leadership and dayto-day urge from tlx executive and operat ing heads, the movement would lapse into a perfuntory activity. The safety movement is recognized by executive and operating officer* a* a medium fur building up and maintaining that rela tionship, that fellowship, which broadens our views, enriches character, and bring* the Golden Rule into practical application. Management recognizes that our economic system must enable mm to live on an in creasingly high plane. Ii must enable them to fulfill their desire* and >ati>fy their rea sonable wants and give them that feeling of security' which i* to happiness and efficiency. Having made the decision that safety is an executive problem and responsibility'---that accidents must stop--it is then essential that management promulgate, ami follow through, a plan that will definitely fix this decision in the minds of all the individuals who collectively comprise the industry. The follow through must be such that department heads, superintendents, and every member of the supervisory force will appreciate the need for a constant, active interest in safety ; will understand that passive interest will no mor produce results than would the same interest in production. Supervisors must be made to feel that the prevention of accidents demands the same type of heads-up super vision that is given to the other problems affecting cost and service. The executive roust find a way to indicate directly that it is the responsibility of the department heads to carry* out management's program, that authority is placed in each superintendent's hands to put accident pre vention on the same basis as production. A complete factual and descriptive report of each accident must be made. This must be followed by a thorough analysis to find the direct and underlying causes and the pro cedure necessary to prevent a recurrence. Proof of its sincerity will depend pri marily on whether management will make the first essential move in the program-- that is. authorize the expenditure of money necessary to make the maintenance and op erating plant a safe place to work. Safety and Efficiency Analysis of the underlying causes of in dustrial accidents and preventive measure* to be applied has made it increasingly appar ent that those factors Which are producing accidents arc very largely the same factors winch tend to lower the quantity and quality of production. Expressed in another way, safety and efficiency arc as inseparable as though one word. In coupling safety with efficiency I have not minimized it as au executive problem, but have endeavored to indicate that its solu tion is an executive responsibility, both to lus individual industry and to the employee* that make it a going concern. Rail transportation is a scientific business in which laboratory research, expert engi neering, trained builder*, and skiltcd u-orker* share u part. One of the main factor* is u group of employees who arc loyal--who appreciate that their railroad must give the kind of service that will stimulate and accelerate the* development of the territory traversed. The successful solution of our problem de mands the type of aggressive individualism in executive leadership that will attract and command loyal, collective , cooperative effort on the part of all who produce rail transpor tation. Our major concern is leadership--leader- 594 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress ship that stands nut four square when evalu ated by some such specifications as these: 1. Hasing employee relations upon realis tic recognition of what man wants for his work. 2. Planning work so that in doing a routine task there may be some sense of achieve ment. 3. Making use of the implements that science and invention have developed, so that the man, through his work, may have the Ixrncfit. -t. Recognition of dominant needs 5. Recognition that there is no more inspi rational craving than a desire to know "why.* 0. Recognition that there is no more fundamental craving than a desire for pro motion. 7. Recognition that the basic urge is to feel that progress is being made. 8. Recognition that the foundation of all social ethics is consideration of the other person. 9. Recognition that constructive activity in prevention, rather than compromising or settling difficulties, is the essence of promot ing understanding--building morale, 10. Recognition that the essence of leader ship is promoting, inspiring, stimulating morale in those who are being led. Stream-Lining for Safety By C, E. JOHNSTON Preadent, Kansas City Southern Railway Co., Kansas City. Mo. liuth t!>c >trcaniliucd vehicle and the stream lined Safety program have at least one very important common purpose. That purpose >s dir Rcducihj11 ur Humiliation of Resistance atl Krieiiun. During my ex|>crience in the railroad field, a> a civil engineer ami as an engineering. >lrating and executive officer, 1 have had frequent contact with safety problems. I remniihrr (he first organised campaign io co ordinate and intensify accident prevention work on the railroads. Those pioneer efforts were largely directed at the outstanding physi cal hazard* anil unsafe practices then so com mon to railroad construction, maintenance and operation. Tliej- were, however, the necessary rir>i steps toward a definite guat.--the elimina tion ! personal injuriv*--and they directed Attention to the fact that there was a serious 'ituaiitm to lie remedied, which deserved the careful consideration of everyone connected with the industry. That was the genesis of the streamline idea in safety, tor if tlvc problem was one requiring co-operative effort, it involved the co-ordina tion of all of the varying human elements wherein resistance ami friction tend to play so great a part if left without enlightened leadership and |aiiistakitig -guidance. Thus the need for streamlining in safety work was rec ognized many years ago. and the process or overcoming the many forms of resistance which have appeared to obstruct and retard the movement lias been going on ever since. In "talking shop" today with safety engi neers, safety supervisors, or safety men of whatever designation, l venture you will find them of one mind in the opinion that what is needed most to more successfully promote this cause is greater co-operation and less resistance on the part of their superior officers as well as other officers and employees with whom they have to deal. In other words, the streamline idea is there all right, but the prac tical application of the idea involves the accomplishment of more than yet lias been attained. If I can offer any suggestions that might aid in overcoming the inertia or friction tliat tends to minimize the results of your efforts, the time spent may be productive of some .progress toward the streamlined stage of safety. With that in mind, I shall first direct nty remarks to the safety representatives themselves. As Item One, I recommend that so far as practicable, you have a first hand knowledge of the physical property with which you are connected. Where unsafe conditions are re ported to you, look them over yourself, if at all possible, or at least have them thoroughly explained to you. On a large property tins cannot be done by one man. but a safety repre sentative can save himself difficulty if he will Steam Railroad Meeting 59S acquaint himself fully with the particular situ ation to be remedied and is in a position to offer definite and practicable means for cor recting it. He will find tliat his associates arc for the n*t {An just as anxious to correct an unsafe ctediti"0 or situation as he is. I am not saggoting that departmental officers should wait Uc *aiety officers to bring unsafe conditions to the>r attention before correcting them if they thctnstcive* arc aware of their existence. There is no better way to educate a fellow officer nr employee along die lines of safety than to direct attention to unsafe conditions or practices, explain the nature of llie hazard and huw it can be corrected. Second: 1 recommend that you refrain from adv<jcottng a specific safety rule to cover any except the nv*st outstanding haz ards. Thi> recommendation may be at vari ance with the vies' of many gentlemen. I ain strongly of the opinion, however, that strict observance of relatively few vital rules bring* about much liettcr results than a continual enlargement of the rule book in the futile effort to cover every conceivable accident hazard. Furthermore, a multitude of rules is confusing to the average mind, and causes discouragement to the officer who tries to enforce them and to the em ployee who wonts to observe them. Third: I recommend avoiding generalities so far as practicable in spreading the gosj>el of safety. The old law--"have something to say; soy it; stop talking"--is quite applicable to work of this nature. The safety officer comnrands more attention and respect when he directs his written and spoken remarks toward a definite subject applicable particu larly to the person or |>er*ons addressed. Fourth: Have before you at all times a "rfocket." "budget." or outline of important imcorrectcd safety hazards which should be given attention, arranged according to the degree of need. Assuming that most of them cost considerable money, you should be in a position at a moment's notice to offer your 'recommendation as to which should be taken care of first, and such an outline should be presented from time to time to your superior officer so that he may be in possession of your ideas when the opportunity comes to take care oi some of them. In this 1 am assuming that the question of securing authority for ex penditure* on your properly depend* some what upon the fond* available. If no such condition exists with you, it can be said that you are truly fortunate. Fifth: Inform your immediate superior currently of your activities and your prob lems. Be persistent but not insistent. Remem ber, also, tu he consistent. Naturally you will avoid burdening him with jicUy mailers that arc of little importance, but keep after him concerning features of the work in which his help is needful. The fact that your company employs you as a safety representative is evidence that the management considers there is a need for this service. Let them know what you are accomplishing and what you are failing to accomplish, and why. Sixth: The safety officer mut bear down on the importance of safety supervision on the part of officers and foremen. This is one of your most pressing problems. Never over look a suitable opportunity to impress an offi cer or supervisor with his responsibility for accident prevention in his department. TFiis may require an unusual degree of tact anil diplomacy in sonic cases. It is so well under stood in others that there is little need for n safety representative to stress the point. Last, but not least, seek a way in which to have a voice in the selection of men entering the service. If possible, secure the power of veto in this respect. It is widely recognized that a sound body is necessary in the appli cant, but that this is not sufficient. He ought also to have au acceptable family background, a reasonably good education, an alert and interested attitude, and an aptitude for the work in which he i to engage. Emphasis on this point applies, of course, to ranks above that of ordinary labor. Visualize, if you will, 'a property manned entirely by individuals thus carefully selected. The lot of the safety representative would be immeasurably more pleasant and his activities more fruitful. Every other officer and super visor would be similarly benefited. In tlii> day ami age it seems to me there is no ade quate reason for promiscuous hiring. In fact there is no excuse for it. 1 should think it not an impossible job on the part of you safety representatives to sell the idea to tlie manage ment of your property. I am not unmindful of the fact that "safety percolates down from the top.M Sometimes, though, 1 think that a little heat applied some where down in the organization tends to help the percolating process. Certainly, if the safety man is content to assume an altitude of luke warmness, he can't expect much support from the executives. You will recall there is also 596 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress a saying that "the squeaky wheel gets the employees who have these things to contend grease1'--and a squeak now and then from with? the safety organization will sooner or later The conditions I refer to need not neces attract attention. sarily be physical conditions. A misfit or You may harbor the opinion that the safety unfit foreman or supervisor is responsible lor cause is bringing up the rear in importance many mental hazards having a direct bearing so far as the organization of your particular on safety. If you have ever worked under or property is concerned. One of the most im around such a man, you know what I mean. portant features of streamlining is the reduc It Is the business of the operating officer to tion of the vacuum suction at the rear of the moving object If you want to be of real assistance in aiding your company to progress, your own efforts must be designed in such manner as to reduce the backward pull, aud educate his assistants and subordinate super visors in the art of directing the services of the men In the ranks so that the workmen will not have the distraction of an incom petent foreman to contend with. you will find that you are accomplishing just Surely there is nowhere today an operating as much toward the successful operation of officer who looks upon the safety representa the enterprise as the fellow up ahead. tive as a "necessary evil." Such a view im There are many railroad operating officials who have a sincere desire to aid in the cause of safety. May I say to them: It s freely recognized that you have many other impor tant duties to attend to in (lie course of each plies a grave mistake, even if the safety repre sentative docs not handle his job in the way you think he should. Remember, his job is accident prevention, and if he is persistent in his efforts, he is at least attending to business. day's work, and Uiat there is a real tempta If you believe his efforts are being mis tion to consider prevention (other than col directed in any particular instance, tell him lisions or derailments) as a side issue or as a so, but it must be borne in mind that he is matter to be left largely if not entirely to the merely trying to discharge the responsibility activities of the safely organization. That is for which he is employed, and that die success a natural outcome of failure to accord accident of the cause he represents affects materially prevention its rightful place In economical tiie question of economical operation, lu operation. some cases he may have thought it out a bit For some reason there has seemed to be a general tendency to overlook or disregard the actual out-of-pocket loss to the company that is involved in even a minor injury. Get out your pencil some day and figure out every conceivable loss to t!>e company, including loss of time of the injured employee and of his foreman and associates, disorganization of the work, compensation for no service, and so on, and see for yourself what it amounts to. Also, add in the value of your own time which you spend in looking over the situation involved in the particular accident, which you might have spent with more profit to yourself and further than you have and might convince you that he is on the right track. Let us give him credit for sincerity, and, if we feel we have a better solution of the problem at hand, let him have it. The experienced safety man will certainly appreciate practical suggestions from practical operating men. It is my impression that inertia on the part of some operating officers toward safety ideas is the greatest single obstacle in the pathway of a safety man's happiness. A classic form of torture for a safety representative would be --listen to all he has to say, read all he has *to write, and da nothing about it. your company. As officers of the operating department, Some of you gentlemen are familiar with the game of golf. You know what I mean when I speak of a mental hazard. Do you ever check ud to see how many mental hazards you are harboring on your property in the form of sub-standard working conditions? You know what a mental hazard does to a golfer's game in many instances. Does it sound unreasonable that these imperfect work ing conditions have a very' similar effect upon you wouldn't stand for that from one of your subordinates and I certainly do not assume tliere is an officer present who would inten tionally do that, nor permit a subordinate officer to handle his affairs pertaining to acci dent prevention In this manner. Your safety representative should be able to give you a slant on this feature, and be glad of the oppor tunity to do so, in the event you have not checked on it recently. the character of service performed by your In general, I would say to operating officers Steam Railroad Meeting 597 --avail yourselves of the expert knowledge of your safety men. Give them suitable oppor tunity to talk to you. and if they don't come in occasionally, send for them. Let them know that you consider their job a worthy one. If they, themselves, are inactive, give them something to do--ask them to solve some safety problem that is confronting you. Above all, lend them your active co-operation in every possible way. And now, to foremen I would say: You have heard what 1 have had to suggest to the safety representatives and to the operating officers. All that I have said to them has been in your own personal interest, for after all, you are the folks who suffer most of the injuries. Streamlined safety means more to you than to anyone else. And you, as indi viduals and through your safety Committees, are in position, through definite, whole hearted co-operation, to reduce materially the re sistance and friction that may arise in the carrying out of a safety program. You may think, sometimes, that the safety activities on your property are conducted in a spirit of criticism. Let us all bear in mind that constructive criticism is required in order to bring about successful accomplishment in any direction. Do not look upon the sugges tions that are made to you as evidence of personal dislike or a lack of sympathy with your difficulties. If you were walking in a field with a friend who warned of a rattle snake about to strike at you, no thought of personal unfriendliness would arise in your mind. very safety rule and safety sugges tion is intended as a friendly warning, which, if not observed, may result In bodily harm to yourself or a fellow employee. Alertness on your part and a willingness to give and receive assistance in the cause of accident prevention are necessary and important contributions to a successful safety performance. I mentioned, before, that safety must per colate down from the top. The executive, of course, realizes that this remark is pointed in his direction. To me, it hints of discourage ment on the part of someone, and tliat some one is the safety representative. If we hear that remark repeated in connection with our own property, it may mean that our safety organization feels it is not getting proper support from above. Suppose we decide to call in our safety men and ask them whether or not the well-known percolator is working. We ought to know without asking, but let's ask anyhow. We might get some constructive criticism we are not <* peering, if our safety men are on the job mid speak out plainly. The simple act of discussing the plans and progress and prob lems of safety occasionally with the heads of our safety work has a tendency to bolster up their morale. Inertia on our pan is just as desirable, if not more so, than anywhere else in the entire organization. May I also suggest that our long-run safety performance will respond favorably to greater attention in selecting and training men when they first enter the service. In this respect I feel there has been considerable laxity as a general proposition. I can think of no good reason whatever for not giving qualified! safety men the right to veto the acceptance of an applicant after satisfying themselves that he is unfitted from a safety standpoint for the work in which he would engage. Adequate Accident Investigation and the Need for Suitable Discipline Before the Accident Occurs By P. F. BUCKLE Superintendent of Safety, Burlington Lines, Chicago Most accidents result from a combination of circumstances. Therrforr, it is Important that when making inquiry into causes of accidents, all of the circumstances be searched out and followed to the point where they came together finally and set the stage for the acci dent. We should have oo record for each case every single bit of information it is possible to obtain. The greatest single cause of accidents and injuries, as we all know, is the human element, and the greatest weakness likely to creep into an accident investigation is that same element. The human element lias been and will con- 598 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress timic (u In: the predominating (actor in our safety problem. Therefore, it is my belief that our failure to pro|terly reach ail of our railroad employees with our safety message is one of the reasons why. following a number of years of steady decline in personal injuries, we have remained more or less static during the past three or four years. Some gaps re main to be filled between the top and the bottom; some gaps lacking in enthusiastic belief that Safety should come First For that reason, we may find it continuingly more difficult to show progress in accident preven tion than we have in the past, notwithstanding l he fact that our records indicate, following careful investigation of each case, that more than 90 per cent of else personal injuries now incurring arc preventable. Please do not mis understand me. I am not attempting to justify in)- failure or site failure of other railroad safety officers to show greater progress. I most certainly do not believe it was necessary fnr fifty railroad employees to lose their lives, nor for 21,871 others to suffer injuries that resulted in incapacitation of more than 72 hours in one year of railroad operation, and that wns the experience of tl*c American rail roads in 19.16. him or his superior, or some particular em ployee group. 3. Becoming biased. A biased record of an accident or personal injury, or one which omits some essential detail for any reason makes that rerord value less insofar as accurately reporting the expe rience and, therefore, cannot be used as a basis for the prevention of similar accidents or injuries. Those who review accident investigation reports can be helpful in improving the quality of the investigation if they will call to the attention of the investigator the omission of essential facts--failure to develop all of the evidence concerning each circumstance that contributed to the accident, and where the investigator may have permitted himself to become biased. If we arc correct in the premise that 90 per cent of all injuries can be prevented, then is it not reasonable to speculate tliat perhaps 90 per cent of our railroad officers and em ployees are safety minded, and 10 per cent of them arc not ? I believe that we should seek to discover tliat 10 per cent and stop tlte gap altogether. Admitting that greater difficulties are con fronting us in our efforts to check the waste of man power resulting from accidents, it is up to us to put forth the additional effort necessary to improve this condition. We must he courageous in pursuing our tasks, making no attempt to conceal the facts but resolutely facing them, and putting in motion proper corrective measures. First of all. the safety officer should lie a influence in building and maintaining a proper in*irate among the personnel uf his In order to do this, perhaps we should place greater stress upon self-discipline, and at the same time administer punitive discipline judiciously. Discipline occurs in two principal forms. We discipline ourselves through practicing restraint, by ordering our existence and train ing ourselves to do or not to do certain things because we feel them to be good or not good for u. Then, in turn, we are disciplined because of the commission of some overt act or for our failure to perform some duty. organization. With a proper morale anything worthwhile can he accomplished, but without tliat >|>rit it will lie found extremely difficult to promote anything of benefit to the organ ization. It may In* snmeuhat difficult for an officer to maintain an o|ien mind while making ail arritkiit investigation, lie is but human and it is unite natural that lie iltoold have to luttk with liitmclf to avoid: ). Forming a conclusion in advance as to the cau-c -then attempting to shape the in quiry to develop tlte cause to fit his conclusion. 2. Omitting some essential fact in reaching the trmli of the came which if included in the record might east some reflection upon If we arc to be successful in making further reductions in personal casualties, suitable action should be taken in every ease of rule infraction or violation, regardless of the results of such infraction. In other words, we should be just as conscientious in investigating and taking proper corrective measures when tliosc incidents occur without serious results as we would if disaster attended the event. Discipline ailniiuiotcred for the results of a casualty and not for the cause has doubtful value as a corrective measure. When the casualty docs occur, usually the person responsible has suffered enough if tie will but admit his responsibility, although sometimes it really seems necessary to admin ister discipline to briug home to the offender Steam Railroad Meeting 599 the proper realization of his offense. How infrequently we hear a person who has been involved in an automobile accident admit any responsibility for the cause. Usually when two cars get together, each driver immediately attempts to absolve himself of blame and seeks to fix it upon the other. Minor role inffarthest that occur without serious results iinnit be passed by tightly for such a policy vtQ cedy tead to a contempt for the rules. Then, tuo, it important suitable record be had of ibre occurrences if we are to guide the ptfwa is b*e safety we are interested. Train-service are given surprise tests on operating rafcr* that their alertness may be determined. Similar tests might be made among all cla*e> *4 employees to deter mine their knuwh<hte ui the Safety Rules. Kvery member the xgamxabon should he just as alert to detect, correct or report impruper practice* a* hr wndd unsafe con ditions. This i df^lh<ctplmc. The super visor, particularly, has a responsibility in this, but his responsibility does not rest alone in the matter of detecting rule violations. He must set a good example for his men and show continued interest in their welfare by teaching them, admonishing them when neces sary, but never failing to praise them for worthwhile accomplishments. When it is found necessary to administer discipline fol lowing a casualty*, it should be administered fairly to all who may be involved, regardless of position, and not for the result but for the cause. A policy should be developed hy which it is understood that it is not so much a ques tion of severity but of the certainty that discipline will be administered. Those of us to whom is assigned specifically the responsibility for directing the safety work in our respective organizations must be in spired in our desire to do the job and do it well. We should have the ability to inspire others, and certainly we must have unlimited enthusiasm in our belief that we can reach our objective. ADJOURNMENT Textile Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--T. A. Wilson', North Carolina Industrial Commission, Raleigh, N. C. Vice-Chairman (In Charge of ProgramJ---E. A. Roberts, American Mutual Liability In surance Co., Atlanta, Ga. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Membership--Wallace Giu., Jr., Collins and Aikman Corp., Philadelphia, Pa. News Letter Editor--P. M. Camak, The South Carolina Industrial Commission, Columbia, S. C. 'Secretary--E. M. Salley, American Enka Corp., Enka, N. C. Engineering Committee Chairman--Harvey Saul, U. S. Finishing Co., Pawtucket, R. I. Statistics Committee ( ,,,trman--W. R. McCallum, South Carolina Industrial Commis sion, Columbia, S. C. Members at Large-- E. V. Alurechtson, E. I. du Pont dc Nemours &. Co., Richmond, Va. H. R. Cory, Beacon Manufacturing Co.. Swannanoa, N. C. Charles H. Eajies, Lowell Textile Institute, Lowell, Mass. Russell T. Fisher, National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, Boston. Mass. G. H. Gekoke, Sibley-Enterprise Manufacturing Co., Augusta, Ga. D. J. Glazkkkook, Kendall Co., Walpole, Mass. M. W. Hejss, Proximity Manufacturing Co., Greensboro, N. C. Waj.tkr Humphreys, National Association of Woolen Manufacturers, New York City. R. J. Jennings, Lanctt Cotton Mills, West Point, Ga. A. S. Johnson', American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. K. J. Df. LaMeter, Bigelow Sanford Carpet Co., Inc., Amsterdam. N. Y. Carl E. Lindemeyr, Forstmann Woolen Co., Passaic, N. J. A. F. McGarr, Simmons Co., Francisco, Calif. Forrest H. Shueord, North Carolina Department of Labor, Raleigh, N. C. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--T. A. W11.SON, North Carolina Industrial Commission, Raleigh. N. C. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Program--E. A. Roberts, American Mutual Liability In surance Co., Atlanta, Ga. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Membership--W. R. McCallum, South Carolina'Industrial Commission, Columbia, S. C. News Letter Editor--Frazer Patterson, W. C. Bradley Interests, Columbus, Ga. Statistics Committee Chairman--R. J. Jennings, Lanett Cotton Mills, West Point, Ga. Members at Large-- Charles H. Eamks, Lowell Textile Institute, Lowell, Mass. M. W. Heiss, Proximity Manufacturing Co.. Greensboro, N. C. Frank E. Morris, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. 601 602 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 11, 1937 The .session was railed to order liy Gen eral Cluttrman T. A. Wilson. NTorlh Carolina Industrial Commission. Raleigh. N. C.< who introduced the *|>cakcrs. A round table discussion on first aid training and foreman responsibilities took place at the Tuesday afternoon session of the section. Threads of Safety By O. S. HARVILLE Adama-Millis Corporation, High Point, N. C. Safely procrams must continuously reori ent themselves to (lie new and evcrchanging industrial environment. (n our many experiences since the incep tion ot otir safety program we find that our most profitable experience has been In training each employee, getting them to un derstand and recognize what we are trying to do. However there is still much to be done along this line. We have posted in each detriment our 10 safety rules or commandments as follows : 1. Be careful of yourself and your neigh bor. 2. Do not dean machines while they are in motion. 3. Do not throw U tiles nails, or trash on the floor. 1. Watch out f<r moving truck*. 5. I Sir all r4r. and m Hhko *f (heir faflinc ** there will he fv lkamt all *cralrhc and cuts with mcr- vitrorliroTTtc immediately. 7. Xo horse play. S. Operators of machine* should always give attention to work--not put hands on or near machines while attention is in other places. 9. Report So foreman any unsafe practices. 10. Report all accidents (targe or small) to foreman immediately. We also take advantage of posting alt safely Imllcttm. Out weekly and monthly in spections are made and records kept and filed. Our plan i. a* we go along, to use different employee* from lime to time on these inspections, hoping always to keep the thought of safety work in their minds. Posting in each department a placard stat ing just how long it lias been without an ac cident is a good plan. These have served to stimulate interest and friendly rivalry be tween departments. Recently we established our best safety record. An average of 450 employees worked a few days over one year without a disabling injury--approximately 670,000 man hours. What was directly responsible for this record? We explained to all our employees, just what we were trying to do. We tried to keep their interest and enthusiasm aroused at all times. After this record, of which we are very proud, we posted notices in every depart ment, telling our folks (hat we recognized their interest and efforts and that we ap- |*rccmtcltl*cn. We fitkl. however, that there is still much safety work to be done. In my opinion one *or two employees of each department, al ternating from time to time, should attend our safety meetings. I also think a five minute safety talk occasionally in each de partment would do a lot of good. Accident prevention is a most important part of the duties of management, and when accidents occur, management should accept the responsibility. Under one of the Russian czars there were numerous revolutions in the provinces. The customary way to quell a revolution was to send the imperial army out to shoot up a lot Textile Section 603 of the peasants. One of the czars issued a proclamation that when the next revolution occurred in a province he was going to shoot the governor. There wasn't a revolution for many years. This story illustrates my point--that management can have, in respect to safety, just the kind of a plant it w*aots. but that it must want this particular kind of plant and must do something about it. At all times wc must have a trained supervisory force. Wc must grow safely su pervisors by giving them responsibility and thus indicating our trust in them. Those industries which operate most effi ciently arc the one* which arc doing most along the lines of accident prevention. I think it is not going too far to say that a high accident record is evidence of inefficiency; and good management is now taking this point of view. When this attitude prevails, safety work in the plant is generally found as well organized as any other phase of the company's business. In the safety organization of any plant certain persons must !>c assigned certain duties and responsibilities. The organization must be headed by a safety supervisor or someone with a similar title. Selection oi such a man is just as important as the se lection o the proper individual for any other important post in the plant organiza tion. Too many times in the past when safety departments were organized, the men picked to head them have been chosen be cause they were of no use in any other de partment. Failure resulted just as it would result if the wrong man were selected for any other position. Everybody on the job must he made to realize that safety is possible only w*hcn every man makes an honest and sincere ef fort to be careful; to use safely appliances; to report or correct hazards where noticed: to get first aid immediately even for the slightest scratch in order to avoid infection. And we must ask ourselves every day--are we intelligent, efficient safety supervisors? We must make every worker so conscious of safety that he is always asking himself. "Am I a safe worker?'' Safety is a habit. Wc must get it. Threads of Safety! Woven into the pro gram of any safety organization in any plant must be cooperation between management, the supervisory forces and the workers on the job. Following the Plant Electrician By R. B. WICKHAM Superintendent, West Point Power Company, West Poijit, Ga. Many men, employed today as plant elec tricians. were originally part of the mechani cal department of plants having' steam engines or water wheel.* a* ilie prime source of power. Tlic*c units were connected with the different floors ami detriments with rope or licit drives and then long lengths of large line shafts extending the full lengths of the plant building. The changes that have taken place in the short time since that period have been re markable and it has been a real problem for the plant handy man to keep pace with them. The electrification of the textile plant be gan about the time of the World War. Progressive executives soon recognized the advantages of electric drive and with the rapid stride* made by the electrical industry in developing equipment suitable for textile plant application there were many improve ments in practically all plants until the de pression years. Then mill officials were faced with unu sual and discouraging conditions. Hours of work were being regulated, wages standard ized, competition developed to a high degree and cost of manufacture increased in many other ways. His problem was to increase production per worker and per square footof plant space. High speed machines were introduced with individual drive, and pres ent day conditions mean that these units operate continually and efficiently every hour the attendant is on the job. Electrical con trol of machines to stop them whenever trouble or defects occurred were developed and applied. Today we find nearly every machine in a 604 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress textile plant with sumc sort of electrical connection or attachment. Each unit must he thoroughly grounded to help protect the operator. Instead of the few large motors and con trols driving textile machinery we now have plant* with thousands of motors with all the necessary large feeder and branch feeder circuits. The lighting requirements have multiplied many times, and where in the weave room we were satisfied with 3 or 4 foot candies we now ex|K:cl 15 to 20. With the increase in hours of operation, in some eases three shifts Ix-mg used, seeing conditions at night must compare favorably with conditions during daylight hours. Eight that is neces sary to see for efficient production is also of prime importance to safety. Our organisation uses approximately 65 million k. \V. Hours annually as compared with .15 million in 1932. The demand has increased from 11,000 KVA to approximately 14,500 KVA. The changing conditions also apply to the maintenance man. One tyie of maintenance man considered that his job is to keep things running, lo make necessary repairs with the (ea>t interruption li production. He usually i> hard working, diligent and capable of gelling a machine Kick into production with a minimum ui hi*! lime. We call him the Temporary l'ennaiKiit Man. and he will tell you that lie intends u dear out the tempo rary repair work ami do a permanent job the coming week cud. Something nearly al ways causes the postponement and conse quently the temporary work becomes per manent construction. It remains a hazard both to the maintenance crew* and to other operatives. Hi* argument is--"I keep up the production.And sometimes the plant executive is not familiar enough with good electrical construction to realize the chances which are taken. The other type ot plant electrician over a icrtcd of a year has less loss of produc tion charged uguimt his department even though lie sometime* does have a unit idle for a few niiyntcs longer than when handled hy the other fellow, lie considers that lie is responsible for the protection of those who arc riot electrical men hut who may operate machines or pos*iMy otherwise become in volved in case of a ground or exposed cur rent-carrying part. He appreciates the imjiortaiicc of continu ous operation of the productive unit--as it reflects in the plants costs and in many in stances directly affects the pay of the opera tor. Also he knows his job is ever dunging --new equipment is being designed by the manufacturer, and he keeps himself posted on these developments and is continually ou the alert for apparatus which when properly applied, will improve the loss time problem. He thinks of the plant power factor and load factor. He knows that conductor losses or poor contacts cost his employer approxi mately $40 for each K. W. increase in de mand per year. He anticipates changes in machinery location and visualizes the neces sary changes in circuit sizes and location and thus, by thoughtful planning, eliminates the necessity of the temporary work resorted to by the other group. The plant electrician is resixmsible for the operation and maintenance of all electrical equipment necessary to run of the plant. He must be capable of handliug any of the usual problems arising from the construc tion of a power circuit, lighting circuit, wir ing of motors and controls and also the elec tric control equipment of the various pro ductive machines. He must see about cleaning the lint and dust accumulation from all motors, check ing hearings and oil. lie must know the pro(>er relay healer element necessary for motor protection under peak operating con ditions. He has blown fuse elements to re place with the proper amperage. He must .recognize the unusual conditions which sometimes cause fuse troubles, such as poor contact or corrosion. He has feeder circuits to maintain--they may be cleated to ceilings of rooms and be 14 or 16 feet from the floor, and over machines, or in basements, or un der floors; frequently they are near or over line shafting or water pipes, in damp places, boiler rooms, pumping stations, elevator sowers. The employer should recognize the im portance of the electrical system of his plant, how it ties into practically every operation and is a part of nearly every ma chine, and is within the reach of almost every employee. We use only approved electrical equip ment, and we take every precaution lo pro tect the workman from being exposed to any hazards that we can anticipate. How ever, engineering will not eliminate all acci dents ; there is still room for improvement. Textile Section 605 We have recently put into practice a training class preparing young fellows to become plant maintenance men. We have given considerable thought to the outline of a practical course of instruction which will improve both their knowledge and their workmanship. They are being taught the necessary fundamentals and such theory as will enable them to figure conductor sizes, circuit loading, insulation values and neces sity of proper spacing. We stress the im portance of grounding of all dead metal machinery or any apparatu `hat may be responsible for the shocking ot on employee. Many do nor know when apparatus is properly tied in with a dependable ground. We are also improving their knowledge of good construction methods, and we have as an instructor an exceptionally capable workman giving litem practical ideas in the use of conduits, wiring methods, cleaning contacts, use of solder, and in fact all angles of actual construction work by using the materials actually used on the job. We believe the proper training and selec tion of plant electricians will reduce acci dents not only by (he elimination of electri cal hazards and the reduction of service calls for equipment in trouble hut hy the personal influence of the electrician. He is one man in a textile plant who visits every department, and often he knows every other employee by name and is looked upon as a fellow workman with privileges of contact sometimes not enjoyed by overseers or safely men. He often can do much good in developing safety thinking among em ployees. It is our experience that a plant with a good safety record reflects the desire of the mass of the employees to do their work in a manner which will protect them selves and others who might be affected. Another feature we consider important is plant lighting. It pays dividends in accident prevention and employee good will. In planning new lighting layouts in our plant, much thought was given the problem of servicing--location in an accessible spot. Circuit layout and protective devices w'ere planned so that the service man would have little occasion to work on a ladder or itt difficult or uncomfortable places. Protective devices were located that they- could be serv iced from the floor. This practice also helped eliminate the temptation to tamier with the adjustment of the elements. Since poorly installed lighting fixtures may drop on the heads of those bencattli, we used adequate anchorage and supporting means. We are working out a scheme to eliminate the use of ladders or stages in changing lamp huths and cleaning reflectors. In power circuit layouts we follow the same practice, and we now know that much can be done for safety by the proper plan ning of the electrical systems in tiic location of any apparatus that may at some time have to be serviced. If the service man can get to the part involved easily and comfortably the employer will get a better job done, less time lost, and fewer chances for accident*. Charge the increased cost against these benefits. We have a specially trained engineer who is required to make regular inspections of electrical equipment. He is primarily in terested in the grounding of all machinery and the condition of insulation. Also he finds many troubles in the process of devcl opment, and thereby reduces the number of service calls by the maintenance man. The resulting saving in production pays his way. I would like lo comment on one of our chief trouble makers. With the increasing application of electrical apparatus mounted or supported on operating machines we be lieve the manufacturers of wiring devices should develop a more suitable protective conduit and fittings for the conductors than the present metallic conduit. We have loo much trouble preventing the cutting of in sulation by the raw edges of the metal after vibration has caused the conduit to work loose from the clamps. Sometimes the clamp does not securely fasten the conduit, because it is springy and will uot hold its shape. A good workman has a lot to do with the manner in which the installation is made, hut a better device would eliminate to a large extent this source of many grounds nnd open circuits. Also, an employer with a liberal fund for the purchase of useful testing equipment is making a good investment. Insist upon the use of proper tools. See that they are always in good condition. The demand of continuous operation gives little time for servicing of motor* or circuits. From the production standpoint as well a* that of safety--train your men to not do temporary work, but to anticipate troubles and make frequent checks. Develop the thought that it is easier and cheaper to pre vent than to repair or correct. 600 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Safety in the Needle Trade By LILLIE W. LINSTROTH Wetl-Kaher Manufacturing Company, St. Louis, Mo. When safety in the needle trade is men Regular inspection of table tops, plus the tioned, many individuals and some manage application of shellac when needed, assists ments immediately think of (lie hazards greatly in prolonging (he life of these tops. connected with the oi*eration of sewing Even with the smoothest tops we find it machines. This should not be the ease, (or necessary to use a spread of paper under if we stop to analyze the industry we find the lay in order to cut without jamming the it is made up of three parts namely: cut cloth. This, together with the spreading of ting, sewing, and finishing. the marker on top of the cloth constitutes Since cutting i the first operation in the trade, let us consider Mime of the specific hazard* found in this dniartmcnt. 1. The cutting marhmr, of which there ore two types, (a) the rotary knife and (b) the straight knife. 2. Table lops. another hazard, through paper cuts. Though not serious, paper cuts are painful, amd easily become infected. There should be a prompt reporting of injury for treatment and a daily check until well. A good anti septic should be applied and the cut band aged to keep out dirt, dye and lint, and a report made of the accident. .1. Taper cui>. I Handling Materials. In the sewing room there arc many haz ards from which-accidents arise. To sim >. Housekeeping. plify things, let us classify them in two II la- Iwen said that the rotary knife groups--the mechanical and the non-me 'liould not be much of a problem because chanical. the circular Made is protected by a cup'liaped guard, and if the o|*crator is in structed to work witli the guard down, most of die liazard is eliminated. This is true a* lung as (he knife is in the lay, but if it liecome* necessary to jhiH the machine l>ack In.-rau'-t' of jamming, or (> change the po sition of the knife, the guard remains in the --anic position, since it was adjusted fur the height of die lay. We have l*ccn working on a suggestion from one of our cutters, and that i>. to put a spring on the guard that will automatically adjust itself to the thickness of the lay. A- iar as tltc straight knife is concerned, if die guard is property used, then we feel dial the liazard is reduced as much as possi ble from a mechanical stand-point. The mechanical group brings us to the sewing machine. Some thirty years ago when I started to work in a factor)', the first thing the forclady told me was, "Don't put your hand on the wheel." At that time, this rule was in order because of a direct drive from the line shaft to the hand wheel ou the machine. Although this belt was pro tected by a belt box, I might have grabbed for that liaud wheel, as I did when T sewed on a machine at home. The result would have been a crushed hand. Today that hazard has been removed through the installation of safety tables, individual motors, etc. Yet safety education is as necessary to the operator today as it was thirty years ago. Today the greatest hazard is at the point of operation. This Worn and splintery table lops arc not point is, of course, where the needle passes only a hazard to the worker, hut are also through the cloth. The point of danger is costly from a production angle. In the the needle, but even this hazard can be handling of rayon and similar materials this eliminated through the use ot needle guards i> a lug item as far as cost is concerned, since spreading or dragging materials over a rough surface, causes pulls or runs. In on some types of machines. On others, Jiemiuers, folders and special attachments eliminate the probability of injury. replacing table tops we have used hard wood and Masonite. The latter is cheaper, has a very smooth surface and needs very What about the maintenance of machines? Is there a periodic check-up by your main tenance man? By that 1 mean does the little attention to keep it in condition, unless machinist cheek up on screws in fly wheels much punching or short knife work is done. to make sure that they are not worn or Textile Section 607 loose? You may say not much of a hazard there? Not so long ago i saw a fly wheel cm a machine come off while the machine was in motion. It flew across the table, how it missed hitting the operator on the other side of the table is Still a mystery' to me. Now all our machines arc gone over weekly for loose fly wheels and similar hazards. Low line shafting should be guarded by skirt boards. Another means of protecting the operator from coming in contact with the lower belt is an apron tacked on the front of the table lop directly in front of Uie transmitter. This also eliminates oil spots on the material while in process. It has been truly said that the best safety device is a careful person and while this may be true, there are times when condi tions, over which we have no control, allow carelessness to creep into our lives. It is at such times that uncared for hazards extract their heaviest toll. Of the non-mechanical hazards there has been considerable discussion as to the value .( education. To me, it seems that educa tional effort which will produce the best results lies in improving the mental condi tion of employees. Jf a man thinks right, is it not reasonable to believe that lie will do his work right? Aftet all, the right way lo do a job is the safe way, and it depends on trying to help our employees to help themselves. This will be accomplished through efforts which will improve the mental attitude of the men and women with whom we eonie in contact. If with con tinued work you are able to get the right thoughts into a person's mind, and you keep him continually impressed with those ideas, is there any reason why he should not practice safety in an automatic manner ? The non-mechanical causes in the sewing room are, rough table tops, caused by scis sors digging tnto the wood, oily floors, accumulation of clippings and waste in the aisles, especially around machines that trim. The most serious and costly accident wc ever had was one caused by an operator slipping on an oily floor, falling and break ing her hip. In changing machine heads, are they placed on the shelf where they be long, or are they left on the floor for some one to fall over? Throwing empty spools and cones on the floor is another non-mechanical hazard. In what condition is the floor? Is it of soft pine that becomes rough, worn and splintery from trucks having been pushed across it? If so, are the worn places replaced? We have found that it is cheaper and safer to repair and replace with hard wood flooring laid diagonally. Then wc come lo the finishing depart ment. which includes inspecting, trimming, pressing, folding, packing and shipping. With inspecting and trimming (here is no particular hazard but what can be cor rected by proper supervision. Scissors and sewing needles arc used but with ordinary care, lew, if any, accidents occur. Once in a while, a cut finger, but that usually hap pens when (lie person is not paying close attention to her work. About 50 per cent of our pressing is clone on machines. The other 50 per cent with electric hand irons. In using the ironing machine, it is essential that the operator be instructed in safety before operating the ma chine, and that the instruction and super vision be of a continuous nature. There is a double hazard here because if her hand is caught between the shoe and the roller, it will be crushed as well as burnt. Wc use a foot control machine which enables the operator to use both hands in handling the work, While the electric iron is a hazard, yet it is not nearly as great as the mangle or ironing machine, unless spray ing is done, then there is a hazard caused by the mist dampening the electric cord, which very often causes shock. iVnw you may say, who is responsible for safety education in the plant? The manage ment, of course. The superintendent, me chanic, foreman or forclady should have no dilliculty in recognizing a hazard. When it is recognized, no time should be lost in its elimination. In going through our various plants, it is not unusual to bear the remark, "Why, I've passed tliat day in and day out, and never thought much about it producing an accident.'1 It is just the old story of familiarity breeding contempt. The unno ticed small detail will sooner or later bring about an accident. To me, this impressing upon an employee's mind automatic safety is much like the child in school. Starting in the lowest grade, day after day as the child attends class, impressions and thoughts put in the mind have a deep and lasting effect. Without thinking the child in a short space of time is able to answer automatically such ques- 608 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress lions as "How much is two times two? or three times three? Etc." We are trying to develop lliis line of automatic thought in the minds of our workers. In putting new people to work, we try to impress them with the need for closely observing rules which have lo do with accident prevention, and we also im press them with the measures used when these rules arc disregarded. From the moment the applicant enters our employ, he or she is impressed continually with the importance of working safely-- thereby avoiding injury. Upon being intro duced to the forelady or foreman, it (hen becomes their job to educate the employee in safe practices, which, with proper devel opment will improve the mental condition of the person and produce, we hope, auto matic safety. Our company has long since realized that "The price of safety is eternal vigilance." TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 How Can the Foreman Most Effectively Meet His Responsibility? By B. A. ROBERTS District Engineering Manager, American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Atlanta, Oa. In order definitely to place the responsi bility of the foreman in accident prevention, it is necessary to understand his authority and jurisdiction in the organization of which lie is a part. I will cite what appear to Ik: the limits of jurisdiction in the average manufacturing plant. 1. The foreman either actually employs his own help or interviews the applicant who is only employed on the recommendation of the foreman to the superintendent or em ployment manager. This puts within his control the placing of the man iu the right {tosition and it gives him an op|X>rtuiiily to determine the fitness of the man for the job to he tilled. If heavy lifting is contem plated he can request a physical examina tion of the man. 2. He lias complete charge of the cleanli ness of his department unless the clean-up work i done after hours hy a separate gang iii which case there is seldom cause for criticism as 'far as departmental accident occurrence is concerned. 3. He may discharge employees for un desirability, incapability, or violation of in structions. 4. He supervises the instruction of all new employees in their duties, explains operating rules to them and cautions them against hazards pertaining to damage, cither to ma terial or to equipment. 5. He is expected to rej>ort all items re quiring repairs or adjustments such as 'machines and equipment, flooring, runways and stairs, broken or weak ladders and scaffolding, broken windows, elevator gates broken or out of order, and all other items under the jurisdiction of the master* me chanic. This latter, himself a foreman, car ries his own responsibility for accident prevention in the same fashion as the de partmental foreman. It will be understood that in a textile mill each overseer has, under his jurisdiction, loom fixers or the like for whom his responsibility is the same as for any other employee in his depart ment. Given, then, almost absolute operating jurisdiction indicated by the outline cited. Textile Section 609 the foreman's jurisdiction in accident pre vention is identical. Any curtailment of that operating jurisdiction implies a similar curtailment of his accident prevention re sponsibility. A man cannot be expected to accept responsibility where he is not allowed jurisdiction. It is now possible to discuss the way in which these responsibilities may be met. The good foreman is a leader, not a driver. He achieves success largely through the coop eration of his fellow workers. Cooperation is only accorded him when the employees recognize: 1. His interest in their welfare. ' 2. His desire for suggestions from them. 3. That he will not hesitate to discipline recalcitrant workmen who endanger their fellow-workers. 4. His own obedience to plant rules. 5. That the rules have been formulated to help, not hinder, production and earning power. 6. His unfailing impartiality in his rela tions with his fellow employees. This discussion assumes that accident prevention as a production problem. To produce good yam or doth, the overseer must know* what causes it to be faulty. He must know how to adjust a spinning frame or a loom and how to keep it m adjustment. Such duties are, of course, normally dele gated to the fixer but the overseer must know more than the fixer. Likewise, to prevent accidents he must know what causes them, he must be able to recognize accident-causing conditions prior to the occurrence of an accident. Most of this information he can gain from the ex perience of others as exemplified in the printed accident prevention material. Safety conferences such as the one in which we are participating are another source of knowledge. All of us who are privileged to assist in these meetings are hopeful that we are helping to make some of this ac cumulated experience available to others. But, unfortunately, the time has not come when most foremen can afford to overlook the accident history which is being made in their own plants. I would like to urge the discarding of the commonly accepted thought that an accident, lo receive study, must involve personal injury. The diction ary definition of an accident is "an event which is unexpected, or the cause of which is unexpected." The foreman should in quire into Ihe circumstances of each "un expected event" in his department regardless of whether oi not personal injury results therefrom. Having thus accumulated some mass of accident data, its best use comes through classifying the uccidcnts to bring out thr responsibility, which in turn, indicates the action necessary to eliminate the causes. The most common way of classifying accidents into the two groups of mechanical and non-mechanical does not go far when it comes to placing responsibility for the ac cident causes. Classifying accidents accord ing to whether they were caused by physi cal conditions or by unsafe practices pro duce two groups for which the responsibility for accidents rests largely with the foreman. However, in the first group management itself has not discharged its responsibility until the best and safest working conditions possible have been provided through the liberal use of physical safeguards. Given working conditions which have been made as safe as is humanly possible through suitable equipment, proper safeguards for the hazardous parts of such equipment, proper plant layout, adequate light, then the responsibility of the foreman in those acci dents due to unsafe practices cannot be overlooked or denied. This statement may bring a protest from foremen that they cannot stop accidents when the employee is hurt the first time a rule is violated. If actual investigation showed that employees were injured the first time they violated a rule, then it would be a reasonable protest, but innumerable investigations have shown that rarely does an accident occur the first time an employee violates a rule. It is indicated that the em ployee frequently has been doing repeatedly the unsafe thing that caused the accident and usually such employees will state that they have not been admonished for their violation even though the foreman had ob served their action. If the foreman slopped unsafe practices as soon as they commenced, * there would be immediately a lessening of accident occurrence in his department. Let us consider one example of respon sibility for an accident. Because of a cable failure an elevator fell, seriously injuring a workman who was riding the elevator with a truck load of material. In addition to the cable failure there was a failure of 6)0 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress the safety device to operate. The plant safety committee met to determine the re sponsibility for the accident. The depart mental foreman and the master mechanic each testified from his knowledge of the accident. Since it was the master mechanic's duty to inspect the elevator equipment and keep the machine in a safe operating condition, he was held to be at fault. He accepted the responsibility for the equipment failure but pointed out that in keeping will) the common knowledge that the elevator was old and not provided with the most effective safety devices, a plant rule had been issued prohibiting riding and a sign to that effect had been posted on the elevator. Conse quently, it was the responsibility of the foreman to see that his men obeyed plant rules. The safety committee agreed with the master mechanic holding that it was just as much the duty of the foreman to prevent injury to the men under him as it was the duty of the master mechanic to prevent damage to the equipment under his control. There arc those who will say that a fore man cannot stop tlte unsafe practices of employees; that it is impossible to control them. The following is cited as an example of one way in which a seemingly unprevcntablc practice was stopped, though in a rather drastic fashion. The problem was that of keeping empty soft drink bottles off the floor. After the overseers Itad expressed the thought that it was not possible to solve this problem, the superintendent jockeyed them into the proposition of promising to adopt any expedient which he might pro pose. which would be effective. Following this, as the superintendent made hit roaods of the mill, whenever he observed a soft drink bottle on the floor be picked it op, made a note of the time and the department In which if was found and handed the bottle to the overseer. Unless the overseer could find the employee who was responsible for leaving this bottle oa the floor, be was required to carry it constantly an his bands until the end of the shift. Being thus required to acknowledge pub licly the failure of his department to ob serve tlte rute with respect to placing these bottles in the containers provided, it was not long before every overseer had. in his own individual fashion, discovered a way of ascertaining the guilty employee and thus putting an end to this unsafe practice. Another example of what may be done to stop accident occurrence when the overseer really takes his job seriously is found in the record of a mill in eastern Alabama working approximately two and one half million man hours per year which, for the period January 1, 1934 to January 1, 1935 had 25 accidents with a frequency rate of 13.3. For the period January 1, 1935. to January 1, 1936, had 18 accidents with a frequency rate of 8.02, and for the period January L, 1936, to November. 1, 1936, had 11 accident with a frequency rate of 4. En couraged but not satisfied by this progress, the management designated the month of November as a "No-Accident" month. They were successful in achieving the record hoped for during the month of November, and extended their campaign through the month of December. At the time this paper is being written, the plant has operated ap proximately two and one quarter million man hours without a single lost time acci dent being reported. ADJOURNMENT Wood Products Section Officers 1936-37 Geueral Chairman--Harry J. Kelley, American Seating Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Vice-Chairman--William Haggerty. Edward Hines Lumber Co., Hines, Harney Co,, Ore. .Secretary--M. C. Gooospeed, General Electric Co., Erie, Pa. News Letter Editor--H. E. Seely, The Brunswick-Ralkc-Collender Co., Chicago, III. Engineering Committee Chairman--}. H. Lee, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Rockford, III. Membership Committee Chairman--S. T. Dibsdale, The J. G. Brill Co.. Philadelphia, Pa. Poster Committee Chairman--R. L. Woods, Fisher Lumber Corp., Memphis, Tenn. Program Committee Chairman--Nils Jueu., Hayes Body Corp., Grand Rapids, Mich. Publicity Committee Chairman--Roland Jones, The Surty Mfg. Co., Inc., Chicago, 111. Statistics Committee Chairman--F. A. Pollock, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co, Chi cago, 111. Members at Large-- R. C Bark, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co.. San Francisco, Calif. F. \V. Brauv. Employers Mutuals, Wausau, Wis. E. Ko*s Parka, Grand Rapids Safety Council, Grand Rapids, Mich, Locts \V. Kzuerc. Mengel Body Co., Louisville, Ky. J. A_ PeaDY, Michigan Mutual Liability Co, Detroit, Mich. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--H. E. Seeley, The Drunswick-Balke-Collender Co., Chicago, III. Vice-Chairman--J. H. Lee, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Rockford, 111. Secretary--M. C. Goodspeed, General Electric Co., Erie, Pa. News Letter Editor--S. T. Dirsdai.e, The J. G. Brill Co.. Philadelphia, Pa. Membership Committee Chairman--R. L. Woods, Fisher Lumber Corp., Memphis, Tenn. Publicity Committee Chairman--Roland Jones, The Surly Manufacturing Co.. Inc. Chi cago, III. Sfafirtiri Committee Chairman--F. A. Pollock, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co.. Chi cago, 111. Members at Large-- R. C. Barr, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., San Francisco, Calif. F. W. Braun, Employers Mutuals, Wausau, Wis. E. Ross Farra, Grand Rapids Safety Council, Grand Rapids, Mich. Louis W. Kfrrerg, Meugel Body Co., Louisville, Ky. J. A. Purdy, Michigan Mutual Liability Co., Detroit, Mich. Harry J. Kelley, American Seating Con Grand Rapids, Mich. MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 11, 1937 The session was called to order by Gen Seating Co.. Grand Rapids, Mkh., who lit eral Chairman Harry J. Kelley, American troduced the speakers. 611 612 Twenty-sixth Xuiiottal Safety Congress Combating the Dust Problem in the Wood Products Industry By J. G. SISSMAN Director of Research, Surty Manufacturing Company, Inc., Chicago, 111. The (jest piotection against fire in wood working plants is dust control cleanliness, w hich means keeping the air dust-free, pre venting the accumulation of litter on floor*, larndtcs, and ukjIs, and guarding against (he accumulation of dust on oily moving parts wlurc friction will readily raise the tern(eralurc to the burning point. An adequate *lo>t collecting system is the be>t protection against wood-shop fires. Remember, a dust collecting system itself must he designed with this fact in mind; tire a* well as air and dust can be carried through air ducts. The fire hazard* in wood plants are well known. A study of such hazards, made by the National Fire Protective Association which published a report in 1932, gives a lull analyds of some 1.700 fires in wood working plants and shows the proportion of danger in different part* of the plant and (lie ratio of fires of dust origin in compari son with otlicis. The explosion hazard also has been care fully surveyed. It is present when dust is -.uOicicnt for combustion to be instantaneous >ver a considerable area. Explosion hazards, like tire hazards are best controlled by ven tilation which precludes the accumulation of il.-mgcrous dust in plant atmosphere. 1'irc danger is present in wood working operations whether performed in open sheds or totally enclosed buildings. Explosion hazard is increased with enclosure of the procos in closed buildings. Bulletins 562 and 017 l\ S. Department of Labor, Bureau <( l.almr Statistic*, and several pamphlet* >f the National Safety Council contain com plete safety information fur prevention of dti't explosion*. They sum up the collected, clarified know ledge in this field and point >ii( the clo-e linkage Itetwccn fire hazard and explosion hazard and show that either may In.* the cause of or the consequence of the other. Tlu-sfe bulletin* in conjunction with the ruk-s or laws effective in your own state lor removal of dust and gases, will enable you tu work.out a canquiigti against the haz ard of dust explosion. The nuisance problem in woodsvorking plants also requires dust control. Nuisance problems fall into several groups. Dust may impair the value of the product by marring its finish. Furniture factories and cabinet makers suffer most from this nuisance. Dust may cause accidents by making the footing uncertain, by hiding obstructions on or de fects in floors or the exact location of knives and cutting edges. Dust of any kind in the eye* is a nuisance and a dangerous nuisance. Nuisance dust, like fire hazard dust and ex plosive dust is adequately and satisfactorily controlled by ventilation. Wood working dusts, with the possible exception of a relatively small amount of abrasive material which they contain, are bulky. There must be continuous removal of wastes of manufacture to leave room for men, machines and work in the plant. For many years this was the only aspect of the case considered. Broom and shovel methods, which once were standard in the wood work ing trade for removal of wastes, were suffi cient and would still be sufficient, but. the presence of oilier Iiazards of wood dusts complicate the problem. Broom and shovel methods are no longer acceptable. Moving air is the one effective means of disposal of wood wastes because it does so in a satis factory manner and because it fits into the scheme for guarding against other hazards. The material so collected is frequently usable either as fuel within the plant or is salvagable and saleable which helps reduce substantially the cost of safeguarding the plant. This i* the only phase of the dust control problem which shows a direct profit. The oilier* are an immediate charge on the industry which must be inct as part of gen eral orerhead. They show their profit inxlircctly in the prevention of injuries to men and the saving of the cost of injury to industry. The last ol the quintette, according to my classification, is wood dust as a health haz ard. This quint has several characteristics: effect of wood dust on the human system; effect of abrasive dusts on the human sys tem; effect of dust or materials other than wood or abrasive used in place of wood Or in combination with it on the human sys tem; effect of dust resulting from the finish ing operation on the human system. Wood Products Section 613 Wood dust is not dangerous in the sense of silica or lead dust; but wood dust is not innocuous. Any dust inhaled in sufficient quantities is detrimental to health and wood dust is not excepted. The industrial bulletin of the state of New York for July, 1936, contains an article by Adelaide Ross Smith in which the relation ship between wood dust and respiratory dis ease is set forth. Dr. Smith points out that wood working is a dusty -trade and while the dusts are not primarily siliceous, more respiratory disease is found in the wood working plants than in plants where dusts are not present. She suggests that perhaps more silica dust is present than is suspected. Studies to determine which of the dusts present in woodworking are dangerous have not been made, at least not with sufficient de tail over a lung enough period of time. But statistical evidence definitely places wood working in that class of industry in which there is sonic exposure to silicosis, as shown by the high mortality from pulmonary' tuber culosis. In the study made by Oliver, in which the death rate of the agriculturist from diseases of the respiratory system was taken as a standard or 100, the rate for potters was 150; stone quarrters 261; cotton workers 244; wood workers 238; masons 215; wood manu facturers 202; and bakers 177. If this figure is a true picture of deaths in the wood work ing trades due tu respiratory diseases, 238 as compared with 100 as the standard, it is obvious that wood (lusts are definitely detri mental to health. Reports from the Registrar General of England and Wales, show the same general situation. Under the English system wood workers are rated at 103 per cent, compared with agricultural workers who are rated at 59 per cent Woodworkers rate 339 com pared with the genera] population rate of 180, In the case of cabinet makers the rate is higher, perhaps because more dusts other than wood dusts are present in the atmos phere they breathe. One hundred and sev enty-eight trades arc listed in this report, rated from 1 to 178. Under the heading "respiratory tuberculosis*' cabinet makers rate 117, other wood workers 81. Under "bronchitis" cabinet makeis rank 121, other wood workers 64. Under "pneumonia" cab inet maker* 51, other wood workers 28, Ex cepting under the heading of "pneumonia," cabinet makers do not rank well. Other umnl workers seem to occupy a middle place. Dust in wood working uadi::, i> therefore a definite hazard to the health of worker* and of particular significance in the-impetus which it gives to diseases of the respirator)system. Of less actual significance, but of consider able interest because it is seldom considered as a hazard to wood workers, is contact w-ith woods or wood dusts which are poisonous. Bulletin 616 issued by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, also the Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1936 edition, contain two interesting reference* to poisonous wood*. The first of these, which appears on page 350, refers to an outbreak of dermatitis in a wood working plant employing 100 incnAs a result of contact with Jlrazilian wal nut wood dusts, II case*, a rate of about 10 per cent developed dermatitis of varying severity which, in some cases, incapacitated the man for several weeks. The inference was that a large measure of tolerance of toxins in that particular wood ran be devel oped. An extensive account appears on page 354 of the same bulletin. It i$'a reprint of a bulletin issued by the International Union of Wood Workers for ?>eptcmbcr-Octolcr. 1931. This bulletin states that there arc many woods, particularly those grown in the tropics, which contain active poison*. The actual number of cases reported is relatively small. This is due to the slow ac tion of the dust and the fact that many physicians arc not familiar with occupational exposure or the resulting disabilities, and so do nut associate the illness with patients' trades. The moat frequent symptom of wood jH>ison is dermatitis which may he slight or severe. Other effects may be palpitation of the heart, shortening of breath, or dizziness. Such symptoms also come from inhaled dust. Repeated contacts do not confer a tolerance of these poisons; tn fact they may make one super-sensitive, so that working on ordinar ily harmless woods causes a re-occurencc of incapacity. The toxic substance occurs as volatile oils or alkaloids. Quite a number of woods are enumerated. It is the good fortune ol the wood working trade to be able largely to stand aside from the most serious dust problem, the problem of Silica dust, since so far there is little to 614 / rocnty-si.vtli S utional Safety Couyrcss *how dial silica is a substantial danger in the wood working field. This is iruc despite the reference to the report of Or. Smith. While that danger is slight at present, it is a growing danger, due to the use of ex tremely high speed sanding devices for finish ing operations, using siliceous material as abrasives, and to the growing use of products of iron-wood origin in the woodworking shops. Manyof the panels now being worked in wood shops contain high proportions of asbestos and other siticious minerals. Where this is done, the worker may he exposed to concentrations of silica duM sufficient to prcscut a definite hazard. It is well to make occasional survey of your plant to determine exposure continuous or intermittent. While perhaps finishing operations arc nut |roicrly a part of the woodworking iliberation they do occur in so many plants that their existence should be pointed out Changes in the stains, paints or other finish ing coatings causing lead (>oisouing lessen that hazard compared to 20 or 25 years ago. The nitroccUulous' and pyroxylin finishes which are displacing paints, arc distinctly dangerous. Volatile materials comprise about three-fourth* oi the mass, which is (lien thinned by the addition of other vola tiles to several times the original volume. They arc dangerous. In addition to health hazard, these finishes add to the fire and explosion hazard of the wood working plant. Acetone and acetates, cthylenes and alcohols arc the principal toxics which enter the new finishes. Descriptions of these ingredient* will be found on page 337 of Bulletin 116 previously mentioned. It appears that, from the point of view of health hazard*, these conclusions can 1* drawn: (1) Wood dust is dangerous t< health and increases the incidence of respira tory disease. (2) Dermatitis is a result .>i contact with woods of tropical origin and their dusts, and will follow exposure. (3) Silicious materials are a factor in the high incidence of pulmonary diseases in the wood working plants. (4) New materials, particu larly those leaving appreciable silica content, present new dangers which must be carefully guarded against. (S) The new- surface fin ishes, to a large extent replacing UkIcad pigment paints, obviate one danger and introduce new dangers of their own. Dust then presents five different problems !u the wood working trade. A good ventilat ing system will solve all five problems, re ducing dangers in four instances, and in the fifth reducing direct costs. Good Housekeeping in Woodworking Plants By JAMES C. WILSON Vice President, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, Chicago, 111. Chicago, III. fiood housekeeping is and always has been one of the must important features of a successful manufacturing program. Funda mentally it is the outstanding feature it considered in its broadest terms. It includes not only a sensible, intelligent handling of sales, accounting methods, packaging and shipping, but. more specifically, production methods and the habits of the men encaged in production. It seems obvious to u* that when a new plant is being designed or when uii old one is being rebuilt, the plans should include and provide for good loi!>ekccping through the following details: A comjdctc and efficient dust collecting system if a basic necessity, and once installed *it must be serviced constantly to retain its efficiency. The removal of all waste mate rial from floors and around, machines is a full-time job requiring definite assignment to a clean-up crew. In laying out the machine setup, good housekeeping requires an intelligent plan un der which the machine* arc grouped so that the progress of stock being processed is such that there is a continuous flow towards completion, with no back-tracking. In many of the older plants, the output has changed and new machines have been Wood Products Section 615 added without re-arranging the old ones. This usually causes confusion and much costly rehandling of material--again poor housekeeping. Proper safeguarding of machines, bells, gears and transmission should also be en tered under good housekeeping. The newer machines arc, or should be, equipped by the manufacturer with cxltausl hoods and complete safety appliances. In many instances, these are combined and arc very satisfactory. However, the used ma chinery business is still flourishing and we constantly find old square head jointers, wide open rip and cut-off saws, planers and stickers being used. Plants using such equip ment are always cluttered up with slock-- generally are using broken trucks--have no exhaust system and certainly arc dirty and dangerous front every standard. The good housekeeper sliould consult hi> fire insurance carriers for suggestions on building fire walls--keeping sufficient clear space between building* and piled lumber, sheds, etc.,--installing and keeping efficient his fire doors, sand and water pails, fire hose and fire alarms. With a good plant fully protected--with an intelligent plan in setting machines--in stalling dust collectors--safeguarding all points of operation and following with a regular "Clean Up" and "Keep Clean" pro gram, we then come to (lie employee. Is each employee physically fitted for his job? In our opinion good housekeeping re quires an answer to that question for we know that many men with poor eyesight arc running saws. Many with hernias and bad varicose veins arc handling, piling and truck ing lumber. This we believe is poor house keeping. These conditions arc the indirect cause of many costly accidents in the wood working class. Why do we emphasize this housekeeping problem in relation to accidents and why is it so important, when after all accidents "just happen"? One difficulty often met with in discussing accidents with an employer seems to be his consideration only of the actual cost of com pensation and medical expense. To him the importance of loss frequency may mean little unless he understands the consequential or production loss which industry sustains and which is always several times the amount paid by ait insurance carrier. Let us take a sjMXtfic accident where n loaded truck dropped one wheel through a broken board and a piece of dressed stock 3x3 inches x 2 Feet dropped off the load on to the little toe of a workman tailing a resaw. Result: a broken toe; three trips to the doctor; an x-ray; three days lost time. The insurance loss was medical only, an ex pense of $12. Naturally the man yelled when his toe was broken and a fellow workman very thought fully threw the control switch and 4ft ma chines were stopped while the entire force rushed over to sec what happened. Ten minutes passed before the mill was operat ing again and at least 20 more before full production was under way. Witli 70 men at work, this cost around three full days' time for one man or about $15. Two men helped the injured fellow out to an antomubile-- drove him to the doctor--waded while an x-rav was made--cast applied, then drove him home. Four more man-hours at 7Sr l>cr hour or $J. Because he was not entitled to compensation under the law, his boss paid him the three days lost time, which was another $15. Work was delayed on the resaw while another man was beinn (rained so there was an undetermined loss in produc tion. Total cost to the employer: $33; total to the insurance carrier: $12; or $45 for a broken plank in a trucking aisle--later re paired in one hour. Poor housekeeping.. This is typical of the confusion and loss following an industrial accident. Let's take a look at some losses our com pany has handled during the last two years. These are uol hand picked. We used the first 1,000 claims for the woodworking class, then divided them under eight principal cause*- as follows: Handling Objects Machinery Particles in Eye Hand Tool* Falling Objects Falls of Person?. 327 283 128 87 61 49 Stepping on or Striking Objects Unknown 57 8 Because the machine accidents include the most serious and permanent losses, the 283 in that group, while but 28 per cent of the 1,000 considered here, account for 55 per cent of the total cost. There are four fatal cases from rip saw kick-backs; two cases where a hand was amputated, and 44 fingers were cut off. 616 Twenty-sixth Notional Safety Congresj Kor >cars the State of Wisconsin has re quired rip saws to he completely guarded and it is interesting to note that none of these serious saw accidents occurred up there. It is our opinion that saw accidents arc the direct result of poor housekeeping for in checking these 113 saw claims, we found guards had keen provided in about 75 per cent of the eases but were nol in use at the time. Whose fault? Management. Failure In enforce proper use of guards is not the laborer** fault: it rest* squarely on the management. The highest number of accidents under any of these eight causes was recorded un der handling objects--327. Of tltcsc, sliver* account for 148. This i* one claim in every 'even which we checked- Of course, a* a rule a pliutcr properly removed and eared for does not have a serious result, yet these average $51 each in cost. Some resulted in liad infections and amputations through faulty or careless handling--failure to se cure medical attention in time. Is this poor housekeeping? We think so. Leather gloves or leather hand pads, except for machine liands, are required of lumber handlers in most well-regulated mill*. Im mediate attention to splinter accidents i surely good housekeeping. As a short review we suggest putting the house in order--plenty of aisle space around properly set and exhausted guarded ma chine*. The selection and placement of em ployees--carefully trained--constantly and firmly supervised by a management inter ested in maintaining a safe, successful busi ness. These are the foundations of good housekeeping. Discussion TIk* point* were made in the di*cu*Mon following the addresses: How should dust caused by a high speed -aw l*e collected? Keep the exhaust hood dose to the whet! and rhe wheel as completely covered as pos'ititc; have a vibrator and second exhaust outlet, if necessary*, behind the wheel; have mc sort of brush to contact the saw ahead of the exhaust; place an air-jel so that il impinge* on the wheel, driving the dust from the wheel into the exhaust pipe. How important is exhaust system main tenance? The exhaust system is assumed to lie sat isfactory* when first installed. There must he periodic inspection* and suitable maintenance xi (hat the system is kept continually at ap proximately "installation efficiency." What is the danger of woodwork dust? Primarily, if aggravates Existing pulmo nary* trouhlc or other diseases. How may the projier setting of shaper knives be determined? They must lie set by an experienced per son, and the cut .should be not more than 3/16 of an inch deep. Is there any table showing the force re quired to cut wood? Il was agreed that this question would ?>e referred to the Forest Products Committee for investigation. Discussion also touched upon the follow ing points: Method of setting cutters and knives; use of X-ray to study tools to de termine whether they are crystallised; crys tallization of bolts, chains and other mate rials; a comparison of the "old hand" and the "new man" who takes a chance; follow up of minor injuries and first aid treatment; types of guard* used on cut-off saws; kickbacks. In connection with the last point it was brought out that kick-backs are generally attributable to one of three causes--im properly swedged or dull saw, poorly se lected nr prepared material, lack of "back turn on the fence." Wood Products Section WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 617 Preventing Accidents at the Point of Operation on Woodworking Machines--Fram Log to Finished Product By RAY L. WOODS Safety Director, Fisher Lumber Corp., Memphis, Tenn, On woodworking machinery (he great ma jority of accidents occur at the Point of operation. Logging, lumbering, and wood working are closely related activities. Re viewing figures for 1936, the woodworking in dustry* with a frequency of 13.39 and a sever ity of IM ranked sixteenth in frequency and fifteenth in severity in a list of 30 major industries- Lumbering companies ranked thirtieth and twenty-ninth, respectively, in the lame group, having a frequency rate of 57.29 aod a severity rate of 6.36. The logging division of the lumber industry turned in the poorest experience, the frequency being 115.93 and severity 17.05. The lumber industry in general has been rather backward in adopting adequate safety programs, which explains in part the poor safety record of the industry, as well as the slow improvement in comparison to industry as a whole. However, a great many com panies have taken steps to reduce accidents to a minimum. Over years of experience we have felt able,that most of our accidents arc entirety avoid and I believe that it is hardly fair to characterize woodworking as extremely dangerous when experience has shown that no harm results when proper safeguards have been taken, i.c., abdominal fly backs have been practically eliminated by the use of leather aprons; eye accidents by goggles; foot injuries by safety shoes; flying shaper knives by the use of blind bolt slots and properly tempered knife bolts. These are only a few* of the more important item* of safety equipment that pay good dividends. Forms, jigs, and point of operation gtufds should also be installed. The value of any point of operation guard is decided by how efficiently it forces the operator to put his hand in the right place at all times. Tire causes of accidents in the lumber industry are so diverse that detailed mention is impossible, but I will try to con solidate the important factor*, merely touch ing upon the ones peculiar to the various operations. The accidents incidental to fall ing trees, rolling and moving logs, handling chains, cables, flying fragments, power-driven saws, and so on, arc endless. The men in thi* industry are usual!) exposed to hard work and inclemency of weather. The possibility of getting contaminated food, and unsanitary conditions in the camp, predisposes to ty phoid, dysentery, malaria, and other di*ca*c>. Everyone realizes how impossible it is to place mechanical safeguards around the men who are felling a tree and cutting it into log lengths in the woods. The safety of the fel lers, swampers, and buckers rests squarely upon the shoulder* of the feller, and unless he is highly skilled and thoroughly schooled in safety, many serious accidents are inevi table. As to equipment and safe practices in the woods. I refer you to the Bureau of Standards* handbook No. 5, "American Logging and Sawmill Code." The loading of logs is also an operation that cannot be safeguarded mechanically. The loader trains his ground crew, commonly known as "hookers," a* well as the top load ing crew*. He has signals that arc understood by each member of the crew, and he desig nates one man in each crew to give all sig nals. The operator should never pul) a log blind; they should be in sight at all times. Again we find that the safety of the entire crew rests with the man. There are many types of sawmills, from the small portable to the large double bandmills. It is very difficult to guard the mas sive machinery of sawmill operation with mechanical safeguards. Few of these men ever get close enough to be injured by the saw itself. Most accidents occur in the trans mission mom, on conveyors, live rolls, or arc caused by falling and flying objects. It is 618 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress important tliat as many mechanical safe guards as possible be installed, hut the most important is close supervision and education. The proper selection of men is one of the most important steps in accident prevention. It is necessary that the foreman give his un qualified cooperation and support to the em ployment man. When a foreman finds that lie is in need of men, it is his duty to sub mit to the employment man a requisition for help, staling what qualifications in the man arc needed to fill the requirements of the jo|>. The foreman should make a complete analysis of all operations under his suitervision, and tie thoroughly acquainted with the requirements necessary to properly fill the jol>. The employment man should in turn make a careful analysis of every appli cant for work, to be reasonably certain lliat i lie man he selects will fill the requirements of the foreman's requisition as nearly as possible. Hefure leaving the employment office every man should receive instructions, together with a hook of rules of the organisation. The first impression the new man receives is usu ally the most lasting. If he is impressed upon the threshold of a new }<>h by (he fact that he is lo work with a safe-minded group of men, lie will, more than likely, determine to he as near like the man he is to work with as possible. Another necessary step in accident pre vention is the physical examination. No man should be put on the payroll without first submitting to a physical examination. The primary objective of the physical examina tion is to determine the employee's physical fitness for the job for which lie has been selected. Physical examinations should not be made merely with the idea of weeding out iliv until. Men <*f interior ptiysiqiiv may have special abilities which nukes them desirable employees in spite of their physical handi caps. The examination also acts as a guide to the foreman so that at a later date he will not put this man to work on n job for which he is physically unfit. When the man lias passed through the employment olficc and his physical examina tion. he is then ready to be turned over to his foreman. For any safety program to he successful, the foreman must be "safetyminded"; be able to absort?safety education ; be able to perceive unsafe practices instantly; and be able to preach safety to (he old men as well as sell safety to die new men. A large percentage of the accidents in the woodworking industry are caused by im proper placement by the foreman of the men available to him. The most vital duty of the foreman is that of instructing the employees. While this may be generally recognized it is undoubtedly true that foremen know less about this work than any of their other duties. This leads me to believe that very few foremen realize how important their teaching function is to safety. Even those who do appreciate the .significance of this wrork frequently arc noi inclined to give careful cuusidcraiiou to sug gestions of the methods that should be fol lowed. More accidents arc created in woodwork ing industries by the lack of proper instruc tions than by the lack of mechanical safe guards. Safely is so closely related to the other functions of the operation that it is impossible lo divorce one from the other. When a man is prujicrly instructed in the method of operation, it must necessarily include safety, for there is only one proper method of operation ami dial is operation w'ith safety. Many foremen, for example, make the mistake of telling and showing instead of teaching. The outstanding quali ties in a foreman teacher are patience, pains taking effort, fairness, and good will. Put the beginner at ease by sfiowing a spirit of friendly patience and willingness lo help him. The value of follow-up is the most sig nificant phase of accident prevention at the point of operation. No two men do any one thing exactly alike; every jerson who oper ates a machine Is sure lliat his wav is the best. When a man is placed on a machine he will invariably find many ways to do his work that seem easier than the way in which lie was instructed, but in practically no in stance arc they ever as safe. It is the fore man's duly to see that bis instructions are followed lo the letter ; the way he has the job planned may not be the easiest way, but it is the easiest way with safety. Assuming that we have the employees properly selected, placed, and instudcd. we then must take care of our physical proper ties. All points of operation should be guarded. The appearance of the guard or the way it is designed should always be pul into (he background, and the efficiency of It in the foreground. These guards not only prevent many accidents--to be specific the National Safety Council says 13 per cent of all acci Wood Products Section 610 dents may be prevented by physical safe guards--but they have an intangible value. Guards display the management's attitude toward accident prevention even Ihuuglt they play only a minor part in this respect. These guards have a psychological effect on the workers and supervisors, for when they real ize that the management is interested in safety promotion 100 per cent, it is an easy matter to get the men to think in the same channel. But when these guards arc not in stalled; when safety meetings are not held; when equipment is in ioor working condi tion, the attitude of the employees is one of disrespect, which increases tremendously the task of accident prevention. Education is the most valuable adjunct to accident prevention that T can think of. With out education accidents cannot be prevented. One would presume that man would just naturally be cautious about getting hurl on the job, knowing that his own hfc and limbs arc at stake. No one really wants to get hurt, but unless and until you have extensive safety training in your program no man will really become safety conscious. There are four fundamental steps in the safety (raining process: First, the supervisor himself must be ca pable. He must make a thorough study of each job and be able to discern all possible hazards connected with it so that be can determine the preventive measures to be taken. Second, the foreman must (lien develop in the workman an open mind, and a willing and receptive attitude if be is to successfully train the man in accident prevention. This second .tup can be accomplished only by im pressing ujKm the man the seriousness of the Accident problem. If lie knows |1<nt hin s*iIKrvis.u' takes safety seriously, he is more likely be impressed with the necessity of learning (he safety precautions of his job as thoroughly as lie learned the operation he performs. This cannot be done hurriedly. When a man rushes about in an excited fashion attempting to point out one hazard, then another, mid threatening the man with dire penalties should he be careless, he is doing more harm than good. Third, if a supervisor expects to put over safely training, he must make extensive use of practical and intelligent teaching methods. Many supervisors arc too eager to tell the man instead of personally demonstrating how to perform the operation. Here again I must mention the value of follow up. for this is where many supervisor fail. They take for granted that after initial instructions arc given, the workmen will follow them to the letter. We all realize that this is not true; that instructions are just as easily for gotten as what we had for dinner on Tuesday of Iasi week. The fourth and final step in the safety training process is that of enforcement. En forcement plays an important part and it can Ik the most harmful and abused step in the whole program. Supervisors should give ac cident prevention their close Mipervision. but it should be the kind that will make the men realize that safety instruction* arc trot being enforced through fear. Too many of us arc willing to use the "strong arm" or "hig stick" methods. Discipline, of course, has its plare, hut the type of discipline is im portant. The least amount of discipline that can be used is an advantage and not a disadvantage, for when a man begins to fear that he will l>c laid off or discharged for breaking some safety rule or certain instructions, you fail to net the response yon are icckinp. i. c- liii loyalty and voluntary support ui accident prevemiou. Safety C lops, an illustrated talk on safety kinks, was given b> Clarence F. Otto, direc tor of safety education. Employers Mutuals, M ilwaukee. Discussion revolved about the following points: More accidents ate caused by lack of in struction than by lack of mechanical safe guards. Five steps are necessary to instruc tion--training the supervisor; keeping super visors and workers open-minded toward safety instruction; using practical methods of instruction; enforcing safety rules rig idly; applying to the National Safety Coun cil for information when problems arise. 620 Txacnty-sixth National Safety Congress The session dosed with a panel discussion on wood products mill safety. Anionu the points mentioned were the following: The need ot educating the worker in simple terms; the necessity of personal con tact in safety education; giving reasons in stead of simply orders; the seriousness of minor injuries; safety meetings of super visors and employees. ADJOURNMENT INDEX A Absenteeism; Facia Revealed from Studying the Causes of Absenteeism (Curtis), 76-80. Accident Prone Employees: See Personal Factors. Accident Statistics: Analysis of Accidents, 22b. T!*e Function of the U. a, Bureau Of Labor Stallstie* in tlu Field of Accident Statistics, 463-465. Graphic Method of Portraying Accidents (Suitxcr). 264-266. How to Make Statistics Interesting and Useful (Kilmer). 396J98. Keeping a Record of Accident Costs (GoldMine). 2SS-290. Report nf Accident Exiirrience Exchange (Braun), 431-435. Whitt are the Best Ways to Keep and Use Accident Records? 176 180. Acids: Protective Equipment in the Handling of Acidit by the Consumer (Eberkardt), 207-209. Safe Handling of Portable Acid Containers Such as Carboys. Drums, lugs. Flasks (Stratton), 201-204. Safe Storage and Distribution of Acids Within Industrial Plants (Turgeoti), 204-206. See also Chemicals. Aeronautical Section: Minutes, 211-219. Officers, 211. Aeronautics: Cleveland Airjxjrt Radio Traffic Con trol (Berry), 218-219.' The Importance of Flight Dispatching in Air Tt anspoi union (Trite), 211.213. Hanning for. Safety (Galley), 2)3-217. Rating of Instructors (Cote), 217-218. After Work Accidents Session: 33-40., After Work Accidents: Sec also Public Safety. Agricultural Safety Session: 41-49. Ainsworth, C.: Interesting Phases of Construc tion Safety Cotie Work. 300-302. Air Condiimniiic: Safety Control in Air Condition ing (Htllcii). 573-576. Aldrich, II. J.: Safety Kinks in the Food Industry, 322. Allen. T.: Safety Program for the Reduction of Accidents in Coal .Mines in Colorado, 404-408. Ames, K. E.: The Value of Safety Posters in Accident Prevention. 357-J59. Ammonia: _ Protective Eqaitwient in the Handling of Acids by the Consumer (Eberhnrilt), 209. Anderson. A. I'..: Can the Safely Engineer Moke Effective .Motion lectures? What One Com(any llw Done, 497. Annual Meeting of Members: 11-30. A.S.5.E.-- Engineering Section: Minutes, 921-224. Officer*. 221-222. Auguoiu*. .: Mow Can the Industrial Nurse Help Maintain Employer Interest in the Safety Pro gram ? 328-312. Automotive and Machine Shan Section: Officers, 225-226. Automotive and Machine Shop--Vnwi*r Press Seelions: Minute*. 2?5-?47. Award.*: See Conic*!:*; Reward*. B Baker. K. J.: The Advancement of Safety in the American Steam*htp Industry, 343-345. Bakeries: See Food IniluMrv. Banash, J. I. and Rcinhard. II. F.: Welding ami Cutting Fire* are PrcveutaMc. 385-387. Banquet; 31-32. Barrett. G. I.: 1 ron Ore Mining, 4II-4I.J, Beil. P.: Why the' Worker is Not Responsible. 377 Berry, J.: Cleveland Airport Radio Traffic Con trol, 218-219. Bigler. H. C\: Developing Safe Wotker* Through the Employment Office and Job Training, 226- Blakeslee. H- X'.: A Statistical Review and Fore cast of the Petroleum Industry. 519-520. Blanpied, E. A.: Safe Practice* in Use of Heavy Construction Equipment. 295-297. Boggess, II. W.; Industry's Rc*jtonibiliiic& in Community Safety, 490-493. Boilers; What the Safely Man Should Know About Sh-am Boilers ami Steam Lines (Fish), 157- Bonus Plans: See Reward*. Bowen, Cpt- \V. O.; Training of Officers, 368- 370. Boxhoard Mills: See l'ajrer Industry. llraun. F. \\.: Keimrt of Accident Experience Ex change, 431-4.15. Bridges: Safe Practices in Use of Heavv Con struction Equipment (Blanpied), 295-297. Brook*. Dr. A. I..: What the lmlu*irial Nurse Should Know About Occupational 334 337. Brown,. P.: The X'urse's Part in the Sickness Pre vention Program. 337 340. Buckle. P. F.: Adequate Accident Investigation and the Need for Suitable Discipline Before the Accident Occur*. 507-t9, Bulletin Board*: The l'c of Bulletin Boards in the Safety Program. 19.1-199, Butigenstock. A. C>.: Getting Fact* and Keeping Records on After Work Accident*. 33.35 Burden, O. R.: The Handling of Ptmr a* it Ap plies to Oil and ftt* Pipe Line Work. 504-511. Bums: Industrial Bunt* and Their Treatment (Mudd), 81-63. c Calenders: See Paper Industry. Carbon Dioxide: Accidents Involving Carlton Dioxide and Their Prevention (iio*ni.iii), 564-566. Carboys: Sec Acids. Cement and Quarry Sections: Minutes. 249-270. Cement Industry: Analysis of Accident* in the Cement Industry (Curtis), 250 252. Facts Revealed from Studying the Caii<* nf Absenteeism (Curtis), 76-80. Cement Section: Officers. 249. Chemical Industry: Safety in Chemical Lahoratories (Ritter). 272-274. Safety in Chemical Pilot Plant* (Tilden). 275. Jlfthh, I.. V.; The Xurw't Part in Getting In jured Men Back on the Job, 323-326. Badger. O. B,: Habit Formation Through Super vision. 526-327. Safety in the Chemical (Xocrh). 280-284. Chemical Section: Contest, 275, Minutes, 271-284. Officer*. 271-272 Produftii Plant 621 622 Tieeiii y Sixth National Safety Congress lioini.^U IVoicclive K.|iti|>o>rnl in the* Handling i( Acids liv the Consumer (Klmkarill). 207- Sul, 11 nttdh in* rf I'urUll'K' Ac.I Container* S licit ha Carboy*, Drum*, Jug*. Flasks (Stratton). S.ifc .Sioragc and lisiriMion .if Addi Within ltulitstii.il Plant* (TutuvuHl, 2U4.J06. See also And*. fofah.tn. K. A.: How to Inspect a Factory Klvvator (or Saleh, Jx.l.|x7. Cole, K. J*.; Rating of l n.structor*. 217-JI*. Colors: l^nminK AUviiinw Which R|>eiiiiv Ojvrihoni are Performed. 246. Committee*: I low Can Unsafe CvtvUlioiil He L'n- ceurfl. 173-174. Standard Safely Committee Procedure. 348349. What Part, if Any. Ilocsi the Safety Committee Have in I lie TtiimiiiK I'rvBrRm, 196-19". Community Safety Organization Session: M-Sft. C.iimnuiiity Safely: See also Public Safety. t'onii<re>il Air: Whai the Safety .Man Should Know Aliotll ComprcMted Air System*, 161- C.iii'-truciion Industry: Interesting IIium* of Con struction Safety- Cu>le Work (Aiitsworili). 300 392. MnhixU C>eil to IWeni Safety Movement to Employee* (JcvuiO, 302-304. l*ra<i.cal Engineering a- Amdied to Safety in fin*irtKtiuii (CramlrU). 304.306. Safe IVailirv. in l*c of Heavy Cnn-truction Ki|ui|ifoeni (Hlan|>ie<l t, JOS.JQ7. Safvtv Training f.ir ihr ('n-tru<li<m Foreman (Curti-). *7-30U. Cim-irueiion Section: ilinuir.. 2M*.30r.. Ofti-rrs 'JI3-286. C.H.iol*: Chemical Section. - .v ConteM Uivs HrMilli. 317-Jlf*. Mamie Section. 370. Metal-. Section, 396. Methods Used bjr A Sami and (.ravel CaiMpatiy io Win the National Safety Award (Kooii), 261-20-*. I'aier aiul i`ul|i Section Safely Context, 471-473. Petroleum Section. MO. Place of Contests in the Safely Program. 1-'J-I53. I'nlili.- I'tilities Section. 549. KulAtr Section. 57*-57'h ('tuner. J. IX: S|vcific Accident* anil llainrds ami Then flliiniiiuiinn ii Anthracite Mininc, 40Q. 4] t. C.-i. and Money Sviir,; The Dollar* and Cents Side of Safety (Hall). *.*9-5'iO. I'raii'. ) M : What the Safety Man Should Know A limit l*roec*--ine Kettle-*. !>17J. Crandell. F. J.: I'raciic.ll Engineering a. Applied to Siiity in Cun-uruciinti, 304-.1116. Curti.. A. J. K.: Analysis of Accitleni.-* in the _ Ceinetii Imlu.irv, 250-252. Facts Revealed from Studying the Cause.* of Absenteeism, 76.40. Curtis. A|. f..: Safety Training for the Construc tion Foreman. 2,|7-J00. Dukls: Combating the l)ut Problem in the Wood Product* ImJuitry (Sissman), 612-614 The Doctor's Part in Controlling Dust Hazard* (Lacenby). 95 98. The engineer's Fart in Eliminating Dust Hazard(Johnxon), 92-9.'. Methods for Protection Against Nilirnxi*. Whttt They Are luttilteii (llamnxton). 290- 2v5. What Industrial Dusts arc Harmful? Why : (Sayera), 85-92.. Work of the National Silicosis Conference (Starr) 237-260. Dye, B. T.: Planning Your Safely Program, 394- E Eln-rhardt. >.. (i.: Protective Equipment in the Handling of Ac-liU by the Consumer, 2Q?-2Q`. Economies of Safety: See Com* ami Moury S.-v. injl*. KiltH'Mion nf Wnrlnuen: The Art,of lliving Com plete Instruction (Alortin), 521-326, K'luiloyee Traiiiiiig and It* Relation to Acchlrnt Prevention on Ameerriiccaan Railroad* (flair). 590-592. Five Step* NcCrMiy In Gislrnnion. *11. Jlaliit Formation Through Superviidvn (lladKcri. 526-327. Instructional Methods in Accident Prevention m l*utp and Patter Industry, 451.431. Is There any Relation Between Safety Training and Safety Rule*? 195-196. I* Training a Vital Factor In Effective Safety- Work (Pepper). 256-257. Safety Training for the Construction Foreman (Curtis). 297-300. Should Visual Aletliod* he Employed in the Training Program I 197-199. What are the Objectives of Safety Training. )93 194. What is Safety Education? 189-131. What Part, if Any, Uoe.% the Safety Committer Have in the Training Program, 196-197. What Training Methods are Most Effective? 196. What Tv|>e* of Training Arc the Most Beneficial to Industry* 194-195. Who Shall be Trained. 194. Electrical Industry: 1 fowr to'Make a Safety In spection of KlcCtrical Equimneiu (Ha*t-Lrl), 187.191. Safety in Connection With Vluud KuicrKeneie* a* it Relates to Electric Oticratioti (Snlsbttrvi, 542545. Kleetricity: I'oltowing the Plant Electricinti (Wufc. ham), 603-605. How to Make a Safety Inspection of Electrical See t : Electricity. Khcl(U]>1tini': See Plating. Headman. W. W. I .el's Co Into This Accident, 253-250. Dmnutiiis: See Health Hazard*. DiMak, S. S.: Point of Operation Guards for Metal Wiirkiiut Machinet*. 236-237. Dickinson. S. Ty-nical I*nb1ic I'liliiy Accident* anil the Lesson* (.earned Front Them. 554-55.'. Discipline: Disciiilinary Measure* for Violation of Safety Hubs. 470. Penalties for Violation of Rules (Simpson), 455. 414). Dowd. A. S.: Data on 1936-37 l*m-rr Industry Safely Conte*!. 4/3-473. Drivers ami Driving: See Traffic. Drum* for Acid*: See Acid*. "Dry Ice*': Accident* Im-nlvtni: Carbon Dioxide ami Their Prevention (Goosman), 561-566. Elevators: H-ow to Inspect a Factory Klevaiwr for ,--^Safiey (Colahan), DU-137. I Employees' Meeting: Compulsory Attendance at Safety Meeting.-*, 142-143. Executive Training Aleetings. 237-223. Employees Training: See Education of Workmen; Safety Training Session. !Engineering: Eiigitteeritig and Industrial Accident \ Prevention (Holbrook), 225-214. ' Practical Engineering a.-* A|*|4ied to Safely in < nnstruciion (Crandell), 304-306. Ktipitteerintr Revision: Designing for Safety (Nocklinff). 237-233. i>eveloping Safe \5 orlcers in Alctal Worknig InthiKtries Through the Reeniar Su|ervi.orv Force (Hunter). 233-234. Executives: See Management. Exhibits: Exhibitors at the 26tli National Safety Congress nnd Expo*(tion, 5S1-585. Ex|l0Mon*: Explosion Hazard* of Common I'laiuj mablc Liquids (Miller), 67-70. $u*.; 910JZ-I-S- r.,lr. Index <>2S FG Farm Safety: Farm Fina and Their Prevention (lame*). 46-47. A Program for Farm Safety (Seagraves), 1749. Uruenl Ncctl for Program on Agricultural Acci dent Prevention (Price). 4)4', What Are the Oulvtanding Caue* of Agricul tural Accidents? (Mohlrr). 42-43. See idtto Agricultural Safei)' Seridon. 1`atigue: Fatigue in It* Ktl/t - ' 1 - ** vention (Garner). 569,>73. Pie_ve...i.i.l.i..u..n.. ...u. f A..v..u...d.. e...n...t.y.. i.n.. Rf e|>eiitire Operation* (Thomas), 243-244. Fennell, D. L.: Address of Welcome for Kansas City Safely Council, II. I'crguson. U. If.: Visual Education Meilmd*. 232. Fcrnauder, A. C.; Handling Safety in a Largc Aicxican Mine, 426-433. Filmer, W. T.: How to Make Statistics Interesting and Useful, 396-398. Fire Prevention: Cause*. Prevention and Control of Petroleum Fire* (Howell), 314 51* Combating the Dust Problem in the Woo/I Products Industry (Sissmail), 612-614. Explosion Ifaiarrls of Common Flammable Liquids (Miller), 67 70. Farm Fires and Their Prevention (James), 46- Spontaneous Ignition and its Prevention (Nuck olls), 63-66. Static Electricity a* a Fire ilarard and Its Con trol (Turkington)^ S9-6i. Welding and Cutting Fires arc Preventable (Banash and Reiuhard), 385-387. Fire Prevention Session: 59-70. Fish. E. R.: What the Safety Man Should Know About Steam Boilers and Steam Lines. 157161. Flammable Liquids: Fx|du--ron Ilarard* of Com mon Flammable Liquids (Miller). 67-70. F)a*ks: See Adds. Flood Emergencies: Safety in Conucrtion With Flood Emergencies a* it Affect* TvUj>hone and Telegraph (Letlwilh), 547-548. Safety in Connection With Kinrigencir* as it Affects Water Utilities (WebbK). 5-4,5r-546' . Saiffeettyy in Connection With nFleowod! EEriaaciKcncics a* i_t .Kclairt to Electric (Iteration (Sal*hur> >. 542-545. Flo--Tur<r-is>:|M- Piureev11entingH SinliwII''ejsri)wrFMlooilrl*.M*'1a2c1`h. ine Kw 476-477. Flour Mills: See Food Industry. Food Industry: Accident Reduction Willi a Planned Maintenance 3rna>--Bakeries (Hil debrand). 3I0-313. EHniiuating Accidents Peculiar lo Women in the Food Industry (McKeon), 319 322. Safety and Samtation and Its Relation to Food Products (Kam|>e), 317-319. Safety Kink* in ihe Footl ln<lti*try (Aldrich), What Accident Preventiun Mean* to the Milling Industry (Warkeniin), 3I3-.116. Foot! Section: Minutes, 307-322. Officers, 207 209. Flour Forbes. I. T.: Sixcihe Accident* and Hujrih ami Tliefr Elimination in Mining From the View (mint of the United State* Bureau of Mitiev, 417-422. Foremen: Devdoinog Safety Workers in Metal Working Industries Through the Regular Su pervisory Force (Hunter), 232-234. How Can the Foreman Most Effectively Meet Ills Responsilx'lity? (Roberts), 608-610. Safety Training for the Construction Foreman (Curtis). 297-300. Fritz, L. C.: The Importance of Flight Dispatch ing in Air TratisiiorUtion, 211-213. Fume*: See Gases. Garner, Di J. H.; Fatigue in It* Relation lo Ac cident Prevention, .i69-57J. liases: Accidents involving Carlton Dioxide ami Their Prevention (Goonman), 564 566. Injurious Effects of Metal Fume* amt llow m Prevent Them (Jones), 99-104. Gasoline: Cause*. Prevention and Control of Petroleum Firc< (Howell). 514.517. Kc*um< of Safely in Natural Gasoline Plants (McCullough), 523-J3J. See ,ilo Flammable I nitiidv Gaxley, R. C.; Planning for Safely, JI3-2I7. (ibbs, C. 15.: Wlui the S.ifrty M.-in Should Know About Compressed Air System*. 161-166. (leasing, H. M.: Siiccific Accident* and Hazard* and Their Elimination in Lead Zinc Mining. 415-417. Goldsiine, E. X.: Keeping a Record of Accident Coi. 2HS-290 Coosman. Dr. J. C.: Acciilcnls Involving Carhon Dioxide and Their Prevention, 56 jC6. liore. (J. L.: Accitleni* in Delivering Refrigerated Product* and Their Prevention. *66-569. Grain Elevator*: See Food Industry. Griffin, Dr. J. M.: Coal Mine Injurtes from a Doctor's_ Viewyioint, 422-423. Guards: point of Ofteralion Guard*: for Metal Working Machines (Ihbsdalc), 2.16-237. What Constitute* a Good Safeguarding Program? 175-176. H Hair. I.: Employee Training and Its Relation to Accident Prevention on American Railroad* 590-592. Hall,_ F.: The Dollars and Cents Side nf Safety, Hiiudliinr Materials: The Handling of Pipe a* it Applies to Oil and Gas Pipe Lute Work (Bur den), 504 5)I. Recent Developments in the Safety of Interna! Transportation Equipment (McAuiey), 2.V6 Hanlc^r. ti, W,; Th Psychology of Safety, >tirf. llarlnn, B. J.: How I Made Safety Effective in My Dciiartmvnt. J88-389. IDttliigtou, I).: Mevbutl* for Protection Against Silicosis, and When Tliey Arr Jn*ifird. 290295. I farvi lie, O. S.: Thread* of Safety, 602-603. llvellon, W. D.: Xcw Safety Kinks in Mining, Hasskarl. I*. L. (1.: How to Make a Safety InMiection of Electrical EquipnK-nt, 187-191. Heuliia Haiaids: Combating tli Dust Problem In Ut^ Wood Products Industry (Sivunan). 612- *l'he Doctor's Part in Controlling Dust Hazards (L*nby). 95-98. Electroplating Fume* and Vapors and Their Elimination (Kastcllo), 104-108. Intlustrial Burns and Their Treatment (Mikhl), 61-83. industrial Dermatitis and li* Prevention (Schwartz). 71-76. Industrial Tuberculosis^A Public Health Fac tor (Spector), 326-329. Jiiiuiiou* Effects of Metal Fumes and How to Prevent Them (Jones), 99-104. Methods for Protection Arintt SJlicnii*. .mJ When They arc Juslifted (Harrington), 290 295. What Industrial Dusts arc Harmful? Why? (Sayers). 8S-92. What the industrial Nurse Should Know About Occupational Diseases (Brook*), Jjt 337. Work of the National Silicon* Conference (Starr). 257-260. A 624 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress The Worker's Health in the Petroleum Industry (Ke.v*ebaum). 493-497. Health Service Session: 71-85. Heilman, A- \V.; Safely Practice of tile Inlaitd l.im and Slone Comptny, 263-264. Henderson, K. T.: Unusual Refinery Accidents. 501 >04. Ilcmlimen, T. C.: Methods of Obtaining Employee interest and Cooperation in Safety. 4 J 5-442. llillcn, A. t..; Safety Control in Air Condition- iiK- 573-576. Holhrook, E. A.: Kugitirc-riitg ami Indinirial Ac cident Prevention, 323-224. Ilolilrn, Can*. E, C.: \V|i* !nurance Carrier Can Do io Prevent Accidents in Maritime Trade*. 346-349. Hoizbog, J, H.: The Industrial Nurse as an Aid to the Safety Department. JJ2-334. Houaekeetting: Good Housekeeping in Woodwork ing Plants (Wilson), 614-616. Howell, J. T.; Causes, Prevention and Control of Petroleum Firca, 514-319. Human Element: See Personal Factors. I (tinier, V. B.: Developing Safe Worker* in Metal Working Indutirico Ttirouah Ike Regnltr Su pervisory Force, 232 234. Hydrocyanic Ami: Protective Equipment in the Handling of Acids by the Consumer (Ellerhorde), 2Clt Hydrofluoric Acid: Protective Equipment in the Handling of .Acids by the Consumer (Elierhardl), 20d. 1 Industrial Dusts Session: 85-98. Industrial Fumes, Casts and Vapors Session: 99- IDA. Industrial Nursing Session: 323-340. Industrial Relations: Safety's Place in an Indus trial Relations Program (Shatluck). 448-451. industrial Safety Lectures (Lee), 109-139. Injured Workers: Discussions on Accident Report- log by Injured Employes, 469. The Nurac'* Part in Getting Injured Men Back on ibe Job (Babb). 323-326. Insertion: How Can Unsafe Conditions be Un covered. 173-175. In*|tiri> Session; See Safely inspectors Session. Investigation of Accidents: Adequate Accident In vestigation anil the Need far Suitable Disci pline Before the Accident Occurs (Buckle). 597-599. )kmon>inilcn of Accident Investigation, 45|. l.ct* Go Into This Accident (Headman). 253-256 j Jamr*^ W- f>.; Farm Fires anil Tbcir Prevention, Jamieson. F. R.: Activities o< Public Utilities in the Prevention of Accidents to the Public. >40- 552. Jessup, P.; Metboil* Used to Present Safety .Movement to Employee*, 302-304. Johnson, A. S.: The Engineer's Kart in Eliminat ing Dust Hazards, 02-95. Johnson, (i. R.: Investigation of Persons! Injuries Involving Seamen, 359 361. Johnston. C. E : Stream Lining for Safety, 594- Jone*. Hr. R. R. t-Injurious Effects of Metal Fume* anal I low io Prevent Them. 00-104. K Kamiw. R. K.: Safety and Sanitation and In* Re lation to Food Products. 317-319. Ka^-chaum, Hr. G. E.: The Worker's Healtli in the Prirolrum Industry, 493-497. Keller, C. C.: Why the Employer is Not Respon sible, 374*375. 1 Kellj^ R. W.: Safety as a Morale Builder. 3*3- Kneclk, W. C.: The OOici.iL' Pari In an Organised Community Program, 54-56. Hoffman, M. A.: What a Plant Can Do to Prc vent After Work Accidents, 35-38. Hoop, H. A.: Methods Used by a Sand ami Wave) Company lo Win the National Safety Award. 261. 262. L Laboratories: Safety In Chemical Laboratories (Rit ter), 272-274. J-azenby, Dr. A. D.: The Doctor's Part in Con trolling L>ut Hazards, 95-98. Leather Industries Section; See Meat Packing, Tanning and Leather Industries Section. Ledwith, T. D.: Safety in Connection With Flood Emergencies as it Affscts Telephone end Tele graph, 547-548. Lee, I. J.t Industrial Safety Lectures (How to Make the Safety Speech), 309-1)9. Lee, R. L-: Highway Safety in Industry, 38-40. Lighting: Influence of Lighting, 244, Lincoln, H. L.: The Human Element in Accident Prevention, 562-564. Liiutroth, L \V.: Safety in the Needle Trade, 606- Lowmis, K. C.: Safety Device for Horizontal Heater, 579-580. Lounsbury, W. C.: Typical Public Utility. Accidents and the Lessons Learned From Them, 5SJ554. Lumber Industry: See \Vood Products Industry. Lyons. J.: Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimination in Bituminous Coal Mining, 403-400. * M McArdle, J. M.: Who is Responsible for Industrial Accidents) 378-379. McAuley. B. F. s Recent Developments in the Safety of Internal Transportation Equipment. 239-242. -McCann, R. J.: Personal Protective Sautiwnent in Meat Packing Plants, 372-374. McClintock, M.: Safety Today and Tomorrow, 2226. McCullough, C. W.: Rcsumd of Safety in Natural Gasoline Plante, 528-533. McKeon, E )>.: Eliminating Accidents Peculiar to Women in the Food Industry, 319-322. McLean, F. R.: Lessons from Marketing Deport ment Accidents, 511-514. Maintaining Interest: Haw Can the Industrial Nurse Hein Maintain Employee Interest in the Safety Program? (Augustas), 328-332. -Methods at Obtaining Employee Interest and Cooperation in Safety (Henderson), 435-442. ' See also Contests. Maintaining Interest iu Safety Session: 141-156. Maintenance and Repair: Accident Reduction With a Planned Maintenance System--Bakeries (Hildebrand), 310-313. Maintenance and Repair and Us Relation to Safety in the Metals Industry (Smith), 398400. Prayer Safety Training in Maintenance Depart ments (Perctval), 309-310. Management: Management's Function in the Safety Program (Nicholson), 460-463. Management's Interest in Safety, 440-lSO. Safety, An Executive Operating Problem (White), 393-394. Wh^ Uie^ Employer is Not Responsible (Keller), Index 6>5 Marine Industry: Tbe Advancement of Safety in Hue American Steamship Industry (Maker),'34J. Butldjng Safely in Ships (Wrestling), 352-357. Creating a Sense of Responsibility in the In dividual Seaman (Pegu). 367. Eljniiulmg Dangers of Cargo Hazards (Wilvon), Government Aid in Preventing Injuries t Long shoremen and Harbor Workers (Swofford). 361-364. Investigation of Personal Injurio Involving Sea men (Johnson), 359-361. A Plan to Create Intsresr of Seamen in Pre vention of Accidents (Walt), 350-352. Safely Organization, 348 349. Training of Officers (Bowen), 363-370. The Value of Safety rotten in Accident Pre vention (Amuk 3>7 359. What Insurance Carriers Can J)o to Prevent Ac cidents in Maritime Trades (Holden), 346-349. What Is the Nut Step in Controlling Accidents to Longshoremen? (Slow), 345-346. Marine Section: Contest. 370. iuint Luncheon with Petiuieunt Section: 519-520 finutes, 341-370. Officers, 341-343. Martin, R. L..- The An of Givin: Complete In struction, 521-526. Meat Packing Industry: Personal Protective Equip ment in Meat Packing Plants (McCann), 372- Meat Packing, Tanning and Leather Industrie*. Section: Minutes, 371379. Officers. 37L372. Metal Industries: How I Made Safety Effective in My Department (Harlan), 388-389. Maintenance and Repair and Its Relation lo Safety in the Metals Industry (Smith), 398 '400. tats i________ ____ Minutes, 381-400. Officers, 381-383. Miller: C. R.: Explosion Hazards of Common Flam mable Liquids, 67-70. Minina Industry: Coal Mine Injuries feem a Doc tor's Viewpoint (Grin). 422 423. Handling Safety in a Large Mexican Mine (Fernandes), 426-428. Iron Ore Mining (Barrett), 411-412. New Safety Kinks in Mining (Haselton), 424- 425. The Relationship of Safety to Efficiency in Min ing (Richardson), 4Q2-4D4. Safety Program for the Reduction of Accident* in Coal Mines in Colorado (Allen), 404-406. Specific Accidents ami Hazards and Their Elimi nation in Anthracite Mining (Cooner), 409411. Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimi nation in Bituminous Coal Mining (Lyons), 408409. Specific Accidents and Hazards ami Their Elimi nation in Copper Mining (N<wlici>, 413-415. Specific Accidents and Hazards and Their Elimi nation in Lead Zinc Mining (Cicssing), 415417. Specific Accidents and Hazard* ami Their Elimi nation in Mining From the Viewpoint of the United Stales Bureau of Mines (Forbes), 417-422. Mining Section: Minutes, 401-428. Officers, 401-402. Minor Injuries: Minor Accident Reporting, 146- 147. Mohlcr, J. C : What are the Outstanding Causes of Agriculture! Accident*? 42-4$, Motion Pictures: See Visual Education. Mudd. Dr. R. D.: Industrial Burns amt Their Treatment, 81-83. N Honorary Members. 4. Xuminatini; Committee Report, JO. Officer*. 4. 31. Airi'OSus anil Policies. 9> 10. olntioiif. Commuter JO-22 nal Siliensii Conference: Woik of tl., Ma norial SiHcum* Conference (Starr), 2*7-260. .'lit Accidents: See Minor Injuries. N*=' . Employee*: Developing Safe \WWci* Ihro*n.-li the Employment Office an.I lob Training (Bigler), 226-22'/. Newlin, K. S.: Specific Accident* and Hazard* and Tlior Elimination in Co)per Minintt, 415-40. Nichol-mn, (. \V. E.: Management's Function in Mic Safely Program, 460-4A5. Aichoion, A. A.. Jn.luMry C.vu* a New Safety Ibe. 27-29, ' 3 Nuckolls. A. H.: Spontaneous Igmvioq and lt> Prevention. 64-66. \ure*: How Can the Industrial Nure Help Main tain Employee Interest in the Safety Program? (Augustus). 328-332. Tbe Industrial Nurse as an Aid to the Safety Department (Holzhor), 332-3)4. Tlie Nurse's Tart in (,etiiug Injured .Men Hack to the Job (Babb), 323 .126. The Nurse's Part in the Sickness Prevention IVugmin (Brown). 337-340 Wbat tlu Industrial Nurse Should Know Almm Occupational Diseases (Brooks). 334 337. Nurses Session: See Industrial Nursing Se->ion. Organisation: MciIumIs Used by a Sand am) riravel Company to Win the National Safely Award (Loop). 261-262. Planning Vour Safety Program (IKe), 394-395. Oxalic Acid: Protective Equipment in the Han dling of Acids by tlie CoiiMimi-r (Ehcrlmrdt), 209. - .inuies, 429-487. Officers, 429-430. Pa|>er Industry: Calender Stark Hazard*. 479-482. Demonstration of Anittcm I nvet<gatioit, 45i455. Discussion on the Making of Paper Boxes, 46.'468. Dryer Hazards, 478-479. Hazards Encountered in Changing Wires ott Paper Machines. 474-476. Hazards of Wet Felts, 476 478. Instructional Methods in Accident Prevention tit Pulp and Pajier Industry, 451-455. Major Hazards and Their Elimination in Box- hoard Mills (Patton), 442-448. Methods of Obtaining Employee intercut and Cooiteratum in Safety (Henderson). 4J5 14J. Paper Mil] Machine Room Hazard*. 473.487. Report of Accident Experience Exchange (Braun). 431-435. Trijipin^ Hazards in Paper Mill Machine Room*. Winder Hazards, 482-487. Patten, E. VV.: Major Hazard* and Their Elimina tion in Boxboard Mills, 442-448. l'KK, A. O.: Creating a 8cnn of Kce|*ouiUlity in the Individual Seaman. .167. Penalties: See Discipline. Pepjter. F. M.: Js Training a Vital Factor m Effective Safety Work? 256-25/. Percivat, A. J. Prtqiri Sufny Training in Main tenance Departments. 309-310. Personal Factors: The Human Element in Acci dent Prevention (Lincoln), 562-lfi-l. Mental Causes of Accidents (Mall), 560-562. 626 Tu-cnly-Si.i ih National Safety Congress Method* of Handling Employees Who Art* Con tinually Involved m Accidents, 468 -169. Prevention of Accident* in He|iiiiiv Oixrationn (Thomas). 242-247. The Psychology of Safely (Hanley), 266 270. Safety Training for the Conirtriion Foreman (Curlix), 297-300. Petroleum Industry: CatiMt, Prevention and Con trol of Petroleum Fires (Howell). 514-518. Efficiency and Safety in Oil Field Trantfmrtaiiod (Ta|UtK 498.500. Tltv Handling of Pije a* il A|Mt)irs iu Oil and (las |*ii*c Line Work (Burden). 504-511. Uiwnu From Markciinc Dcjaanmcnt Accidents (McLean), ill-514. Resume of Safety in Natural liaaoliiic Plants (McCullough). 529-53). A Staiiaiieal Review and Foreca*t of the Petrol eum Industry (BlaVralee), 519-520. Unusual Refinery Accidents (Henderson), 501- 504. The Worker's Health in the Petroleum Industry (Kassehaum). 493-497. I'eiroleum Section; Contest. 520- Minutes. 489-533. Officers, 489.490. Physical Examinations: The llartnimi of Men from the Standimint of Physical Fitness (Vonachen), 234.236. Picric Acid: Protective Equipment in the Handling uf Acids by the Consumer (Ebrrliardt), 20a. Plating: FJ(cir|iIating Fumes and Vair* and Their Elimination (Ratrl\o), 504-109. Il/Mm: The Value of Safety Fosters iu Accident Prevention (Ames), 357-359. See also Visual Education. Power Presa Section: Minutes. 225-247. Officers, >35-336. President's Address (Watson), 14-19. Prr*ure Vessels Session: 157-172. Price. I>. J.: Urgent Need for Program on Agri cultural feculent Prevention. 41-42. Processing Kettles: What the Safety Man Should Know About Fromani: Kettles (Craig), 160- Psychology: Sec Personal Factors. Public Safety: Activities of l*utlic Utilities in the Prevemton of Accidents to the Public (Jtttuicson). 349-5 52. Community Safety Organizations and the Puhhr . (Steel). 56o*. Getting Facts and Ke-|oy Record* on Afu Work Accidents (BuiiKenstock). JJ-Ji. Highway Safety in Industry (Lee). )8-4<|. Industry's Hes>cn.<i)slilici> m Contmunily Safety (IWurs*). 4"0-4`*.. The Officials' Part in an Organized Community Program (Knoclk). 54-56. XVh.it a Plant Can l)o to Prevent After Work sAccidents < Koffman). jt.W, Why Have a Community Safely Council? (Sirickcrl. 51-54. See also Traffic. Public Shaking: How to Make the Safitv S|*cccti. Lecture* O-ee). 109-139. Public Utilities: Activities of Public Utilities in the Prevention of Accidents t the Public (Janticsou). 549-552. Tijdcal Public Utility Accident.* (Taylor), 552- Tyideal Public Utility Accidents :(t*d ike Les sons Learned from Them (l>iCkinon), 554- Tvpical Public Utility Accident* and the Lesson* Learned frutn Them (I.ounshury ), 553-554. What Are We I loin# ? (Scott), 540-542. See alto Electrical Industry: TcU|4tottc and Tr)egra|ih; Water Utilities. Public Utilities Section: Contest. 549. .Minute*. 537-555. Officer*. 537-5)9. Q Quarry Section: Miimtr, 249-270. Officers, 557. Railroad*: Attenuate Accident Investigation and die Need for Suitable Discipline Before the Acei- . dent Occurs (Ruckle), 597-599. Kiiinloyce Training and It* Relation to Accident Prevention on American Railroad* (Hale). 590y92. The Past, Present and Future of Railroad Safety (Symu-s), 587-589. Stream Lining for Safety (JoJmuon), 594-397. Kali, A. A.: Menial Causes of Accidents. 569-562. Kastelln, l)r. P. B.: Electroplating Fume* and Vapors and Their Elimination, 104-108. He/rtgcratiun Industry: Accidents tu Delivering Re frigerated Product* and Thtur Prevention (Gore), 566-569. Accident* Involving Carbon Dioxide and Their Prevention (Goosman), 504 566. Refrigeration Section: Minutes. 559-576. Officers, 559-560. Kcigeluib, R, J.: Awards for No Lott Time Acci dent Record, 286-288. Refnhard, H- F, and BanAth, J. I : Welding ami Cutting Fires Are Preventable, 38S-3A7. Resolutions: Report of Committee, 20 22. Responsibility: Creating a Sense of Resbdnsibititv in the Individual Seaman (Pc**). 367. How Can the Foreman Most Effectively Meet His Responsibility? (Roberts), 608-610. Who is Responsible for Industrial Accidents? (McArdle), 378-379. Why the Employer is Not Responsible (Keller), 3/4-375. Wh^thc^ Supervisor is Not Responsible (Sloan), Whjr the Worker is Not Responsible (Beil), Rewards: Awards for No Lost Time Accident Record (Reigeluth). 286-288. Presentation of Motion Picture Traffic Safety Committee Trophy to Columbia Pictures, Inc., Safety Practices of tkc Inland Lime and Stone Coni|>any (Hettman), 263. Richardson, J. K.: The Relationship of Safety to Efficiency In Mining, 402-404. RtUer.^A. H.: S.ifety in Chemical Laboratories. 272- River Work: Safe Practices in Use of Heavy Con struction Equipment (Bigntued), 295-297. Roberts, E. A.: How Can the Foreman Most Ef fectively Meet His Responsibility? 606-610. Kockhoff, B. E.: Designing for Safety, 237-238. Rope: The Safe Use snd tkc Abuse of Wire Rope ,, .'Vire Ro'* Slings (Whyte), 389-394. Rubber Industry: Safety Device for Horizontal Heater (Loomis), 579-580. Rubber Section; Contest, 578-579. Minutes, 577-580. Officer*. $77-578. Hulc^Boolts: The Use of Printed Safety Rules, S Safe Use of Acids Session: 201-209. Safety Equipment Section: Minutes, 581-585. Safety Fundamentals Session: 173-181. Safety lat>eciors Session: 183-191. Safety Movement: Industry Casts a New Safetv Die (Nicboson), 27-29. * Safety As a Months Builder (Kedy), 383-385. What Are We Doing? (Scott). 540-542. Safety Training Session: 193-199. Salshury, R. J.: Safely In Connection With Flood Emergencies as it Relate* to Electric Opera tion, 542-545. Sand. Gravel and Stone industry: Safety Practices of the Inland Lime and Stone Company (Heil man), 262-264. Saws: How Should Dust Caused by a High Stwed Saw be Collected? 616. Index 627 See also Wood Product* Industry. Sayrg, K. R.: What Industrial fire llnini ful? Why? 85-92. Schwartz. L.: Indusirinl Dcrmatitt* and It* Prc- wmion, 7) 7h. .Scott. L. U.: XVhAt An- We Doing? 540 542 Scagruvc*, C. M.: A Program (or Farm Safely, 47 49. Shaper*: How May the Pro|cr Selling of Shafter Knives he Determined? Shattuck. S. F.: Safety's Place in An Industrial Relation* P.uynun, 448-451. Silicosis: See Dust*. Simpson, I,. R : Penalties for Violation of Rule*. 455-460. Sosinnn, 7. G., Combating the Dust Problem In the Wood Products Industry, 612-614. Steel, Judge L. .: Community Safety Organizotioni and the Public, 56-53 Sloan, C. W.: Why the Supervisor is Not Respon sive. 376-377. Sninll Plant*. Safety from the Stand;>oiiii of the . Small Plant, 143-145. Smith, lion B. B-: Adtlreu of Welcome in Be half of Kansas City, 12-13 Smith, C. Maintenance and Rctuir and its Re lation to Safetv in the Metals Industry. 398- 400. Spector, H. J.: Industrial Tuberculosis--A Public Health Factor, 326-328. Spilacr, E.: Graphic Method of Portr.i>ing Acci dents, 264 2t)fi._ Spontaneous Ignition: Spontaneous Ignition and IlB Prevention (Nuckolls), 6J-66. Stark. Hon. L. C-; Address of Welcome for the State of Missouri, 14-14. Starr, R. C.: Work of the National Silicosi* Con ference, 257-260. Static Electricity: Static Electricity a* a Fire Hazard and Its Control (Turkington), 39-63. Steam ILulruud Meeting: 587-599. Steel Industry: See Metal industries. Stivkinan Agfgrapli, 197, 261266. Stone: See Sand, Gravel nitd Stone Industry. -Stow. A. E.: What is the Next Step in Controlling Accidents to Longshoremen ? 345 346. Stratton, R. C.: Safe Handling of Portable Acid Containers such as Carboys, Drum*, Jug*. Masks, 201-204. Strieker, P. F.: Why Have a Community Safriy Council? 31-54. Stijtervisioti: See Foremen; Management. Svoflfsnl, J. W.: Government Aid in Preventing Injuries to Longshoremen and Harbor Workers, 361-364. Symes, J. M.: The Past, Present and Future of Railroad Safely, 5S7-589. T Tank Cara: Protective Equipment in the Handling of Acids by the Consumer (Eberhardt). .'07. Tannins Section: See Meat Packing and Leaakcr industries Section. Taylor, A. B.; Typical Public Utility Accident*. Teague, J. U.: Efficiency and Safety in Gil FkVI Trgn6(K>rlation, 498-500. Telephone and Telegraph. Safety in Coonecrion With Flood Emergencies as it Affect* Teleldiune and Telegraph (Ledtrilh). 547->48. Textile Induatry; Following the Plant DrcuiiUii (Wickham), 603-60$. Safely in the Needle Trnde (Liustroih), 606-WJV. Threads of Safety (Harvilk), 602-603. Textila Section: Minutes, 601-610. Officers. 601. Thomas, Dr. J. S-_: Prcrenlton of Accidents ut Repetitive Operation*, 242-247. Tildeti, P- V.: Safety in Chemical Pilot Plant*. ,, 273 279. Toni I)c*>K'i: See Engmecung Revision. Traffic: Highway Safety it) Industrv (Lee). 3.4-40. Safety Today and Tomorrow (MrUlimocV), 26. See .tiro Driver* ami Driving-; Public Safviv. T rojdiio*: See Reward*. Truek>--Hand- Recent Divtloi-qnni- in the S-/rt of Internal T(ani>ortai>on Kuuipmeni (Mi Aulcy). 239-242. Tnherculoai*: Industrial Tuberculo>i>--A 1`iiMk Health Factor (Sjwctor, 336-324. Turccon. L. P.: Safe Storage and IhMhkuiiwn of Acids Within industrial Plant*. 204-200. Turkington. E. E,; Static Eleerricit* a- a KinHazard and Its Control, 59-61. V Vapors: See Gases. Ventilation: See Also Air Conditioning; Du-4*. Visual Education: Can the SjfytviEngineer Make Effective Motion Picture* T' vi'hat One lum jtany Has Done (Anderson), 497. Should Visual Method* Vile- Kmplotrd in die Training Program? 197-19*>. Viuul Education Mcihixlt (Ferguson). 220-3.tj. V'onachen, Dr. H. A.: The Placement of Men from the Staail|>oini of PhvMcal Fitne>-. 2<t236. w Warkentin, C. B_: What Accident Prevcniiun Mean* to the Hour Imitwry- 313-316. Water Utihttes: Safety in Connection Wttb lluoil Emergencies as it Affects Water Utilities (Webb). 545-5S6. Watsoa, Dv. C H-: PreMdettl'* Addrc>N \4-19. Webb, If. F.: Safety in Connection With Flood Emergencies a* it Affect* Water ITilitie-. H5$46. Welding: Welding and Coning Fires are l*reventable (B*aa>k and lUiakzrJ). i?-JS7. Vcillins. L: Building Safety in Ship-, 352-357White. K. C.: Safety. An Eaecutiee Oierjtinii Proidem. 593-594. Whyte. R. B.: The Safe Fw an>l the Abu*** of Wire Hope and VVire Hoy* Shnv*. 3N9-394. Wickkatn. R. B.: Following the l*\aot Electrtuan. 603-605. Wilson. B.: Eliminating Dangers of Cargo llxrar-N. 364-367. Wil*oo. I. C-: Good Hota-ickeeping in Wvotlwurk- ing Plants. 614-616. IVolL A- O : A Nzn to Create Interest of Seamen in Prevention of Accident*. 350-342. Women in Industry: Eliminating Accident* Pecu liar lOi Wmks in the Food lodurftry (Uc- Kcoai.y 19-322. Wood Prodbcti Imlusiry: CombatiiUf the Dti*t Problem in the Wood Protlucis Industry (Siu. man) 613-614. liouaf Housekeeping in Woodworking Plants (WilMm). 614-616. Preventing Accidents at the Point of Operation on XFoodworking Machines--From Log to Finished Prodnet (Wood*). 617-c|9. See Alo Saws: Skaters Wood Product* Section: Minute.'. 611-620. Ofitris, 611. Wood*, k l_: Preventing Accidents ot tli Point of (Ipriation on Woodworking Machine'-- From Lug (o Finished Product, M7-6I9. z Zwrli, A S : Safetv in the Chemical Production Plant, 7*0-244. MEMORANDA 26th National Safety Congress NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL, Inc. KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI OCTOBER 11 to OCTOBER 15, 1937 Municipal Auditorium Contents Street and Highway Traffic Section............................................. 3 Commercial Vehicle Section................................................................... 137 Committee oo the Driver............................................................ 195 Transit Section .................................................................... 201 Child Education Section........................................................................... 215 Home Safety..................................................................................................233 Accident Prevention Equipment Manufacturers......................... 235 Index ................................................................................................................ 237 THE Transactions of the Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress. 1937, are published by the National Safety Council in two volumes. In addition to this volume a larger volume, containing the general, the special subject and the Industrial Section sessions, has been distributed to Indus trial members of the Council. The Urge volume is also available to other members if they are especially interested in industrial safety problems. THE Transactions are published as a condensed report of the proceedings at the National Congress, The papers of each session or division of the Congress have been edited carefully to eliminate extraneous matter and to abbreviate the less essential portions because of space limitations. Thus the material herein presented is not a verbatim report of all the speeches presented at the Congress, but rather an abridged version made as compact as possible, yet without injury lo the technical aspects of any address. The original manuscripts arc on tile in the Council's Bureau of Informa tion. where they are available for additional reference. Where illuitrtons were >ent by the speakers to the Council. these also are on hie. THE National Safety Council at its Congresses seeks lo eliminate from discussion matters which arc not pertinent to the aim of the Congress or which arc contrary to Council policies, it cannot accept responsibility for the views ex pressed either in the papers presented or in the discussions based upon the papers. Street and Highway Traffic Section Officers 1936-37 Ccneroi Chairman--Wsl C. Kxoclk. Milwaukee Safety Coeunbiion. Milwaukee. Wi*. First Vice-Chairman--Lt. Franklix M. Kman, Director. Safety Division, International Association of Chiefs of Police. Erarwoo. ttt Second Vice-Chairman--Arnold H. Vnr, Scale Traffic Engineer. Department of Motor Vehicles, Trenton. N. J. Third Vice-Chairmam--Bs.'wmtn W, M Director. Safety and Traffic Engineering Dept., American Automobile Wa^hmtturv. D. C. Fourth Vice-Chairman Cam. J. kvn**b, t'kvman, liiucns* Traffic Commission, Dallas, Texas. Fifth Vice-Chairman--Poor. Roraa L. Itantrox, Highway Engineering Sc Highway Trans port, University of Micfatipn. Am Ajfeoe. Mich. Chairtnan, Occident Records I'owaeirr- M (J*.vmau Cull. Director of Safety, Metro politan Life Insurance Company* 1 Ma&'oti A*e.. New York. X. Y. Chairman, Congress Program Committee--Cm. J*mx A. CvrcHixs, Director of Public Safety, Richmond. Va. Secretary--Earl J. Reedck. National Safety Council. Chicago. III. Members at Large-- John P. Arxoldv. Chief Highway Patrol Officer, Department of Highway*. 1246 University Ave* St, Paul Minn. .Ralph Eaton, Traffic Engineer. Public Service Engineer's Department, Providence R. I. R. N. Falge, Guide Lamp Corp.. Anderson. Ind E. B. Lefferts, Manager. Public Safety Department. Automobile Club of Southern California, Figueroa St. at Adams, Los Angeles, Calif. Harry E. Neal, Traffic Engineer, Department of Highways, Columbus. Ohio. Ex-Officio Members-- Hon. Clifford Davis, Commissioner of Fire and Police, Memphis, Tcnn. Hon. Harold G. Hoffman, Governor of New Jersey. Trenton. N. J. Officers Elected for 1937*38 Ceuerat Chairman--Prof. Roc.eR L. Morrison, Department of Highway Engineering ami Highway Transport, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. , First Vice-Chairman--Lt. Fra.xkux M. Kre-ml, Director, Safety Division, International Association of Chief* of Police, Evanston, III, Second Vice-Chairman--Coi.. John A. Cutchins, Director of Public Safely, Richmond. Va. Third Vice-Chairtnon--Burton \V. Marsh, Director, Safety and Traffic Engineering Dept., American Automobile Assn.. Washington, D. C. Fourth Vice-Chairman--Cam. J. Rutland, Chairman, Citizens' Traffic Commission, Dallas, Texas. 3 4 Tii.'t'iily-si.vth National Safely Council fifth Vice-Chairman--Cm.. Michael A. G>sxo, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Hart ford, Conn. Chairman, Accident Records Committee--W. Graham Coi.e, Director of Safety, Metro politan Life Insurance Company, New York, N. Y. Chairman. Congress Vrogram Committee--M. T. Caster, General Plant Superintendent, Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company, Lincoln, Nebr. .SVvrvlury--Lari. J. Ukkuer. Chief Traflic Engineer, National Safety Council. Chicago. 111. Me$nbers at Large-- Harry H. Harriro.v, Traflic Engineer. Division of Jlighu-ays, State Department of Public W orks, Springfield, III. \V. 1*. IRVt.V, Traffic Study Engineer, Toronto Transportation Commission, Toronto. Om., Canada. It. Grant Micki.k, Traffic Engineer, Jensen, llowcn i& Farrell, Ann Arbor, Mich. Harry E. Nr_vu Traffic Engineer. Department of Highways. Columbus, Ohio. Frank C. Herny. Manager, Snfety Division, Minneapolis Automobile Club, Minneap olis, Minn. F.x-Officio, Former General Chairmen-- Hun. Harold G. Huffman, Governor of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J. Wii.not C. Kxuei.k. Chairman. Milwaukee Safety Commission, Milwaukee. Wiv MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October U, 1937 VEHICLE SPEEDS AND ACCIDENTS The ojK'iunn >ein wa called to order by William C. Kimk-IW. Chairman. Miluaukee Safely Gmioii^ioit. and General Chair- man. Street and Highway Traffic Section, National Safety Council, who presided. inIrodueinR the speakers. Traffic Developments of the Year By WILLIAM C. KNOSLK Chairman, Street and Highway Traffic Section, National Safety Council Sate driving is no mean accomplishment. Good traffic behavior is not like a coat that can he donned or discarded at will. Good driving and good pedestrianism form a com plex behavior pattern. It is the sum of many I>crsonality traits, some of them seemingly trivial. This becomes evident as one peruses the year's safety literature on driving. We are told that four types of careless driving account for about three-fourths of our motor fatalities. If these items were meaningful enough to the average driver so that he might modify his driving conduct through them, they would be a big help in reducing fatalities. When we examine the types--(a) exceeding the speed limit, (b) on wrong side of road, (c) did not have the right of way, and (d) drove off the roadway ---no practical specific rule of driving ap pears. Street and llighzvay Traffic Section 5 Speed is a relative term; the precise speed at any moment must be determined by the driver after he considers the nature of the highway, the weather conditions, the degree of visibility, and many other factors. Even n legally established maximum is no infalli ble guide for all conditions. To the offend ing motorist, hi* speed may have seemed perfectly safe. So it is, too, with the other types previously mentioned. It is oil a matter of judgment. There is little agreement on the precise judgment that shall be taken as the standard. So many factors enter into the making of a decision that it is frequently impossible to put one's greatly influenced by the variable (actors in human nature, that traflic behavior--traflic judgment--must be developed in all of us. The enforcement officer must insist oil a minimum ability with icgard to the me chanical manipulating ol wheel, brake and lever, and on a working knowledge of the rules of the load; but probably his broadest task is to aid in the development of the individual's traffic judgment. Speed, visibil ity, curvcj, hilts, pulling-out and cutting-in are topics that show this essential inter-rela tion of safe and properly policed highways, and the drivers' use of the facilities at anygiven moment. finger on the olTcmling ingredient that caused the accident. Whatever detail it is that af fects our judgment, tfiat detail may be sig nificant in our good (or bad) driving. Two deductions may be drawn from such a line of reasoning. First, good driving is a highly personalized matter. General rules may serve hut their interpretation lies with the individual driver. Second, our safety message must be aimed at the individual driver or pedestrian. No mention has been made thus far of tlie third E in the triumvirate of traflic factors-- education. Obviously*, the development ot good traffic judgment is the job of education. However, this task cannot be allocated to any particular group. Good driving, as has been slated, is a highly complex achievement dial takes much time to develop. Enforcement has a large share in this education Newspapers, broadcasts, movies, civic organiza tions are all potential aids, together with the Need Traffic Judgment schools, in doing the work of building good traffic behavior. Not only is such a program Such an analysis carries with it the corol of driver training difficult; it is, numerically*, laries that personalizing the problem makes an extensive job. Jt it were true, as ts some it imperative that "traffic judgment" be developed, and that the idea of personal re sponsibility be taught. This is true for the man on foot fully as much as for the driver. The corollaries that go with (he second item are equally vital; the safety message must be revitalized, or made more vivid arid con vincing, to every individual in traffic. The presentation must be reasonably sound in its teaching procedure; the recipient of the message must fee) himself in need of (lie proffered information and be eager to use it. It must be understood that there is a dif ference between tbc larger topic traffic im provement and our tlieme, the traffic behavior of drivers and pedestrians. The latter needs improvement, too, but the task, though more limited, is a far more difficult times Stated, that a small percentage of all drivers are responsible for the majority of all traffic accidents, the task would be simp ler. As a matter of fact, a large part of traffic accidents occur to drivers that have had a good driving record for a number of years. Just how to lruild up adequate traflic judgment must be worked out more satis factorily than has been done to date. It is the definite responsibility of every driver and every pedestrian. With the wealth of pub licity given the subject, we may well ask ourselves, why doesn't every motorist drive safely? It may be that he docs not see him self in the picture as it is painted in "And Sudden Death." There may be other seasons for his seeming indiffcreitcc. one. Must Want to Learn The traflic engineer must continue to build safe highways and to make them increas ingly safer. He must provide definite lanes for the flow of traffic, regulated hv the nec essary signs and signals, illuminated to se cure needed visibility. But the proper use of the highways by motorists and pedestrians is If a man wishes to become skilled or in formed, he must have a desire to learn. This means most drivers must be inspired to want to assume the responsibilities of driv ing safely at all times, without the fear or threat of impending enforcement, through an understanding teaching process. 5 Twcuty^ixth National Safety Council Reporting conclusions from his examina tion of the records of over 10,000 drivers and from talking with these drivers, Dr. A. R. l-aucr of Iowa State college told a Washing ton meeting he was convinced half the popu lation would rather trust themselves at the wheel than to rirlc with the most experi enced chauffeur, that only 20 per cent of all drivers have a fair idea of their own weak nesses, He said also that fundamental traits necessary for safe driving are well developed at 22 years of age where they remain level until around 40. front which lime there is a gradual tapering off to ihc age of 55. This is followed by a &]arp drop in driving ability. He said there is a 10-year lag between manipulative ability and the development of mature judgment, good attitude, conscien tious effort, and u willingness to abide by the accepted practices of good driving. Work along the suggested lines is being done in some places. The Wichita Traffic Clinic, as reported in the August number of Public Safety, is typical. So important is the problem and so significant (lie trend that the program committee of the Street and Highway Traffic Section of the National Safety Council at its Kansas City sessions has arranged its meetings with specific ap peals to the driver definitely in mind. Instead of relying upon the three-fold division of Engineering. Enforcement, and Education, the speakers will discuss those phases of driver performance which have a greater personal appeal: speed, night driving haz ards. alcohol, and pedestrian problems. Evidence of many kinds could be added. From all of it certain very' definite conclu sions arc indicated. If one has the temerity to set down these conclusions, a list like this might result, 1. The trinity of Engineering, Enforce ment and Education needs to be restated to be convincing to the normal driver ami tl*c usual pedestrian. 2. Responsibility must be placed definitely on the individual motorist and pedes trian. 5. Education extends beyond the schools into an adult program. 4. Because of the contradictory opinion regarding the effect of speed upon ac cidents, there is immediate need for some conclusive factual evidence study. 5. There is needed a comprehensive study of night driving with particular refer ence to the effects of visibility or the lack of it on accidents. 6. More intensive study of the pedestrian and of effective types of pedestrian pro tection is indicated. 7. Since opinions vary as to the prevalence of drunken driving, a study of the ques tion would help to clarify the situation. ft. If the burden of evidence seems to show that the driver's attitude at any given moment is of more consequence than his skill in manipulating levers, what of the experiments being carried on at Lane Technical High School, Chicago, by William Sears, and elsewhere by Prof. Amos Ncyhart? Is a six weeks' course in an actual chassis, or even in a car in real traffic, to be substituted for the "tea years" mentioned by Dr. Laucr? Is the short course to compensate for Use longer period of training necessary' for personal self-control, especially when there seems to be an obvious interest loss in the more humdrum process of building accident-preventing attitudes and traits ? Additionally, will the bur den of cost for all of this be a legitimate charge against highway funds, even though the work be administered by the schools? Important questions, these! How they arc answered will directly influence the traffic accident prevention program of tomorrow. Report of Committee on Speed and Accidents Harry ll.*' Harri*o. Traffic Engineer. Illinois Division of Highways, and chair man of the Committee on Speed and Acci dents. briefly summarized the report of this committee. The report, with the exception oi tlie appendices. will be found at the end of the Street and Highway Traffic Section of this volume. The complete rejvort in pamphlet form may be obtained from the Council's Bureau of Information. Street and Highway Traffic Section 7 What Can We Do About Speed and Accidents? By E. RAYMOND CATO Chief, California Highway Patrol Xo council of men, entrusted with the responsibility of deciding whether their na tion might be plunged into war, ever met uith a more serious problem than we have tn the field of traffic safety. My responsi bilities in traffic safety work are exercised as the Chief of the California Highway Patrol. VVe liavc in our state approximately 6,500,000 persons and have registered 2.500,- Commissions, coordinating bodies that aid in planning and organizing local safety groups. These community groups comprised of various influential leaders in civic, educa tional, and commercial affairs, occupy a strategic position, as they arc most familiar with local problems. 000 motor cars with approximately 3.500,000 licensed operators. A careful analysis of our traffic accidents will show our problem ap Press and Radio proximately the same as that of many other states. We arc continually studying the prob lem and have many groups of civic-minded citizens who unselfishly give their intelli gence. time and money in seeking a solution to this problem in cooperation with those officers whose duty it is to enforce law and order and regulate highway traffic. Our press and radio have been cooperating fully in spreading the gospel of safe and sane driving. While the benefits of their generous efforts cannot be definitely meas ured, there can be no question that many lives have been spared and incalculable wealth preserved by those influenced through these media. Wr '`hall discuss briefly a few points that boald Ur considered in our difficulty in /rdrr that c all may be more familiar with Statistics tbi* problem. Since the creation of the system of pooling Education--Human Element state-wide information in all traffic accidents in 1920, we have steadily accumulated facts To make motor car drivers more cogni zant of their own human limitations is un questionably very important. Without keen eyesight and a mind that understands what of significant importance which must be fully understood before plans for a practical re duction of accidents can be intelligently laid out. U seen and a body capable of responding quickly, no person may claim to be even a fair driver. Hence, it is very essential that -tries drivers* lieerne examinations he made -o that we may eliminate the incompetent. The primary function of our Bureau of Statistics in the State Department of Motor Vehicles is to assemble facts and make de ductions. Wc try to present exaet measure ment* only on such matters that lend them Juveniles Splendid work is being done by our State selves to most general improvement. Wc are not concerned in presenting entertainment or sensational data. Department of Education, supported by the California Highway Patrol, in safety educa Engineering tion in our elementary and secondary *chools. A comprehensive manual lias been Much has been done and more is planned prepared as the minimum content for the re by our highway engineering organizations. quired instruction. We believe also that great good is being done through the work of junior patrols in the elementary schools. Tn the general plan, grade and curves arc Ixnng corrected, bottle-neck* eliminated, un derpasses built, highways widened, and prog Community Safety Programs ress continually made as funds arc available. We strongly urge multiple line, divided high To reach those more mature persons, we look for some hope from the State Safety ways with under or overhead passes. Many sucli roads are now in use and practically eliminate serious accidents, s TuvMty-sixth National Safety Council Enforcement Problems of enforcement are manifestly m*t complex, and tle modern traffic officer imi>i know more tlian speed laws. It is necessary that lie 1e honest, have good judgment. be conijKrtcut to handle a minor vehicle, that he have a thorough un derstanding of the motorist's problems, that he he a psychologist, (hat he know not atone motor vehicle law, hut the legal right of citizens, the law of arrests. The traffic offi cer must know how to apply first aid, he courteous but firm, be fearless and know how to handle his accoutrements with discretion, and in numerous other ways be able to ren der service. Speed L'nder existing conditions, we find that excessive or uncontrolled speed causes a large majority of deaths on the highways. While we cannot truthfully state that speed i* the mufC of the RrcAU"*! number of ac cidents uncontrolled speed dors enter into practically every serious accident. \ great and serious misconception still cxisl> respecting the influence which high >(>ced has in traffic crashr*- A review of the statistics relating to the field survey made hy the California Highway Patrol in the spring of 1936 tends to destroy some of the popular beliefs tliat most of the ]>eoplc arc speed crazy. This survey, conducted in 42 out of the 58 counties in the state, determined that only a small percentage habitually drives at high rates of speed. Eighty per cent of all vehicles checked were found to be traveling under 50 miles per hour, and approximately 94 per cent of all drivers were within the range limit of 55 miles j)lt hour, lu other words, only 6 jh.t cent if tlic motorists were driving in excess. of 55 miles per hour. However, this small minority is still the dominant influence in motor vehicle fatalities. This fact has been true consistently during the last 7 years. Of 16,456 drivers who were involved in tratiic accidents in the first six months of 1937, there were 12.5 per cent definitely charged with excessive speed for the condi tion* under which they were driving. In addition to this, 20 per cent of the drivers arc known to have violated the right-of-way at intersections chiefly hy driving too fast under the condition-* of time and place. Of the 6 per cent found to he operating on the wrong side of the road, or who were crowded off the road, the factor of exces sive speed again played an important part. This fact is also true of another 6 per cent of the drivers who aggravated the accident situation by improper passing. Of the 5 per cent who arc recorded as having been following another vehicle too closely, it is definitely known that they were driving too fast for conditions then existing. All of these segregations would account for approximately 50 per cent of the total number of accidents. There are other segre gations of the accident data which also in volve speed to a definite extent. California has what is known as the prima facie basic speed law', with a prima facie maximum limit of 45 miles per hour. Me chanical speed traps arc prohibited and en forcement officers are required to work in distinctive colored equipment and uniform at all times; otherwise their testimony is in competent in court when a violator of a speed law is being prosecuted. We have found it most difficult to enforce a speed regulation under these restrictive Jaws. However, effective on July 1, 1937, we issued an order requiring the officers to stop all motorists driving its excess of 50 miles per hour and if conditions at the time war ranted to issue a notice of arrest, other wise a warning. At the same time we instructed the officers to speed up the slowmoving vehicles or cause the driver of such vehicle to give way to the right, or if neces sary to get off the highway and allow faster moving traffic to pass. Tn connection with this part of the order, I would like to suggest tliat serious con sideration be given to a regulation which would insure traffic being able to operate at a reasonable speed on the main highways, regardless of grades. It a definite regulation could be worked out, establishing a performance factor for motor vehicles, it would be a step in the right direction toward.-* the reduction of accident*. A motor vehicle, whether it In? a com mercial truck with a trailer or a dilapidated, worn-out passenger vehicle, should be able to negotiate a certain given grade at a mini mum number of mile* per hour. l-'or instance, the regulation could be so tliat every vehicle on the highway would Stm t and Hujinvay Tra ffic Section V be required to be able to travel at 20 miles per hour up a grade to 4 per cent. If tin's could be established, it would reduce the hazard which now exists in many states which have hilly country. How often do we see a commercial vehicle having a designed capacity for five tons but trying to negotiate a grade with a load of six to ten tons and then have attached to it a frailer to which there is an equal amount of load. Again, how many times have we noticed a worn-out automobile trying to go up a sant of neglect, figures chiefly in our grow ing mortality totals. Out of 12,900 drivers involved in accidents during 1936, over three-quarters of them had eight years or more of driving experi ence and never a previous accident. Safety education docs not touch this individual, be cause he will pay little heed. Physical re straint exercised by law enforcement is the only thing that will awaken him to lus re sponsibilities. grade and holding back twenty to fifty cars, these cars being unable to pass on account of Drunken Drivers traffic conditions. This subject is one which requires the coordinated effort of the manufacturer, traffic engineers and enforcement officers. The problem of the intoxicated driver con tinues to grow unabated. Since 1929, the number of drivers who had been drinking and who were involved in accidents, has l>ceu Our order regarding uniform speed of ve multiplied inure than four times, and the hicles caused a great increase in the activity number of pedestrians who had been drink of the Patrol and when the statistics were ing has multiplied five times in California. compiled for the month of July, we found this to be the first month in two and otie- liitlf years where a reduction in the deaths by traffic accidents on our highways occurred, In comparison with July, 1936, July, 1937 showed a reduction of 31 deaths on the rural roads of the state. (July 1936--172 killed; July 1937--141 killed.) The enforcement of the vehicle Jaws re specting intoxicated driver* ami pedestrians i* one fraught with difficulty. It is seldom possible to detect intoxicated drivers before an accident happens to them. This is par ticularly true concerning the rural accident situation in which there ha* developed n continuously growing number of drunken This undoubtedly is proof that by efficient driving cases. We have found it advan law enforcement directed at the control of tageous to station officers at strategic points speed and eliminating the excessive and on the highway and stop each vehicle. In reckless speed, a reduction in accidents and tilts manner intoxicated drivers were appre deaths will follow. We realize this is un hended and where such a system is operated, popular with a few motorists, but isn't it a seldom does an accident occur. It is ob reasonable price to pay for the saving of 31 served that on the first night or two of an lives? officer's work, numerous arrests for intoxi Among other points which should be cor rected is the popular belief that the novice driver, or one learning to drive, or the ac cation are made aqd unless they change their location, in a few nights no arrests will re sult, neither will accidents occur. cident repeater is the great menace of the highway. Courts When these factors arc carefully meas ured, we find that the new driver seldom lias Our courts arc showing a splendid coop an accident and is one of the most cautious. erating spirit with the law enforcement Throughout seven years, the accident re peater has constituted less than 2 per cent of the total who have accidents. Very often agencies and during the last year we accom plished a 97 per cent conviction on arrests made for drunken driving. , the repeater who has had as many as five Through the combined action of the De accidents has been the victim of rather than partment of Mot<>' Vehicles and the courts, the cause of the entire series. The repeater 16,231 persons ha.i their license* suspended us a rule does not have serious trouble. for infractions of the drunken driving law. It is the thoroughly experienced, often well trained and able driver, who has been well qualified in a driver's test, blit who, in a moment of capricious experiment of an in- Conclusion We may conclude that the problem of highway safety is the responsibility of three in Twenty-sixth National Safely Council agencies of our social structure. In their respective order, we would name them as en gineering, education, and enforcement. Without the closest cooperation and the fullest coordination among these three agencies, little can be accomplished toward the objective for which we have met here today. Speed and Accidents By ARNOLD H. VEY Traffic Engineer, State of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J. To ia>( a '|nfil for condition*, or haste, as a factor in the highway accident problem, cannot lie solved or eliminated by the adop tion of arliitrary, unreasonable and possibly unpopular measures. We learned long ago that supposed cor rective*. Iwscd upon opinions rather than facts, have proven many limes to bo not the cure-all as was at first Itelievcd. Correctives so applied have many times directly or indi rectly caused accident* rather than prevented them. I.et us therefore not make the same error in dealing with lhe problem oi speed. Per mit us first lu study the problem careiully. obtain all the facts which may lie reasonably obtained, weigh these facts, ami then care fully ihu into operation a program about which there i* reasonable assurance tliat tlte results will lie favorable. It is true that at titne>. in the absence of complete factual data, ii is necessary lo establish s|jpj>>%efl correctives hut in tew instances is it mil possible by cooperative effort to obtain at least fuudainmtal facts which, when pro|>vf|y analysed, will serve to point the way to the eventual proper solu tion. So it i. with the problem of motor veliielv sjiceds. At the present time, sufficient fuel* arc not available to enable a positive and complete solution. For example, we do not know* the speed iti miles per hour of cars at the moment of impact in a sufficient number of accident cases lu say with any degree >i assurance that universal compul sory use of governors, adjusted for a maxi mum governed speed of say 50 miles per Umr, would 'Uvv an appreciable number of live* iii n year'*, time to make such a re quirement sound. We do know-, however, some of the fun damental fact* of the problem--fact* which at best nil) not give a complete answer but which will point the way to the possible ultimate solution. Many of these facts Have been fully re ported upon by the National Safely Coun cil's Committee on S|iecd and Accidents. However, because of their importance and in order to initiate clear thinking, it is imjK>rtant that a few major ones be mentioned iicrein. They arc: ). Thai speed too fast for conditions is not a sole cause of accidents but usually too much speed or haste combined with other factors. These other factors might include high way defect*, vehicle defects, driver defects, a* well a* faulty actions on the part of the highway user, driver and pedestrian. Alignment and topography of the highway and other physical conditions, as well as liavcmcnl mul weather conditions, are also factor*. Visibility i* an important factor, particu larly when driving at night. 2. That data so far developed indicates a , small minority (generally less than 25%) of the car* are driven factor than 50 miles |>cr hour even in rural areas. 3. That unreasonable or arbitrary speed laws and regulations, especially those hav ing low limits, are not obeyed, even by the majority, unless enforcement measures arc sufficiently great to cause observance. 4. That there i* no one remedy for the so-called speed accident. 5. That we arc dealing with a transporta tion medium which no longer is a luxury but a necessity and we cannot therefore seriously interfere with the present day flexibility of the automobile without greatly injuriug its serviceability. Street and Highway Traffic Section 11 What Can We Do About the Problem? It is possible, of course, to mention and discuss a number of activities which might be initiated and which may or may not cor rect accidents involving haste. However, to list and discuss only those activities which nil/ curtail or solve speed accidents and of course which are economically sound and within reach of our pockctbooks and, too, without seriously affecting the serviceability of the car. is at present a difficult if not impossible task because of the lack of suffi cient scientific data. From the data now available, however, it is possible to mention certain activities which, with a reasonable degree of assur ance. might result in a curtailment of acci dents. Such activities include: 1. Legislation. 2. Zoning. 3. Enforcement. 4. Education. A discussion of these activities will, I am sure, be of interest. Legislation speed zones have been established through uniform engineering methods and stated speed signs have been installed, designating the safe, critical speed for such areas. Universal maximum speed laws would not alone eliminate the contusion which now exists hut would also save many motorist* presentday difficulties, a* well as embarrass ment. Such uniform laws would likewise elimi nate the necessity of erecting speed signs generally throughout the highway system, as the speed requirement under comparable condition* would be the same, except at those places or zones where stated speed signs lowering the maximum limit have been erected because of the existence of unusual or extreme potential hazards. Zoning Speed zones arc generally considered; to be locations on highways where, because of special or unusual conditions, it is advisable or uccessary to amend either the prima facie limit or the absolute limit. There has been a tendency during the past lew year* to improve speed legislation materially throughout the country. Many of the horse and buggy day speed requirements have been abolished and in their place there Itave been recent trends in many states toward the uniform speed provisions now included m the Uniform Vehicle Code. However, there i* still toom for improve ment lo the end that the speed laws of the country will hr basically sound and uniform. Ahhodch the present prims facie limits inchaded in the Uniform Vehicle Code may lie considered more flexible than absolute <*r fixed limit*, it is believed, based upon experience-. that absolute or fixed limits arc le** difficult to enforce and, too. more readily understood by the average motorist. It is cvn-*vvmfh the opinion of the writer that more elective speed control cart be had through the adoption of nationwide, ab solute limits where the maximum speeds for urtan and rural districts arc sufficiently high to approximate the present day practices of tile majority ami where it is permissible through uniform methods of engineering and traffic investigation to not only determine but adopt pred requirements lower than the maximum limit. In other words, the top limit to apply in all cases, except where Their purpose-is two fold: First, to ad vise motorists of the safe maximum speed under favorable conditions for the particular district concerned. Second, to bring about a more general, voluntary observance of such speed, thereby decreasing to a minimum and enabling enforcement of laws on speed* too fast for condition*. Speed zones may be established at inter section approaches as well as at approaches to curves and hilf crests and other points oi hazard but, generally, a speed zone consist* of a section of highway through small com munity centers between rural areas. U is important when establishing speed zone* that a reasonable and proper critical speed be determined through proper engineering and traffic investigation. The establishment of arbitrary speed limits for speed zones, based upon mere opinion rather than sci entific investigation, often is in conflict with reasonable requirements as well as the judgment of the average safe driver. The consequent result, therefore, is a general disregard of such arbitrary limits, especially when they arc low. In Rhode Island, as a part of a com prehensive speed survey, studies were made of the speed of vehicles passing through areas controlled by advisory speed limit 12 Txeentvsixth National Safely Council signs placed along the roadside. T he results ui thi> survey were as follows: Speed Limit 20 miles per hour 25 " " " 35 40 45 Per Cent of Violations 86.1% 68796 52.496 38.696 12.896 10796 With reference to this study, the Rhode Island report Kiid "ft is very apparent from these figures dmt there is a wide difference in opinion |>ctween tile stale police, as evi denced by the limit set by the signs, and the judgment of the average driver of the road condition* ns indicated by his actual spcc<l, especially where the stale jxdico speed limits are low." Early returns nf more recent S|ccd ob servations made by the Illinois Division of Highway* in scattered municipalities in the Chicago metropolitan area indicate that ap proximately 6396 of the observed traffic is traveling at sjwcds that arc within the limit imlkatctl ini .signs in the respective stones. These studies also indicate that where the >pecd limits nrc low, there is a !(>>ieral dis regard on the part of motorist mlcss en forcement activities arc sufficient to cause observance. A preliminary breakdown of observed speeds in the respective, permissible speed range*, indicates the following standard of observance in the different rones: Speed Limit 25 miles j*er hour 35 " " " 45 w H M Per Cent of Violations 91% 51% 1596 When determining critical or maximum safe si*ecd values for speed rones, h is of course necessary to select a value corres|MM)ding to average daylight conditions. Motorist* arc then required, when neces sary. to reduce speeds further for adverse weather, visibility ami traffic conditions. Also, speed rone values for a section of roadway are generally set for l>ctween inU*r*ectio#i conditions ami motorist* arc therefore many times required to reduce speeds further at specific location* such as intersection approaches, curves, |>edcstriao crossings, etc. Critical speeds for speed zones may be determined by speed observations made over a reasonable period of time and where the speeds of a large number of vehicles are recorded. However, some departments rely almost entirely on the judgment of trained observers who ride over the locations con cerned. pacing cars or groups of cars at different speeds, and then come to a mutual agreement as to the maximum value that is safe for average daylight conditions. It is recommended, however, that wherever possible, actual speed studies through proper engineering and traffic investigation be made. The National Safety Council has prol>arcd, in memorandum form, bulletins de scribing the method* of calculating critical speeds at intersections having obstructions to view and it is therefore unnecessary at this time to further discus* these methods. There are, of course, a number of con ditions -which affect critical or safe speeds. These conditions include road conditions, vehicle conditions, skill and condition of the driver, traffic conditions, the average gen eral practices of drivers, as well as light and weather conn:ion$. Space will not per mit a discussion of these conditions. How ever, it is apparent that they are all impor tant factors when dealing with the problem of speed and speed limitations and there fore should be given careful study and con sideration. When there i* no concentration of acci dents along a section of roadway being con sidered for a speed zone, it is reasonable and proper to adopt a speed at which 90% of the vehicles travel, as the critical speed, assuming, of course, tliat the critical speed adopted is not in conflict with legal require ments. If there are unusual or hidden haz ards or other conditions which cannot he corrected, thereby making a lower speed necessary, the value of the critical speed may be considerably lower than the 90% speed. Often such location* will show up through an accident survey as high-accident points. Altltough the use of flexible progressive signal systems is not to be considered in the same category as speed zoning for critical speeds, such systems, when properly de signed to permit uniform movement at rea sonably safe speeds, represent an ideal method for speed control. Such signal sys tems have long been in use and there is a trend towards more extensive use along im portant roadways where there s sufficient Sited and Hitjhii'oy l rafjic Section traffic both on the major road as well as at minor cross street* to warrant the installa tion. enforcement still is directed at speeds that are five to 10 miles per hour above legis lative limits, with some derailments making An indication ot the effectiveness of a arrests only after such limits arc exceeded property designed and installed progressive by 20 miles. A further study of the data signal system may t>c had Irom a compari indicates (here is better enforcement in son made in New Jersey ot the speeds of jurisdictions where speed zones and limits vehicles in |er cent of running time, 30 have been adapted to the conditions, in miles per hour or more, when operating, uthcr words, at locations where speed limits first, under a direct simultaneous sysi u were determined by facts and not opinion. and; second, under a progressive system along the same section of roadway. Unfortunately, it is impossible to measure accurately, from an accident reduction stand The comparison i* shown in the following point, the value and effectiveness of en table: forcement campaigns directed against speeding as, invariably, such campaigns not PER CENT OF RUNNING TIME__ 30 MILES PER HOUR OR MORE only correct or curtail excessive speed prac tices but also eliminate or decrease other improper driving practices which cither Direct Flexible Miles Simultaneous Progressive Per Hour System System 30-33 33-36 36-39 .w-e M.4% 25.3% 9 7% .7% 92.8% 7.2% ;;;;; singly or in combination with "too fast a speed," cause accidents. We do know, however, that reasonable and continued enforcement activities pro duce favorable results ami it is the opinion of the writer that such enforcement intelli gently conducted, coupled with sound speed regulations, will prove most effective in tho proper control of speed. The above tabulation clearly illustrates the favorable results of a properly designed and operated progressive signal system in Education the control of speed. Educational campaigns directed towards Enforcement sound driving practices will likewise prove helpful. The education of young prospec Information obtained by the National Safe!)' Council's Committee on Speed and Accidents on enforcement practices in cities and state*, indicates that most prrsentday tive drivers attending our secondary schools, in the matter of proper highway use, includ ing safe operating speeds, is the most fruit ful educational effort for highway safety in the future which we can enter into today. TUESDAY MORNING SESSION October 12, 1937 THE DRINKING DRIVER The session was called to order by Wil liam C. Knoclk. General Chairman, Street and Highway Traffic Section, why presided. The address prepared by W. A. Gabrielson, Chief of Police, Honolulu, Hawaii, was read by C. F. Van Rlankcnstcyn, Michigan State Police, Lansing. Mich., m the absence of Chief Gabrielson. 14 Twenty-sixth National Safety Council Report of Committee on Tests for Intoxication Judge Harry H. Porter, Chief Justice of the Municipal Court of Evanston, 111., and Chairman of the Committee on Tests for Intoxication. Nummarizcd the report of (his committee. The report, with the exception of the appendices, will be found at the end of the Street and Highway Section of this volume. The complete report in pamphlet form may be obtained from the Council's Bureau of Information. The Influence of Drunk-Drivine; By W. A. GABRIELSON Chief of Police. Honolulu, T. H. Most traffic experts tell you that there arc three fundamental factors toward the mak ing of safer traffic They are the three 'i, engineering, education.and enforcement. 1 wish to yld another conception of engineer ing; that is, engineering of Ibe automobile. By that. I mean the ability of an individual lo operate properly. To drive an automobile properly, the operator must exercise undivided attention and judgment. Lack of good judgment causes most of our accidents, along with a little lack of courtesy. Accident Opportunities Increase Every* day and every month, we see more new automobiles upon our highway. Every day' and every month, there is a new group of drivers. Each year, automobiles are made to travel faster. Our highways arc improved so that grealer speed can be at tained with safety. Obstruction*, sharp curves and dangerous locations are being eliminated. We are nearing the. perfection of perfect automobiles and perfect roads, but we are now faced with a problem that i* most perplexing to the police department: The person who is a very poor driver, and . the person who drives white under the in fluence of liquor, who wilfully kills or maims, causing untold suffering. How are the police going to stop drunk driving? My answer is. better trained offi cers, better laws and more severe punish ment. .Vow, just wjut constitutes a drunken driver, or a person under the influence of liquor ? Quoting from the Medico-Legal Society, January 26, 1928, and the Police Journal, Volume IV, 1928: "Attempts have been made to define drunkenness, both from a scientific and statutory aspect. A committee to the British Medical Association, especially formed to consider the question of the defi nition, defined it as follows: 'That the word DRUNK should always be taken to mean that the person concerned was so much under the influence of alcohol as to have lost control of his faculties to such an extent as to render him unable to execute safely the occupation in which he was en gaged at the material time/ "Our Law, as welt as the English Com mon Law, considers and implies that being drunk is within the experience and compre hension of every man: that it is an ordinary object uncertain of existence, just like a wet day or a badly-cooked meal; and that, as such, it deems drunkenness not as being in capable of definition, but as not requiring definition." Declared a Crime Gordon Wilson, M.D., in the Police Jour nal, Vol. I, No. 4, October, 1928, says, . The taw considers that his condition of being drunk i one so likely to cause ami-social consequences in certain circum stances that it has enumerated these circum stances and enacted that to be drunk in these circumstances is a crime." The U. S. Army defines drunkenness as "any* form of intoxication which is sufficient sensibly to impair the rational and full Street and Highway Traffic Section IS exercise of mental and physical faculties." The "mental faculties" are "knowledge of time, place, dates, memory and intelligent response to questions." "Physical faculties" include "speech, muscular control, walk, bearing, balance, sight and perception." These are two very good definitions of "intoxication," but it is essential that evi dence be presented to the courts, and pre sented in an intelligent manner, so that the judge or jury will know the degree of intoxication of the driver. must then secure public liability insurance be fore he can again apply for license. The amount of public liability is set at $10,000, and property damages at $1,000. Few insur ance companies will underwrite (he public liability of a person who has been convicted of driving while drunk. Tills practically eliminates many of our drunken drivers for ever. Wc have the necessary machinery' to see that this law is rigidly enforced. Eightyfive per cent of those charged for driving drunk were convicted during 193d. Public Sentiment Needed Why do drivers of automobiles get drunk? It is all voluntary on their part. Many* of One solution to the drunk-driving prob lem is building up public opinion against the ruthless killer by using the newspapers, service clubs, parent-teacher associations and schools. Public opinion can be moulded on to the side of law enforcement officers if properly presented. them do not wish to, but being weak, indulge in too many drinks. When they start to drive home, the air alfects them, and many times they are almost completely "out." There arc a great many cocktail parties nowadays, in which the guests leave quite under the influ ence of liquor. A great deal of stress should he laid on the mechanics of the automobile. If the brakes are inefficient, that machine is a po tential instrument of death far greater than a racketeer with a "tommy gun." It is not the question of how many drinks a driver can endure before he becomes in capable of operating his car. A small quan tity of liquor can have a definite, traceable effect upon his mental and physical reactions. Drink gives many persons a false confidence If the driver is careless or under the in which, if manifested at the uttering wheel, fluence of liquor, the danger increases. lures them into taking spectacular chances When the machine is not in good working which would appall them when sober. order, and the driver is under the influence of liquor, what chance has a person driving Marginal. Cates along the highway of avoiding being struck by such a weapon ? One of the police problems is the "border Why do we test drunken drivers ? Drunken drivers arc tested so that these examinations can corroborate the arresting officer's testimony and to test the degree of his intoxica tion. line i.a&e" which is just as dangerous as a man who is 10% more under the influence of liquor. The borderline case is the one who takes chances, who speeds as a rule, and who will drive fast and cut in and out. All the policemen in the world cannot stop drunken driving. That result has to come from that individual and from his feat- of the consequences. Insurance companies arc doing very good preventive work in their educational program and by not insuring per sons convicted of driving while drunk. It has been our practice to charge such persons with heedless and reckless driving. Some judges have held that in a borderline case, if that person is charged with heedless and reckless driving, the fact that he has been drinking is sufficient evidence to con vict him. * Honolulu is most fortunate in having a law which makes it compulsory for the judge to revoke the driving license of one con victed of driving while drunk. When that license is revoked, the offender cannot apply for a new one until a year from the revoca tion date. In addition, Hawaiian law requires that be The drunk driver does not come from any special class, but from the best citizens down to the lowest classes. If public opinion is so moulded and an educational program is so perfected that it will show all drivers what dangers and sufferings they may cause, it will be one way of stopping some of the careless who have a disregard for other people's rights. Twnlv-sixth Notional Safety Council H Handling the Case of the Driver Who Has Been Drinking By HON. KING S. WILLIAMSON Judge of Corporation Court, Dallas, Tex, the safety of the public. The problem is, Tlic automobile driven by the ignorant, and will continue to become, more serious iurom|x.icnt, negligent and drunken drivers because of the legalization of the sale of constitutes America's public enemy number hard liquor and likewise more complicated. <inc. Thi* menace is controllable through The number of drunken drivers has been (he sound engineering, intelligence, strict im- more than doubled. There has not yet been liartiality by just enforcement and continual time for the appeal for today's youth to well-planned educational campaigns for the develop into the pre-prohibition drunkard. public. It is my opinion that the greatest of All men cannot be strong; some can and thrc. however, i< enforcement; because as the enforcement index goes up, accidents, do overcome the temptation of drink; others cannot. Intoxication deprives a man of his injuries and deaths go down. sense of reason. In this weakened moment TU*- tytnr <* eniurectnent needed can only the drunken driver violates the law. Under in- had when all enforcement agencies, prop* such circumstances, is he a criminal? Should erly trained in and be scientific knowledge courts, who must view the situation from and experience, recognizing their full rc~ the standpoint of the defendant, classify -tNun-ildlity to lution. state and community, him with the highjacker, the thief and the armed with uniform laws of the city, state murderer? The offense he committed is pro and nation ami 'Ujrporicd by honest public hibited by* bw, and his state of mind is not Join forces against the common recognized by the law as a defense, but only enemy. Much could he accomplished immediately by hrinuinu a rcah/atkm to the jadiciao' and Jar it- full rr*|*onsiblity and duty. The-v arc aide. jNivutful allies that have not yvi kw a a whole, interested or or ganized in the war of public safety. The Ikth'Ii aud lor have always been, and are rtww. one of the stronget moulders of public opinion. a mot recent example being the Supreme Court Issue. Tire profession is di rectly interfiled as a profes-ion and indi vidually as they try, prosecute and defend in ah traffic case* and have much to do with the enactment of the law?. It is true in mitigation of punishment. Courts are un biased, dealing in such cases, with violators of the law, on the two cardinal principles of law--"to punish the offender and deter others from committing like offenses." So in dealing with drunken drivers courts must consider the evidence and the offense charged and the defendant should be dealt with, therefore, in a manner to keep him within the law. Year by year the number killed and injured by drunken drivers Is rapidly growing. A drunken driver can murder with a 100 horsepower car the same as with an automatic revolver, machine gun or can non and every drunken driver is a potential that many judges and lawyers are now interested and working an individuals but we must have the bench and bar as a murderer. Every judge, prosecutor and peace officer in the investigation, preparation and trial whole. of a drunken driver's case should remember Much can fie accomplished through the his oath of office and recognize his full re elimination of the above named dangerous drivers frm the highways ami streets by judicial decree and the suspension or revo cation of the driver's license. The grcatol hazard, in my opinion, of all driver*, i* the drunken driver. The public highways at arc avenues of danger. sponsibility lo the enforcement of the law-, and remember that in order to obtain evi dence a proper investigation must be made. A careful preparation of the case and a fair, impartial presentation of the case should be made before the court. May I say here, out of 23 years' experience, that cases are won People arc prone to err. Automobiles arc not mechanically perfect. Accident* occur on the public highways when drivers arc perfectly sane and solcr. The hravo reck lessness and physical ami menial deficiencies of the drunken driver adds in no degree to or lost in preparation. The criminal fears federal prosecution because of tlic perfect investigations and impartial administration of the law. We know there are two types of di mikcn Street and Highway Tragic Section 17 drivers: One has imbibed to such an extent that he has become Itorizontal and is apt to park and go lo sleep. The other is the fellow who thinks he can "take it" ami imagines himself capable of doing the im possible. That, many times, is when some thing happens. Unfortunately, this is the type of driver that is hardest to convict. The offense of intoxication has long been recognized as a crime by the law and convictions have been easy to obtain. Driving while intoxicated came with the automobile and in most juris dictions is a felony, but because of the sympathies of courts, juries and the public generally, as well as a lack of a full realiza tion of the seriousness of the offenses and properly trained officers who conduct the investigations, it has come to its present seriousness. The issues usually are the date, the place, whether the defendant was intoxi cated, and the degree, whether lie was driv ing the car and whether it occurred on a public street or highway. The investigation, therefore, should be a careful examination of the driver as to his condition with the full anticipation of the usual defenses in this type of case used by the defendant, in mind; as to his mental and physical condi tion and as to the physical facts. Records should be prepared and, where possible, pictures should be taken and medi cal tests made. The investigation should be conducted as fast as possible, but always using sufficient time to complete it because a little time may make considerable differ ence in sobriety. The names, addresses and statements of all witnesses should be taken immediately, before any damages are paid, or the symptoms of time and sympathy get to work. It is as much or more the witness' duty to enforce the law as it is the officer's, who, in reality, i* only the instrument of enforcement. The proper investigation should cinch the case as to facts. The case should he carefully prepared for trial, and as soon as possible. Time is a great aid to the defendant. The officers should submit their investigations and all information to the prosecutor, then, together if possible, they should interview all wit nesses and make a careful examination of the physical evidence. In this preparation it should he easily ascertained as to which was the proper action to file, that of driving while intoxicated or reckless driving, the idea being to punish each drunken driver through law enforcement. Thus the juris diction and venue is settled. Then from the information the prosecuting attorney should draw thc'complaint or indictment, carefully checking dates, places and the technical verbage of the pleading. A smart prosecu tor is not going to trial until he has his case carefully and fully prepared. As to the presentation of the case: First be sure your case is prepared and that all of your material witnesses arc present before your announcement of ready. You had better continue the case than take a chance. You aie prosecuting for a serious offense. If a jury trial, be sure that every juryman is of open mind, has the ability to understand the case, a feeling of moral responsibility and subject to no outside influence. Be careful to see that all legal formali ties are complied with. Build your evidence in strict concordance with the facts In tlic case. Prove your case by proper questions, do not give the defense a chance to make many objections and directly or indirectly sell the jury that the defendant is being prosecuted although he is a very good man or the usual defenses used in like cases. Prove your statutory case beyond any rea sonable doubt, then rest. I believe it is a good idea to save some strong witnesses for rebuttal. You may need them. So far as possible it is my opinion that it is best to prove your case, at least your general facts, by witnesses other than the arresting officers and let the officers corrob orate rather than establish the facts. An officer should always remember that he is the best witness when he testifies truthfully, answering questions as briefly as possible, but clearly without any degree of interest, but with a dignity that speaks louder than words his intention to enforce the law im partially. The court's charge should be carefully checked for error. If the case is tried before the court it should be presented as fully in each detail as if it were a jury trial. The court is entitled to know, and should know, all the facts in order that his decision will be just. The court has the responsibility of fair and impartial trials and without fear of favor to enforce the law. His rulings should track the law and be clear. If not positive of the rule of the issues at bar, in my opinion, he should satisfy himself before making a rul ing. A few minutes' delay may save a re versal. 18 Twenty-sixth National Safety Cuuneil The court should cooperate with the prosecution in the prompt setting and trial, in using his full power in the enforcement of the law and lital the guilty be punished. He should keep ever in mind that it is his duty, and lie is required, to give the defend ant a fair and impartial trial. He should, after cases are tried, advise with the prose cutor and the oITtccrs in the discussion of mistakes made and slioald use his best office* to assist in an educational way in imparting germane legal knowledge to alt enforcement officers. After the verdict, and before and during the sentence, he should advise the defendant as to the seriousness of his crime. Tbt* has much influence on the defendant at the particular time and those in the court room, both spectators and reporters, possess ear*. His is a great responsibility--a protector, yet a corrector. He is the physical symbol of the majesty of the law. And unquestionably much in law enforcement rests upon his shoulders because after investigation and the presentation of the case, it is the court's judgment that enforces the law. Chemical Tests for Intoxication By R. N. HARGER Professor of Biochemistry and Toxicology, Indiana University School oi Medicine. Indianapolis Conditions surrounding an automobile ac cident frequently make it difficulty to obtain reliable information relative to sobriety, since the person involved may behave ab normally even when he has not been drink ing. This all too ofleu is used as a successful defense for definitely intoxicated drivers. The American Medical Association commit tee. appointed (o study problems of motor vehicle accidents, has made the following statement. "Since it is impossible to diagnose drunkenness adequately---drunkenness from the symptoms alone--it is important that the chemical observation of the blood, urine, saliva or breath for alcohol be used to con firm obvious intoxication.*' Chemical tests for intoxication arc not particularly new. Most of the fundamental principles upon which they are based were known at least 25 years ago and some were discovered as much as 100 years ago. Test.* using blood samples arc now* being employed in a number of European countries in con nection with automobile accidents. They have been official m Sweden for several years where chemical tests for intoxication were first actually used. These tests are based upon two funda mental principles. The first is that the degree of intoxication is closely proportional to the concentration of alcohol in the brain and higher nerve centers. Most people show be ginning intoxication when the brain alcohol reaches a figure of about one and one-half parts per thousand by weight, which \% the alcohol equivalent of about six ounces of whiskey circulating in the body. These symp toms Increase with increasing concentration of alcohol until, at five parts per thousand, alt subjects will be "dead drunk." This may seem to contradict the fact that some people "carry their liquor" better than others. The reason for this better handling of liquor is that these individuals usually get rid of their alcohol faster than other people and, therefore, require a larger quan tity to obtain the same concentration in the brain. It has been shown also that lower concen trations of body alcohol, even down to three quarters parts per thousand, are sufficient to render most people unsafe automobile drivers, since this amount of alcohol greatly increases the "reaction time"; that is, the time required for the muscles to obey the brain. The second principle is that it is possible to predict the concentration of alcohol In the brain from the concentration of alcohol n the blood and other parts of the body. Experiments in our laboratory were made upon dogs which had received various doses of alcohol. These were killed at periods ranging from fifteen minutes to twelve hours after receiving the alcohol. The experiment!! showed that, at all times, brain alcohol could Street and Highway Traffic Section 19 be predicted quite accurately from the alco holic content of the blood and liver, and, after a period of one or two hours, from muscles and even from the stomach and stomach contents. Urine, saliva and breath may be used for predicting brain alcohol, since there is a con stant relationship between the alcohol in the brain and the alcohol in these substances. Since these, as well as blood and spinal fluid give essentially the same information, the choice of material will largely depend upon which of these is more convenient to obtain. Of the five substances, spinal fluid is un doubtedly the most difficult to secure and its use would appear to be ruled out in actual practice. It has been demonstrated that spinal fluid has no advantage over the other body materials. The drawing of blood specimens requires ' the service of someone trained in this work which frequently necessitates a tong delay before such a person can be obtained. Fur thermore, drawing of blood means punctur ing the skin and perhaps inserting a needle into a vein. While these procedures are gen erally harmless, there is always a remote possibility of subsequent infection. Then too, there is the legal question as to whether the state has a right to demand such specimens. sults, the modifications being largely in an effort to save lime. The method of Professor Widmark of the University of Lund, Sweden, which was first published in 1914, has been very widely used in Europe. This is really a modification of the Nicloux method While the method is somewhat time consuming, it appears to give excellent results. Another procedure consists in oxidizing the alcohol by means of acid dichromate and then distilling off the acetic acid and titrating this acetic acid. It was first described by Bcchamp of France in 1879. This method was revived some years ago by Dr. Gettier. Coroner's Chemist of New York City, and lias been used quite extensively by him and some other workers in this country. This method is open to the objection that body materials frequently give a rather high blank and this blank is somewhat variable. The use of breath, first proposed by Emil Bogen in 1927, has appealed to us as offering a practical possibility along this line. When the body contains alcohol, a little of it is passed into the breath and the concentration always bears a fixed ratio to the concentra tion of alcohol in the blood. One fluid ounce of blood will contain about the same amount of alcohol as 2,000 fluid ounces of breath. As As for urine and saliva, these are undoubt the alcohol in the blood increase* or de edly much easier to obtain than spinal fluid creases, the alcohol in the breath also in or blood. However, Southgate and Carter of creases or decreases to the same extent This England reported that, in their experience, i* an application of Henry's law. an intoxicated individual frequently will not, Research conducted in Our laboratory has or cannot, urinate when requested. In some developed a new reagent for alcohol which police departments a special urinal is pro consists of a solution of permanganate in a vided which drains into a bottle outside of mixture of sulphuric acid and water. This the cell. With this device. It is stated that gives a pink fluid which will absorb alcohol a specimen can usually be obtained within from the air or breath and which loses its one-half hour to an hour. pink color after a certain amount of alcohol Obtaining breath specimens would appear less difficult than securing specimens of the other four substances. is absorbed. This fluid is not affected by normal or diseased breath, nor by the breath odors coining from onions, garlic, sen-sen, etc. A large number of analytical methods have been developed, and most of them give very satisfactory results. Maurice Nicloux pub lished his method as a Doctor's thesis from the University of Paris in 1900. The major ity of alcohol test methods in use today are modifications of the Nicloux method. In this country the procedures used by Heise, Bogen, Muchlberger. McNally and one re cently published from our own laboratory represent modifications of the Nicloux method. All of these give satisfactory re A fixed composition of the fluid will be made to lose its color by a definite amount of alcohol so that thi> reagent can bw used to determine how much breath contains a cer tain amount of alcohol. This volume divided by 2,000 should give the volume of blood containing the same amount of alcohol. Dr. E. B. Lamb and T have conducted tests on several hundred individual* at the Indian apolis City Hospital to sec if this method does accurately predict blood alcohol nnd we find that it docs quite satisfactorily. 20 T;<u'nt\`si.\th National Safety Council It the subject will not, or cannot, blow his breath into a suitable container, the breath may be sucked through the apparatus bv means of a pump so that it is possible to carry out this test without even touching the subject. We feel this has considerable ad' vantages from a legal standpoint, since this procedure simply substitutes a chemical `Vmcller" for the policeman's nose. The lat ter procedure is accepted in practically all courts. We might add that the odor oi the the breath of one who has been imbibing is really due to the flavoring matter of the liquor rather than the small amount of al cohol present The policeman's nose is un fair, since liquors vary enormously in their content of flavoring material. In fact, a person may lx? deeply intoxicated from al cohol alone with a breath that is not abnor mal, even to a seasoned policeman's olfactory sense. Such breath, however, will rapidly remove the color from the pink solution. Instead of measuring the volume of breath, we usually determine the amount of carbon dioxide in the specimen, since true breath constantly contains about five and one-half per cent carbon dioxide by volume. This procedure adds to the accuracy of the method. The time required for this test should not be more than five minutes. Our method will even detect whether a person has consumed a very moderate amount of alcohol such as is contained in one glass of beer, but in this ease the quantity of breath necessary to remove the color from the pink fluid is many times greater than would be the ease where the person is called intoxicated. Almost any body material is suitable for estimating the amount of alcohol stored in Lite body and there are a number of satisfactory analytical methods, the choice of which will vary with the analyst. These chemical tests are not intended to replace or exclude evidence obtained by eyewit nesses, but they will give definite additional information which is often sorely needed. Such tests will exonerate the non-drinker, and even the mild drinker, and they will show accurately the concentration of alcohol in flic drinker's brain. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH INSTITUTE OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERS The session was called to order by Pro- ^raffle Engineers, and vice-chairman of the iVssor Roger L. Morrison, of the University Street and Highway Traffic Section, Nanf Michigan. president of the Institute of tioriaf Safety Council. Engineering the Vehicle for Safety By W. S. JAMES Chief Engineer, the Studebnker Corp.. South Bend. Ind. The automotive industry knows that no one wants IQ buy or drive an unsafe car and, although standards of safety arc con stantly changing as roads, traffic and driver habit* change, it has always kept abreast of these changes. The interest of the automo tive industry in safe cars has been demon-' strated by its development and adoption of such safety improvements as four-wheel brakes, safety glass, lower centers of Street anil Highway Traffic Section 21 gravity, all steel bodies, tougher tires, safety steering and `'smooth" design of exterior and now interior. These safety features have not only been brought to a commercial stage o develop ment, but are still being constantly im proved. brakes have been made more uniform in their action; the effort needed to apply them lessened, the need for adjust ment reduced and the life and uniformity of the brake lining greatly improved. Safety glass has been improved by elimi nating discoloration from sunlight, and the adhesion between the glass and the center layer of plastic has been made almost per fect. The center of gravity of cars has been lowered steadily and the tread widened until the cars of today can be tilted to almost un believable angles before they upset. All steel bodies have been made stronger, al though lighter, by improvement in manu facturing methods ar well as design until, today, they will withstand tremendous im pacts and afford very substantial protection to the occupants in case of accident. Tires have been made tougher; steering safer. The important advances in these last two items particularly have not received the pub lic notice they deserve. They arc typical of similar advances in many other elements of car design from a safety standpoint. Not many years ago tires did not lust more than 3.000 or *1.000 miles. At about this mileage they were very likely to blow out. This expression is very descriptive of what actually happened. Today tires will run from 5 to 10 times as far and, in addi tion, because of belter construction and materials and being made much larger, the tires are permitted to deflect more anti therefore can operate at lower pressures, 21 to 30 pounds. This means much longer periods of complete safety for the driver without attention to his tires. Originally tires were made with square woven fabric where fibers crossed each other and chafed, wearing through. Now, cotton is made into cords which arc built up in alternate layers with rubber insulation be tween. By this method there is no possibility of the cords stressed in one direction con tacting cords stressed the opposite way. Comparing the tires of today with those of the past, we find equivalent sizes to l>c as given in Table I. Table I Year 1924 1930 t937 Size 30x3-U 4.75-19 6.00-16 Pressure 55 -- 66 32 -- 36 24 -- 30 -Section 3 50* 5.20* 6.25' Tread Contact Area--Sq. In, 11.70 . 22.14 28 05 Per Cent Increase Contact Aren 89% 140% The present wide flat treads, of large contact area. 140 per cent greater than in 1924, provide traction, braking force and resistance to side skid, thus increasing safety to a marked degree. In any discus sion of safety and tires, it should be re membered that the air in the tire carries the load. The greatest tire safety can be obtained by maintaining correct air pres sures in the tires. Steering, too, has been greatly improved in the last few years by the development of independently sprung front wheels and by the adaptation of `'stabilizers" to solid axle designs. Although independently sprung wheels assume many different mechanical constructions, in all eases the relative move ments of the car frame and the wheels ate definitely controlled hv linkage. This has made it possible to connect the steering gear, which is fixed to the frame, to the front wheels so that relative movements of the frame and the wheels, due to spring movements or brake application*; do not change the steering angle of the front wheels. The importance, from a steady and safe steering standpoint, of the freedom of the Peering connection!* front interference by spring movement and brake application ran f>e undo stood when it is realized (hot at 50 in.p.h. a foie and aft movement of of an inch of (he steering knuckle halt may result in the car moving a foot to the side. 22 Twenty-sixth. National Safety Council Willi the solid axle type of front suspen sion. it is very difficult to predict exactly it here the steering knuckle hall will be at all times because of the sidewise and twisting flexibility of the springs which connect the frame to the axle. This difficulty is very greatly reduced by the use of a stabilizer bar which limits the twisting of the springs. The development of Independently sprung front wheels and solid axle types with a stabilizer bar has given a marked increase in security of steering and,certainly of con trol on either rough or smooth road surfaces or under emergency conditions such as sud den tire failure. This is a very real contri bution to increased car safety and still further improvements can be expected in means a car that is livelier and can climb hills more easily. The maximum torque of an engine is developed at moderate speeds, 20 to 30 m.p.h., where the driver most appreciates ability to increase speed rapidly. Drivers rebel at gear shifting for more rapid acceleration. Tliey demand motor cars which, in high gear, will accelerate rapidly in traffic and will climb any hill our high ways present. They expect engines not only to meet these requirements but also to operate without apparent effort and with no evidence of laboring at the moderate speeds at which traffic surveys show the vast ma jority drive. That is why engineers are primarily interested in torque rather than horsepower. the future. Smooth design of both the exterior and interior of the car is a relatively recent development which makes cars safer if a collision does occur. It will probably be carried much further in the future. At present door handles and hood ornaments arc no longer sharp. Instrument boards have fewer projections, and robe rails arc soft. Accurate estimation of future safety de People sometimes ask: "Why arc motor cars being equipped with more and more powerful engines?" The briefest answer to that is: "They are not." In actual fact the average horsepower has been practically constant since 1934. This can be seen from the figure* given in Table II, which shows tire average horsepower of the cars sold from 1930 to 1936. In these figures the number of cars produced by each manu facturer is taken into account. velopments in automobile design is difficult. It is very' likely, however, that some of nTABU them will arise from the list of questions which arc at present highly controversial. One of these controversial questions fre quently asked by safety-minded people is "Why arc cars provided with engines capa ble of developing 80, 90, 100 or more horse power?" Certainly not primarily to get high speeds. Engineers, in fact, have always sacrificed top speed in favor of acceleration and hill climbing ability at moderate speeds; and they have to compromise between the two every* time they design a car. This Year 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 I93S 1936 Horsepower of the Average Car Sold-- Dynamometer. 54 57 69 71 83 84 86 tendency to compromise toward better mod erate speed performance is stronger now than ever before. As a matter of fact, what the engineer really is interested in is maximum torque, not maximum horsepower. The driving public doesn't understand what torque means, so the advertising departments can't be blamed `or talking mostly about horse power. Hut over in tle technical departments, where llt.y lay out these engine design*, It will be seen that the trend was rather sharply upward during the first four years of this period but in the last three years average horsepower has been practically constant. This flattening out in the average horsepower is in accord with proving ground tests which show that top speeds have nnt been going up in the last four years. you will hear a great deal about torque Another question often asked is "How aim! very little almut horsepower. Here is has the increase in horsepower affected car why: More torqjc or push at the rear wheels agility and top speed?" Available figures show that car agility has increased twice as Street and Highway Traffic Section 23 fast as top speed. This is shown in Table III. (The cars of 1930, 1933 and 1936 were selected because the figures in Table II, for average horsepower, group themselves rather naturally into three periods of ap proximately equal horsepower: 1930-1931, 54-57 hp.; 1932-1933, 69-71 hp. and 1934-1936, 83-86 hp. inclusive.) Speed 20 30 40 50 TABU HI Mmximum Pr Cant Grads In High Gear 1930 Car 9.1 7.8 6.6 5.0 69.0 1933 Car 1936 Car 10.1 9.4 8.4 6.9 11.3 11.4 10.0 7.9 Maximum Speed---M.P.H. 77.0 82.0 Per Cent I'er Cent Increase Increase 1933 over 1930 1936 over 1930 ] l.n 20.0 27.0 38.0 24.0 46.0 51.0 58.0 12.0 19.0 Here we see that average agility or hill climbing ability from 20 to 50 m.p.h. has increased about 45 per cent while the top speed has increased only 19 per cent. No one who has driven a farm wagon or an old "model T" in today's traffic will ques tion the feeling of added safety when driv ing an agile car. The question may reasonably be asked "Why do the larger cars have to have such large horsepowers and such high top speeds?" The answer is that the same amount of agility for safety has to be built into the larger car as into the smaller one. The horsepower needed to drive a heavy' car ou the level road is not greatly different from that required for a light car, but to climb hills and accelerate alike the engine horsepower of the large car must be con siderably greater than that of the small car. To illustrate this, let us consider two cars; one having a curb weight, with pas sengers, of 3,500 lbs. and the other, similarly loaded, of 5,500 lbs. Having paid consider ably more for his automobile, the owner of the heavier car is justified in expecting at least as good performance or agility in high gear at medium driving speeds as the light car provides. So. let us assume that both have the same performance and that the maximum grades tliey will climb in high gear are as shown in the following table: TABLE IT 20 m.p.h. *> " 40 " 50 12% n< These round figures are about representa tive of the high-gear, hill climbing ability of cars in the last three years. For this bill-climbing ability the calculated power requirements of the two car* would be about as shown in Table V: TABUS V Speed M.P.H. Maximum Grade in high gear per cent Horsepower at the Clutch* 3500 lb. 5500 lb. car car 20 30 40 50 12 11 10 8 25 37 48 57 40 37 74 87 *H.,aciwwr ,k, dutch .III TM,, i,, roughly 90 pvr yen. of ,hc iwwcr ouliml on Iho dyn.mumM.r. 24 Tuicnly sirlli National Safety Council Jf we adjust the horsepowers just given and complete the data by showing what normal engines capable of producing these powers at speeds of 50 or less miles per hour would develop at higher road speeds, we get the comparison given in Table VI. TABUS VI Horsepower Speed in M.l'.ll. 35001b. Car 5500 lb. Car 20 .10 40 50 60 70 77 Max. speed 80 90 28 41 55 57 70 72 _-- 44 63 82 97 111 121 123 114 Those figures indicate that the cars must l*c generously powered to give the kind of high gear hill-climbing and acceleration drivers want. The difference in power re quirement $ occasioned by difference in weight i* particularly noteworthy because it will be recalled that both of these cars have the same hill-climbing ability up to 50 m.p.h. It should be noted also that both engines develop their maximum horsepower before maximum car speed is reached and the horsepower is decreasing as the maximum speed is reached. In the case of the smaller car, maximum power is developed at 70 m.p.h. whereas the maximum speed is 77 m.p.h. Jn the case of the larger car, the maximum power is developed at 60 m.p.h.. whereas the maximum speed is reached at 90 nvp.h. Tins sacrifice in maximum speed it made deliberately to improve the mod erate speed performance as previously dis cussed. By using a slightly lower reduction in the rear axle gears, the maximum speed of these cars could be Increased, but It would be at the expense of performance at mod erate speeds. Of course, moderate speed performance could be improved and top speed reduced by using larger reductions in the rear, axle gears.. But higher engine speeds, with the accompanying increase in noise, vibration, fuel consumption and oil consumption, introduce practical limits in this direction. Now, let us examine the power required to drive these two cars on a level road at various speeds as shown in Table VII: TABLE VH st! 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 l*ower required to drive (Adjusted to dyna 3500 lb. car 5500 lb. carmometer values) 1.4 H.P. 3.7 " 7.6 * 14 23 36 * 53 2 5 10 17 28 42 61 It will be observed that it takes but very little more power to drive the heavy car at a given speed than it docs the light one. At 70 the difference amounts only to 8 tip. and at 50 m_p.h- to but 5 hp. On the other liartd, it will be recalled it took 40 more hp. ( give the heavier car the same hill-climbing ability at 50 m.p.h. as the lighter one The reason fur this disparity is that the power required for hili-cJimbmg varies directly with the weight while the power required to drive the car is increasingly determined by the wind resistance as the speed goes up. Because the heavy and light car will have substantially the same projected frontal area, their wind resistance will be substantially the same. Consequently, the power re quired to drive a heavy car is not materially larger than that required to drive a light car. The result is that, liecause of the con siderably larger power which the heavier car must have to climb hills as well as the lighter car, the top speed of the heavy car is raised materially. Specifically, in the case of the two hypothetical cars under con sideration, they both have the same (rill- Street and Higlnoay Traffic Section 25 climbing ability up to 50 m.p.h. but for the reasons just outlined, the heavy' car can go 90 m.p.h. as compared with 77 m.p.h. for the lighter car--a difference o 17 per cent. is "Why have car manufacturers reduced visibility with long hoods, thicker posts at the side of the windshield, lower seating fronts and lower roofs?" In aetual tact, the Another very controversial question at present is ``What can be done about speed reduction in visibility over the last ten years is not nearly so great as most people think. too fast for conditions?'* There seems to The question is often asked, "Why not put be mthcr general agreement that proper the engine in the rear and move tfic driver education of the driving public and proper farther forward to increase his vision of the enforcement of regulations will be effective road?" There is insufficient experience with in keeping speeds proper for conditions. passenger cars of this type to answer this These remedies are not of an engineering nature and need not be discussed here. The use of governors or other mechanical de vices has been suggested but there is not sufficient information available to decide definitely whether or not their use would be helpful in maintaining proper speeds for safety. Satisfactory devices of this nature can, without doubt, be made to limit the maximum speeds of cars without the diffi question adequately. Without doubt he could see more of the road close to the car, and the number of dented fenders would be re duced. There is some question as to whether or not the driver should watch the road too close to the car because at 40 m.p.h. he is moving about 60 feet per second. The change in engine location would probably not mate rially reduce the siae of the front comer posts. culties present in the available types. Tt Many drivers might not like to be so far u-ould always be difficult for enforcing offi forward in the car as, in case of what is cers to he certain that the devices were in proper adjustment. Their use would in now a minor collision, they might be more rriuu1y injured. The question of proper crease traffic congestion as it would weight distribution for safe handling and a markedly increase the distance required to possible reduction in rear vision arc in a pass when cars were being driven near the debatable stage. The moving of the engine governed speed. to the rear of the car would involve such a For example, if a car traveling 45 m.p.h. were overtaken by another car traveling 60 m.p.h., a clear road of at least 600 feet would radical change in appearance that many people would prefer a more conventional design for some time to come. be necessary'. Although a great deal of work The pros and cons which.arise in connec is now being carried on to determine the ac tion with almost any question about motor tual effect of speeds on accidents, there is design are well illustrated in the question wc still too meager information from which to have just been discussing. The record to draw* conclusions. It is rather apparent, how dale of the automotive industry in reaching ever, that no matter what speed limitations txlisfactory solutions to questions of our are imposed, cars can always be driven too safety appears to be very good, as accident fast for some conditions. The investigations statistics show considerably less than 10 per now' in progress may throw light on how fre cent of all accidents arc attributable to car quently the speeds too fast for conditions are defects. Cars of today arc safer and more high speeds or low speeds. reliable than cars of yesterday. There is m> question hut that cars of tomorrow will be Auotlier controversial question often asked more reliable ami safer than cars of today. Engineering the Highway for Safety By R. E. TOMS Chief of Division of Design, U. S. Bureau of Public Roads The highways of the United States as they exist at present represent the efforts of highway engineers to provide a large and continually increasing mileage of improve ments to meet the demands of rapidly ex panding motor vehicle usage. The necessity of spreading a practicable degree of im provement as quickly as possible with limited 26 Twenty-sixth National Safety Council annual revenues over a large mileage of be wholly adequate for the controlled wheel important highways--all in urgent need of improvement--forced a choice between long deferment of improvement on many of loads. In recent years there has been a sudden and marked increase in vehicle speed. This, these highways, or of undertaking a more uniform up-building of the entire group. Acceptance of the tatter as the more feasible course has given the country a sys tem of main highways improved in thou sands of component sections each to a degree seen as imperative and practicable in point of cost at the time of its construction. During this period of highway develop ment the highway engineer was called upon to solve many problems of immediate con cern that were created by the changing character of vehicles. There was first the necessity for prevent ing rhe rapid disintegration of waterbound and gravel surface because of the loss of combined with a greater usage of the ve hicle itself, has caused an increasing number of highway fatalities each year. The average driver knows little and cares less about the strength of the - pavement or the bearing power of the subsoil over which he rides. He accepts a structurally sound, smooth pavement surface as an accomplished fact, but he is very conscious of sudden curva ture in the alignment or a lack of clearance between his vehicle and another and the speed at which it seems safe to travel. All of these elements concern the geo metric phase of highway design which in its broad sense deals with alignment, grades, curves, widths, intersections, etc. binder caused by the shearing effect of rub ber tires in producing tractive effort. Then there was the problem of providing road surfaces that were structurally strong enough to carry the loads moved over them. During and immediately following the world war a considerable mileage of im proved highways were practically destroyed To design or plan a utility intelligently, one must know the uses to which it will be subjected during its expected life. The es sential elements that affect the adequate design of a highway are the speed, number, width, length and weight of the vehicles to be accommodated, and the safety, comfort and pleasure of travel to be afforded. from the pounding of trucks equipped with The width, length and weight of vehicles solid rubber tires. Research undertaken by concern physical characteristics which highway engineers in cooperation with tire largely have been controlled by legislation. manufacturers on the effect of impact on The enforcement of legislative limits with road surfaces largely was responsible for respect to these characteristics generally is the development of the balloon tire which possible of accomplishment so that for any permitted an increase in the load carrying given set of conditions roadways may be capacity of the vehicle without damage to provided with a reasonable degree of assur the road structure. From the researches also came the multi ple axle feature of support which again added to the load capacity without damage to the road. ance that they will meet requirements. Con struction technique has produced smooth highways that are comfortable to travel. Design and construction practice can pro duce highways that are as pleasing to the eye as they are comfortable to travel. Construction technique also was concen Volume of traffic, speed and safety remain trated upon the production of smooth Tiding surfaces to minimirc the damaging impact from vehicle loads. The demand for the rapid extension of highway improvements focused attention upon the development of Iqw cost dustless roads. Here again research and the application of knowledge pointed the way to practical solutions. Practically all of these imjwrtant prob elements that must be appraised in design. Volume Is important only insofar as it affects congestion, the dangers that arise from congested highways and the number of traffic lanes required. The speed factor which largely has been disregarded in the past is a most important element in the de sign of safe highways. J effect it serves to control to a certain extent the width of lems had to do with the structural integrity traffic lane and to fix absolutely many of tin; of'the road surface, ft is no overstatement to ay that these features of road design have been solved so that the highway engi neer may proceed with confidence to design a road structure with assurance that it will geometric features of design, and it is upon the geometric features of design that safety of operation primarily depends. What speed shall highways be designed Street and Highway Traffic Section 27 (ot? Highways constructed 20 years ago near the edge of the pavement. The legal were designed for 30 miles per hour; now limit for overall width of trucks in most even the slow drivers are moving at 40 miles stales is 8 feet. In order to provide ade per hour and speeds of 50 and 60 miles per hour are common rather than the exception. There is no doubt that the trend in all trans portation is toward higher speeds. The quate clearance we must provide traffic lanes not less tiian 11 feet wide for highways carrying a considerable volume of Iruek traffic. highway engineer cannot afford to disregard this trend. It may be assumed, therefore, that highways in average topography to be reasonably adequate for present and future The necessity for ample clearance on bridges is equally important. For reason ably safe operation the distance between usage must be designed upon assumptions that will permit reasonably safe operation at speeds of 60 or 70 miles per hour. curbs on bridges should be not less, than four feet and preferably six feet more than (lie width of the adjacent roadways. Short If the development of the vehicle should be curtailed or other undiscovered means found to fix a lower speed limit which could not be exceeded, there at least would be a very desirable factor of safety in such con struction. span bridges and culverts preferably shoLld permit the entire roadway width including pavements, shoulders and guard rail. Driv ers then will be given no sense of constric tion and shoulders will be available for emergencies at all points on the highway other than major bridge locations. By designing for reasonably safe opera tion, higher rates of speed arc not encouraged any more than on straight sections of highway. There is hardly a road of any considerable length in the Rat and rolling sections of this country that does not have straight sections of varying lengths. A straight road with sufficient vision may be traveled at a speed limited only by the per formance of the vehicle and the ability of Sight distance assumes great importance in highway safety. Tins is particularly true on our two-lane highways, which constitute the bulk of our highway system. On a winding two-Ianc road fast moving vehicles frequently overtake slower vehicles. Head-on collisions and side-swipe accidents may be reduced by constructing highways so that impatient and careless drivers would be the driver. The effect of designing for any given speed simply controls the maximum encouraged to remain behind slow moving vehicles until they see a sufficient length of rate of curvature in the interest of safety without inviting the maximum speed. highway clear of opposing traffic for pass ing. Obviously, such encouragement is not afforded on a highway with mile after mile Having determined upon the design speed it is incumbent upon the engineer to design all component parts of the highway so that it will be safe for travel at this speed. The of inadequate sight distances. On the con trary, such a highway will tend to encourage even a patient and careful driver to take a chance, especially after remaining behind inclusion of short sections of highway in a slow moving vehicle for one curve after which the curvature, sight distance or other details fall below the general standard con stitutes a very serious fault. another without encountering opposing traffic and realizing that passing could have been accomplished. If physical difficulties arc encountered that necessitate the inclusion of substandard sections, then they must be adequately signed. An indication of the safe speed at such locations would be exceedingly helpful. Granting that ample provision has been While it is desirable to construct high ways with adequate sight distance for safe passing at all places the limitations of to pography and right of way mfty make it economically inadvisable to do so. It is not adsolutely necessary that every horizontal made to insure the structural integrity of and vertical curve be designed with adequate the roadway surface, engineering the high sight distance for safe passing, but if safe way for safety consists essentially of pro driving is to be encouraged it is vitally viding ample width of traffic lanes and necessary that sections of highway, in which sufficient clear vision. a driver will see enough of the highway to You need more space to go fast than you know whether or not it is safe to pass a do to go slow. You need greater clearance slower moving vehicle, are not too far apart. between vehicles. There is also a greater On the basis of the foregoing it is evi reluctance of drivers to (ravel at high speed dent that highways should be designed with 28 Twenty-sixth National Safety Council two minimum fright distances in vniml; one to accommodate the passing of motor ve hicles with safety, and one to be considered operators to come to a realization that the brakes must be applied. If we term this the perception time, it may he defined as the as a nonpassing minimum. A non-passing lime elapsed from the moment a stationary minimum sight distance should be encoun object becomes visible to the instant the op tered at all points on the highway. It should erator realizes that the object is stationary*. be at least long enough to permit a vehicle Under certain conditions operators will come traveling at the assumed design speed of the to this decision almost instantly. Among highway to stop before reaching a station these conditions are disabled vehicles with ary object in the same lane. A passing minimum sight distance should be encountered at frequent intervals de persons on the ground adjacent thereto, flares at night and flashing lights at night. Under most other conditions the operator must Icam by subconscious association with pending njmn the topography, tlte assumed adjacent stationary objects such as walls, design speed of the highway and the proba fences, frees, guard rail, etc., (hat the object ble density of traffic. The passing minimum is stationary. This takes time. The amount sight distance should be sufficient in length of this prcception time will vary considera to permit a vehicle to safely pass another bly, depending upon itic natural rapidity vehicle, and i*rcferaMy two vehicles, which arc traveling at a speed of ten or more miles per hour less titan tlte assumed design speed of the highway in the face of opposing traffic traveling at tlte assumed design speed with which the operator reacts, the optical ability of the operator, atmospheric visibility, type and condition of roadway, type, color and condition of vehicle, etc. of the highway. The desire to pass vehicles At higher speeds perception time may be traveling ten miles an hour less than the less than at lower speeds due to the fact assumed design speed is a reasonalde one that driver* arc more alert and due to the and should be utixfird. There seems to !r little advantage in in rapidity with which the stationary object apparently increases in site, but the total perception reaction time should not be de creasing the minimum sight distance on existing highways or increasing the stand creased for higher speeds due to the greater danger involved. An allowance for percep ard for minimum sight distances for new' highways unless such increases provide the minimum sight distance sufficient for safe passing. This is particularly true on high tion time moreover compensates for mo mentary inattention on the part of the operator. speed highway*. Perception time, being discriminative in Increasing sight distances by* smalt character, probably' Is much greater than amounts in excess of the non-passing minimums generally docs not provide sight dis tances adequate for passing with safety* and brake reaction time. For most motor vehicle operators it is assumed to be two seconds, although this may be changed considerably may make the highways more hazardous by encouraging vehicle operators to attempt to pass. It seems to be more advisable to con centrate expenditures on limited sections when and if exhaustive scientific tests are made- In determining non-passing sight distances for various assumed design speeds, they* should he predicated upon a total of of the highway where topographic condi three seconds for perception ami brake re tions make such change* feasible and im action time, and a braking distance obtained prove these sections to secure sight distances by using a rolling coefficient of friction of adequate for passing with safety. 0.4. which is about the lowest obtained in tests on clean wet pavements. On these A brief discussion of non-passing sight assumptions, the suggested practical non distances may be worth while because of passing sight distance which sltould be en the beHcf that a considerable amount of countered at all points on a highway is data heretofore published on stopping dis approximately ten times the assumed design tances at various speeds fails to take into speed of the highway. consideration a very* essential factor. Data heretofore published on stopping distance* A safe passing sight distance is a (unction at various speeds have been predicated al of the speed of the passing vehicle, (he most wholly on brake reaction time and overtaken vehicle and the speed of the ve brake resistance. A third element neces hicle approaching from the opposite direc sarily enters into this determination, that is, tion. If the differential in speed between the the time required for motor vehicle Itabbing vcluclc and the overtaken vehicle is Street and Highway Traffic Section 29 large the safe passing distance is much less than when this differential is small. It in creases if more than one vehicle is to be passed. A vehicle traveling 40 miles per hour, desiring to pass another vehicle traveling 30 miles per hour in the face of opposing traffic traveling at 40 miles per hour, will require 1,200 feet o sight distance to pass one vehicle; 1,600 feet to pass two vehicles, and 2,000 feet to pass three vehicles. On the other hand, a vehicle traveling 00 miles an hour, desiring to pass a vehicle traveling 50 miles per hour with opposing traffic moving at 60 miles per hour will require 2,400 feet of sight distance to pass one vehicle; 3,200 feet to pass two vehicles, and 4,100 feet to pass three vehicles. These distances are based on reasonable assumptions. It is obvious that we must revise our conception of sight distance if we are to provide highway* on which overtaken vehicles may be passed with safety*. on one to that on the other a driver on either highway should be able to see the intersection in time to stop his vehicle be fore reaching the intersection and he should see enough of the intersecting highway to enable him to judge whether or not he should brake. A driver should see the in tersection at a distance at least equal to the safe stopping distance. The length of inter secting highway visible at that point should equal, at least, the product of tlte time re quired for the vehicle to stop and the assumed design speed of the intersecting highway. Where this is not possible traffic r>n one road should be subordinated to that of the other by appropriate signs. When traffic on one road is subordinated to that of the other it may be done by stop or slow signs. The intersection should be visible to a driver on the preference road in sufficient time to enable him in an emer gency to bring his vehicle to a stop before Horizontal curves which may be traveled reaching the intersection. The same applies safely at the assumed highway design speed to the subordinate road except that warning frequently do not afford sufficient sight dis signs sometimes may have to be resorted tance for a passing minimum. Except for to in lieu of sufficient visibility. When traffic comparatively fiat gradients, if is impossible on the subordinate road is stopped at the to obtain sight distance at the apex of a intersection, enough of the preference road vertical curve sufficient to permit passing should be visible to allow the driver of a with safety at high speeds. It is practically stopped vehicle to determine whether he may a physical impossibility to provide highways cross with safety. with ample vision for safe passing at all points. There is much, however, that can be done to meet this situation that has not been done *n the past. There has heretofore been but little conscious effort on the part of highway designers to provide safe passing sections at the speed at which highway travel Slow signs indicating the speed at which vehicles on the subordinate road may ap proach an intersection may be used where available sight distance is intermediate be tween that necessary for nonprcfcrencc road intersections and that necessary for stop sign intersections. moves at the present time. The fact that such sections arc encountered on our exist ing highways has been due primarily to natural conditions encountered rather than to the efforts of the designer. Our highway designs in the future must be studied and worked out to avoid combinations of hori zontal and vertical curvature which in effect, for mile after mile, deny the traveler an opportunity to pass. Advantage must be taken of favorable to pography at frequent intervals to provide safe passing sections, even if by so doing the design is made more costly. In rough topography favorable topography must be utilized to provide short lengths of widened road surface on which tlte slower moving The speed on the slow sign should indi cate that the point where visibility opens is far enough in advance of the intersection to enable a vehicle traveling at the signed speed to stop before reaching the intersection and that the length of intersecting highway visi ble at that point ta equal to the product of the time it will take to stop and the as sumed design speed of the intersecting highway. The *low sign should be placed far enough in advance of the critical point to enable a vehicle traveling at the assumed design speed to slow down to the signed speed before reaching the critical point on the road. At nonpreference intersections, sight dis vehicle would be directed to travel. tances less than those outlined above may When two highways cross at grade and it is not desirable to subordinate the traffic not be extremely dangerous due to the possibility of a driver on one road slowing down to permit a vehicle on the intersecting .V) 1 U'caty-nxtb Sationa! Safety Council ruad iu clear the uncrMXtwB before be ai>- {iuriM> it. Tie dancer li m tle posto- l>hy **i nafauoe bcircr> driver*. Both dnvrr*- may dtltrt (h>n or nuiituin {rd and tbo* aftfroach the inienmiui Mtnoluineuudy. I longer also in ihc i**sibility of dense iraflic or euntideralilc tornme traffic on one road making it necessary for (raftc on the other road to stop. Sight dittaam leu Ilian stopping distance under roeh circuwstances may end in disaster. No properly designed highway would have sight distance less Ilian safe stopping distance at any point, intersection or otherwise, but inability to see an appreciable length of |le intersecting highway may have as disastrous results as insufficient sight distance along the highway*. Where traffic increases to such an ex tent that safe passing sections lose their usefulness due to the fact that opposing lanes are generally occupied by traffic at the same time, congestion results and can only be relieved by providing additional traffic lanes. The three-lane highway is lire prod uct of economic necessity rather than a desirable objective. The extra traffic lane in theury is intended for passing purposes only, ft is not always so used by traffic. It unquestionably is an invitation to traffic in opposing directions to compete for its use. Competition of this character is decidedly hazardous. Here again the ability to sec is a fundamental requisite. The minimum sight distance for three-lane construction siiould not be less than the minimum safe passing sight distance for two-lane construction. For relatively high road speeds this sight distance is exceedingly large and difficult to obtain except in very easy topography. A three-lane road with inadequate sight distance becomes nothing more than a wide tuolane road. There js m> doubt that the three-lane highway increases traffic capacity, hitt unless topographic conditions art favor able every effort should he made to provide a four-tune highway with traffic in opposing directions separated by a neutral strip or parkway. On four-lane highways a raised type of separation is decidedly preferable to a flush median strip for the separation of traffic flow. The width of separation of opposing lanes may be from 4 to 6 feet, or from 12 to 30 or 40 feet. It is almost impossible to maintain grass or ground cover in healthy condition.in areas less than 8 or 10 feet in width. Narrow* widths should be paved with tome form of material to redact aaiaienance to a minimum. If the separation is jAved. it must not be of a width great enough to permit the parking of vehicles. Aids at Intersections In additiou to practically eliminating head-on collisions with opposing traffic, the four-lane separated highway may be de signed to decrease the hazards at grade intersections. On heavily traveled four-lane roads it is almost impossible to obtain a sufficient break in traffic going in two direc tions to permit cross movement of vehicles without extreme danger without traffic con trol lights. If the roadways arc separated widely enough to provide a safety island, cross movement may be effected in two operations. A break in the flow of traffic in one direction permits a vehicle to be moved on to the pavement adjacent to the safety island, and the crossing is completed when there is a break in traffic in the opposite direction. Fur this purpose there should he a width of parkway of not less than 30 feet between opposing lanes of traffic. Such construction also affords a high degree of flexibility in permitting recreational and pleasure traffic to utilize the openings provided for cross movement for turn around purposes. Other than traffic lights, adequate traffic circles, and grade separation structures, di vided roadways with ample width of park way offer the safest means yet devised for the movement of traffic across heavily traveled roads. On four-laoe separated highways, it is not possible for vehicles to encroach on opposing traffic for passing so that the sight distance for safe operation may be limited to the non-passing or safe shopping distance for the designed speed. We know definitely that the elimination of all possible points of collision make for safer highways. Wc know definitely that indiscriminate access from intersecting roads or driveways on which vision may be obscured to highways designed for high speeds constitutes an clement of surprise that takes a large accident toll. The ideal highway design, therefore, is one in which the highway will have four or more traffic lanes with opposing traffic sepa rated, no cross traffic at grade, no access except at predetermined points, and side walks provided for pedestrian traffic where needed. Street and Highway Traffic Section 31 To efiausate unrestricted access from abutting property, border roads would undoafiaafty have to be provided in many cases few ^rvice adjacent property and serve to jMefc local traffic and deliver it to points of petdraenpmed access on the main high way. Vkhcre the development was sufficient sidered we must admit that insofar as the future can be visualized approximately 05 per cent of the state highway mileage in this country may never progress in improve ment beyond the status of a two-lane highnay. to reqmarc the construction of border roads There is no question but that the trend ub och side of the main highway this type in highway design where four traffic lanes of comti mike in effect would require the are justified by traffic volume, must be paving of a minimum width of 80 feet of toward construction that will physically roadway which together with the necessary separate the flow of opposing traffic. In fact, grading and cost of grade separation struc there should be no further four-lane high turn woeId entail an expenditure of from way construction undertaken in rural areas $250,000 ot $400,000 per mile. However de in which this principle of design Is not sirable this type of improvement may be, it incorporated. is not economically possible except on a very limited mileage of our State highway sys While engineers generally know and un tems. derstand the broad principles of highway design that affect the safety of travel, there A properly constructed two-lane highway is capable of carrying a traffic volume of from 4,000 to 6,000 vehicles per day without are a number of blind spots that still need to be explored. Hhighway engineers gen erally are fully aware of the problems in serious congestion. There can be no eco nomic justification for attempting to provide (our-lanc divided highways for traffic vol volved and the necessity for putting into practice the knowledge already available as well as the facts gained by investigation and umes less than can reasonably be accommo dated on a two-lane highway. Our state _ research. That a concerted effort is being highway systems comprise about 324,000 made to provide the greatest possible safety for highway travel in the construction of miles of highways that represent the princi highways is evidenced by the fact that the pal routes of highway travel in the United State. Figures released by the American Association of State Highway Officials show 4,655 miles of three-lane construction, American Association of State Highway Officials has designated the administrative officials of 12 of the leading state highway departments in the country to serve as a 2,576 miles of four-lane construction and 201 miles of six-lane construction. committee for the investigation and formu lation of sound design policies having to do Divided Construction with highway safety. The Sccrctaiy of Agriculture recognizing the importance of Of the 2,777 miles of four- and six-lane widths only 565 miles were indicated as divided construction. In other words, after 20 years of effort in highway construction, less titan two per cent of the state highway mileage has been improved to standards that are recognized as providing the maximum of safety and only an insignificant portion of this latter mileage has been developed to the point of separating all traffic at inter sections by means of underpasses or over passes. this work has appointed the members of this committee as Consulting Highway Special ists to the Bureau of Public Roads in order to effectuate more rapidly the purposes of this committee. The program of the com mittee contemplates a thorough investigation and research of all phases of highway de sign, particularly with respect to geometric designs because of their influence upon traffic safety. The recommendations of this committee applied intelligently to highway design in the future will go a long-way toward increasing the safety of highway To improve approximately five per cent travel insofar as it is possible to do so by of the state highway mileage with four or adequate highway design. more traffic lanes with opposing traffic separated, grades at intersecting hinhways separated, border roads provided and side walks constructed where needed, would in volve an expenditure of approximately four billion dollars. When these figures arc con It is significant that this committee at its first meeting unanimously decided that the subjects of highway classification, sight dis tances and the treatment of intersections were the most important for immediate con sideration. 32 Twenty-sixth National Safety Council Controlling the Driver By ALAN CANTY Traffic JPsychotcchnologist, Psychopathic Clinic of the Recorder's Court, Detroit, Mich. The average citizen knows the traffic prob lem is being attacked on many fronts. He knows tlie highway and the car have been rendered almost foolproof through the ap plication of sound engineering principles. With reference to the driver, he learns of the law enforcement approach and finds that Lieut. Krcml is studying the types of violations most frequently resulting in accidents. He observes that `traffic drives'* are made periodically by certain police departments and that paragraphs are written about the drunken driver. He teams that standard license laws with provisions for the examination of new drivers have been adopted by many states. Again lie hears of the organisation of bu reaus for the compilation of permanent rec ords of driver violations. Educators also are interested in the problem, he finds, and are including courses in traffic regulations and operating practices as routine studies. Actual driving instruc tion is being given in certain high schools and lie knows that motor vehicle associa tions. particularly those affiliated with the A.A.A., arc developing among school chil dren a safety consciousness. He hears next of a somewhat different approach which is related to the clinical study of traffic violators. He finds that in Wichita, Kan*^ the deviations of traffic of fenders are investigated through psycho physical tests and a supplementary inter view. It< Die Psychopathic Clinic of the Re corder's Court. Detroit, he sees the activity in which your speaker is engaged. Here, as we have previously reported, a series of investigations including aptitude tests, physi cal and neurological examinations, intelli gence measurements and psj'chiatric surveys are given, the subjects in each ease being traffic violators. Reports arc then made to the trial judge, outlining the examination findings and including recommendations as to the suspension or revocation of licenses, the correction of defects whenever dis covered, probation, institutionalization, and so forth. In addition, he reads reports of statistical studies of accidents and accident causes. He generally finds that in most cases tlie approach is made through the study of groups of accidents or groups of individuals. Psychologists in their studies stress the fac tor of individual differences, since human behavior cannot be weighed or measured ex actly. Neither can they say one individual will react the same as another In a given cir cumstance. The psychological approach to the study of these individual differences in cludes the analysis of physical reactions and motor skills through the construction and application of various aptitude tests, and attempts further to investigate the attitudes of individual drivers. In some instances however, the public has been misled as to the importance of psychophysical tests through the injudicious exhibition throughout the country, of apparatus displayed as "driver tests.** Various pieces of this equipment have not been adequately standardized. While socalled standards are being established, the tests are given for the most part by individ uals untrained in psychology. Many of the measurements made by these machines are of little value. Quick reaction time is im portant in driving, but many devices for measuring it are not equipped to detect the elements of fatigue, toxic conditions in the body or any of the many other factors which influence the individual's ability to react. Similarly steering ability, color blindness, glare sensitivity, vision and other factors are measured, although little effort is made to correlate the results with ordinance vio lations or accident-proneness. Knowing this, the average citizen feels inclined to urge that the limitations of testing apparatus be rec ognized since the value of these techniques is being grossly exaggerated. Now our hypothetical average citizen comes away from his investigation unsatis fied. He finds, among the various groups Street and Highway Traffic Section 33 attacking the problem, enthusiasm and a completeness of their individual activities. He sees there is money available and that, among the workers themselves, there is ability and intelligence. He is surprised, however, to find that each group is isolated, that their separate approaches are undirected and that there exists today no concerted, in tegrated concept of the problem as a whole. He then concludes that the problem driver is neither insane, defective nor physically handicapped. This observation suggests a further study of "faulty attitude" That "faulty attitude" toward the law en forcement agencies, toward society in gen What can wc do about it ? We must change our concept of the problem. Sociologists have :earned there are definite delinquency areas in our uibau centers and have focused attention upon the environment conditions as causative factors. Clark Tibbcts in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (May, 1931), In nn article entitled "Success or Failure on Pa role Can Be Predicted," showed that it is possible to forecast with a surprising degree of accuracy the success or failure of an in dividual on parole. Ernest W. Burgess, writing in the Ameri eral, and toward other drivers is an import can Sociological Review (October, 1936) ant factor in any investigation or the driver pointed out that success or failure in mar is almost universally conceded, yet no satis riage could be predicted through an investi factory tests for evaluating this deviation gation of historical data. are available. Sheldon Glucck of Harvard university in Jn Detroit wc have found that a scientific his book "Five Hundred Criminal Careers," interview conducted by the psychologist or describes similar studies. psychiatrist has produced most satisfactory results. Since we obviously cannot subject each driver in the country to such an inter view, should we therefore admit that wc camiot solve this phase of the problem ? These results are accomplished through a study of the past history of the individual. Given a detailed study of the subject's back ground, his future behavior may be pre dicted with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Let us first consider what this term Presumably, then, the early environmental "faulty attitude" really means. We have the so-called "smart alec," the "show-off," the selfish driver who has little regard for the factors, the home situation, the attitude of parents and relatives, the educational experi ences and other related circumstances are rights of others and the horn blower who important in moulding the attitude of the laughs at the speed laws. All these and individual toward the social structure. many others might be included in this "faulty altitude" group. Some of us are able to achieve success in a manner considered socially acceptable. Others, not so fortunate, use methods that do not have social approval. Since a car may If in the study of drivers we are interested in their attitudes, and I am convinced that our interest in this phase of the prob lem has not hitherto been sufficiently great, we must not lose sight of the sociological factors. be owned and operated by almost everyone, what is more natural than an attempt to excel in the daily "driving contest" if suc cess in other fields is not forthcoming. We also must not lose sight of the fact that speeding and other reckless maneuvers are, of themselves, the mediums through which approval from "the gang" is achieved by many youthful individuals. Since man is a product of his social en vironment, let us expect to find in America many individuals steeped in their cultural traditions, compensating through fancied vic tories in traffic situations, for failures in other fields of endeavor. Perhaps the term "faulty attitude" might be more correctly styled "American attitude." Obviously wc cannot eradicate delinquency areas nor can we control to any appreciable degree, the attitude of parents or the multi tude of experiences and contacts to which the individual may be exposed. We can and should give more attention to the youthful individual. Most of us, myself included; are concerned with drivers who are violators. We appear on the scene after the trouble has occurred and try to find out why. Although our intentions may be laudable, still u*c must admit that we are not attacking the prob lem at its source. We must go hack along the road and meet the younger drivers and even future drivers coming along, and de vote our attention ot them if we are to make our efforts really constructive. 34 Twenty-sixth National Safety Council Social workers, teachers, community cen ter supervisors and social agencies know of families in which the children are being subjected to unhealthy social instruction. They know of individuals who arc striving for social approval In an antisocial manner, and who have tittle regard for the rights and privileges of other. Can we expect these future drivers to abide by the rules when they later become operators of cars? Let us stop treating the symptoms of this disease and start looking for its causes. As traffic men, most of us arc not qualified to study delinquent children, but let us recog nize that the study of these delinquents, by qualified individuals interested in the future driver, is like)}' to produce more constructive results than the study of those who have al ready deviated. Let us conliuue our present activities, hut can't we look back, observing our future drivers preparing to take the road and give our support to those whose traffic studies are related to younger individuals? Let us encourage the educator and let us further enlist the cooperation of social agencies in an attempt to discover and train the potential driver who may later "commit" accidents. While 1 may seem to be stressing the importance of the study of juvenile de linquents, I realize, of course, that many well adjusted youths may later become problem drivers. It is unquestionably true, however, that a sense of irresponsibility or an inability to adjust socially, will occur more frequently in the individual who has revealed these same tendencies in his youth, than in the case of the adult who has been seemingly ad justed in the past. Ideally, wc should hope ultimately to con centrate much of Our efforts upon the proper "traffic education" of very young children. Practically, let us try to so adjust our pres ent activities to give greater study and in struction to the younger group. We have a central organization in the National Safety Council Let us, through it, exchange ideas and formulate a program looking toward the selection of pre-accidcnt prone drivers. Let us establish contact especially with the school authorities, the social workers and employ ers. This* involves no question of spending money, but in fact, we may expect more re turn per dollar. This is an approach which is not Utopian, not visionary, but as sociolo gists have proved, one that has a definite practical value. WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 13. 1937 SPECIAL GROUP SESSIONS Wednesday morning was devoted to a discussion of specialized phases of the pubcric* nf four group essions for informal lie safety problem. TRAFFIC COURT JUDGES The session was called to order by the Honorable Harry H. Porter, Chief Justice, Municipal Court. Evanston, III., who pre- sided. Since all discussion which took place at the meeting was informal, no record of the proceedings was obtainable for publication i/i the Transactions. Street and Highway Traffic Section 35 DIRECTORS OF PUBLIC SAFETY The meeting was called to order by Eliot The discussion at this was all itt- Ncss, .Director of Public Safely, Cleveland, formal. No record of the proceedings is Ohio, who presided. available for publication. CITY AND STATE POLICE The meeting was called lo order by R. Salt Lake City, Utah, uho presided and \V. Groo, Director, Stale Highway Patrol, directed the discussion. City and State Police Meeting By R. W. QROO Superintendent, Utah Highway Patrol, Preaiding Some of the factors of the traffic problem were presented by Mr. Groo as an aniline for discussion: 2. Is it practical or desirable to reduce speed for night driving? The basic work for any department must be first the collection and compilation of ade quate records, Studiesbased on the records will show : a. What causes accidents:--speed, road conditions, volume of traffic and equipment. 3. What can ue do to secure evidence for conviction of the drunken driver? 4. Is compulsory inspection of motor vehicle* having a marked safety effect? 5. Personnel training in Public Relations. h. Where treatment is needed,--city or Leaders in discussion were E. Raymond rural areas. Cato, Chief, California Highway Patrol; O. c. Why treatment is needed.--because of personal injuries or property damage- W. Wilson, Chief, Wichita Police Depart ment; J. J. Marsh, Supervisor, Colorado Courtesy Highway Patrol; Don F. Stiver, d. Who suffers injuries or loss,--men, ' Superintendent, Indiana State Police; women, children, adults, drivers or pedes trians. Mathew A. Skea, Captain. Public Safety Department, New York City Police Depart ment. Q_mesturns f,or Discussion mgT,hweriethw1a4s ajunriastdteicntdioancseroefp3re6saetnttheed:mAecrti- 1. What is the relative importance of speed as an accident cause, and how can speed he controlled? zIlolinnao,isA, rkaInndsiaasn,a,CaKlifaonrsnaias,, CMoilsosraoduor,i, IoNwca-, braska. New York, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virpinix # The L h'jrloog. STA TE UlGHWA Y OFFICIA LS ww called to order by John Traffic Engineer. Colorado sidedWay l>Par,m'm. Denver, who pre- .V, Tnvuly-sixlh National Safety Congress State Highway Officials By JOHN E. FURLONG Traffic Engineer, Colorado Highway Department, Denver, Presiding 111 opening the meeting, Mr. Kurfong said in pari: No Mate can afford to "junk" entirely those millions of dollars invested in the now obsolete, yet super-type roadbeds of 1920 to 1935, simply Ixcausc 1937 traffic wishes to move at speeds ranging from 50 to ftO miles per hour. Therefore, docs not our salvation He, at least to some extent, in studying how to better and make more safe some of iIkjsc existing older pavements? After trying numerous physical traffic con trol devices in some accident prone areas, it was found that the major cause of accidents might be purely recklessness on the part of the drivers. The only way this could be overcome was by police operation. There fore, the Colorado State Highway Depart ment is now financing our State Highway Patrol. Plan for Secondary Roads Problem Is Apparent Is not the very essence of our gathering here this week an admission that something is wrong--that c are groping in the dark? Have we not come here to contact each oilier in hopes of gaining from the other fellow h>s experience, or what lie has learned from highway accident history? Accidents, their location, their frequency and other detailed analysis, should furnish lis a valuable clew to necessary betterments. Vet, how many highway departments use a definite method of accident analysis to find hazardous conditions or where obsolete pieces of pavement are actually causing trouble? Another reason is appearing for the high way engineer to have a knowledge of the ratio of accident frequency to road condi tions and maintenance--the newly considered Federal- Aid Secondary Road System, as sponsored by the United States Bureau of Public Roads. This program will call for the eventual improvement of many of our well-traveled, yet less important, highways. Construction standards will probably be lower than those in effect upon our present Federal Aid Highways. Does not this indi cate tint we should attempt to gain the best knowledge possible of mistakes we have made in designing our present roads, so that we may avoid a recurrence of conditions that cause accidents? Planned for Future Seven States Represented In view of Colorado's limited income for highway purposes, C. D. Vail, Stale High way Engineer, foresaw in 1932 mites of ob solete awl inadequate roadbeds, coupled with msuiVtcicnl funds for new construction. He, therefore, fnrgan to set up, within his high* way department, a road signing and traffic investigation section. The duties ol this sec tion were, first, adequately to mark the roads, ami secondly, to ferret out areas or stretches tH lugh-accidcnt frequency and try to relieve the situation as croo/mVa//v as possible. Many times the installation of just one reflector type caution sign or directional ar row sufficed. Money spent to centerstriping Mind hill tops, or areas where accident re ports indicated deficient visibility, was found to be well worthwhile. Following these introductory remarks, Mr. Furlong turned the meeting over to the delegates who represented (he states of Minnesota. Kansas, Illinois. Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. Much of the discussion dealt with the technicalities of building safety into the pres ent day two and four lane highways, and especially into the four lane divided type. Another point which created much dis cussion was the superspeed trains and their effect upon the grade crossing problem. Discussion also centered about driver re sponsibility in the use of public highways, particularly during times of adverse weather conditions. Street and Highway Traffic Section WEDNESDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 13, 1937 37 The session was called to order by Wil liam C. KnoeJk, general chairman of the Street and Highway Traffic Section, who presided. Reports were presented as fol lows : Committee on Annual Congress Program, Col. John A. Cutchins, Director of Public Safety, Richmond, Va., chairman. Committee on Accident Records, W. Graham Cole, Director of Safely, Metro politan Life Insurance Co., New York City, chairman. Committee on Vehicle Inspection and Ac cidents, Walter Dent Smith, President, Delaware Safety Council, Wilmington, chairman. Committee on Traffic Violations and Ac cidents, Capt. Ray Ashworth, Assistant Di rector, Safety Department, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Evanston, III., chairman. Nominating Committee, George C. Eichhom, Director o{ Traffic Safety, Greens boro. N. C., chairman. Results ol the election of officers will lie found elsewhere in this record. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13. 1937 PEDESTRIAN PROBLEMS The meeting was called to orur.r by O. Kan., who presided, introducing the speak\V. Wilson, Chief of Police, Wichita, ers. Report of Committee on Pedestrian Control and Protection Leslie /. Sorenson, City Traffic Engineer, Chicago, and Chairman of the Committee on Pedestrian Control and Protection, briefly summarized the report of this com mittee. The complete report will be found at the end of the Street and Highway Traffic Section of this volume. Copies of this report arc available in pamphlet form from tlic National Safety Council's Bureau of Information. How Can We Protect Pedestrians in Traffic? By WALTER W. MATTHEWS Director, Philadelphia Safety Council Within the last year Philadelphia has been given the credit (if there he any) for press- mg the movement to classify pedestrian accidents by that designation, rather than calling them merely "traffic" or "motor yehide" accidents. The statement, applied years ago to in dustrial and public accidents, that "we need 38 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress to know More about more accidents" is just as true today, and it tuts a special applica tion to the pedestrian problem. We shall only be able to protect pedes trians in traffic when we know what they do (not so much what vehicle drivers do); why and how they do it; and what their reaction is to the apparently ineffectual present remedies. We will know these things only when we begin to study pedestrian accidents sepa rately. when wc have looked at them for what they are. and have not. in every case, considered them as automobile accidents, even though the automobile may have been the means by which the casualty occurred. It will be variously argued that the ratio of pedestrian fatalities does not warrant this detail, and it is even contended that the rural pedestrian presents our greatest trian fatalities had decreased only 10 per cent. The decrease in total fatalities among the 13 cities from 1934 to 1936 was 12 per cent That it is not yet recognised as a major municipal traffic problem is evidenced by the lack of information available from even those cities whose experience is least favorable. Our traffic engineering depart ment received mostly sympathetic regrets from them, with accompanying expressions of best wishes in our effort to solve "our" problem. The Philadelphia safety council sought information from major insurance com panies relative to pedestrian claim*, and was astounded to fmd that vrixh the excep tion of two or three, no data of Uns char acter were available, and apparently no effort whatever bring made to accnnmtasc it. There are at least two bright spot* in difficulty. It is doubtful that we have a clear real isation of what the problem really Is. Three this gloomy and somewhat pesrimirtk pic ture from which we can glean some comfort and mayhap they will point the wav to in persons out uf every four killed in our major cities are pedestrians, and the per centage is rapidly rising. From a survey conducted by T. E. Transcau. Philadelphia'* Assistant Director of Public Safety (subsequently published in "Public Safety'*), wc find (hat in Id princi pal cities (he percentage figure for 1934 was 71.3; for 1935, 71.9; and 75 for 193d Wc arc perhaps inclined to lie apathetic to the problem because the percentage of pedestrian fatalities, compared with the total fatalities in the United States as a whole, is fairly steady at about 40 per cent. Hut when it reaches 75 per cent in the principal rilics it Icoitk-s a major traffic problem, demanding parale and special analyses and treatment. There has been a stead} decrease in the tensified pedestrian endeavor. The steady redactkn of occupant and driver fatalities certainly show's the effect of the concerted driver-education programs developed during the past 10 years. The record among school children is too well known to warrant detail here, but it does prove conclusively the value and effect of mass education--where it is possible to gather people together, or exercise some discipline or control (as in industry), much can be done by way of instilling safety edu cation. And it is largely upon education that we must depend if wc are to protect pedestrians in traffic No one minimizes die protective value of all the engineering aids--safety islands, walk-signals, cross-walks--nor the educa fatality rale for most of the ' 13 cities tional value of enforcement, although it is studied, in spite of greatly increased vehicle doubtful if the great majority of our citi usage and increased gasoline consumption. zens are yet ready to accept, or have been There has, likewise, been a slight decrease educated to the point of accepting, arrests in the rate of pedestrian fatalities and a for the average pedestrian violation. It lather steady decrease in occupant fatalities. smacks too much of regimentation to suit The occupant reduction lias l>een about 75 the average legislative or councilmanic t*?r cent. The comparison of only 7 per mind, and since there is much psychology cent reduction in pedestrian fatalities in all in proper terminology, why not call it the 13 cities' is therefore all the more un favorable. In Philadelphia, personal injury accidents involving the driver or passenger in a fatality were reduced 32 per cent from 1929 to I9J6, but, in the meantime, pedes "discipline," anyhow*? There would seem to be good reason for the foregoing conclusions, especially as to mass education and the psychological ap- Street and Highway Tragic Section 39 peal, particularly in city pedestrian acci dents. Contrary to rather widespread public belief, and unfortunately the same viewpoint is often reflected in the attitude of traffic engineers, most pedestrian accidents do not occur in great numbers at btisy intersections. Many of them occur at points not ordinarily considered as being particularly hazardous, and to that degree, even though urban in character, apparently require much of the same treatment given rural accidents. Last June the Philadelphia safety council undertook, with the complete cooperation, of our Department of Public Safety, a de tailed analysis of each of the 98 accidents in which 100 pedestrians had been killed during the first five months of 1937. Taking two pedestrian fatalities as a minimum base, 11 of our main traffic arteries (and they do not, of course, have important inter sections throughout their entire length) produced ks* than 50 per cent of the total In fact, the total of all traffic deaths for 1936--252--f which 85 per cent or 187 were pedestrians, was accumulated at 231 ctunic locations at widely scattered points throughout the city, and much the same approach. Perhaps we have overlooked the fact that while vehicle speeds have increased tremendously, people still walk at about the same speed they always did. It may even be assumed that wider streets do not always register in the mind* of pedestrians (par ticularly those of advanced years) in terms of how much longer it takes them to get across. The driver, for years, has been bom barded with rules of conduct, charts and regulations, tabulations of stopping dis tances, all sorts of technical safety Infor mation with respect to himself and his car. In fact, all of our safety education, wit!) the exception of that in the grade schools, has been directed to the driver. On the other liand, have we ever informed the pedestrian of the average walking speed ; told him how long it takes to cross the street of average width; given him a formula for judging the speed and distance of approaching vehicles in terms he will understand; advised him of what to do when caught between moving traffic streams; and countless other things ? Undoubtedly, the chief impetus to driver nwiitwn i* evident this year. training, at least in the larger cities, has Another supporting factor is that only about 37 per cent were killed within, or at intersections, while 45 per cent were cross ing in mid-block, or at a point other than the intersection. The survey disclosed many other inter esting, and to us, new angles of the prob lem. Frankly, we were somewhat staggered by the fact that while pedestrians were in volved in only 36 per cent of our total traffic accidents, they did comprise 85 per cent of the fatalities. And we have been forced (o the con sideration of special group education by the tragic discovery that 64 per cent of the l>cdestrians being killed in Philadelphia are 50 years of age or older. 31 per cent were 65 or older. How then to reach this age group, many of whom do not drive automobiles? Several injured pedestrians of advanced years, when interviewed by our accident squads, stated tliat they had never driven. In other words, they had no appreciation of vehicle speeds, lacked judgment of distance and the coordi nation of movement generally acquired by an experienced driver. Obviously we must resort to a different come through the related activities incident to participation to the National Safety Council's Inter-City Traffic Safety Contest, Entry in the contest has the effect of stimulating all manner of safety educational activities. Therefore, as a second conclusion, may I venture the suggestion that to focus at tention on die pedestrian problem, there be some special credit set up in those con tests for pedestrian accident reduction. This, of course, is predicated on the first con clusion that we will classify pedestrian ac cidents separately. It will be inferred from this discussion that education is favored above any other means. L believe it is our chief ally in pro tecting pedestrians. In the cities it must be reduced do neigh borhood or community activities. The advanced age group, (and they are the ones we must reach), do not scan the newspapers too thoroughly. They are not particularly receptive to mass safely meetings. They are naturally opposed to any restriction of their supposed rights by pedestrian enforcement or regimentation. That they too frequently set a poor example to the youngsters is ob vious from only a casual survey. 40 TwcHfy-sixth National Safety Congress Reviewing this presentation, it is obvious that no new note has been struck, nor is there any complete panacea offered. We, in Philadelphia, arc by no means likening ourselves to a voice crying in the wilderness, but we are hopeful that by emphasizing the facts on city pedestrian accidents, we may discover remedies not hitherto suggested. How Can We Protect Pedestrians in Traffic? By C. G. BECKENBACH Traffic Engineer, Police Department, Dalles, Tex, The Tentative draft of the Report of the Committee on Pedestrian Protection and Control contains om- startling table, indicat ing (hat at (east since 19J2 three quarters *f the lives lost in urban traffic have been pedestrians. The rural problem as developed by the report is similar, but less acute. Yet among the literature un traffic problems, and amonK the |*rurredni|c id various safety gatherings. I find few* studies or con siderations of pedestrian problems. Why we have so tong overlooked this mailer I cannot l*c sure. In Dallas both the police department and the Citizens* Traffic Commission Itavc only within the last year awakened to the importance of tlie problem; and 1 know from our correspond ence with other cities that they Itavc had a similar experience. One possible reason is that a traffic congestion, or a collision lctween two vehicles is a prominent figure in any landscape, while a pedestrian is often killed without those nearby so much as being aware* of the tragedy. Their passing has not delayed us or interfered with our oxen use of tbe streets, and hence our lack of vision of the complete picture. For 12 years I have been a practicing Fatalities from Kotor Vehicle Collisions with Fedestrisas, Dallas, Tans, Yr*. 19340935-1936 1*. C IWJJ 1 Child 0--14 5--14 Total Child Adult 15--24 23--64 Total MUIclIv aged Elderly-- 65 & over Total Adults Grand Total SUMMARY: Child Adult Elderly 1936 Dusk Dark Day 3 1935 Dusk Dark Day 2 2 1934 Dusk Dark Total 4 9 63 4 13 17 ' 84 10 6 1 6 36 * 84 11 6 1 6 38 i * 3 1 5 19 3 ' 14 7 1 u 54 9 u 10 u ii i 11 70 Daylight 12 5 30 Dusk 0 1 0 1 Dark 0 25 14 39 Streel and Highway Traffic Section civil engineer, dealing with the design and construction of streets and roads, / have been concerned with these pavements in rural areas, and in the small hamlets and 13 in the past three years---occurred at times and to individuals away from the in fluence of the school safety training. the largest city in the state. Yet I cannot From this study we might conclude that recall once when pedestrians were given education is very effective. Conversely we more than a passing thought in considering might co'> )udc that (he non-school child pavement designs or street construction. deaths ar< largely caused by the had train Let us agree, then, that at least as far as ing which children receive from watching concerns the loss of life, the element of (tedestrians on the roadway surfaces is of us older folks. Let us now look into the adult pedestrian jparamount importance. It i? a subject far situation. Dallas has had traffic signals since removed from the problem of moving large 1923. Pedestrian obedience was required numbers of vehicles rapidly and without from the beginning. collision among themselves. But, neverthe less, the most serious of the safely problems facing us in traffic. There arc so many factors, and local con ditions. surrounding any accident that it is difficult to make tables painting an accurate Wc recently made all-day surveys at 21 of the LSI signalized intersections, selecting some in the downtown district having the new side-type signals with flexible-progres sive control and some in the same district which have not been changed to the new and true composite picture. The tabic on equipment, but still have center suspension page 40 is a study oi the two factors: age lights, with alternate simultaneous control. groups and conditions of daylight or dark ness, for the years 1934, 1935 and 1936 in Dallas: Consider for a moment the child pedes trian death problem. In Dallas wc have lost The side type signals have amber over lapping off-going green only, but the center suspension lights have amber following both green and red, and ring a bell along with the amber. Wc also included several sub only two children while going to or from urban locations having the center suspen school in the past 13 years. This we ascribe sion lights with amber following both green to the excellent safety program which has and red but without the bell. been built into the Dallas schools. Out of the 68 Dallas schools, all but Ihrce or four of the smaller ones have a junior Safety Council, and all of them which lie near a heavily traveled street have safety patrols. Most schools have one hour of safety instructions weekly, none have less than a half hour weekly. An analysts of the actions of the school children while cross ing the streets was made in the spring of The results, shown both as total pedes trians observed and as percentages, arc given in the table on page 43. In this survey, the actions of all pedestrians were recorded, and tbe counts included the time from 7 a.m. to 9 p.ra. From this result wc conclude there should be few pedestrian deaths at signalized locations, if signals do in fact offer any positive protection to pedestrian*. 1937. All-day observations were made at We have analyzed the circumstances of 557 crossings, covering the vicinities of 48 "What Pedestrians Were Doing," and found schools. The total number of children cross that of the 70 pedestrians killed in 1934, 1935 ing was 46,722, of which number there were and 1936. tliecr actions were as follows: selected 15,378 children whose individual actions were recorded. The selection was so conducted as to assure true representa tion of average action. Tbe table on page 42 expresses in per Crossing at intersection with signal Same against signal Same, no signal Same, diagonally Crossing*--not at Intersection m ` 3 6 17 0 29 centages the actions of the children m mak ing the crossings, and show* the effectiveness of various types of control, ft also shows a comparison among the morning, noon and afternoon periods. In general, there was a slackening of care in the afternoon. Both of the child deaths mentioned have been in the afternoon periods. Dallas' other child pedestrian deaths--of which there have been "Hopping" vehicle Playing in roadway Walking in roadway Working in roadway Waiting for or getting on or off St. Car at safely zone Same--no safety zone Not in roadway Getting on or off other vehicle 0 3 4 1 2 I 2 2 70 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress nmornnarcss or various row or control Obmd morning, noon and afternoon c`* nn rraifC 43.) Manner Crossed in Cross Walks Crossed Out of Crosswalks Between Inter sections Permission Given Stop and Go Time Signal A.M. Noon P.M. 84.5 83.5 74.2 A.M. Noon P.M. 08.2 04 7 11.3 A.M. Noon P.M. 07.3 11.8 14.5 A.M. Noon P.M. 85.8 82.3 75.5 Permission Removed A.M. Noon P.M. 14.2 17.7 24.5 Walked Vigilantly A.M. Noon P.M. 78.7 67.4 71.2 Walked Heedlessly A.M. Noon P.M. 08.0 09.3 13.8 Han A.M. Noon P.M. Started When Safe A.M. Noon P.M. Started When Unsafe AM. Noon P.M. Did Not lxx>k A.M. Noon P.M. Total Crossing* A.M. Surveyed Noon P.M. 13.3 23.3 15.0 88.6 91.9' 80.8 10.1 07.2 16.7 or. 3 00.9 02.5 22* 18 20 Total Total Indi vidual Child Observations A.M. Noon P.M. 60 S36 322 558 1416 Total Pupils Crossing A.M. Noon P.M. 1672 749 1875 4296 Officer ou Duty 91-0 89.7 75.6 00-7 04.2 04.4 09.6 20.2 83.0 66.9 6t .4 17.0 33.1 38.6 90.3 77.2 85.4 04. t 09.6 06.1 05.6 13 2 08.5 94.1 90.4 94.2 64.0 09.6 05.6 01.9 00.2 20 6 10 36 699 136 376 UU 2138 323 193 V 4392 School Patrol 87.7 86.2 78.S 07 7 08.3 n.s 04.6 05.3 09.7 71.7 59.7 58.6 28.3 40.3 41.4 85.9 81.9 81.9 05.4 05.2 06.1 08.7 12.9 12 0 94.7 94.3 93.4 03.5 04.2 03.8 01.8 01.5 02.8 45 31 31 107 1552 795 1014 " 3361 5272 2418 4024 11,714 No Control 57.7 57.9 60.5 21.1 19.0 14.7 21.1 23 1 24.8 -- --- 74.7 68.4 73.6 16.6 13.7 16.5 08.7 17.9 09.9 86.8 84.0 85.2 08.0 10.8 10.6 05.2 05.2 04 2 105 123 126 354 .3081 2594 3715 9390 9340 4805 12,075 13.220 Average All Types 72.1 67.0 66.1 14.1 14.9 13.2 13 4 18.1 20.7 77.2 66.3 64.0 22.8 33.7 36.0 79.9 71.5 75.6 11.4 11 .4 13.8 08.7 17.1 10.6 89.9 87.1 86.9 06.5 09.1 09.6 03.6 03.8 03.5 192 178 18* 557 5868 3847 5663 15,378 18.422 8395 19.905 46.722 Street and Highway Traffic Section 43 Niunbor and percentage of pedestrians leaving curbs on various signal Indications, broken down as to type of signals and locations. Leave Curb On All Intersections. 25,795 persons observed Downtown Intersection. Side type equipment. 17,616 persons observed Downtown Intersections. Center type equipment. 5,398 persons observed Residential Center type 2,739 persons observed Green Amber or Green-Amber Red Amber No. 23, J 8* 942 945 722 % No. 89 16,308 4 684 4 561 3 63 % No. 92.5 4,446 3.9 3.2 0.3 206 120 626 % 82 4 2 11.5 No. 2.396 52 258 33 % 87 2 9.5 1.0 We felt this might be of some value as a guide for the direction of educational work, but of little value otherwise, at least for the purpose of taking remedial measure. The accident cards of all the daytime acci dents were spread out together, with their diagrams, to try to determine whether any factor could be found common to any con siderable number of them, of a more specific significance than "What Pedestrians Were Doing." Wc believe these facts are signifi cant ; 1. In practically every case it was possible for the vehicle to wander over a consider able portion of the street, often easier for it to travel on the wrong side than the right, both at the intersections and in mid-block. 2. Because of this, the pedestrian was ex posed to vehicles coming from more than one direction. Many pedestrians who were struck on the near side of the street were looking to the right in anticipation of a vehicle coming at them on the wrong side of the street. 3. Also, because of this, there was a tend ency for the drivers to "crowd" the pedes trian, whkh often caused the pedestrian to collide with a car other than the one he was dodging. Studies made in the field in dicate a very pronounced refusal of motor-, ists to yield right of way to pedestrians. Drivers to an alarming degree tend to try to swing their cars in front of pedestrians so as to get by first, heedless of the fact that the pedestrian is left standing in the street. We believe all three of these adverse con ditions will be materially corrected by di vided roadways and channelised streets and intersections. Pedestrians, being physically protected against all vehicles save those from one direction, will give all their atten tion to that one direction. Drivers will be forced to stay on their own side of the street, and positively prevented from making the short left turn; which movement exposes pedestrians on two crosswalks to being struck from the rear. We realize it is uot possible to rebuild all streets, or even any fair number of them. Yet channelization must be made very ex tensive if material benefits are to accrue. Tn Dallas we have devised a type of con struction which we believe meets the re quirements in an inexpensive and thoroughly efficient manner. We simply build center lines, lane lines and islands from rows of mushroom buttons 12 indies in diameter by 4 inches high, held in place by a single holt. The buttons are built of white concrete, made in our own shops, and set in place for a total cost of labor and material of less than 40 cents each. Frankly, we have been ($ tabic on pi 42.> *Thc variation in the number of cros*injf* surveyed is due to the fact that the tyiie of control changed at various times of the day. This is distinctly noticeable in the "CHKcer on Duty" column. The 557 crossings were for children front 48 of the 67 public schools in the city. Tlic oilier schools are not near streets carrying heavy traffic. The above percentages are based on recorded actions of one out of each group of children approach* ing the crossinxs. The specimen child was always selected before the group reached the creasing, to be sure of an unbiased selection. `Total numbers of children making the crossings were recorded for the purpose of having complete information, for future control design. 44 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress amazed at the functioning of this regulatory construction. We find that in addition to pedestrian protection, ? arc able to smooth out tl>e velocity of the various vehicles in a traffic stream, slowing down the reckless and speeding up the cautious, and to form definite lanes, generally gaining one lane more than the number previously formed. Similarly, wc laid out all the cards re cording the night pedestrian deaths. We drew a blank when we tried to analyze them. Wc could make neither heads nor tails from the reports of the street lighting, so a spot map was prepared of all the night pedes trian death* for five years, and each location was studied carefully on the ground at the time of night at which the fatality had oc curred. It was found that, neglecting some of the. deaths in which the pedestrian was intoxi cated, ciliter one of two conditions of light ing existed, and neither of two other conditions existed. A. The light conditions found to exist at practically all the death scenes were: 1. The accident occurred half-way between two mast arm street lights of 400 candlcpowcr each, when the lights were not closer than 600 feet nor far ther than 1,000 feet, or-- 2, The accident occurred about 50 feet beyond one uf these lights, with the vehicle traveling away from the light, toward the pedestrian, but with tbe pedestrian in bright, direct illumina tion. In this case, there was no silhou ette effect whatever. B. The lighting conditions which were found practically never to exist in connec tion with night pedestrian deaths were: 1. A condition in streets, even long, fasttraveled streets, equipped with no street illumination whatever. 2, A condition of uniform illumination, with neither dark spots nor bright spots. Tlie degree of illuminations ap parently made no difference, so long as it was uniform. We have many streets meeting each of the above conditions, which are uniformly free of pedestrian deaths. Our street lighting is directly under the supervision of the Direc tor of Public Utilities, and that office is now cooperating with the traffic division of the police department to consider lighting from a traffic standpoint in addition to the other safety standpoints previously considered. We confidently believe that the measures herein outlined will be material factors m reducing our pedestrian losses in the future, namely channelized streets and uniform lighting. Protecting the Bicyclist By LEON E. KUDO Western Union, Kansas City, Mo. I shall attempt to give you a brief re sume of just what the Western Union has been attempting to do for years, in the hope that it will give you a thought which can lie carried further, broadcast and gradually bring into realization our dream of safety for our messenger boy. May I say here, no one unit, corporation, or individual, can ever work out a solution, because a com plete solution rall.s for (he co-ordination of man)' factors not under our direct control. The tendency of the uninitiated is to lay the blame for on accident to the police de partment's failure to enforce various or dinances designed to protect the pedestrian or bicycle rider. My answer to that is pure, unadulterated "bunk". Our experi ence has demonstrated beyoiid any doubt that police departments of all cities un derstand the problem and are doing every thing in their power to remedy it. This bicycle problem is a constantly growing one, so it must be faced ttenu. We are interested in "our boys", hut after all, they are your hoys too. We figure there are three basic subjects under which the problem should be han dled: 1. HtfufuliOH--Tlvat is. education of the boy in the danger of certain arts, or lack of certain equipment. Encourage Street and Highioay Traffic Section 45 him to talk safety to his friends and family. Propagandize the subject among each individual's circle of ac quaintance. 2. Organisation--Not only among the boys, but every employee, so there is a definite follow-through which will keep the subject alive. Safety litera ture when brief and pertinent. Bulle tin boards which carry other subjects usually are interesting to the boy. So he is constantly meeting the word SAFETY. 3. Supervision--which includes daily inspection of all equipment, such as lights, brakes, tires, etc. Street observation by certain designated employee*. When a boy applies to us for employment as a "bicycle messenger" he must first demonstrate his ability to ride intelligently in traffic. Each application carries in bold face I)T>e M] promise to obey all city traffic regulations and safety rules of the Telegraph Company." He is instructed never to take chances in making deliveries. Safety comes lie fore speed. In addition to our anxiety for the lioy's welfare we realize that an accident may cause him to lose a telegram or delay it. Therefore we impress upon him that his obedience to the law means safely for him *clf. safety for the company, and safety for the patron. His bicycle is subjected to a rigid inspec tion of parts and accessories and, even though he passes all other requirements, he > not accepted until he has complied with all city requirements, such as horn, elec tric lights on front and rear of his bicycle, good brakes, etc. A Iter employment h>* equipment is given rigid inspections each day to see that equipment is maintained. They soon learn that if they report for work with a defective set oC brakes, or broken light, etc., they are not jxjrmitted to go to work until repaired. We often help them secure the necessary repairs, but they finally realize their equip ment must be in good shape, or they earn no money. About one experience for a new boy and we have no further trouble on that poim. What do I mean by daily inspection? I. Boy's physical condition. Z. Arc coaster brake and chain in proper condition? 3. Are tires defective? Properly inflated? 4. Are pedals and hanger in good condi tion ? 5. Are handle bars and saddle properly adjusted ? 6. Are handle bar grips securely ce mented? 7. Are mudguards secure? 8. Is horn or bell in good working con dition? 9. Are front and rear lights in operating condition? Each boy is provided with a manual in which four of its 18 pages are devoted to safety, being changed from time to time to meet varying conditions. He must know these rules, since he is liable to be quizzed at any time on them. One very effective plan is to have a "Kangaroo Court," composed entirely of fellow messengers, who assess small fines on conviction of violations. Another point which may seem insignifi cant at first thought, but contributes heavily toward eliminating accidents--each boy is re quired to have his handlebars turned up rather than down and the scat lowered un til he is forced to assume an upright posi tion when riding, thereby improving his vi sion and alertness. High scats and turned down handlebars in heavy traffic guarantee an accident sooner or later. We have inspectors who circulate among various branch offices, observing the conduct of boys on the street when they apparently are free from observation. I recall a specific instance of the operation of this plan. Near a certain branch office the street had been repaired, Icaviiqf a small hump. This par ticular boy formed the habit of riding over this hump at every opportunity, as it caused the wheel to jump when struck head on. He got a thrill by taking this jump to see how often lie could do it without heing thrown to the street. He was told why it was dangerous as a spill would throw him in front of fast moving automobiles and not only injure him, but might wreck the automobile. He listened attentively, left the office on another rdfn and hit the hump full force. When he returned to the office he was suspended. Wc have never caught him doing it again and the other boys saw we would not tolerate viola tions. Group meetings arc held at regular in tervals when safety is the main topic and they are shown how a slight violation of traffic regulations may sometimes result in 46 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress serious accidents. We do not lecture the toys, but have a round table discussion of the problem and the boys are urged to ex> press their opinions. Illustrated posters arc displayed in messenger quarters. We offer prizes each year, the grand total amounting to as high as $7,500 for the city and individuals having the least number of accidents. Individual prizes range from $5 to $2S. Possibly 1 should amplify this statement: The greatest difficulty we experience in awarding prizes occurs when several offices of the same class have perfect score. There must be a limit on prizes--or the boys would lose interest, or we would go bankrupt. So wc have worked out the following: $7,500 is set as the total prize money granted for one year. One quarter, or $1,875 is distributed every three months. Since there are eight divisions in the company, each division covering several states, this leave* $238 for each division each quarter, or $80 for each group or das*. Offices are divided into three classes--large, medium and small, depending upon number of messenger hours worked. Therefore, every three months a $25 first prize, $15 second, $10 third and a number of $5.00 prizes are granted. Since several cities may have a perfect score, the only way we can grant prizes is to place each eligible boy's name in a hat and draw--the first name out gets $25 and so on until all prizes are distributed. This keeps the interest alive because a perfect score for any city in their class en titles each boy to participate. A checkup show's IS per cent of all messengers win a prize each year. The managers of delivery departments who are in charge of the boys are granted a separate group of prizes. ALL employers of bicycle boys should be required by law* to enforce police regulations covering inspection of bicycles. If the cor ner drug store permits their delivery boys to ignore the law, how* do you expect the boys to cooperate? If the parent takes the attitude he is too busy to see that his boy obeys the law*, there is one way to cure him. One, or two fines, or, better still, being re quired to appear in court personally to de fend himself will soon wake him up. Can the Public Be Educated? By R. J. DUNLAP Managing Editor, St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. I am asked, "Can the Public Be Educa ted ?" The answer is three-fold: The public can be educated in safety practices. The public has been educated to a certain degree. But the public has not been educated sufficiently. Naturally, opinions expressed in this talk are the results principally of observations nude in Minnesota. However, Minnesota motorists arc no different from the motorists of other states. They are human beings, with human faults, with the human tendency to liecome careless at times, to ignore safe driv ing practices. In Minnesota, there is an expression that seldom is heard "hoy more. That expression is "Boy, I made it in two hours flat!" The scarcity of that expression, I believe, is proof that the public can be educated. Its absence indicates a new attitude toward driving. Why it is that people don't make such a re mark ? It's because the motorist has come to real ize that fast driving under Improper condi tions is likely to bring him scorn instead of commendation. It's because safety educa tion has given the motorist an instinctive knowledge of when his driving is right or wrong. "All right," the public says. "If the motor ist knows w'hcn he is driving wrong, why in blazes does he do it?" He does it for the same reason that people do things tliat are wrong. The human race is not perfect. It will never be perfect. But the majority of people are law-abiding citizens and are so because they wish to be so. When it is agreed universally that passing an auto Street and Highway Traffic Section 47 mobile on a curve is a downright indecent act, accidents will have been reduced to a minimum. town thinking up safely slogans, and becom ing safety-minded without knowing it. It isn't necessary that the slogans be serious. A public knowledge of the wrong involved In fact, a lively slogan with some humor in in a violation of a traffic rule is the first ob it may do more good than some dirge about ject to be accomplished by safety leaders. As death and sorrow. I said, I believe this has been realized to a major degree in Minnesota. How did wc do it? By education--education m the news papers, on the radio, in magazines, by speakers at meetings of every sort, through every available agency. This campaign has been carried on under the direction of the Minnesota Public Safety Committee, a non political organization with affiliated city and county committees. Its members have been men and women in all walk* of business, professional and governmental life. Its ac tivities have included yearty contests for Safe drivers' schools offer a splendid op portunity for interesting education. The .school would be a flop if it consisted solely of a long-winded talk about the dangers of running red lights. But, it can be interesting if moving pictures of accidents are shown. It would be more helpful if the audience is asked to give opinions as to which driver was at fault, if the instructor explained how some law was violated, what caused the mishap and how it could have been avoided. Safety education has been subject to the cities and counties, with an annual dinner at same type of trouble that plagued other types which plaques are awarded for the lowest of education before the nation's school sys traffic fatality death records; poster and slogan competitions, and the distribution of considerable literature. The Committee is recognized as an insti tution of merit and its words carry weight. In fact, it has come to be so well known that often strange requests arrive in the moil for the director. There was tlic man >yho wanted the committee to support a law requiring that all automobile* come to a stop when cats were seen on, or about to cross, tem wa* brought up to a certain standard ized form. It has been haphazard. It has bounded from the sublime to the ridiculous, has chased a lot of rainbows and has caused the public no little confusion. 1 believe the time lias come when a well directed, thought ful system of safety education is necessary to prevent the loss of what gains have been made. This system should start with the kindergarten. School children now receive a certain the road. He didn't say anything about dogs. amount of safety education, considerable in A farmer wrote that he had a cow which mooed whenever it heard or automobile horn. The farmer offered the cow for sale to the committee for advertising purposes. But, in all sincerity, establishment of such a committee as the one in Minnesota will do much to get a program underway. The pub lic will lend its ears if advice comes from persons known and respected throughout the community. some states, none in others. There should be no state in which the school curriculum doe* not include a course in safety at home and on the highways. After all, what good is a doctor's or lawyer's degree if the gradu ate is killed in a traffic mishap? Neverthe less, safety education is in a woeful condi tion in most educational systems. And this criticism is directed at Minnesota, just as much as at other states. Safety education must he interesting. You can't expect to hold the attention of a group of intelligent persons by telling them that the bogey man will get them ii they don't watch out. They know all about the bogey man--the spectre who waits around the corner to wipe them off the face of the earth--but they don't take him seriously. The fault is our own, of course. There should be no difficulty in obtaining safely education in all schools. Educators offer no opposition to it. The trouble is that there has not been sufficient demand (or_ it. In the next year; I would like to see a campaign on a national basis for school safety education beginning with the kinder- There is little to be gained by a continuous garten and continuing through high school. repetition of warnings of the death and hor This can be accomplished if wc set our rible injuries awaiting the careless. "What the dickens," says the public. "It's no fun lis tening to this stuff. Let's go out for a ride." But sponsor a slogan contest, get half the minds to it. The proposal can be placed be fore all sorts of organizations by safety leaders of cities, counties and states. If the subject is stressed sufficiently, it will be ap proved. A small start has been made in St. 48 Ticeutv-sixtli Notional Safely Congress Paul and Minneapolis, where directors of safety have been appointed to devise a cur riculum, and we hope for success. Other types of education start with the child. Safety education is no different. It. also, should l*e started with the child. If iniercMmg safety programs could be out lined for cacti child in the United States, the pr'.ddctn would be nearly solved. Already, in many instances, the child has become the oirty scadocf for the aduh! Hun- alnnil pedestrian fatalities? I'rdt-dnas rieatrul always will be a prob lem until safety udmntks true out the misandrrstandnu; between the pedestrian and tle nxAurist. Kw a misuwrtrr itending sorely Owens, the two newspapers sponsor an an nual Northwest Traffic Accident conference, at which delegates from six states and two provinces of Canada confer on traffic prob lems. My newspapers are safety-minded and will continue to be so. Our reward is the knowledge that wc have contributed to the saving of life and property in Minnesota. Candidates for public office should be questioned before election on their attitude toward public safety activity. You probably are thinking chat naturally their answers will be that they are "solidly behind any move ment that bring greater safety to tbe resi dents of this great and noble commimity,** Nevertheless, publication of that answer will lire greater impetus to safety activity, will exists. give it a higher position in the public ques Tlw driver and pede was do not under tions of the day. will place it <n a par stand each otlirr** rtflttv The pedestrian with other campaign issues, and that's where feels that the driver is hiv enemy- and the driver believes that die pedestrian is a stub- Irom fool who certainly' does not want to live long. The result is a complete difference of opinion often ending in the pedestrian's lionise. it should be. In the last presidential campaign, tbe plat forms of the political parties contained do reference to public safety. In other words, the leaders of those parties did not think the subject merited such attention. They were What can he done about it? wrong. After all, when accidents take as Safety education again is the answer. Pedestrians must be brought to realize that signal lights arc meant for them just as much as for motorists. Drivers must recog nise tluit a pedestrian, like the proverbial chicken, wants to cross the road some time. The average pedestrian still docs not under many lives as do wars, the subject of acci dent prevention is a mighty important one; when tlie financial loss because of mishaps takes millions of dollars from the pockets of United States citizens, any movement that cuts this loss is a movement which should be considered. stand that lie is a hard person to see at 1 believe that national parties in 1940 will night, that the only sale way is to assume take a different view of the situation. How that the driver docs not see him. ever, it's up to us. We can put public safety Traffic Court judges could be of valuable assistance in putting an end to driver-pedes in the national campaign picture if we so de sire, and I assume wc do. trian differences. When laws permit, it might Safety education to date has placed too lie advisable to hail a few bullheaded drivers little emphasis on the financial loss resulting and fpedestrians into court fora good lecture from mishaps, has somewhat forgotten that by (tie judge, during which he could point if money talks, the loss of it screams. We out the rights of both--with subsequent pub have yelled about death and injury and whis licity in the newspapers. Speaking of newspapers, die daily and weekly papers of your communities are a tremendous aid in reducing accidents. Their editor* will co-operate if you will give them something legitimate to write about Sod in your publicity with an eye to its news value. Try- to avoid a reprtitkm of the tanr type of story- The newspaper* foe whack 1 am managing filur. tbr St Kan) l\ --eh and Pioneer l'rr-s have snei wrii apace to stories reyardma oirti adwir> TWungb the support of tbr ymbk her, Mr U C pered about hospital bills, the high cost of liability insurance and the drain on the family purse whenever a fender is smashed. Death is just a myth to the average person. "Sure, wc all must die," wc say. "But what of it?" On the other hand, money is a reality, something we know when we have it and we Iswv, ah. how well we know, when we are without tL The week-end traffic deaths of tW niao are counted and published in mawy newspapers. The money loss also honld W pobhthed. Police departments buaM ruiagte this loss at the end of each Street and Highivay Traffic Section 49 year, let the public know what each mishap costs. The public should be informed just what a rising fatality rate will do to insur ance rates. We feeJ that education must be given the lion' share of the credit for whatever meas ure of success we have achieved in Minne sota. Of coarse, advances have been made in engineering and enforcement, and they have contributed to accident reduction, bat they cannot be said to have done the job. The records have been made because of in tensive educational programs that have marked Minnesota's drive against death ami injury- The public can be educated. It's slow process and it takes patience, but it can be dooe. That is what all safety leaders need-- patience and lots of it. All things, however, come to those who wait. And, some day, safety-minded men and women will see the result of their la bors materialize in a world offering a longer and happier life to it* inhabitants. THURSDAY MORNING SESSION October 14. 1937 THE NIGHT ACCIDENT PROBLEM The meeting was called to order by the Honorable Clifford Davib, Vice-Mayor and Commissioner, Fire and Police, Memphis, Tcnn. The address prepared by W. S. James was read by Robert A. Mitchell, Traffic Engineer, City of Philadelphia. Report of Committee on Night Accident Hazards Ralph W. Eaton, public service engineer. Providence, R. 1., summarized this report in the absence of Professor Harry Tucker, of North Carolina State College, Chairman of the committee- The complete report will he found at the end of the Street and Highway Traffic Section of this volume. Additional copies of the report arc avail able in pamphlet form from the Council's Bureau of Information. What Can We Do About Night Accidents? BrL.AS.WOOD Chief Lighting Engineer, Wearinghoo-- Electric and Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, O. Public authorities and the pobfac is general apparently accept the matiy increasing an nual automobile iasa&ty rase as the inevitable result of increased traAe vnhwae ad greater speed. Daring the past 20 years car registrations have increased 600 per cent, the average mile age per car 125 per rent, and the average speed 100 per cent. Twenty years ago visibility distance with Tsucutysixlh National Safety Congress 50 automobile headlights on light dry roads was 200 to 250 feet and almost nit on dark or wet roads. Today, with more cars and greater speed, automobile headlight visibility The greatest number of fatalities occur during the so-called "rush hours" between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.ra., but during these hours in winter, when it is dark, statistics show that twice the number of persons are distance remains the sameNaturally, the illuminating engineer ap proaches the problem from a different angle killed titan in the corresponding summer months, when it is light. R. E. Simpson, an authority on traffic accidents, recently made from that of the average safety engineer. The illuminating engineer wants to know the visibility conditions under which traffic ac cidents and fatalities occur. He differentiates a special survey of 47 American cities for the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters and found that the most dan gerous streets are the main traffic thorough the fatality and accident statistics between fares at night, accounting for two-thirds of daylight and darkness and discloses a start the total fatalities. These thoroughfares rep ling and hitherto almost utt&cen picture. resent but ten per cent of the total street Over a period of years the trend of traffic mileage but account for more than 46 per fatalities follows closely motor ear annual cent of the night and 30 per cent of the day rcsistrationF. Public authorities appear sat traffic fatalities. He found that in these isfied with the effectiveness of their safety cities, seven out of ten pedestrians were programs. When, however, fatalities In day killed at night He also found that 73 per light and darkness arc studied it will be cent of the pedestrians killed (both day and noted that, since 1929 when safety measures night) were involved in accidents on main and safety programs were first intensively thoroughfares and that 69 per cent of these promoted, daylight fatalities have steadily happened at night decreased while night fatalities have risen Detroit*! experience U extremely sig rapidli-. This experience is recorded m spite nificant This city, like many other American of increased traffic and speed. Twenty years ago night fatalities were but 30 per cent of total; today, they constitute more than 60 cities during the depression curtailed its street lighting service in the mistaken idea that money could be saved. It proved any per cent. Lack of Night Visibility Is Cause The sharp upward trend of night fatalities is significant of night time conditions beyond the control of the driver. Otherwise the safe ty measures, so effective in accelerating the downward trend of daytime falalitics, would to equally effective at night. There appears to be an overall factor, absent in daylight, which influences the night fatality rate. Illu minating engineers and others who have studied the problem, believe that this factor, hitlterto largely overlooked by public au thing but an economic measure. In 1931, Detroit bad what was then con sidered a good street lighting system, and the day and night fatality experience was practically the same--119 deaths in daytime and 124 at night, for ten months starting January 1. In the following year, street lighting was reduced to 65 per cent of 1931 level and to offset this reduction, an inten sive safety campaign was organized. In tire corresponding ten months of 1932, the safety campaign reduced the daytime fatalities from 119 to 75 but the curtailed street light ing'increased the night fatalities from 124 thorities, is tactr of visibility. Few people in fields closely related to the problem of public safety, even in ficlds-dealing directly with the problems of .traffic safety Have realized the vital relationship of to JfSl. Because of the alarming increase in night fatalities evidently caused by curtailed street lighting, the service was increased In 1933 to 85 per cent of the 1931 level, but there was darkness with death. Few people have re alized that traffic hazards remain substan tially unchanged throughout the 24 tours, except that darlcneM comes down to confuse no special safety campaign. In the ten months of 1933, with increased street lighting, the night fatalities dropped from 151 to 138. but without the safety campaign, the day fatali the driver and pedestrian. ties went up from 75 to 90. Fatality Record* Last year. 60 per cent of the motor ve hicle deaths occurred during hours o darkness, a period in which traffic is only 20 per cent of the total volume. Mr. Simpson has stated that, "Every sur vey of streets where fixed lighting has been installed in accordance with illuminating en gineering specifications, has shown that the night accident rate decreases as the grade Street and Highway Traffic Sectio\ 51 of street lighting increases. The sum total of all investigations supplies unmistakable evidence that properly designed fixed light ing can and does provide adequate visibility and that visibility has a far more important bearing on the night accident rate than is credited by the public in general or by public authorities in particular." Adequate Lighting Reduces Accidents The facts are clear, simple and beyond all question. The conclusion they establish is not so astonishing as the apparent failure of public authorities to meet it seriously or at least seriously enough to do something about it. Safety campaigns and alt other safety measures, to be effective both day and night, must be coordinated with the overall factor of darkness. The}' should be accompanied by measures which will improve night visibility such as modem street lighting and adequate systems of fixed lights on the highways. Night Visibility Objects arc seen at night by either of two entirely different processes. The object may be illuminated with sufficient brightness that every detail of the object is observed, or the object may be seen as an outline contrasting witli the pavement beyond which, under a system of fixed lights, is generally brighter than the object observed. Discernment by surface detail and discern ment by silhouette arc, to a considerable degree, mutually opposed. More light on the object provides better discernment by sur face detail and poorer discernment by sil houette because the brighter the object, the less it contrasts with the background. Con versely, die more light on the background and leas on the object provides better dis cernment by silhouette and poorer discern ment by surface detail. In business districts and so-called white way areas where super-illumination is pro vided for its advertising value, objects are dearly discerned by surface detail, but in thoroughfares, residential districts and on the highways, we must depend on discern ment by silhouette for adequate night visi bility. Night Visibility by Headlights On our highways, where at present there is scant highway lighting, objects on or im mediately adjacent to the road are seen at night in the illumination of automobile head lamps hy the light reflected from the objects towarrl the automobile driver. They are visi ble in proportion as light reflection from their surfaces is good or they may be visible because they are naturally darker or lighter than the more distant pavement as lighted [>y the headlamp beams. When seen against the pavement illuminated hy approaching headlamps, they appear as silhouettes. There are certain limitations in automobile headligiiling which must to recognized be fore the advantages of adequate street and highway lighting can be fully appreciated. When the pavement is light in color and the road surface is dry, headlamps provide safe ind pleasant driving conditions at normal speeds, except for the glare of approaching headlamps. When the pavement is wet, instead of dif fusely reflecting the light (like blotting paper), it reflects light specularly (like a mirror) with the result that headlamp beams are reflected in a direction away from the driver's eye. leaving the pavement substan tially black. In this case, objects are seen only by the light reflected from them toward the driver, and since such objects are predomi nantly dark in color, their visibility is low. On dark dry* pavements also, predomi nantly dark objects are seen only by the light which they reflect back to the driver's eye. Many improvements have and arc still being made in automobile headlamps, but there is one major limitation which cannot be overcome, legislative limitation of beam candle power. Furthermore, long continued and intelligent efforts have conclusively es tablished the impracticability under actual driving conditions, of controlling headlight glare to a point where it will produce no material discomfort and no serious reduction in visibility. Headlamps are needed on automobiles, that we can sec at all on unlighted streets and highways, but as a satisfactory solution to night driving under all varying road sur faces and weather conditions, they fall far short of the ideal. Polarised Light Recently there has been much discussion concerning the merits of polarized light * a remedy for the night visibility problem. Ex travagant claims have been made for it-- some valid, others erroneous ajid ill con sidered. Polarized light can undoubtedly 52 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress have a favorable influence on out factor con perienced In downtown districts where dis tributing to the dangers of night driving-- cernment by surface detail is possible. glare. Polarized light can greatly reduce the glare of headlights; so would less pow Pavement Brightness erful headlights. But not only does polarized light fail to increase existing illumination-- it actually reduces, by about 40 per cent, the effectiveness of both headlights and street lighting. It should be recognized that polar ized light does not even potentially embody a solution to the night visibility problem. Even if its application were practical, which is questionable, its physical limitations are many. It is a simple problem to design a lighting system which will produce uniform bright ness on a light dry (diffuse) road because the light from lamps located adjacent to the roadway, on striking the road surface will be diffused In all directions, and the surface will appear bright when viewed from any or all directions. Producing surface brightness for the driver on a dark or a wet road surface re Z>rlver Visibility quires careful study and involves refinements The burden of avoiding traffic accidents rests mainly with the automobile driver. When an accident is imminent, the pedestrian is either too close to danger or too confused to help himself. Except in areas where super illumination is provided and discernment by surface detail is possible, modern street and highway lighting practice gives maximum visibility to the driver. It is now recognized that objects are seen more readily by contrast, either of color or brightness (silhouette) than by direct illumi nation (surface detail). From this it is evi dent that to provide maximum visibility, the road surface must he rendered bright so that objects may be seen by the motorist in silhou- cite. In order that the pavement shall appear bright, it is important that much of the di rect reflection of light from it shall be in ilie direction of the driver. An adequate and effective lighting system should produce this in luminaire design and placement. Most roads possess an element of specularity, and a lighting system which is effective on a wet road surface should provide adequate visi bility on a dry dark surface. In addition, it will produce effective visibility on a light dry road. "Problems of spacing, mounting height and luminaire design are interwoven and mutually dependent A large proportion of the light which is provided should be de livered on the roadway and this should be accomplished with the most uniform distri bution of brightness and with the least pos sible glare. In order that the pavement shall appear bright to the motorist, it is important that the light sources be located welt over the roadway." These and other recommendations for ef fective night visibility have been prepared by the Street and Highway Lighting Committee of the Illuminating Engineering Society. surface brightness under all changes in road surface conditions. The ideal is uniform Modern Street Lighting Practice surface brightness, although in practice, it is Based on the requirements of the I. E- S- relatively unimportant. The brightness of any surface containing an clement of specularity is affected by the angle at which the light strikes the surface (angle of incidence) and the angle from which the surface is viewed (angle of reflec tion). Herein lies the reason why many mo torists And it increasingly difficult, when driving up-to-date cars, to see clearly at night on urban streets and thoroughfares. The modern low* Unit car setts the driver closer to the road surface than with cars of the older type and his eyes are thus located below the angle at which he can see surface brightness with many existing street lighting systems. This, difficult}', however, is not ex Code and a new street lighting technique, new types of street lighting equipment have been developed to meet the needs of modem street lighting practice. In the new lumi naire, which is designed for a spacing mounting height ratio of 5 to 1, the 6ght source is completely shielded from the eye of the observer, thus mitigating glare. By the addition of a system of reflectors within the globe, the light flux is distributed! at a grazing angle up-and-down the street to produce maximum surface brightness against which objects may be seen in silboo- ette. At the same time, the house fronts are screened from undesirable light. These lu minaires are located on brackets over the Street and Hightuay Traffic Section 53 roadway and suitable standards are available sistentfy and abnormally above at night. If for their support. we had a standard of visibility at night ap Highway Lighting In interurbon highway lighting, at the rela tively low levels of illumination economically possible, discernment by silhouette assumes even greater importance than in urban street lighting. The problem, therefore, is to pro vide maximum surface brightness. proaching that during the day, it follows that tbe traffic flow and accident curves would bear the same relationship throughout the 24 Houts." Somewhat allied to the distribution. of traffic is that of increasing the load factor on highways. This implies a community of in terest Involving the automotive, road build The same rules apply as in urban thorough ing and oil industries. Hay trucking has fare lighting, although the public authority' grown to such proportion that it constitutes responsible for highway lighting and the a serious interference with the even and methods of financing the service are dif rapid flow of traffic. If more of this day ferent. trucking could be transferred to the lighter Visibility Pittance According to a recent report of the Ameri traffic of the dark hours, the day traffic would benefit. The keystone of increasing and redistributing the traffic load is adequate can Road Builders' Association, studies in visibility at night and visibility at night la dicate that a visibility distance of 1,800 feet almost wholly a matter of adequate highway is requisite for safe use of the highways lighting. under modem traffic conditions. By day this objective may be attained by the elimination Highway Lighting Saves Lives as far as possible of vertical and horizontal curvatures as well as natural and man-made obstacles. This will entail realigning and re building many of our highways at heavy cost and will also increase the cost of new high ways. There are relatively few systems of ade quately lighted highways in the country where there are also records of day and night accidents and day and night traffic flow, before and after lights are installed, but the few examples we have substantiate the con Such a program of highway improvement tention that adequate highway lighting re is commendable, but it will only provide visi duces traffic accidents. bility for the 4,760 hours of daylight io the year. What about the other 4,000 hours of darkness ? Would it not be better to light our highways adequately and make curves, ob structions and grades clearly visible at night)! In the final analysis, economics will deter mine the best procedure. Recent investigation on.the parkways in Westchester County, New York, covering a four year period, and also on the parkways of Long Island for a three year period is significant. The investigation covers a traf fic exposure well over one billion vehicle miles. In Westchester County, with lights in Distribution of Traffic The report of the A.R.B.A. further states that "there exists with good reason a de cided disinclination on the part of the pub lic against night driving. The eye strain fndared by headlight glare, the nervous tension brought about by the repeated experience of driving post glaring headlights into possible unseen and unknown danger, the increasing public appreciation that night driving is more hazardous than day driving all tend toward greater concentration and congestion of day traffic than would be the cose under safer night driving conditions." "Graphs show a definite relationship betm ecn accidents and traffic flow with the ac cident curve consistently below the traffic flow* curve during the day and just as con- full service, the ratio of day to night acci dent rates was 1 to 2.2; with the lighting re duced 40 per cent, the ratio was 1 to 3.7; and with all lighting turned off, I to 4.8. On Long Island, the day to night accident ratio was 1 to 1-4 with lights on and 1 to 2.6 with lights off. Mr. Arnold H. Vey, Traffic Jsngineer, State of New Jersey, has made an analysis of the day and night accident experience on a well lighted, heavily traveled section of Route 25 and the less heavily traveled and uulighted section of Route 26. On Route 25, the accident rate per million vehicle miles was 3.10 by day and 2.61 by night, while on Route 26, the average for these sections was 2.50 by day and 8.00 by night. The accident record on Mount Vernon Memorial Highway shows 250 per cent increase in the night accident 54 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress rate with the lights out of service as com pared with the rate for an equal period with the lights tn service. The survey of the 1936 accident record of the 26.4 mite stretch of the Bayshorc High way in San Mateo County, California, U convincing. With the day traffic exposure of 75 per cent of Ue total, 39 per cent of the accidents occurred, while at night 25 per cent of the 24 hour traffic accounted for 69 per cent of the accidents. Of the fatalities, 18 ler cent occurred by day and 82 per cent by night. Thus we have a similar experience with highway lighting as with street lighting, in dicating that lack of visibility at night is the predominating cause of the abnormal night traffic rate. Luminaires and Lamps The new sodium vapor lamp, owing to the monochromatic character of the light and its high efficiency, appears peculiarly adapted to highway lighting, and suitable luminaires de signed for a spacing mounting height ratio of 8 to 1 have been developed. The liigh intensity mercury lamp also has its place in highway lighting for the illumination of grade crossings ami dangerous intersections. Highway luminaires for use with the new pre-focus bi-post Mazda lamp have also been developed. These are designed for a spacing mounting height ratio of 5 to 1, and these require closer spacing than the vapor units. According to the Code of Highway Light ing published by the Illuminating Engineer ing Society, the lamps should be mounted on one side of two lane highways. On three or more lanes, the lamps should be on op posite sides staggered. Double highways with traffic in opposite directions, separated by parkways or istands should be treated as two separate highways. An overall system providing adequate-illu mination for dark wet road surfaces can be obtained with the 10,000 lumen sodtum lamp in a luminaire designed for a spacing mount ing height ratio of 8 to 1. This would involve approximately 22 units per mile. Such lamps should be mounted at a minimum of 30 feet and supported on mast arms at least 5 feet and preferably more out over the pavement Owing to variations in length and location of existing power line poles, special poles should be used to support the luminaires. Adequate illumination on two lane high ways can also be provided by the 4,000 lumen bi-post Mazda lamp in a luminaire-designed for a spacing mounting height ratio of 5 to 1. This would require almost double the number of units per mile titan the sodinm vapor installation. Cost of Highway Lighting It is estimated that an adequate sodium highway lighting system with special poles to support the luminaires, complete with the necessary transformer and control equipment will cost approximately $4,000 to $4,500 per mile. The resulting annual cost with fixed charges on the investment included on a 10 year amortization basis would be in die neighborhood of $1,700 per mile per year. With fixed charges on the investment ex cluded, the operation and maintenance cost of such a system is estimated at $800 to $900 per mite per year. Highway lighting will eventually extend for long distances, and is thus removed from die jurisdiction of the county or township. The financing of highway lighting service thus becomes a function of the state, to be financed out of gasoline taxation. This does not imply any necessity for additional gaso line taxation, but merely the application of excess gasoline tax funds, at present with doubtful legality diverted to other than highway purposes, to the purpose for whichtlic tax was originally authorized. What Can We Do About Night Accidents? By REYNOLDS WEAVER Traffic Engineer, State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Okla. A little more than a year ago at the re quest of Earl J. Reeder, Chief Traffic Engineer for the National Safely Council, a special study of day and night accidents on two of the major routes through Oklahoma was mode. This study has been enlarged and now includes the major portion of the high way system. Street and Highway Tragic Section 55 When first begun, the study consisted of a compilation of accident records for a six month period, segregating them into night and day accidents and making a special spot map of each. Collision and conditions dia grams were made of locations where there were night or day high accident frequencies or both. An attempt was made to draw conclusions regarding the cause of night accidents at certain locations and determine the benefits of traffic control devices during the hours of darkness. It was immediately evident that, rather than being in a position to draw ac curate conclusions, we needed additional factual data. Slightly different treatment was made on a 75 mile stretch of U. S. 77, the main north and south route through Oklahoma. All of the signs on this route were refiectorized. In place of the "No Passing Zone" sign, a sign reading "Do Not Cross Centerline" was retained. The reduction of night accidents was appreciable although not as great a re duction was attained as on the first location. Refiectorized centerline markers have heen installed on this route and a still greater reduction has been noted and, although they have been in some time, it is not yet fair to publish a comparison. Encourage Use of Reflectors At some locations where traffic control devices had been installed the number of ac cidents occurring after dark was abnormally high. The same devices at other locations reduced night accidents. At still other loca tions, where little or no precautions had been taken against night accidents, after dark ac cidents were practically negligible. On one section of U. S. 66, dubbed the Main Street of America, new reflectoriscd signs had been installed just prior to the six months* study period. On this 27 mile stretch of highway, in which there are 16 hills of 2.S per cent grade or more, refiectorized signs reading, **No Passing Zone," were erected for experimental purposes. Refiect orized signs reading "Do Not Pass on Hills or Curves,** were placed at intervals of five to ten miles. During the first six months, 40 per cent of the accidents on this section occurred during daylight hours and 60 per cent at night. The corresponding period of the previous year, before installation of these signs, 72 per cent of the accidents oc curred during the hours of darkness. -Night traffic on this route is substantially higher than the average. Forty per cent of die traffic is at night. During tbe latter months of 1936, center- line reflector markers were installed in con junction with the "No Passing Zone" signs and on curves. This installation consisted of several different types of the refiectorized markers for experimental purposes and to determine replacement and maintenance costs of the different designs. Night ac cidents on that section of roadway during the first six months of this year were re duced 14 per cent over the corresponding months of last year, the period following the installation of "No Passing Zone'* signs. Similar results have been obtained at other locations where like treatment was made. These experiences encourage the use of re fiectorized signs and centerline markers and were particularly valuable in influencing the highway commission in authorizing a more extensive use of reHector buttons. Refiectorized centerline markers are rather expensive and maintenance on them is probably more than ordiuartly would be expeeted. Many engineers feci the maintenance is prohibitive and the benefits derived from such markers do not warrant the expense. In my opinion, based on accident experience, these markers, regardless of the Installation and maintenance costs, are warranted on vertical curves, where clear sight distance is not sufficient, and on horizontal curves of five degrees or more. Another interesting experience brought out in the original night and day accident study, occurred at an illuminated bridge. The bridge is a 20 foot structure 380 feet long. One approach is straight and the other is a ten degree curve. Because of an abnormal number of night ac cidents the bridge was illuminated with in candescent light. Night accidents increased substantially. The lights were removed and abutment flashers installed along with refiectorized ad vance warning signs. 48 inches square, and refiectorized centerline markers. There has been only one night accident since the latter installation more than ten months ago. Dur ing the period the location was illuminated, two or three night accidents a month were not uncommon. Possibly more efficient il lumination would have attained the same results but at a much higher cost. The Texas Highway Department recently made night and day accident studies of sev- 56 Trventy-sixth National Safety Congress era! isolated intersections, which hare an interesting and very definite bearing on this subject. ). G. Rollins, division engineer at Dallas, began these studies and later aided in the development of the present installation at such locations. The first night high accident location to come to their attention was on U. S. 77 and 81 just north of Waco, Texas, at the intersection of the City Route and By-Pass Route. The night accident frequency at this loca tion prompted them to illuminate the Inter section. Believing this would accomplish the /oli, they fumed (heir attention to other haz ardous locations. Much to tlieir surprise, lighting this wide-open intersection, which was entirely free from view obstructions, increased night accidents substantially. The illumination installation consisted only of lighting the intersection. The lights were removed and the location was treated in an entirely different manner. The final treatment, which has reduced night accidents at this and several other locations, is rather different and unique. Stop signs are placed on each of the four approaches. Signs reading "Stop Here," are suspended 16 feet above the pavement. major route is not impeded. If it is neces sary to use both stop and stated speed signs, the stop sign is placed on the street carry ing the lesser traffic and the stated speed sign on the more heavily traveled street. Advance warning signs are installed at cer tain distances back from the danger point to conform with the stopping distances of ve hicles. We arc considering the volume of traffic, average speed of vehicles and stopping ability. Illumination installations at high ac cident locations should be designed and' dictated by similar fundamental principles. Lighting should be continued on approaches to illuminate danger points a sufficient dis tance to coincide with volume, average speed or critical speed and stopping ability. Hundreds of miles of roadway have been lighted in this country during the past few years, for experimental purpose*. However. there is no accident experience available prior to the' installation for many of these miles. Without "before and after" studies, little factual information as to its worth will be obtained. Illuminating engineers should feel duty bound to light areas where needed data can he obtained and in general make an effort to determine the criteria for the need of high This rcflcctotized sign bears 18 inch letters and is dropped forward three degrees at the top to afford better reflecting qualities. To way lighting. Must Be Based on Facts secure a satisfactory degree of illumination We determine the type of sign or other from that height, it was necessary to use traffic control device needed at any location white reflector buttons rather than red. by locating view obstructions, determining Where installations of this type have been made an appreciable reduction iu night acci dents has been noted. The illumination in stallation at this location included only the intersection; not the approaches. It is quite possible that illumination of the approaches several hundred feet back in ad dition to the lighting of the actual intersec tion would have proved more successful. On- doubtedly in illuminating intersections or other high accident locations, approaches to the danger point should be lighted equally as well as the hazard. Engineers who have had considerable experience with lighting high accident locations should be able to de rive a formula by which wt can determine the distance approaches must be illuminated for a successful initiation. the speed of vehicles on the major arterial and the minor roadway, volume of motor vehicle traffic, pedestrian volume, vehicle movements and many other conditions which warrant treatment. Why then isn*t it just as practical to base the need of illumination on certain facts, determined by accident experi ence, volume and the like. Every type of traffic control device is de signed to meet certain conditions. It is common knowledge that "Stop** and "Go" signal lights reduce right angle collisions and, on the other hand, increase rear end colli sions. Installed at some localtous, signal lights satisfactorily control traffic and reduce accidents, but literally thousands of signal Installations throughout the country have actually increased the accident potential. If study of a location indicates the need of Mop or Mated speed signs, we place them on the minor street and the heavy traffic on the In view of these known fundamental facts, we should realize that illumination will be more effective at some locations than at Street and Highway Traffic Section 57 others. Lighting is no different from other traffic control devices--it will answer the problem in some cases but is not a cure all The illuminating engineer who advocates "lighting every mile of every highway" is not conscientious in his statement. Oklahoma and many other states have not completed their major road building pro grams. These states have been unable to meet the increased traffic volume by building dual multi-lane roadways. And certainly that is the most needed step in reducing night accidents as well as day accidents. In these states the most that can be done is to light fixed objects and other known locations that will be hazardous without it. Even this should .not be done extensively until the criterion for determining when lighting is needed has been established or revealed to the highway and traffic engineer. Speed unsafe for conditions, is another highly important contributory factor in night accidents, brought out in our daylight and dark accident study. Speed is a highly controversial subject. There is much sound argument pro and con as to whether speed is the contributory fac tor is most accidents or whether speed is responsible only for the fatalities in acci dents. As a member of the National Safety Cooncirs Committee on Speed and Acci dents. I have had a closer contact with the subject Speed unsafe for conditions--that is excessive speed on curves, at Intersections and the like--is the direct cause of too many night accidents. With a committee of 28 traffic experts from all over the county working to find the answer to "What is the relationship be tween motor vehicle speed and traffic acci dents and to recommend to the National Safety Council a policy covering speed regu lations, one would be rather foolish to make any definite statement regarding the proper maximum speed The studies made by mem bers of the Committee and others who have so kindly offered to make speed studies, possibly will bring out new thoughts on the subject and certainly concrete facts will be established and specific recommendations made. Excessive speed at night is resulting in too many accidents and should not be allowed. Limiting night driving to a miximum of 45 or SO mites per hour in our state has Ixcn considered, but no definite steps have been taken In that direction. VVc arc advised that under our law a maximum speed limit for night driving may be legally set and it is possible this will be done. At locations where night accidents arc largely attributed to speed unsafe for con ditions, stated speed signs arc being used very successfully. None of these signs carry a stated speed in excess of 35 miles per hour. Thcic is much to be learned about speed and its effects in daylight accidents as well as those occurring after dark. The best policy to adopt on speed regulation* can be determined only through extensive study. I hope that every person in a position to make these Studies will offer hi* services to the Speed Committee during the coming year. What We Can Do About Night Accidents By w. s. JAMES Chief Engineer, The Studebaker Corporation, South Bend, Ind. Because the most apparent difference be tween day and night operating conditions is in the amount of light available, it is per haps not surprising that there should be a tendency to make headlights the scapegoat for the high incidence of accideuls after dark. There are, however, other important dif ferences in operating conditions of which fatigue and alcoholism are outstanding ex amples. Consequently, if we arc to'view the problem which is the subject of this symposium m true perspective, it is impor tant to recognize that, while lighting clearly is one of the most important elements in the situation, there are also other fac tors whose influence cannot be ignored. Perhaps the best evidence that the auto motive industry recognizes the importance of lighting is to be found in the large sums 58 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress of money which it has spent and is spend ing on hcadlighting research and in the high calibre of engineering talent assigned to this work. These research activities have pro duced tlie modern headlight which is con sidered to be the finest and most accurately made piece of optical equipment in large scale production. The objective of the industry's efforts further to improve hcadlighting, is, of course, the provision of as safe seeing con ditions as possible for the driver at night. Three elements arc involved In this problem, the design ami manufacture of the lighting equipment, the use that is made of the equipment on the road and the care with which it is maintained. Starting with the first element, design and manufacture, what can the engineer do to make night seeing conditions safer ? In con sidering this question, it seems logical to commence with a brief survey of the various inter-related factors which determine the eye's ability to sec and what lighting can do about each of them to improve driver vision. .Among these determining factors arc the following: 1. The size of objects which the driver must see for safety. 2. The contrast between these objects and the backgrounds against which they arc viewed. 3. The time available for seeing them. 4. The degree of driver concentration on seeing. 3. How brightly hazards are illuminated. A casual inspection of these factors is sufficient to indicate that most of them arc nut subject to direct control. Although some of the hazards the driver must see, such as rock* on and holes in the pavement, arc pretty small (even pedestrians are not very big, since at 300 feet they have the same vt.sua! size as an object Ar indies wide held 14 inches from the eye) there is obviously nothing that can be done about it. Contrast is in the same category as size since it depends on the nature of the back ground against which hazards arc viewed. With welt-designed Itighway lighting sys tems, visibility can lit' improved markedly by increasing contrast, but when the driver is dependent on headlight he lias to take his liackgrounds as they come and make the best of them. The time available for seeing an object may be defined roughly as the period elapsing between the instant when a hazard first be comes visible and the last instant the driver can avoid the hazard by taking some action. This period depends on the driver's seeing distances, his speed, the controls on his car and his skill in using them, his reaction time and on actions of other users of the high way. Of these, only seeing distances are affected by lighting. Driver seeing distances are influenced very greatly by the extent of his concentra tion on the seeing job. This has been dem onstrated recently by tests which indicate that drivers see objects they are looking for at as much as twice the distance they see the same objects when they' loom into view unexpectedly. Since, as objects get nearer they reflect more light back into the driver's eye, this means that when the driver's mind is partly occupied with other matters, iL takes substantially more light to make him conscious* of a hazard ahead than when he is concentrating oo the seeing job. This matter of concentration obviously is also in the category of things lighting cannot do anything about directly, although it would be helpful if some way could be found to get drivers generally to appreciate how much they can.increase their factor of safety by devoting more attention to seeing. As the preceding paragraphs indicate, none of the four factors determining the eye's ability to see, which have been dis cussed so far, are subject to direct control. This leads up to the important conclusion tlsat it is in the fifth factor, brightness, that hope for improvement lies. Increasing the brightness of hazards means simply throwing more light on them and to do that, there must be more light in the headlamp beam. In this way. hazards which previously could not be seen, can be made visible. Hazards which could be seen pre viously become visible at a greater distance, thereby increasing the time available for pre cautionary action. Moreover, while light in the headlamp beam is ho substitute for at tention on tlte part of the driver, increasing the brightness of hazards will in some de gree compensate for inattention. Putting more light in the headlamp beam involves using bulbs of higher candlcpower. At the present time, the legal limit in many states is 32 candlcpower. This limit means that the engineer has about as much light with which to illuminate an area, say 500 Street anti Highway Traffic Section 59 feet long by 30 or 40 feet wide, as is pro vided by one 60-watt bulb such as we use in our homes which we know will not illu minate even a small room satisfactorily. Although there is a mistaken impression that this limit on bulb candlcpower is a protection against glare, there is actually no necessary connection. over 50,000, design has to conform to the lower figure. These figures perhaps seem large, but actually beams of these maxi mum intensities provide illumination of only 5/6 and 5/9 foot-candles respectively on ob jects 300 feet down the road, as compared with a minimum for home illumination of say four foot-candles. Due to the concentrating effect of the re The effect of using beams of the higher flector, a pair of headlamps equipped with maximum intensity, of course, would be 32 candlcpower bulbs can be designed to to increase the brightness of hazards and project a beam with almost any desired thus make them visible sooner which in intensity ranging from very much less titan turn would increase the driver's margin of 50,000 candlcpower to a great deal more. safety. Engineers realize that there is a Similarly, by design, headlamps with bulbs limit to how far they can go in this direc of 50 or more candlepowcr can be made to tion to increase sight distances without in project a beam with a maximum intensity terfering with the vision of drivers of either well below or well above the 50,000 approaching cars at unreasonable distances candlepower figure. Since these candle- ahead. At the present time, they feel that powers in the beam are so much more in the 75,000 candlcpower maximum represents tense than any direct rays from the bulbs, a practical compromise on this point. they obviously are the important factor from the glare standpoint. Limitation of bulb candlepower consequently serves no useful purpose in this respect. What are the objections to the use of the higher maximum for candlepower in the beam? The chief objection is glare al though it also has been suggested that the Actually all this limitation does is to set reason why hcadlighting engineers want to a maximum on the amount of light available increase intensity is because they are inter which means that the engineer cannot ested largely in higher speeds. On the lat light hazards as brightly as he might other ter objection, it may be said that studies of wise do. If he puts more of the available actual speeds on the road indicate that the light into the high intensity portion of the vast majority of cars are operated at mod beam to make hazards visible at a greater erate speeds. Engineers believe that this distance or to-increase the area covered by vase majority could operate marc safely if this high intensity portion of the beam, then they had the added margin of safety which he has to reduce the amount of light in the higher candlepower in the headlamp beam portions of the beam providing foreground would give them. Furthermore, if the ob and lateral illumination, or vice versa. With jective is to control speed, it appears no no limitation on bulb candlepower he would wiser to attempt'to do so by reducing the not have to make these compromises. For driver's range of visibility at night, than it tunately these objections to a legal limit on would be to attempt to control day-time bulb candlepower arc being recognized by speeds by requiring drivers to wear smoked forward-looking administrators and there glasses so that they couldn't see so well and are indications that in some states at least, thus have to slow down in self-protection. where 32 candlepower is now the top, this limit will be eliminated. Although, as has been explained, more light in tlie headlight beam does not nec essarily mean higher intensities and hence more glare, the consensus of opinion among headlighting engineers, as reflected in 11.e current headlight standards of the Society of Automotive Engineers, is that they could provide safer lighting If they were permitted to design lamps for a maximum candlepower in the beam of 75,000. This maximum is now permissible in most states but inas much as certain states prohibit anything So far as glare is concerned, while a 75,000 candlepower beam may cause some what more annoyance to the driver of an approaching car and require resort to the passing beam at a slightly greater distance, the Interference with hi? vision will not be appreciably greater than with a 50,000 candleyower beam since both of these intensi ties are well above the maximum beam candlepower allowable from a glare stand point. Consequently, the lower limit repre sents a sacrifice in seeing distances without any Improvement in the vision of a driver of an approaching car. 60 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress This discussion of glare brings us to the second clement in the problem--proper use of heedlighting equipment on the road. Headlight engineers believe that for safest seeing, the driving beam should be aimed with the center of the high intensity portion of the beam substantially horizontal. This throws the high intensity raj's down the road to illuminate hazards well ahead. Aimed in this manner the driving beam glares. Recognizing this fact, all cars built (or nearly 10 years have been equipped with multiple beam headlighting systems provid ing a driving beam intended to be aimed substantially In the manner just described and one or more addition beams. These additional beams are designed so that high intensity rays arc not directed in the eyes of drivers of approaching cars. Obviously how much these multiple-beam systems contribute to safety depends largely on the extent to which drivers use them. The record ou this score is spotty. Where edu cation and enforcement have encouraged the proper use of these multiple bcaun sys tems, conditions are better than where these stimulants have been lacking. Generally speaking, however, use is not nearly as good as could be desired. Barring some revolutionary development like polarized headlighting, if we were to believe as some do that drivers cannot be educated or made to use multiple beam systems properly, the alternative would be to go back to the old single-beam system. If this were done, to give relief from glare, headlamps would have to be aimed so that the top of the beam would not go above the Itorizontal as is still required in some stales. This voald curtail seeing distances thus in creasing the hazards of night driving unless there was a substantial reduction in average operating tpeedi. Effecting this reduction would be no mean problem in education and enforcement. So whether we use multiple or single beam equipment, we are faced with an education and enforcement problem. Headlamp engineers bchcre that education in and enforcement of the proper use of multiple beam equipment wB yield better results measured in terms of highway safety. The uBpofUaac of the third element m the problem, maintenance, is self evident. Jnct as other parts of the automobile re quire regular services, so do headlamps. In the mam, they arc not receiving this atten tion. As a result, headlamps on cars in service on the average probably do not throw more than half the light on die road that they cooId if they were in proper con dition and what light they do throw m many cases is not projected where it will do the most good. The industry is working along two lines to improve this situation. From the design standpoint, it is working on the develop ment of headlamps which will retain their efficiency as light projectors for longer periods and the outlook for improvement along this line is promising. From the strictly maintenance standpoint, it has under way a program designed to get service sta tions to put more pressure behind headlamp maintenance and to impress the public with the need for regular servicing of the light ing system. This program also comprehends more forceful efforts directed at the edu cation of drivers in the proper use of multiple beam equipment THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH COMMERCIAL VEHICLE SECTION On Thursday afternoon the Street and Highway Traffic Section met jointly with the Commercial Vehicle Section. An ac count of the proceedings will be found in the section of this volume devoted to the Commercial Vehicle group. Street and Highway Traffic Section 61 THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 GROUP SESSION FOR STATE SAFETY DIRECTORS The meeting was called to order by Carl I,. Smith. Director, Ohio State Safety Council, and Managing Director, Cleveland Safety Council, who presided. Discussion centered about the organiza tion, finance, and program of state safely council*. The group expressed a desire for the same type of meeting at the next Con gress, a session thrown open to discussion, with no planned program. FRIDAY MORNING SESSION October 15. 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH CHICO EDUCATION SECTION The Drivers of the Future The joint session of the Street and Highway Traffic Section with the Child Education Section, to discuss "The Drivers of the Future," was held Friday morning, October 15. Sidney J. Williams, Director, Public Safety Division, National Safety Council, was chairman of the panel discussion. Panel participants were: Lieutenant Franklin M. Kreml, Director, Safety Division, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Evanston, 111.; Walter Dent Smith, President and Manager, Delaware Safety Council. Wilmington, Del.; William H. Johnson, Superintendent of Schools, Chi cago; Mrs. W. A. Hastings, Vice President, National Congress of Parents and Teachers, Madison, Wis.; Henry H. Hill, Superintendent of Schools, Lexington, Ky.; Burton Marsh, American Automobile Association, Washington, D. C.; William Greene, Connecticut De triment of Motor Vehicles; Walter S. Paine, Aetna Life Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn- Chairman Williams: In the beginning. I am going to say only this, by way of defining the subject: As l understand it, when we speak of drivers of the future wc mean, in genera), young drivers around 16 years old, who therefore are commonly attending high school or about lo attend high school. Our discussion is: what are we going to do about these young drivers from now on ? One who has been in contact with this subject in a practical way for a long time is Lieut. Frank Kreml. I am going to call on him first to answer a couple of questions from his view point and experience. Frank, what do you say from the standpoint of the traffic police who are dealing all the time with these young drivers on the highway ? Do you think wc need some defi nitely organized training of future driers, more than we generally have now? If so. why, and what do you mean by that kind of training P LituT. Kkt.ml : We certainly are very much concerned in the police field with the tre mendous increase In the accident rale among young drivers, particularly of high school age. During the last 10 years, ending January 1. 1937, deaths among persons of high school 62 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress and college age increased 130 per cent, which is the greatest increase in deaths of any age group. We feel that, to a large extent, this high death rate develops from a lack of train ing, which in itself produces two evils: These are a lack of ability to drive an automobile iifnpcrly (and 1 don't mean mechanical abil ity), and a had attitude towards their respon sibility in driving. We feel these two problems can be over come only through training. The gratifying results of training in those high sciiools where it is being done indicate that is (he answer. Certainly we think the schools ought to handle this training. Ciiaiuma.v Williams: What kind of train ing do you think they ought to give ? Du you mean classroom training or do you also in clude putting youngsters into a car? l.n.t'T. KkCUl.: We certainly think they (oglu to be given very practical training in actual automobile operation. Classroom In struction is not accepted with the interest that actual driver training receives. Since it fails to excite that interest it fails miserably in attaining tliat change of attitude which is so ini)K>rtaiu if we are to overcome this problem. Chairman Williams: Then you think they ought to be put in a car. Do you think it i* tlie jol> of the school* to do this rather large (ask not only of classroom instruction hut of providing cars and instructors and picking out training streets or areas where these may be driven? Do you think that is all the job of the schools, or do you think police or the slate motor vehicle department might to take any port? l.iKi T. Kkf.mi.: 1 think it is primarily the job of the schools, for the very good reason that this is an educational job. It is a matter of teaching them (o do something. The schools should, if they arc not, be better equipped to do that than any other agency in (he com munity. I think we as police and the motor .vehicle department, as represented by Mr. Greene, have a very important responsibility in giving assistance to tle schools in formulating tlieir programs and helping them to start func tioning. However. I for one (this is a very definite reason which I should like to interject here before all these School people) feel that the police shook! not fake too prominent a position in any kind of educational program with young people. It is purely a police, profes sional rauoa I have spoken of it only once before, that i remember. The police of other nations, the European nations particularly, arc not superior to American police, in my opinion, yet they are more effective because they hare preserved for themselves a certain aloofness which results in more effective police work. Our police have failed to maintain that aloofness, in my opinion, largely as the result of the educational activities they do in the community, especially in the schools. Tins results in a friendly attitude between the young people and the police officer, which is very healthy, but sometimes also develops a con tempt for this very human, fallible creature, this police officer. For that reason I am not anxious to see the police take any prominent leadership in such an educational movement. Burton Marsh: I would like to raise a question. I can't agree with part of that thought, and I would like to ask a question of Lieut. KrenU. As I get it, tins aloofness is deemed by him to be more effective in producing the result we ail desire, reduction of accidents and improvement in traffic con ditions, than would be an attitude which we have been trying to build among the police and the schools of the nation. When I was a kid, I used to run from the policeman. At any rate a lot of us did. and maybe a part of the reason was tint there was too much fear of the policeman. Today, it has been my experience tliat chil dren lave a real affection for the police. It doesn't seem to me that affection and close relationship necessarily interfere with the effectiveness of police effort. One of our major difficulties today in the whole traffic picture is a failure of the people to understand the problems of the police and to lave that close and sympathetic attitude with the splendid kind of enforcement work which Lieut. Kretnl typifies in his activities. That can only be obtained by this sort of a relationship which, without overdoing it, brings the police into a friendly relationship with the school operation. Chairman Williams: Frank, I was going to pick you up on that, too. Aren't we today getting a little away from this Jehovah psy chology? I am thinking of family relation ships. The child today isn't afraid of his father anywhere near as much as he used to be when I was a youngster. Most of us, I Street and Highway Traffic Section 63 thought, feel it is better for him to regard his father with more friendliness and less fear. portant part of police administration. An other officer was entirely successful with this young man because he was a stranger. Applying that to the situation yuu men tioned. do you mean the policeman can't main tain his dignity with the youngsters that he deals with, even if they used to hang on his coat tails when they were in the third grade ? Lieitt. Kaeml: Both of you have presup posed that I believe the policeman should be moved into a position that inspires (9r. That Walter Dent Smith : I agree with Lieut. Kretnl. The seliools. in the long run, ought to do this job hut from an entirely different line of reasoning. From the community standpoint, I think the big job is to see tliat each element bearing on this complicated accident problem docs its own particular job; that is, see that the police do the enforcement job; the engi would be suicidal (or good police work. Good policemen want no one to fear them, except neers do the engineering job, and the school people do thr educational job. In a good the outlaw group. However, there is some thing short of fear, and it isn't dignity, either. The foreign police officer, while entirely friendly, fair and regarded highly* by the lieople, docs not mix with die public. He isn't given to frolicking with children or gossiping with citiim*. He represents the dignity of the law. He never forgets that and the public never forgets it, because of his demeanor. We need Mne of that in this country. Ciiaismas WTlmams: Probably we can >tand a Uttk more dignity in this country, anyway, on the part of others as well as the police. many communities you find that all mixed up. Fundamentally, this is an educational prob lem, ami while there are a lot of headaches and difficulties that we will have to work out to make it possible for the schools to do this, we will have to find a way 10 solve them rather than start on a false scheme that won't work. Chairman William*: Suppose wc hear from the schools. Wc have been telling tltc schools, we non-school people, in tlte usual American custom, what they ought to do. Dr. Johnson, how do the school people feci Lieut. Kxesil : Probably. It seem* to me that one place where that thing breaks down materially is in (he school work that police do. about this, do you believe? To what extent arc they inclined to accept the responsibility for this job of training future drivers? I liavc purposely steered off this because I Dr. William H. Johnson: I think in gen recognize the fallacy of rcachuig a general eral that when an activity becomes sufficiently conclusion from some specific case, but I know important that it enter* into the life of every of such a case. individual, and certainly (he use of the auto This young boy crossed my scliool inter section when I was a motorcycle policeman in Cranston, for three years, four times a day. He was a nice kid; I liked him a lot. He was a lot of fun: full of pep. He used to mobile has done that, it becomes a definite job of the school system to train tliat individual to take his place in society, using those devices and techniques tliat society apparently has intended to use. climb up on my back and unfasten my holster and push mv cap down over my eyes. I al ways laughed good-naturedly because I liked him, and 1 couldn't become impatient with his antics. The result is, I think, that the matter becomes something of prime importance for the school to look into. We in Chicago are definitely committed to the policy of giving education in this field and using the school About four years ago this hoy had reached budget money for this purpose. 17, and it was my responsibility to take him in cliarge after arrest by another officer, on a charge of automobile theit. I got abso lutely no place questioning him, or impressing We found some rather interesting data as a result of several studies. One of our tech nical high scliools has about 9,000 hoys in it. We made a survey, asking questions of each him with the wrong he had done. Occupying any official position, as far as that youngster was concerned, was simply out of the question. youngster and found that less than 10 per cent of these boys admitted they could drive a car. 1 was "Frank," you see. Of course, that is a matter a little beyond the immediate question before us, that of traffic control. Nevertheless, it is a very im We have found just what the Lieutenant says, there are at (east two things we have to do something about: On^ is to give actual instruction in the use of cars. The otlicr is to 64 Twenty-sixth National Safely Congress attempt, if possible, to impregnate in these young people an attitude of respect and coop eration with their fellow citizen, whether those citizens are drivers or pedestrians. I am confident, in fact the results of the past year's experience have shown that of tire 10 per cent who claim they can drive, less than half of them really were competent. Chairman Williams : Dr, Johnson, arc most of these young fellows old enough to drive legally, lliat is IS years okl, in Illinois ? Da. jofi.vsov: I would say at least threefourths of them were over 16. Ciiaibmax Williams : )n other words, for practical purposes you can say that this over whelming majority that said they didn't know how to drive were legally old enough. - pended in the air, so to speak, unattached to any specific skill or habit? Dr. Johnson : 1 don't believe so. I think if a hahit or skill is to function, it has to he brought in a practical situation. It is a good deal like the Saturday night bath; it lias to he repeated with a certain amount of regu larity. As 1 look around at this group, I doubt whether there is a soul among them that hasn't violated some law practically every time they look their car out of the garage. Chaimmax Williams: Is that their fault or the fault of the law ? Lieut. Kreul: It can't be the fault of the law. Da. Jqhx&on: I think we are all inclined to do it- If I may cite a illustration of my own: J ust a few days ago 1 was on an errand. Da. Johnson: Yes. It happens that my wife has been critically Chairman Williams: Of course, nobody ill, and it was necessary for me to make a trip in Illinois drives under legal age. Mrs. \V. A. Hastings: It seems to me this subject has more than two sides, because with all Uiat the schools and community forces do, if die home isn't considered I am afraid the education is rather incomplete. Attitudes cer tainly arc developed in the home. Courtesy on the road is part of general good manners. Children can't be taught in just a few lessons in school. Use of the car by children who happen to be under driving age, or infringe ment of the law by the father or mother in and make it rather quickly. I was careful, but I did drive a little rapidly. Of course, in a few minutes a young officer caught up with me-- they will do that. My mind was so thoroughly clogged with the critical mission I was going on that I was hardly aware of the officer. In cidentally. this will show the quality of our police in Chicago. J had a very important prescription that only could be filled in a certain place. I mentioned it casually, and said to him. "f don't think you want to bother with me." driving, arc all unconscious education. Unless tire three groups work together, all the school does and all the community does can't help a great deal. Mk. Maumi : Isn't there likely to be sort of a reverse English on that, too? That is, as this school program progresses and these youngsters really get a concept of . the needs of traffic and their responsibilities in being decent folk on the road, and as they leam correct driving techniques, wouldn't it be likely that the youngsters are going to carry lack to the larents (who arc not the best trained drivers) some of the good they are He turned around and said, "Well, move over there, anyway. I am willing to karri." When I explained my mission he not only was very courteous but he led the way for me ckar down to the Loop and 1 had access through tlte red lights. But 1 can't help but feel that that attitude is within us. As 1 nSay. there are times when you and 1 will be im certain missions where we just forget all tlc rules and regulations. Under those con ditions ] think we may he warranted in losing our attitude, so to speak. getting out uf the scltools? May tltey not On the other fund, wc may cause a kit of even earn* hack into the home a new concept trouble even under those conditions. 1 can't six' attitude un this subject? Chairman Williams: Dr. Johnson, tied up with that, let me ask you this question in .educational psychology. Suppose, for the sake of argument, we agree that the attitude in driving, on the part of anybody, is fully as important as our skill in enabling us to drive safely. Is it possible to teach an attitude sus help but feel that what we have got to do is to get these people young enough and imbue them with the proper attitudes and spirit, and make those attitudes and that type of spirit function continuously in every-day living. It lias to be drummed in. 1 understand here in Kansas City they haven't killed a child for some lime. Am 1 right about that? Street and Highway Traffic Section 65 CsAraMAx Williams: Over a year now. Da. Jon x sox : I am taking that idea back. Mrs. Hastings: It ties up, too, with the accident rate in the evening and at night, ( thinking <\ the train that it might be ^aaart tur jt*t to issue a bulletin, probably with the young people coaxing to take the family car out the was* bulletin with slight modifications, and j iaylj demand that the teachers read it every Monday murning to the children. Even tually. of cuvse. they will get tired of reading the bofietxas. I can't help feeling that Saturday night bath business is terrifically important. 1 certainly agree with Mr. Marsh that the young people can carry these ideas back to the huene. and they do carry them back. You know, the school and the people are not any too close to one another. Listen to the average conversation around the table at home in the evening. Do you ever hear them discuss school? Dad asks the youngster how be got along today, possibly, if he happens to have nothing else to talk about. The young ster says, "Hell, I had a terrible time." That U the way it goes. William Gbexxe: I would like to ask Dr. Johnson whether you ever have checked to see how many of your students in high schools drive to school without a license, without tiermission ? Mr. Greenf.: The answer is they are going to drive anyway, and they should be taught. They should be taught to drive and permitted to drive under certain conditions. Chairman Williams : I would tike to chip in on this one point of youngsters driving to school without permission. Of course, you realise Mr. Greene and Dr. Johnson are talking against somewhat different back grounds. Connecticut has a general driver's license law, and Illinois does not, to our great regret. But some high schools in Illinois have for some years taken account of Chat. They have taken the matter into their own hands and, as Dr. Johnson said, have required a special license, so to speak, permitting the student to drive his car to school only on certain conditions. One of those conditions is the approval of the parents and another is the student's agreement to live up to the regu lations which, lor example, forbid his taking that car out during the noon hour for a little joyride. Da. Johnson : I liave had practically no complaints for the last year or so. i am speaking particularly of the New Trier High School which serves a very high Ml. Gr&ene: That, of course, brings the grade group of suburban communities just attitude in the home in there. In a high school north of Evanston. This system was intro in a small residential town outside of Hart duced into the New Trier High School by ford. we found between 100 and 150 students the principal six or eight years ago, and, I driving to high school without any license. should say, before this subject was anywhere We arc rather strict in Connecticut about near as popular as it is now. When he intro operators being licensed. There was the duced it, some of the boys and their parents wrong attitude in the home, to begin with. raised great objection. The parents said in There was the wrong attitude on the part of the high school teachers in permitting that. effect tint it wasn't any of tlie business of the high school or its principal, whether their Dr. Johnson : We have a safety council, boys drove to school or not. fur example, in each school, connected with the student government. There is a regular card which the parents must sign if their youngster The principal said in effect, "Maybe that is wliat you think, but you are wrong; it is our business." comes to the school in a car. So there is a check. The youngster cannot come to school in his car without this permission apparently indicated. Mr. Greene: We remonstrated with the high school principal concerning the situation and he said, This objection was made hy two or three very prominent men of wealth and other position in the community, but the principal had courage enough to stick to his gum. He fought the thing through the school board. The board sustained him and sustained the rule that no boy in Winnctka or otherwise in "Sec the position 1 am in? These students New Trier Township could drive a car to arc sons and daughters of responsible resi school unless he would live up to the condi dents. If I get tough with them, some of the tions laid down by the school authorities, parents are on the school board and they will which, of course, went even farther than your get tough on me. So I have to suffer in silence." general driver's license. In other words, I am suggesting, Mr. 66 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress Greene, hi this community you mention, if ilic school authorities would just tighten up their belts a little bit and take the proper position and insist on it. regardless of local njHoiiton, that thing might be overcome. Mr. Gkeknk: We accomplished it by getting in touch with the chief of police in the town, lie. without advance notice, sent some offi cers down there one day, and they checked up all the students tint didn't Itave licenses, tonic their names, got in touch with the parents. and the practice lias stopped Chairman' Williams; You could do it tlicrc because tliey were violating the law. Mr. GucbXK: Incidentally, the school has put in a safe driving course. 1*0 in time it will overcome it. Lmu/t. Khkmi.: I would like to say a word from the standpoint of the police on the matter of the home responsibility for developing attitude in the young people. i tltiuk it is deplorable that parents depend u|K>n governmental agencies to discharge parental responsibility to the extent that they m<\v do. American men and women are simply shirking their responsibility toward their young people, ami it is highly evident in this phn>c of the problem. Mr. Marsh ; Nevertheless, even though it is deplorable, with which point of view t entirely agree. I would like to ask Dr. John son if he wouldn't say that, since die facts cxi*r, muse we not /ace them? Isn't it, there fore. something that the school will have to do as well as it can. in order to build this all im]K>rtaut matter of attitude? Are we going to he able to change the average parent's altitude, or are we going to do better by taking this less desirable course? l.tF.i'T, Khkml: The work of the schools won't lie enough. You didn't address the ques tion to me. but there has to lie this training utul development of attitude. Then there has to be work in the homes, loo. Mayi>e that can be done through the children. I am not qualified to pass on that. Tliat lias to be done, or a bad parental atti tude will vitiate all the good that might l>c dune in the schools. Chairman Williams : 1 would like to ask Dr. Johnson lo complete one part of his nrigiiial remarks, and then I want to ask MMuebody else to check up on that. Dr. John* m>ii. you referred Hi the fact that, as most uf this audience knows, the Lane Technical High School is doing this very thorough job, in cluding the provision of cars and an area on the school grounds where the cars may be driven for practice. I believe you tnvc already said you regarded that as a proper charge against the school budget. Of course, the per capita charge to do that in a school of 9,000 boys would be about a minimum. You arc operating under very efficient conditions where you can use one set of sixteen cars. For 9,000 boys. Sixteen ears is not very many per boy. Do you, and does the school board hack you up on tins, so far feel that fact to the extent that you intend to extend that system to all the Chicago high schools? Dr. Johnson ; At present we are contem plating the building of another school on the South Side, and we have taken a sufficiently large area, 22 acres or more, to establish a second driving course. Of course, you can't establish these driving courses at all schools. You understand this driving course is quite a complex thing. It involves probably four or five acres, a tola! of probably half to three-quarters of a mile of actual driving area. We spent $30,000, for example, in con structing this first driving course. It has a hill and all the lights and signs, and it gives you every type of turn aixl driving condition. We expect to build those driving courses wherever there is sufficient land available. As I said, the board is fully behind Ilic theory and making its contribution financially. They purchased the cars. Our job, in so far as the 37 high schools are concerned, will be either to secure additional land, which I think is the ideal situation, or else we shall simply have to cooperate with the police department to use the neighborhood streets during a portion of the day. 1 see no reason why we can't do that. The police have cooperated in many instances, in the grade schools, by shutting off streets for play during prac tically the entire school day. J am convinced the city authorities are behind this. We have a Keep Chicago Safe Committee, in which the mayor and several others are definitely interested. I see no dangers ahead at all in training our young people to use a social device which society recognises as essential to every-day living. We intend to go forward very definitely. Chairman Williams : f imagine the prob lem. especially the financial problem. Is more difficult in smaller communities. In Lexing ton, Mr. Hill, you don't have very many high Street and Highway Traffic Section 67 schools with an enrollment of 9,000 each, do you; IIexrv H. Htu.: Xo, that is about the total enrollment. Chairman Williams; Do you think, Mr. Hill, in the first place, it is the proper job of tin* schools and, in the second place, financially practicable to do this sort of job that Chicago is starting? Mr. Hill: I think the seb : have to ac cept certain responsibility, i am a little Itothcred for fear they might run into some thing here, go too fast and too rapidly. 1 am always a little opposed to government by fiat without proper education in the meantime. In other wunb. I think Americans got to taking baths on Saturday night without any law passed requiring them to do so. It may be possible, through education, to develop an attitude of receptivity on the part <>f the (tome and die parents and then, perhaps later on. to pass some blanket regulation that every high sdtool student must have a driver's certificate before he finishes high school. But the financial problem will vary from state to state. I don't have any figures, but my guess would lie that only one, two or three per cent of tlie six or seven million boys and girls enrolled in tlic high school have any real instruction at present. Chairman Williams: Not over that, cer tainly. Let's leave that out for the moment- Do you think the high schools ought to do it volun tarily ? Do you think the high school ought to assume the financial responsibility as well a* the rest of the load? Mr. Hill: Responsibility for the actual instruction and organization oi the program, t agree with Lieut. Kceml the teaching job must necessarily fall on tin* school. I am not so sure about all the finance involved. It might be helpful if Mr. Marsh would talk to his group on the possibility of automo bile manufacturers making some concession to scliool boards for this particular purituse. I suppose if they jai<l they were going to give a car to every school board that estab lished driver training, they would be over whelmed with applications. It might he possible in a smaller community for the automobile industry could work out some kind of rental of a car fur a period of a year or so. The typical American high school is still only two or three hundred. If you are ever going to reach tliat crowd, you have tu work out an entirety different tech nique. On finances I am inclined to think schools which can't pay the wltolc cost, since this is a voluntary enterprise, could <ay to die parent. `It is an entirely legitimate exjwnsc for you to pay for the gas and oil. 5tl cents or one dollar." Mr. Hill: That is a top figure, probably. I am particularly concerned with going into this somewhat slowly in the different states and demonstrating its effectiveness, and tack ling some of the problems we run into before we move too hatily through legislation or fiat- Chairman Williams: There lias been no pru[)usal this morning, so far at least, for any legislation requiring driver training in all high schools. Oi* course, we all arc behind tiic idea of the driver's license laws generally, which would require the young driver to pass a simple examination and get a license before lie may drive. That lias been done for many years in many of the states, long before there was any thought of driver training in high schools. Let's talk for the moment about the high school voluntarily assuming this job of teach ing the driver. I agree with you that we ought to hare considerably more experimentation before we think of passing laws requiring all high schools in Kentocky or Illinois to do this. You will say that restricts some iiersons who can't pay for il. Tliosc (lemon* who can't pay for it. for the most part, arc not drivers. Tlicrc are plenty of financial expedi ents that we in the South ami Near South know about, that we can use in lieu of the money that Chicago, Winnetka and other places Itave. I think there should l>c proper care in administration before we Inrcoine committed too far. I also propose aootlier thought. I am afraid in Chicago, Mr. Johnson. S or 10 years from now the parents will say the schools are at fault for all these accidents because they said it is compulsory and they arc now' teach ing it. In other words, there is a little boom erang in there because no panacea yet has ever worked. I am afraid we are not going to do a* much as the public thinks. Particularly in the smaller community, would it he possible and feasible to set up some kind of joint rela tionship, let the school do the teaching but perhaps let the automobile club come in, to a certain extent, on the financing, and the 68 Twenty-sixth National Safety Congress police department or city authorities on laying off certain Mrcet* at certain hour* a day, and let it I* a voluntary enterprise, not restricted !> high school students? The high school student would use it, hut to would persons 25 to 65. Wliat 1 am looking at, broadly, is the educa tion of the adult. X wonder wliat you think of that possibility. Dk. Johnson: You are quite right. As a matter of fact, we do have the motor dubs and various other organisations cooperating. In the matter of the automobile, for example, Studebaker sold us four or five cars at half price. Mi Hill: I will make a note of that. Mas. Hastings: May I ask your criti cism on a plan that I am watching quite with interest, that a being tried out in a com munity of 65,000? It brings in the three ele ments in the community, the home, school and the traffic men. In one of the larger high schools in the town, a group of about 20 teachers and parents were very mud: interested In safety. They had gone through a course of training. The local traffic officers, some instructors from the state highway department, and so on. have helped these people. They have gone through this course of training, passed the examinations, and now they are training high school youngsters to this extent: Any parent who wants his or her child to have training by one of these people sends in an application to the school. Tlwy agree to let the teacher take the child out on the highway. Of course, tltcy love had the theoretical training In the schoolrooms, but to get their highway expe rience. they use the family car which, used with the consent of the parent, makes the insurance good. This driver then takes the child out for a sufficient number of hours, until he feels the youngster is qualified. Then the youngster passes both a written and an ora! test, and the sclsool gives him a certificate recommend ing to the licensing bureau that they consider him fit to have a license. That is in its first year of trial, but it seems to me (Here are many possibilities there. Chairman Williams : Where is that? Mrs. Hastings!: In my home town--Madi son, Wit.. one of the results of the interest that has been created is that the vocational school now is putting in an evening course for adult drivers, which means anybody over 16. So there has been that reverse result. I think, perhaps, there arc many ways which will be by the trial and error ntetltod worked nut to show the cooperation o! the three groups. Chairman Wiluams: That raises a couple of questions. Before I ask them, X want to ask the audience, if you feel any part o( this isn't being cleared up or any of you has a question to put at any time, 1 wish you would just raise your hand or stand up in your seat and say so. Bkn Stroup: I would like to ask, Mrs. Hastings, on the family car, do they allow other students to ride in that car, too? I understand from Dr. Neyhart chat you can teach a child in about one-third the time if you will take four out at once and let them take turns under the wheel. Mas. Hastinos; I am not sure on that point I know it is their own child and their own family car. I would have to find out on that point. Chairman Williams: 1 was going to ask this question that lias been running all through this discussion--where do we get competent instructors to teach these youngsters Itow to drive? M*. Greeks: Where do you get manual training teachers? Chairman Williams: The teacher train ing institutions are turning out manual train ing teachers, but the school system as a whole is not, as far as I know, turning out people who have had any instruction or any knowl edge in how to teach driving. I know a couple of answers. I want to elaborate the question first. I think we will agree, won't we, we on the bench here, on the fact that a man is in the automobile business as a dealer, or a police official, or the fact he is the motor vehicle commissioner or highway patrolman, or a safety council manager, doesn't necessarily make that man a good driver. If there Is any dissent from that, I will quote some specific cases that might be embarrassing. How, suppose he is a good driver. We still don't know that he is any good whatever at teaching driving to others. That is well known, isn't it? There are plenty of expert tech nicians in every line that arc not competent to teach tlieir trade to other people. I hardly needed to ask Mr. Marsh to tell you, because I imagine you all know, the American Auto mobile Association has been doing its best to remedy that situation through the services of Street and Highzvay Traffic Section 69 Dr. Xiyian wW era.-*, as far as I know, the Urtf wmm to a definite teaching tech nique. fihu vsk ail dot. that still isn't quite fownm dv taiad Soles in a thorough adine, m. Burr? Mr. M * Far from it. There have beat. t**<*c*r. 500 teachers who liave bees edleuiidy into rested to go into an in- tosMw an >n peraunn for leaching this sort of dune It a rather enrouraging to note the very anm iuom e teachers in picking up Rex vpeoahaad knowledge. Of course, iu a shun period yum can't expect to pick up a tfunmditR d0* a4 k. Chairman Wcuijsws: Then my question to Dr. Juhmtn fir* *s wtoerc are you going to get m the CHfM* schools the competent instructor* km the** driving courses ? Arc you going to an iRue that a man who teaches a course in aum mechanic*, say, can also teach a cuene in sale driving? Da. Johnson : As a mutter of fact, we have a*ked Northwestern university to put on a special course of this type for teachers, and they* are doing it this fall. Uu*r. Kreml: Starting next Monday. Ttet is a three-day course, too. Chairman Williams: You mean not through Frank Kreml's Institute but the uni versity proper? Dr. Jouxsox : The university. Lieut. Kjlcml: The Department of Edu cation and the Institute. Each contrivance on the automobile, by the way, is connected with a panel up in front. Every one of the brakes is connected, let's say, to a white light, so if there arc 30 cars, there are 30 white lights. If there are 30 clutches, there arc 30 blue lights, or whatever the color happens to be, and so on. This motioit picture has teen taken through tlte windshield of a car, so the youngsters actually simulate driving conditions. They will be required to do what they would do it they were driving, as they go along in this imaginary car on the screen. If you don't think it is real, you ought to sit in one of them some lime and you will be amazed at how real it is and how nervous you will get if you don't know wtet to do. Mr. W. A. Sears is in charge for the entire city, in building up this instruction. We don't expect to build this up in six months. We have been at it for two years. Wc feci now that wc have it pretty well organized in one institu tion. We are not scattering this all over the city either, as the gentleman from Kentucky is worrying about. We don't do that We feel it is a mighty good stunt to take the best avail able area and really carry it on to the point where it is teady to go into other schools. We have class instruction with a group, and yet it is individualized to the extent that the instructor can tell exactly whether the indi vidual is doing the right thing. When they are ready to go out on the driveway for actual instruction, they arc given a card. Da. Johnson : Of course, wc do have a number of men who have given every evidence of ability in this field. We have several men, for example, who Have for the last two years teen doing nothing but experimenting on the dcveloiHncnt of the proper curriculum and so on. I might illustrate just how we carry on (his instruction. We have one large auto shop in Lane Tech ideal High School, for example. We have 30 car* that have been stripped so that only the drivers' compartment remains. We use movies and slides. Each car. that is cadi section, can contain one boy. These 30 youngsters sit in tlieir respective cars. All of the driving appa ratus is there, that is the clutch and the brakes and all of the rrt of the items are there. Tte room is darkened a bit. and a motion picture is shown. This would he simply a test of their ability after the instructional activity ted gone on for > rime. It Is previous to their going out on the actual driving course. On that card are all the various items in the car which ought to be checked before tltey take it uut. We insist the youngster must check at least 15 or 20 items before he begins to drive, and that check is checked against the chap who just came iu with the car. Wc believe wc ace making the child tl*ornughly conscious of the mechanism itself. He then moves into the car. Some of the Studcbakers have dual control, a good deal like an airplane. The result is the youngster Actually manipulates the controls. I think it is perfectly possible to put this instruction program over. You arc not going to convince the public in a mouth or &Ik mouths, any more than a police organization can convince the public of certain violations not being K*sirablc. We can do it if we hammer at it long enough. Wc can do it if we take it slowly and systematically construct this type of curriculum in this field pf action, just as we do in any other field, 70 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress If everybody puts lm sliouldcr to the wheel and we do this type of thing over a period of four or five years, in l>oth large and small towns, and if we colll>orate and get our mate rials organized and get criticism from the community and groups such as this, I see no reason why wc can't succeed in that field as well as in any other. (Applause) I.tKUT. Kremi.: Superintendent Johnson, you spoke of making these youngsters con scious of the mechanics of the automobile. I think you and I are thinking about tire same thing, but I would like to have you say it for the audience. nevertheless. Aren't these peo ple quite skillful in the manipulation of the automobile* Isn't your big problem teaching them a printer attitude? Isn't that tire big part of the job. and don't you use this mechan ical approach, or this approach through skill*, to accomplish that? I)r. Johnson; ft is surprising how stupid many people are. and our ymutg people arc mu much different. There is a woeful lack uf knowledge on the part of the average driver a* to what happens when he releases the clutch. The grand result is that a great bulk of tire drivers push the clutch to the floor, push it out. so to speak, before they use the brake at all. I venture to say any number of driver* are not aware of the fact that the engine ran Actually help stop the car. and the time to push the chitrh out is when your car i* almost at a (lead stop. Our young peo ple don't know that. There arc any number nt .simple tests uc give them; this hoard here with all these lights shows the youngsters not using the clutch at the right time, not using the brake at the right time. You should see (Jieni tvlini they try to back up; it is pitiful. I think they need some (raining in the mechanic*. I<h. hut ( insist the altitude ele ment he worked right in with it. It isn't a iptcstion of having lessons on attitudcs'alone. It i* a quesium of making them all harmonize. I advocate to parents, and I did as a prineipal, that they ought to start the youngsters with an ironing hoard at the age of five or six "because you develop an attitude in the home. Tlval little boy or that little girl has a little, private ironing board alongside of mother's and he gets up there and irons the handkerchief or whatever die little item is. It isn't tlx* fact dot the ironing of the liandkerrhief is anything; the )K>int is that the young ster learn* what cooftcrattun means. He learns what it means to work with dad and mother and the rest of them. The same thing applies In the training of a device so powerful and so instrumental in every-day life as we know it today. Chairman Williams: Frank, I wonder if you Itad this in mind. I suppose we can distinguish quite a range of mechanical knowl edge and skill. That is, in the course of auto mechanics, for example, the student learns all about corburetlon, I presume. I don't think the detail or what goes on in the carburetor is particularly needful. Dr. Johnson: 1 didn't mean Uiat at all. Chairman Williams: I wanted to bring that point out. You are not talking about the details of what goes on inside the engine. Next you come, let us say, to the mechanics of the operating mechanism, or what happens when you push the clutch, shift gears or use the brakes. That is important. Then, of course, after tlmt you come to the ineciiauics of the car on the highway, the significance of speed, die relation between speed and stopping distance, ami alt that sort of thing which, of course, is very important. Now we seem to get back to this question of the relation of attitude to skill. Just to gang up on you a little more on that, Frank, and perl taps exaggerate the point you made, there arc so many things people do wrong on the highway. Take, for example, tlte one item of driving over a crosswalk line when stopping at a red light. In Ncyliart's work my impression is one of the steps in his train ing procedure is that the student must team to stop a car at a given point. Mr. Marsh : Yes. also must learn some thing I confess I don't know too well right now. 1 bet a lot of the folks in the audience and right here in the panel don't know it, and that is to know where the limits of the physical structure, which is our means of transporta tion, arc when we do stop. Wlierc is the righthand edge of that structure? Where is the left-hand edge tu relation to center line, in relation to other objects? Chairman Williams: My point is, of course, if the student learns the mechanical skill of stopping that car so the front wheels are near but not over a certain crossline, then the question is, isn't that the best way to develop in him the proper attitude toward not encroaching on a fine when be comes to driv ing in actual traffic? Similarly with the posi tion of the left-hand edge of his car with Street and Highway Traffic Section 71 regard to the center line. A lot of people drive over the center line of a highway. They just don't know any better. If you teach them to keep their car on the right-hand side of the center line, that matter of habit runs into attitude. Member: Dr. Johnson, are you giving credits with your driving instruction classes? Dr. Johnson*; Credit is given to the classes. Member : What is it for finishing the entire instruction? Dr. Johnson*: It is a part of the auto mechanics course and takes about half the time, %o it would amount to about hall a unit I>er year. Member; Pltoenix (Ariz.) has tried this out for two years. Tle vocational training instructor volunteered his time after school hours, with the cooperation of the highway patrol and police department cooperating, giving talks on the different rules. It has been very successful so far. Mr. Treat has told me it ha* been of a character-building nature. In our state a great many of our young students did not know how to drive until they took the course. Wc found they were very much interested. Dr. Johnson: There are several good texthooks out now. Member: Do you have a textbook in your city? Dm. Johnson: We liave them on our text book list. In fact, one of them has been writ ten hy two of tlc instructors engaged in this work. Mkmuf.R: Is your state furnishing those free or do they have to he purchased by the students ? Dr. Johnson: Wc furnish free textbooks in compliance with state law. Students do not buy their own textbooks in any subject in Chicago. Chairman Williams: Mr. Greene, I would like to hear a little more from you as to how the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department and the motor vehicle departments generally, especially in states where they have a pretty good license law. feel about this work. Do you want the schools to do this job, and Ixnv do you want to tie in with the schools ? Mr. Grernr. In the Eakt, I think the motor vehicle authorities itave been very for tunate, as Mr. Williams knows a good deal about Dr, Herbert J. Stack's work, in having such an ardent advocate of safety education in the schools. He is constantly talking with boards of education, superintendents of schools and principals, and selling them the idea. In Connecticut, when we l>ecamc actively inter ested in it a little less than five years ago and established a safety education section in our department, we found that tlie ground bad been pretty well plowed and harrowed and pretty fertile for our efforts. W* find the school authorities arc generally willing to accept tliat responsibility, and wc believe that they should. It is entirely a func tion of the school. It has nothing to do with our department or police work in general; it is teaching. , We have a law in Connecticut, passed at (he last legislature, not made too rigid because the legislature didn't want lo place loo much on the educators, which requires that one period a week must be devoted tu safety edu cation. In the schools it is generally assumed this time shall be spent on a safe driving course which, of course, means theoretical iutructfon in the classroom followed by actual road instruction. We anticipate that as time goes on that law wilt probably be amplified in some way so. that there will be more of a distinct instruc tion. so to speak, placed on the education offi cials as to what tliey should do. There is quite a difference of opinion now. Nevertheless, we find them in a very receptive mood. As a matter of fact, we are rather overwhelmed with queries from scltools as to just what we can do to help them and what we think they should do in teaching the conting generation to drive. We were very much embarrassed because wc thought tliat Con necticut had done a pretty good job in insisting on the license law being observed, to find so many student* in the secondary school driving from home to school witlmnt any license. Of course, that is a matter of attitude. We stressed to the school officials, if these young people are going to have the wrong attitude toward the motor vehicle laws when wc start in, they are very likely to maintain that disrespect for motor vehicle laws. They will ruu through red lights, and stop light* won't mean anything more than what they do tu fatliers today. Just before I came out I was told about one, young, very attractive looking lady from West Hartford, who breezed in over Farmington (a boulevard leading into Hartford), running 72 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress through a couple of stop signs or red lights. At one of the red lights an officer blew and site waved gaily to him and continued on her way. Site Happens to be the daughter of an influential citizen and is under the impression her father's position will absolve her from that violation. We in Connecticut find that attitude is the big weakness. We find it in tlie scIkhjIs We find it in our drivers' clinic. What we bring the adults bark in. after the}' have accumulated an accident experience record, we question them, talk with them, send them downstairs for another examination. We find that a good many can drive in a mechanical way. They know what to do. Then we have followed iliem after they left (he department and have found Hint they pass vehicles on the right, make U turns where they shouldn't. To sum up briefly, the fault we find with both the young and the adult driver is not that they do not know bow to operate the car so much, but they do not exercise the knowledge which tltcy know. Of course, you have good, bad and indifferent operators. W work closely with the educational autlturitics. We furnish them our statistical summaries so the students can realize what a price we are paying in fatalities and injuries in dollars and cants. We furnish them with problems as regards left turns and intersec tions. and things of that type, parking on curves, to see i( they have any knowledge as U> wliat the}- should do in these situations. In two cases in Darien, with a school class, we conducted an experiment, and in Strat ford. with au adult education class. It is en couraging to find through Connecticut that adult educational groups are taking a big interest hi improving their driving. I would like to pay tribute to the American Automobile Association because it has been of great assistance tu us in Connecticut in that respect, in actually supervising a number of ilicsc classes and examining the operators or the students of those classes. We have had very little fault to find with the instruction which has been given by the representatives of the AAA clubs, particularly the Connecti cut Motor Club in S<m(hern Connecticut. We do everything we can to help Uieiu. Wc are working in Hanford now with three high schools, but we tifcUeve it is a community problem. We believe each community should luniish the car. In Darien the Chevrolet dealer furnished three cars and took up the matter of insurance so there wouldn't be any comeback on the school authorities or the state. It has moved along nicely. We were judicious in selecting the places where we broke the young people in. Strange to relate, and here I differ a little bit with some of the other gentlemen, wc were surprised to find out of a group of 6t>. there were easily 40 per cent fhat were fairly competent operators, according to the judg ment of three inspectors. Wc were rather fortunate in these inspectors because two of them had been automobile men. You know, years ago Connecticut was die home of the bicycle manufacturers and auto mobile manufacturing, and two of these men had had many years of experience with auto mobile manufacturing, so they were quite competent. We were surprised at the number Uiat already had got beyond the primary stage in being drivers. Out of (he total class of 60, wc only flunked eight, and what they needed mainly was more practice. Connecticut state law makes it mandatory upon state departments and, inferentially. upon city departments to extend all coopera tion possible to the school authorities. Wc have no funds, and, moreover, what we do is make it purely a state board of education matter and then work through the local hoard. We see that the educational channels are recognized throughout, because it is a school matter. We do everything we can in so far as our finances and personnel will permit. While we are only scratching the surface, we know we are only in the experimental stages tliere, we believe this road instruction problem is not o great as it seems to be, and it has been our experience in three schools that you can find in your sdiool personnel, individuals who are more than ordinarily adapted to teaching automobile driving. Chairman Williams: On that last point,' in other words you would say that an expert teacher who is a pretty good driver is much better than an expert driver who was only a fair teacher? Mr. Grs&ne: Right. Of course in Con necticut we have hail several who have gone to Professor Neyhart's summer school. Wc presume that teachers, probably recognizing the future in safety education, particularly in safe driving work, will take advantage of these summer courses, and, with the back ground of being an educator and a teacher. Street and Hiyhtvuy Traffic Section 73 can readily assimilate the mechanical knowl edge which is essential and become a compe tent instructor. would have covered. We were careful in selecting the places where wc taught these students. Omijuiay Williams: Maybe you covered litis, if so, will you say it again explicitly, just wliat is the step from the driver training in the high school to getting the state driver's license? Mr. Marsh : That brings up a point which bothers us a little in trying to be helpful to schoots and teachers. In connection with (He road instruction, wc firmly believe, for the protection of the school authorities and every MR. Ctr/.N'K : In the high schools, too, they body involved, including the teacher, tliat arc giving credits. That is very essential, there ought to be adequate coverage or insur because the students, we have found, will not ance, at least. take interest in the course unless the school authorities dignify the course by giving credits. It seems most unfortunate that, where this is being placed on a new, high plane, even with the additional protection which such In the Hartford high school (hey are blurt control affords, at the present time (I believe ing by giving a full credit this year to those I am correct) it costs about twice as much who successfully complete the course. We to get the desired insurance for this type of furnish the schools with the various legal operation as it does for an individual to get pliases of it. copies of the motor vehicle laws insurance. Wc have taken this matter up. Of and regulations, various manuals that we get out and a little booklet, entitled "Facts." course, wc appreciate that the insurance com panies have to depend on records, and that which tells anybody who wants to be an operator an Connecticut, what he should know and do. their records on driving schools, so-called, have been not very good. But there would be a considerable impetus to this work if it After we have talked to the principal of the were possible to devise some rating or some school, wc leave it up to the teacher who will niediod, so that where the work is going to have the class to certify those students in the be put on a fine level of thoroughness, which theoretical instruction and. particularly their goes way beyond wliat we generally have liad knowledge of the laws, and so forth. Then in commercial training schools, some recog we check. This job may grow too big (or nition could be given to that in the matter of us, but up to date we have been able to check insurance, which is really quite a thing in on those classes on the road ourselves. Then some places. we give the student a certificate of achieve ment, such as the AAA suggests. That certi ficate, if presented within one year from its date, is accepted by any of our examiners as entitling the applicant to a license without any further examination. We go the limit in en deavoring to give official cognizance of the worth-whiltnea* and merit of these safe driv ing courses, feeling that the more official recognition we give, the higher standing it will have in the eyes of the young boys and girls that are taking it. Chairman Williams: Here is Walter Paine of the Aetna Life Insurance Company. Why don't the insurance companies write these policies a lot cheaper ? Walter Pai.ve!: I would suggest that Mr. Marsh, yourself and l.ieut. Kretnl and maybe Mr. Greene, write a very definite outline of what you think should he done in the Way of coverage, and 1 shall be glad to take tliat up with the proper autliorities. I think that is the only way out. Mil Hill: Have the insurance companies worked out some kind of general coverage policies that will cover the use of the car owned by the school and demonstrated by the teaclier ? Mm. Greene : Xut yet. Wc have taken that up with them. In Darien, the agent who owns the cars said lie had the cars covered with a rider of some sort, and he was entirely satisfied with entrusting his cars into our hands, although I have grave doubts, if there should be a serious accident, that bis insurance You have a miscellaneous program Iterc which I would like to cover a li`.t!c later in summing up, if you will give me five minutes to find out just where you are going'what you arc trying to accomplish, how you arc coordinating this work, rather than to under take to develop a field in a rather chaotic condition. I think it is about time we confine ourselves to laying out a very definite pro* gram, to know just when: we are going, just what we want, and tlien get the answer to those very definite requests. I will be glad to sum up on that, if you don't mind, later on. 74 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Chairman Williams: There are two or three questions on the insurance and liability side of this thing that 1 think we ought to lake up. We haven't time to take titan up in any detail, hut. first, Mr. Paine has given us a little challenge Itcre. Have we. that is anyItody liere, a definite program? Do we know where wc arc going, in a general way ? 1 think tve do. 1 am going to ask Mr. Marsh to answer that because they have done more than any body else in promoting this thing nationally. Mr. Marsh: Let me ask you first, does the scope of your question cover the insurance phase only ? Chairman' Williams: J don't think so. Walter Paine asks what kind of a proposition are wc asking insurance companies to insure. Is that right. Walter? Mk. Paink: Yes. Chairman Williams: Let's answer that, if wc can. Mr. Mamsii: I don't think, as Mr. Paine points out. we liavc gotten it projierly pre sented yet hut wc are asking the insurance cont|>anicft to take an important jxirt iu the development nf a much superior method of preparing youth for the use of the car and life in traffic than lias ever been contemplated in our development of this country at all. Tltc general level at which this work is being tiKMiglit of. as far as 1 know, by cverynnc who i giving it thorough attentkm. such ns the National Conservation Bureau and cities like Chicago, and Professor Hill and ourselves, the various ones who are giving it the most attention, is to the effect tliat we arc going to deal with this on a much higher plane, a much greater degree of thoroughness than Iiad fiecu contemplated. say. four or five years ago. and (fiat that would involve a conhidcrahlc aitKHiiit of classroom work, so there would !*c lietter understanding of liasic laws and principles involved in driving. This class room work can cover quite an extensive period, and wc recommend tint it should. Otir recommendation is for at least one session per week for an entire year, and pref erably more than that, hut so that we develop in tliese youngsters a better understanding of the various things which are fundamental in the operation of a ear and also fundamental in the improvement of our traffic situation from the iioiiit of view of societal approach which, to my mind, is one of the basic diffi culties we have in this country today, that society as a whole hasn't seen the problem in the proper relation and aspect so it is willing to derate the energy and the money and per sonnel effort to the need. That is one of the fundamentals which, as far as I know, in all the texts which have been prepared, with educators collaborating with the traffic people, has been given major attention. In addition to tliat, the instruction on the road certainly is generally of a vastly superior caliber to that which heretofore existed be* cause, as has been brought out here, the thought is definitely to bring llie educator into the job of education, and instead of taking someone who can drive, we are going tn get along much faster if we go to the professional tcadier. What we arc doing, in effect, is to gradually get educators interested, and Uey are getting themselves interested, to produce % really edu cationally planned training work. On this level, certainly, the probability that we shall .develop a better driver and a better citizen in this traffic age, seems to me to be well beyond question. With that as a back ground, I think we have something which the insurance people, already very active, are going to see in the matter of insurance costs, that they could serve also in helping to fur* thcr this end. But it seems to me we have a pretty good idea of wlicrc are arc going. We certainly know wc are only scratching the surface as yet. For instance. Professor Neyhart finds that with high school children, approximately half of the learning time in the car has to do with manipulative coordination and manipu lative practices. Tliercfore, we are seeking, as has Chicago, to develop method* of sliortenipg that, without the necessity of constant instruction ami supervision by instructors. We expect to have dcvclojwd by the time the New York Automobile Show is under way a manipulative training device which in volves some different principles from that used in Lane Tech, it seems to me we have a pretty good idea of where we are going, although we are only just starling. I for one want to say that we don't know all the answers. We would like to get addi tional viewpoints. Chairman Williams: Mr. Hill, you an swered briefly my question about how you Street and Highway 7 tfic Section 75 felt all of this applied iu the smaller com munity. Have you anything to .add to that? Do you think this is a practical program, generally speaking, to be worked out grad ually in the small communities as well as the large, assuming that some financial help, not complete financing hut some help in the way of discounts, loans and wliat-not may he had, a* l think they can be. from the industry, the motor club* or others? Do you think this looks like a practicable job for the middle sized community as well as the large, or don't you? than you do from the operation of manual training equipment and gliders and airplane*. Does that answer it? Chairman' Williams: Yes. Mr. Paine, let me get this straight. I understand from you that it is possible now at some rate, maybe a high rate, to insure any such operation as we are talking about. Is that correct? Is it possible to buy insurance, leaving out tltc question of rate, ou an operation such as wc are talking about? M. Painf.: There has been coverage al Mr. Hill: Certainly. 1 was just pressing the caution signal about our doing this be tween now and next Christmas. I think we should take a year or two at least. ready provided but it is after individual study. Chairman Williams: But after au indi vidual study, it is possible then. In other words, if anybody in this audience says to you May I ask Mr. Paine this specific question. Wc have an instructor in high school. He wants to take one, two, three or four of the people's children out and teach them how to drive on the ordinary streets, the quiet streets of the town. He is an employee of tfic hoard of education. If something happens to him or the children, the board oi education is liable or lie is imiividiGtlly liable. or says to us, "We want to do this in our community but we are not able to get insur ance," may I tell him tliat if he will write, say, to the National Conservation Bureau, lie can get the names of Several companies that probably would insure him? Mr. Paine : I should say they could be handled almost on the same basis yon arc handling the two problems that I brought to What we want is a policy that will protect the sciiool board and the instructor and those children against anything that may happen. Wc think the clianco are remote about any thing happening, but nobody wants to start a new enterprise out on a limb. That is the type of policy we want. Mk. pAi.Nfc: Can wc do what you want? Yes. We can do this: There lias been pro vision made for coverage (or years on man ual training well organized. I work with a number of groups of teachers who are pro tecting their students on the saw, on the planer and all types of manual training machines. Coverage lias been provided for gliders and airplanes in the school to which Mr. Greene refer*. The principal of that school has a daughter learning gliding and airplane op eration in tliat school. They are taken care of. But who is training them? A pilot out of the army, a man who has been thoroughly trained, into whose custody the parents are willing to pass their children for training. Tliat is what we wont. your attention, and that sliould be answered by every individual company. I am not here as the spokesman of the insurance companies. I was asked by Mr. Catliu to appear here as a father and an engineer interested in this subject and also connected with kii insurance company. Chairman' Williams: Wc have kU of fathers and engineers but we arc a little shy on insurance, men at (he moment. You cer tainly know a lot more about insurance than the rest nf us. I` gather, with some reserva tions, in characteristic Connecticut Yankee fashion, wc can get insurance. Maybe wc liavc tn pay too much for it. That brings up the other point in which it seems to me that Mr. Paine's position or the insurance portion that he has stated, is well taken; namely, if wc want a low rate on this insurance, wc have to have * projxr set-up with a high grade of instruction, and all tliat. I guess >*e don't need to go into that. It is obvious we ought to work along together on it, and the insur ance companies, because of the ultimate value of all this to the insurance carriers certainly We must place in the hands of the school teacher or the driver, our students, our chil sliould be sympathetically disposed to give a* low a rate as business considerations will dren, to teach them how to drive. I believe permit. when that system is thoroughly worked out, you will have mi more trouble in protecting the school from the driving of automobiles Ma. Paine ; May I answer you very posi tively on the development that you know? Twelve years ago no one wanted to covqt 76 Tu.'enty-Sixtk National Safety Congress airplane transportation. passengers in air planes. A thorough nodj ** made of that. I gave two years with vour friend, the Under writers* Laboratories. Captain Schroedcr, at the Ford and other airport*. A very careful study was made. The method of training pilots, the care of the machines, the mainte nance of the craft, was gone into thoroughly. You don't hear one word of tliat today. That is what has got to be dune with tins specific type of work. It can't be gone into chaotically. I would like to sum up later on just what has been said here this morning to show that we don't yet know where we are going and just exactly what we are doing. Chairman Williams: I am not going to have a Anal summing up with the statement that we don't know where we are going. Let us have it right now. You have two minutes to tell us that we don't know where we are going. Mr. Paine: Dr. Johnson brought out a very good point that l think wants very careful consideration. In all this work we are teach ing children how to live, and in teaching chil dren how to live, we have to follow the normal process of life. We cannot say that we are going to place an individual under the control of a law officer or under the control entirely of tlte teacher. U is a combination of the teaching in the school, the home life and law enforcement. That is the reason I say that we liavcn't yet charted the way, because Lieut. Krcmf lias challenged the other speakers as to just exactly the procedure which we are going to follow. In the item that came to us, they asked us to lei them know just where we stood on this Miuation. First, it w this: We are teaching children Ik>\v to live, so we have to teach them iltc Itabits in the elementary school. Tire National Safety Council blued the way. The K'hnol lias followed- It has been splendid in it* o*>pcr;itk>n. Therefore, I say we should continue tliat work in the elementary school which lias been proved so effective to date. My other reason tor it is tltis: Tliat over this entire nation the only training that thousands of boys get is what they get in the elementary school. So, mark it. there is a training you liave to liave as fundamental and basic. Second, the work in the secondary or high scImhjI courses sliptikl he so laid out that if ihe automobile is going to continue to be a dangerous part of life and you are going to teach young people how to live, then protect them so they can live and don't kill them off. Therefore, it is just as essential that you take a student and teach him how to live and protect him by a two-years' course in high school as that you take him from tlie elemen tary grades through the secondary, and then through college and then kill him on the high way. Is that right ? Then we want two years of fundamental training in the high school. The National Safety Council has led the way. The way has been made chaotic because of lack of leadership, like lots of things in this country today. What we need now is coordination with our work tn the high schools. How is this work of two years to be coordinated? The work belongs in the department of education. We give our children over to you anywhere from one-half to about three-quarters of their living day. We are looking to the schools, rather than -to do what the commissioner or the commissioner's representative has said this morning is being done in Connecticut, of passing this thing up in the high school, on the part of some of our principal educators-- to insist that they teach these children how to live, not only in so far as it affects the automobile but their health and the general exposures of life. How are we going to do tliat? Tlie respon sibility rests with the educational department of the state. Now, where do we fit in? The cooperation lias got to be on the part of the motor vehicle department of the state. Vice versa, they have to be linked up very solidly in this whole program. Give me a minute just from the viewpoint of a father. The commissioner's assistant started a school in our community. My daugh ter was the first to register in that course. It did her a lot of good. She came to me and said. "I am qualified now to take a license lest." I said, "You arc not. You aren't to be taught by your father because no father should teach either his daughter or his wife. He hasn't the patience to do it. But you are going to be put in a school for 10, IS or 20 lessons where you will be educated on practical driv ing. Thcti you are going to the motor vehicle department for a license." 1 turned her over to the motor vehicle de partment. The commissioner and the assistant commissioner here knows that. What kind of a reception did she get? She fell into the Street and Highway Traffic Section 77 hand* of an individual that they had inherited, not trained, just a simple rough-and-ready bullhead, examining these young children coining up for licenses. it belongs, that is transferred right bark to tlie maintenance department. Therefore, anybody who is studying this subject must know very definitely, as they go He said, "I don't believe m young girls along, what comprises the main features of being licensed." He sent her home. We went the automobile. You and I, having gone to the commissioner. The commissioner through these courses, want to have it defi straightened it out and worked out a coordi nitely understood ;ind we should exert every nating plan. They have put in the right type of effort to do it, and that is to see tliat anyone examiners, coordinating their state work with that is called upon to maintenance an auto the school. It has only begun, but to me that mobile knows what he is doing in order that is the way this thing should be carried out. we may have a safe working vehicle in our Next, where do we all fit in, the AAA, the National Safety Council, tlie National Con servation Bureau and others ? We only fit in hands when we go on the road. Member: I would like to ask Mr. Paine from an insurance point of view, which risk as coordinating agent* to help the various the insurance company would prefer, taking states and municipalities from what viewpoint. out insurance on a car which is operated by a From the viewpoint of seeing that there is a student who has had training in school ami better social and economic order. who is accompanied by an instructor and who The responsibility is well placed. When it is organized in that way and then you come along with your practical driving course, you are going to get somewhere. is driving on certain definite streets that arc laid out for that test, or whether you prefer to go out, as they do now, and sell insurance to anyone who owns an automobile and anyone who drives, regardless? I would like to make one point here. You speak of the manufacturer's responsibility. He has a responsibility. No purchaser of an auto mobile, to my mind, is consummated between the. salesman and that purchaser until that salesman knows that that purchaser knows how to drive, and he is putting a very dan gerous instrument into tlie hands of someone on our public highways. Mx. Paine: Speaking from my point of view, in every case that comes before me, I would take your well trained, well supervised and, I should say, selected risk rather than what you will find on your roads today. Tliat is ray opinion. It may not be the opinion of other members. Miss Marian Telford: All of us appreci ate Mr. Paine's unwillingness to refer to One more point and I am through. It is his specific company. Because of that, may I said here this morning that it is not necessary say from the Education Division of the Na to go into d>c details of the automobile. From tional Safety Council at I Park Avenue, New an engineering point of view, and having been York City, you can receive on request a list associated with this work and mechanics and of insurance companies from which insurance engineering my entire life, I am saying that on driver training cars can be purchased? it is necessary for everyone who is driving an automobile on the highway to know what operates that automobile and to be able to meet every' emergency. Why? The commissioner's department is putting a testing system on the road. We have got to take our automobiles to their testing machines to have them tested up, and they make out a little slip, and they say very definitely, "This should be done. That should be done," and so forth. Leslie R. Silvernale (Cleveland Schools, Cleveland, Ohio) : May I ask Dr. Johnson a question? I would like to preface it with a brief explanation. Last year Mr. Marsh came to Cleveland at our invitation and brought Dr. Neyliart, and we instituted the Neyhart course in one of our high schools which was carried on' very successfully with the cooperation of the AAA. We checked at the end of this year of My wife received one of those on practically a new car of a high erode manufacture by experimentation and found that it cost $17 per pupil to give the road instruction under one of the outstanding manufacturers tn the the Neyhart system. I would like to ask Dr. country. What happens? She takes it to one Johnson if he now has figures available to tell of the best maintenance garages in the city, us how much it is costing at Lane Tech, the and when it is brought back, brakes not tested, actual road instruction, how much it is costing brakes not adjusted, steering gear-not where - per pupil. 78 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Dk. Johnson: I really couldn't say be cause we have been experimenting and have been using materials, and we have spent $30,000. I suppose it is pretty high to begin with. I presume that that won't cost any more than any so-called shop course would cost in the average high school. I suppose that might run as high as an average of $3 or $4 per semester, per student. That is about what it will run. Chairman Williams : I want to ask Dr. Hill once more whether h has any other specific point lie would like to bring up, and then I am going to call on Mrs. Hastings again and that will be all. Mr. Hill : I doubt if I should bring it up. I am interested in knowing whether there has been any evaluation of these programs so far. Is there any evidence to show just how much benefit lias been accomplished by these driving courses oilier dun just our opinion? The Department of Superintendence is >tudvii)fi this matter of safety education and has been for a ]>criod of two years and expects lo ihi! out a yearbook on it. Would it be helpful to the progress of driving instruction of the proper type if this yearbook would attempt to make or find out some methods of evaluating the program? Mr. Grrene: We are keeping a record in Connecticut of every student in the different classes we know of and are following them along lor a period of five years. Of course, we liaven't actually completed one year yet, but wc will by this coming summer. In that way \vc will have tangible evidence as to what good the course has done in that particular school. Mr. Marsii: Rhude Island has kept such a record. Comparison* for a period of three years have shown, as I understand from the motor vehicle department, very definite ami specific results. We have been asking every where we have Itad contacts, that this be done by everyone who is engaging in this activity. It is like Prank Krcuil's work, we want to know how much it will produce. I think this suggestion is superb. It is a very great need. We have to know whether the energy- put into it is ns productive as we think it is. II it isn't, maylic wc should change it- CiiApUAv Williams: Contrary to the general conception, one of the most silent members of this panel has been Mrs. Hastings. She says site hasn't had a chance to be other wise. Mrs. Hastings, have you something to add at the end ? We wilt give you the woman's last word. Mrs. Hastings: There are two thoughts, in my opinion. One is we have been talking all morning practically from the city stand point, either the large city like Chicago, or the smaller city like Louisville. There is the rural problem. I was wondering who is to do the teaching in the one-room rural school. Many of those schools have children old enough to have licenses, and there Is the little, tiny village high school or the country high school. There are almost no resources for that, yet we know there arc very definite problems of traffic. Mr. Greene : In Connecticut we have small towns that can't support a high school, and they have what they call a district high school. It serves two or three or more towns. W are getting in touch with the state police with the idea that the officer in charge of that particular district will furnish a competent member uf the force who has been trained, who can visit the schools, and. because of the small number of student* in each school, take care of them in road instruction work. Mrs. Hastings: There is also the oneroom school, many of whose pupil* are 15, Ifi or 17. Mr. GkEENK: You wouldn't have very many students then. Mas. Hastings: There is that whole safety problem. 1 was thinking if you are going to see the whole problem, you have to include tliat in the picture. Chairman Williams: You certainly have In get that into the picture. Mas. Hastings: All the way through the discussion wc come to the need of the piblic in this. Ii the stale department, the schools and everybody else arc to do effective work, wc must all work together. Maybe we can be receptive ii wc can't be cooperative. Chairman Williams: In closing this meeting I want to give you my conception of what this discussion has crystallized into. It seems to me that wc have a general agree ment that we do need training of young drivers in high schools. Second, tliat it is primarily a school job. Third, that that does not mean forgetting the need for cooperation of the home as well as other governmental and city agencies. Fourth, that this instruction should mclodr driving practice as well as classroom work. Street and Highway Traffic Section 79 Fifth, that we must be sure to have properly trained instructors who know how Id teach driving. Sixth, that this kind of work deserves some financial help, within limits, from business and other interests that are concerned. Seventh, on the insurance item, that it is to be hoped that, in accordance with the ap parent logic of the situation, insurance at rea sonable rates may be made available for schools which arc properly set-up and operated. Elements of Traffic Administration A Series of Four Lessons Presented Before the Traffic School of the Street and Highway Traffic Section By EARL J. REEDER Chief Traffic Engineer, National Safety Council I. Profiting by Accident Experience The purpose of the Traffic School this year is io show how to make the records of traffic accidents which have occurred point the way to the prevention of other accidents of the same kind. It is lo present the "acci dent experience approach" to traffic safety. Accidents are the failures in traffic move ment. The records of when, where, and how they occur show the patterns with which the traffic engineer, the educator, or the en forcement official must deal in preventing their recurrence. If accidents occur by chance only, it is not to be expected that they will form a distinguishing pattern as to place, manner, or time of occurrence. However, if they occur from causes which are peculiar to individual street and highway locations or to individual drivers, we shall find them grouped in certain locations or we shall find certain drivers having more accidents titan others. This is exactly what we do find, accident prone locations and accident prone drivers. We find, furthermore, that the accident prone locations have characteristic accident patterns. At one location the vehicles from two directions are most commonly involved in collisions. At another, vehicles making certain turning movements are commonly in volved in collisions with vehicles from a conflicting direction. At another we find ve hicles from various directions colliding be cause traffic is complex and too dense to be handled without special restrictions or con trol equipment. Among high accident drivers, some have accidents with vehicles coming from their right. Others have accidents with vehicles from the left predominating. Still others may run into the rear of Other vehicles or be struck by vehicles from the rear. These examples slow definite accident proneness following distinguishable accident experience patterns. The accident experi ence approach identifies this pattern in each case and uses it as the basts for determining what ought to be done to prevent accidents of the same type at that location and at other locations, or involving that driver or other drivers. The value of the accident experience approach is quite as much one of accumulating information concerning remedies that are successful in preventing certain types of accidents as it is one of discovering individual cases of accident proneness. Of course, not all accidents occur at acci dent prone locations; nor do all accidents involve one or more accident prone drivers. There can be and are accidents scattered here and there along the highway and driv ers with only one or two accidents over a long period of time. Such accidents do not form any special pattern and, except through mass statistics, they yield no clues to the ftO Tivcnty-Sixth National Safety Congress prevention of others oF the same kind. They can be prevented only through general meas ures of engineering, education, and enforce ment. The accidents which group at certain street locations or in the experience of certain drivers, form patterns which can be analyzed and interpreted in terms of corre sponding remedies to prevent the repetition of such acci ! The accident experience approach re quires, first of all, good accident record* showing where, when, how, and to whom accidents arc occurring. Every traffic juris diction should have an adequate accident reporting law requiring all accidents involv ing death, personal injury, or property damage to the apparent extent of $25 or more to be reported to the proper officials. Reports of fatalities alone arc not sufficient for this purpose because they are apt to form no significant grouping--they do not occur with sufficient frequency at any one location or to any one individual. The addition of accidents involving personal injury increases the spread of the accident experience and gives the person who is to make the analyses more evidence on which to work. Futlicrmore, the addition of the accidents involv ing only property damage brings into the picture more conflicts in traffic, many of which arc practically as significant as those resulting in more serious consequences al though the exact conditions may not be present for personal injury or death. The severity of an accident is little indi cation as to its importance in accident pre vention because a repetition of the same collision with a different number or different group of persons present may eaBilv result in death or injury. The significant thing is that any accident is a traffic conflict and, ]H)tcutially, a serious one. The Standard Accident Reporting System has been dcvelojicd for (he use of cities aod states in obtaining uniform accident report ing. This is necessary if the records of the accident experiences in different communi ties arc to be comparable so that tlie experi ence of one community may be useful to another* in preventing accidents. This sys tem or other reports and forms providing the same information should lie adopted by every traffic reporting jurisdiction. The original reports should be filed by location for immediate access to the records of any high accident location, and they should be cross-filed by the names of drivers so that accident prone drivers can be readily identi fied as their accidents accumulate. It is not sufficient merely to know that a location or a driver ha* hail numerous ac cidents. The patterns of the accidents which have occurred should be determined so that the particular problem can le localized. For this purpose graphical representation of the accident experience is desirable. Collision diagrams have been developed for both high accident locations and high accident drivers, showing graphically the manner in which the accidents occur. The location collision diagram is a sketch of the street location, cither an intersection or a section of street, on which are shown the directions from which the vehicles and persons involved in the accidents approach the points of collision. Several accidents are shown on one diagram--all which occurred within the time period for which the diagram i* drawn. Significant information concern ing dates, times of day, and any special circumstances, is shown on one of the ar rows representing each accident. For ex ample, if a driver is intoxicated, the significance of the accident in which he was involved may be somewhat discounted in considering the accident experience of that location. The grouping of the arrows on the diagram shows the accident pattern at that location. The high accident driver collision diagram is a graphical representation of all of the drivers* accidents on a typical section of highway showing an intersection, a curve to the right, and a curve to the left. The driver for which the diagram is prepared is always considered as going in one direc tion and the other driver in each accident is shown coming from the right, left, front, or rear, as tbe ease may be. Thus, a number of collisions with vehicles from the right at intersections would be shown at the inter section by arrows pointing toward the in tersection from below and from the right. A number of collisions with vehicles from the left would show similarly around the lower left hand corner of the intersection. Any special conditions concerning the driv ers in question or the acts of those with whom they collided should be noted so that they may be properly evaluated in consider ing the accidents thus shown. The location collision diagram must be interpreted in terms of facts to be gathered Street and Highway Traffic Section 81 and practices to lie observed at the scene of the accident. It is a step in the solution of tlie accident problem which shows where the nbxrrcrs* efforts should be applied and give* some indication as to the supplemen tary in formation which must be gathered The high accident driver collision diagram gives the investigator some idea of the driver characteristic* and practices for which he should look in determining the reason for the particular pattern of accident experi ence. The only way to avoid much experimenta tion and guess work in accident prevention is to make use of the accident records as a guide. A dozen accidents at an intersec tion in a year show that a problem exists. Out of the many remedies which may be applied at street intersections, the one which is appropriate for that location will depend upon the determination of how and when the accident* occur there. Likewise, out of the many tilings which might be done to correct the accident proncncss of a driver, the one which is to be selected for any given ease will depend upon just what kind of accidents he is having. The accident ex perience approach also aids in the accumula tion of data concerning the kinds of accident patterns which can be remedied by different measure* and, eventually, in providing the background of experience for predicting the accident pattern which will develop in the absence of the appropriate remedies. II. Studying High Accident Locations There are two general purposes of studies of street and highway locations which have developed a significant accident experience: 1. To correct the conditions which have caused the accidents at those locations, and 2. To provide information concerning ac cident circumstances and patterns for predicting accident experience from ob servation of conditions where accident data are not available. The accident experience approach to high accident locations, either Individual inter sections or sections of street or highway, must start with the accident records. A single accident at any location may be the fault of the driver or the vehicle. Two ac cidents of the same kind begin to form a pattern. Three accidents of the same kind make that pattern distinctive. However, as the accidents accumulate there i$ always the possibility that one or two of a small num ber may have been of a different type. Hence, a good criterion is that when four accidents have occurred at a street or high way intersection or arc scattered along a thousand feet of street or highway, a study ought to be made to see whether there is a distinct accident pattern which can be used in preventing accidents of the same kind later. This study ought to consist, first, of a collision diagram showing by arrows in the ap* roximate locations of the accidents the dilutions in which the vehicles or pedes trians were going when involved and the locations of any fixed objects which may have figured in the accidents. These arrows show directions rather titan exact locations of the vehicles in the street and. hence, should be grouped so as to avoid conflict and overlapping. On these arrows should be shown the dates and times of day to the nearest hours. In addition, any particularly significant facts concerning the accident which might discount its value in determin ing an accident pattern. For example, a collision involving an intoxicated driver is less significant than one involving sober drivers because more fault may attach to the driver and less to the physical conditions at the location. A collision diagram of a section of street or highway is generally drawn to a larger scale for street width than for length so that there will be more space for lettering and collision arrows without making the diagram too long. Generally, collision dia grams are not drawn to accurate scale, any way. So long as the general layout and the locations of the accidents along the street arc evident, the scale is immaterial. 82 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress When the collision diagram lias been pre pared, the observer is ready to go to the location and study the physical conditions there and the common practices of the driv ers. The collision diagram shows him where to look for the troubles by localizing the problem. He may be able to see at once what it is that fools drivers into accidents. He may have to drive over the section of street in the directions of the vehicles in volved, to see what other drivers do and to fmd out whether any of (he indications of hazards are inadequate to give fair warnings. He may have to count traffic before be can determine whether one remedy or another > feasible. He may have to observe speed. If the accidents arc at night he should make his olftcrvations ((sen to find out whether the location appears (he .same at night as in (lie daytime. He should prepare a condition diagram tdtowing the various circumstances and he should record the practices which he observed, for future comparisons after remedies have been applied. The planner's recommendation for the remedy to be applied to the problem which he diagnoses must be reasonable and prac tical. It rmut be designed (o prevent the kind of accidents which arc occurring and nut lc merely another restriction or piece of equipment of a type in common use. The planner should remember and take ad vantage of the fact that there is no better argument for a traJYic improvement than the fact that it will prevent accidents of a type which arc occurring or will occur in its absence. He muit show that his remedy is reasonable and related to the problem. After the remedy has been applied and a suiiicicut time has elapsed for a fair trial, say a year, a re-check of accidents should lie made, sltowing what kinds of accidents have beet* prevented, what kinds have con tinued, and wliat kinds may have actually iiuTt-asi-d us a result of the effort. This is oi value not only in determining whether the remedy was successful in that particular location hut, also, in gauging its application to other locations. If a*measure is successful in correcting the accident experience at one location it may be expected to be successful under the same conditions in preventing the same kinds of accidents at another location, particularly it the pattern is substantially the same. Of course, it numerous other accidents of a different type are included in the pattern, other remedies may be necessary. If, for example, it is found that a section of wind ing road which has had many eases of ve hicles running off the roadway at curves, has fewer accidents of this type after the section of highway has been illuminated a certain way by fixed lighting, the planner may be reasonably sure that (he same treat ment may be equally effective in another section of highway which has accidents of the same kind. The accident experience ap proach helps him to find out from experience what kinds of accidents different types of measures will prevent and, hence, to avoid applications which cannot be successful be cause there have been or will be no accidents of the type which they can prevent. Every successful application of an accident remedy is an important bit of experience if the traffic planner identifies the types of acci dents which have been prevented. Sometimes the traffic planner is called upon to recommend restrictions or safe guards for new highways which have had no accident experience. He cannot watt until accidents have begun to occur before he applies the proper remedy. He must be pre pared to recommend the necessary safe guards, preferably, before the street in opened at alL Here, the planner must draw' upon his experiences with remedies at other locations of a similar character. Has he had another street of similar width and of the same type of pavement and carrying about the same volume of traffic which he anticipates for this one? Had there been a bad accident experience on that street before he applied some remedy and w* the difficulty cor rected? Is there an intersection in this street that is similar to one whirh he has treated successfully At some other point, similar view obstructions, irregular layout, approach grade, and character of the general locality? If so. wliat was successful there and wliat kinds of accidents were prevented? The accident experience approach helpthe planner to foresee the accident experi ence which will occur at some new location if the proper preventive measures are not applied. The traffic official is confronted by o many remedies which are beckoning for the expenditure of his available money that he mu*t be discriminating Spending by guess involves him in an endless demand for more and more such remedies. The accident ex- Streat and Highway Traffic Seelit 83 perience approach helps him to evaluate these remedies and to apply those which will be successful in preventing the kinds of accidents which have occurred or will occur if the proper measures are not ap plied. III. Studying High Accident Drivers As in the study of high accident locations, the study of high accident drivers has the same two objectives: 1. To solve the immediate problems of individual drivers as revealed by the accident experience, and 2. To accumulate experience as to acci dent patterns, personal characteristics of drivers, and the results of applied remedies, as a guide to the prediction of accident proneness. Of course, the fust of these objectives leads directly into the second, but, as in the treatment of high accident locations, there are too many wrho want to jump over the first step in this procedure and go immedi ately into the treatment of predicted acci dent' proneness without the background of experience from the many cases of demon strated accident proneness now confronting them. They often overlook the fact that treatment of the immediate problems pro vide expertness in the prediction and treat ment of those future ones w'hich are not yet revealed by actual accident experience. Ttie accident experience approach to the solution of high accident driver problems requires, obviously, the segregation of acci dent records by drivers, whether these arc the records of the state motor vehicle ad ministrator, city police department, or the commercial fleet operators. This docs not mean that the original accident report should l*c filed by names of drivers for, at least in a city police department, these should be filed by location. It does mean there should be adequate reference cards for cross-filing by names of drivers so that there can be immediate access to the general rec ords of different drivers and the original reports Can be quickly selected from (he location files. I shall not attempt to define accident proneness in terms of the number of acci dents which may indicate that it exists. As a practical matter, however, it can be ap proached in somewhat the same way as in the study of high accident locations. One accident, alone, is not significant as an acci dent pattern. Two accidents of the umv kind are significant. A fleet operator should consider two accidents by the same driver as a possible indication of accident proneness which should be investigated. If I were a public official and had to deal with the records of many thousands of drivers of varying annual mileages, I should probably wait until any single driver had UlTCC or four accidents before making a study of his records. It is a practical mailer of available help and the amount of time (hat can be given to it. When there is sufficient evidence of possi ble accident proneness, the drivcr-collikion diagram should be prepared. Swell a diagram is a graphical representation of the drivers' total accident record on a typical section of highway. The driver's vehicle is indicated by a separate arrow for each accident with the vehicle of this driver facing the top of the page. Any other driver or pedestrian involved in each accident is shown as com ing from the right, left, front or rear, as the case may be. In other wouls, the dia gram is not a representation of any given intersection or location. For one accident the top of the page may be north and for another it may be any other point of the compass. The top of the page is the direc tion toward which the vehicle of the driver being studied was facing in each accident. Any special circumstances concerning each accident should be given, in addition to the date and time of day. When this collision diagram has been prepared the examination of the driver to determine what conditions may be responsi ble for his particular accident pattern, is next. Not every deficiency of the driver may be significant because he may be cum- 84 Txvcnty-Sixth National Safety Congress pensaiing for deficiencies if he knows about them. There is probably no reason why the discovery of color blindness should be con sidered the one and only reason for a pre dominance of accidents at curves. In fact, it might have no relation to the problem and it is certainly not the first thing that would be suggested by an accident pattern consist ing of several cases of running off of curves to the left, for example. The diagram helps the examiner to select the significant from the insignificant characteristics of the driver. A given high accident pattern may not be the result of driver deficiency in every case. He may have a vehicle which is com monly loaded so as to obstruct his view of vehicles approaching from a certain direc tion. His vehicle may have a "blind spot" which is particularly dangerous from his normal position in the driver's seat. Again, it may have brakes which are out of step with normal performance. Upon discover ing such causes for the particular experi ence, the examiner may help the driver to compensate for these vehicle deficiencies by proper precautions which will compensate for them. Whatever adjustment is made for the high accident driver, whether physiological, psychological, or mechanical, the accident experience after the adjustment should be compared with that before, to determine whether the effort has been successful. If it has not, a new analysis may be necessary. If it has, here is a definite step toward a criterion for the treatment of similar cases. The accumulation of successful solutions of high accident driver problems develops an experience which gives the examiner greater assurance of success from his subsequent efforts if he applies his experience properly. The drivers license examiner and the ex aminer of applicants for jobs as commercial drivers, must be able to identify character istics of applicants which are evidences that they are likely to be accident prone, although there may be no accident records to consult. In many cases such examinations are now quite superficial, the examiners lacking cri teria* for deciding in any* except the more obvious cases of disqualification. Commend able efforts are being made with considerable success by psychologists and others to eval uate the characteristics of drivers so that those who are obviously unfit can be weeded out before they have had a chance to demon strate their unfitness through accidents. That, of course, is the objective toward which we must strive in all phases of traffic safety, but it is a goal which we can reach only* through evaluation of the experiences with actual accidents. Such experiences have shown that drivers with quite serious deficiencies can drive safely if they properly compensate for these shortcomings. That doesn't mean that every deficiency can be compensated for, nor does it mean that every driver with any kind of deficiency shall be prevented from driving. What it does mean is that we must evaluate the probabilities of accidents from different de ficiencies and characteristics so that we can use these evaluations in deciding whether a given deficiency in a given driver is justi fication for prohibiting his driving or ap plying some particular type of remedy. While studying high accident drivers, some attention should be given to the acci dent proneness of the residents of certain communities. In several cities spot maps have been prepared of the residence loca tions of persons involved in accidents, both pedestrians and drivers. It has often been found that the spots on these maps are more highly concentrated in some areas than in others. Where this is true, it shows that there is an area to which special effort should be given in adapting the educational efforts to the types of persons who live there. If such an area should be largely oriental, for ex ample, with only a small part of the popula tion reading and speaking English, tlicrc would be little hope of educating these people concerning safe driving, through the English language press. Such educational work must be done through the agencies which the inhabitants of the accident prone community understand and in which they have confidence. It is another and somewhat different application of the principal of localizing the problem and applying the remedy where it is needed. Street and Higlvway Traffic Section 85 IV. Accident Clinic This session was devoted to discussion of an accident problem submitted by Z. A. Faulkner, City Traffic Engineer of Evans ton, 111. A collision diagram of a T Inter section in a business district was placed on the blackboard by Mr. Faulkner and numerous questions were asked concerning other data concerning that location. The accident pattern revealed by the col lision diagram was one of a predominance of left turn accidents. Questions revealed a row of posts beneath an underpass which obstructed the view between vehicles ap proaching from two right angle directions. Since these supports could not be removed from the roadway without redesign of the railroad bridge, it was concluded that other measures for safeguarding the traffic would be necessary. The discussion revealed that there were parallel streets which could handle the traffic that might be diverted from the street ter minating at this intersection if left turns into this street were prevented. It was concluded that the prohibition of these turns from one direction would be the desirable solution and Mr. Faulkner explained that such action had been taken about two months ago with ex cellent results so far as accidents were con cerned. He said that it had not seriously affected traffic movement. A discussion of a somewhat similar inter section in Lansing, Mich., followed, In which it was pointed out that diversion of traffic to other streets was not feasible because it would involve serious problems at other intersections. COMMITTEE REPORTS Reports of four committees were pre sented during the sessions of the Street and Highway Traffic Section. The report on Speed and Accidents, with three appendices containing charts, graphs and tables, is available in pamphlet form. In this volume the appendices of lire speed report have been omitted. The report on Tests for Driver Intoxica tion was prepared with two appendices con taining legal citations and data on various types of tests. The complete report is avail able in pamphlet form. The appendices luivc been omitted here. The report on Pedestrian Control and Protection and the one on Night Accident Hazards are printed in this volume in their entirety. 86 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Committee on Speed and Accidents Street and Highway Traffic Section Harry H. Harrison. Traffic Engineer. Illinois Division oi Highways, Springfield. Chairman John F. Abnoidy, Chief Highway Patrol Officer, Minnesota Department of Highways, St. Paul. S. Berry, Traffic Engineer, National Safety Council, Chicago, Secretary Frank C. Berry, Manager, Safety Dept, Minneapolis Automobile Qub, Minneapolis, Minn. A. W. Umn.r.v, Director, Motor Vehicle Division, South Carolina State Highway Dept., Columbia. Wiu.iam Coi.e. Chief, Washington State Police, Olympia, Wash. E. F. Cortu., Traffic Engineer, State Department of Public Works, Boston, Mass. T. H. Cutler, Chief Engineer, Kentucky State Highway Dept., Frankfort. Sam J. Dalton, Maintenance Engineer, Mississippi State Highway Dept., Jackson. Kali*! W. Eaton, City Traffic Engineer, Providence, R. I. W illiam C. Hansen, Traffic Engineer, State Department of Motor Vehicles, Hartford, Conn. \V. S. J ames, Chief Engineer, Studebalccr Corporation, South Bend, Ind. f,t. F. M. Kkcml, Director, Traffic Safety Institute, Northwestern University. Evanston. III. E. R. Llkkkkts, Manager, Public Safety Department, The Automobile Club of Southern California. Los Angeles. D. Grant Mickle, Traffic Engineer, Jensen, Bowen & Farrell, Ann Arbor, Midi. Harry E. Neal, Traffic Engineer, Ohio State Highway Department, Columbus. Gliucoe A. Reid. Safety Engineer, Kansas State Highway Commission, Topeka. Jons* Q. Rhodes, Director, State Motor Vehicle Department, Richmond, Va. W'. F. Ko*f_nwald, Traffic F.ngineer, State Department of Highways, St. Paul, Minn. Cart. C. j. Scavaroa, Michigan State Police, East Lansing. A. I. Schamehokn. Director. General Motors Proving Grounds, Milford, Mich. Wii.hl'r S. Smith, Traffic Engineer, South Carolina Highway Department, Columbia. Charles J. Tii-DEN. Professor of Engineering Mechanics, Yale University, New Haven. Conn. Harry Tucker, Professor of Highway Engineering, North Carolina State College, Raleigh. Charles Uj'Iiam, Executive Secretary, American Road Builders' Association, Washington. D. C. Arnold H. Vev. Traffic Engineer, State Department of Motor Vehicles, Trenton, N. J. Kr.vNoi.DS Weaver, Traffic Engineer, Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, Oklahoma City. C. C. Wiley, Associate Professor of Highway Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana. U, T. Wooi.son, Executive Chassis Engineer, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Mich. Speed and Accidents Presented by HARRY H. HARRISON Ttaffic Engineer, Illinois Division of Highways, and Chairman, Committee on Speed and Accidents The follozeing is a report of progress of the activities of thfCommittce on Speed and Accidents, ft has been prepared specifically for presentation at the Twenty-Sixth Na tional Safety Congress in Kansas City, and it should not be considered as a final and conclusive report on this subject. The com mittee will continue ilr study during the ensuing year and will present a more com plete report at the 1938 Congress. Street and Higlm-ay Traffic Section 87 I. INTRODUCTION Speed regulation is one of the most impor tant, difficult, and controversial traffic safety problems today. Speed "too fast for con ditions" is generally regarded as a frequent contributing cause of accidents, but there is little agreement on what constitutes danger ous speed or liow it should be controlled. Solution of the speed problem must in clude : 1. An evaluation of the relative impor tance of speed as a factor in accidents so as to determine the amount of attention that should be devoted to speed regulation. 2. The development and use of methods for determining safe speed values, for con veying the information to the drivers, and enforcing these limits upon those who will not conform. Results of the first year of factual study by the Committee arc given in this progress report. Since available data are inadequate lo permit definite conclusions or recommen dations, the Committee has presented, first, an analysis of wliat constitutes safe speed; second, a summary' of all available informa tion on the subject; and finally, an outline of the methods that should be most effective for getting information ott which to base definite conclusions and recommendations. II. SAFE SPEED The speed problem is complicated because of the universal presence of speed (velocity, or rate of motion) and the difficulty of de termining whether speed was excessive for the conditions wltcn an accident has oc curred. Almost every accident could have been avoided if the vehicles had been operat ing at sufficiently low speeds. On the other hand, considering that there is only one per sonal injury accident for every quarter of a million miles driven, it is obvious that most drivers operate at safe speeds most of the time. The problem is to eliminate dangerous speeding without unnecessarily reducing speeds that are not dangerous. Adequate administrative control of vehicle speeds should permit motorists lo move over (he streets and highways as rapidly as possi ble wilh safely. To accomplish this pur pose, motorists must be thoroughly familiar with factors affecting safe speed. They should be provided with highways adequate for the volume of traffic and engineered properly so that hidden dangers or unusual conditions have been eliminated or ade quately marked with uniform traffic control devices. Finaily, the motorist must be pro tected, by means of adequate legislation ami enforcement, from other users of the high ways who may wilfully operate in an unsafe manner. The whole problem of speed and accidents may thus be stated as-- 1. Determining wliat speeds arc safe under various conditions; 2. Conveying this information to drivers so that they may drive at speeds that arc within safe limits; and 3. Enforcement to control the minority of drivers that will not voluntarily conform. The first of ihcsc three subjects is espe cially important because it is necessary to determine more clearly than has jet been done, what speeds are safe before wc can hope through cither education or enforce ment to secure the general understanding and observance of safe speeds. The second subject is closely related to the first, since the effectiveness of signs, zones, prima facie limits and oilier methods for conveying in formation depends upon the reasonableness of the limits. In a similar manner, enforce ment will more nearly be able to cope w ith the problem when wc know what limits may reasonably be enforced for each location and each set of conditions. What Is a Safe Speed? A safe speed for any set of driving con ditions is a speed at which a motorist can operate and Iwrve assurance of safety. Criti cal speeds arc the limiting values for the range of speeds safe for the conditions. If the motorist exceeds the upper critical speed, he has no assurance of safety, since either (I) he is traveling too fast to stay on the roadway or he able to maneuver or stop in the available distance to avoid a collision with pedestrians or other motorists, or (2) other motorists or pedestrians misjudge Ins approach speed and continue some intended action \%hicti, combined with the spaed, re sults in an accident. The term "critical speed" is preferred to "safe approach speed," because at many times the drivers cannot continue at those speeds with safety, since they may have to slow down further or even stop to avoid collisions. But "critical speeds" are the speeds from which these precautions can be taken, with time for the driver to apply his 88 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress brake* and with a sufficient distance in which to maneuver or stop before arriving at the point of collision. There arc difference* in the meanings of the terms '`critical speeds" and "speed limits.'' Speed limits are values set by au thorities as a guide to motorists and for enforcement purposes. Critical speeds, on the other hand, arc the limiting values for the range of speeds within which a motorist has assurance of safety for the conditions which exist at a particular location at the lime of operation. Excessive speed or "speed too fast for conditions" is speed in excess of llic upper critical speed value, and consequently lias a different meaning than the term ''exceeding the speed limit." The upper critical speed is the most im portant from the standpoint of safety. How ever. there is a lower critical speed below which, depending upon the amount of traffic, motorists cannot go without seriously imlicding the normal flow* of traffic and affect ing its safety. Factors Affecting Safe Speed The factors affecting safe speed may be divided into live groups: (1) physical fac tors, (2) mechanical factors, (3) personal iactnrs, 0) weather and visibility factors, and (5) shnre-the-road factors. Physical Factors--The inherent factors oi the highway as regards design, align ment, obstructions, surface smoothness and surface texture, limit the upper critical speed at many locations. These factors determine the value below which the average motorist with the average vehicle must travel if lie were the only user of the highway. Intersections, blind curves, and hills are dan ger points when the oilier motorists, pedes trians, cyclists or animals are on or near the highway. .VcrhuinVdi Factors--Vehicle factors in clude engine power, ability to hold the road, and the condition of steering mechanism, brake*, lights and other mechanical parts that arc safe only if maintained regularly. The ability of vehicle* to accelerate, to stop, ami to illuminate the highway ahead at night is an important limitation upon speed. Personal Factors--These include physical and mental ability, knowledge of sound driv ing practices, ami skill in operation. A per son with defective vision, poor coordination, or uncertain judgment tn reacting to emer gencies must drive at lower speeds to com pensate for these deficiencies. In like manner, a person skilled in handling his vehicle can in many places drive faster with safety* than a person with less experience and skill. The physical limitations in the perception of danger and the correct reaction to emer gencies are most important when combined with other limitations set hy traffic, road and vehicle. However, there is undoubtedly some limitation upon physical ability and skill which sets the upper limit of speed beyond which the average person should not go even under perfect conditions of weather and road, with a perfect vehicle, and with no traffic on the highway. Reaction time and perception time for both day and night condition* are factors affect ing the distance within which a vehicle can be stopped after the danger is first sighted. Effects of such time intervals upon stopping distances are shown in Figure A-6 of the Appendices^ Weather and Visibility Factors--The as sured clear course ahead must be considered because of limitations on the stopping ability of vehicles. Darkness, fog, heavy rain or snow decreases visibility and thus reduces tlie assured dear course. An icy or wet pavement, like poor brakes, decreases the ability to stop. Any of these requires a re duction of speed below what would other wise be safe under similar conditions of car, highway, driver and traffic Stopping dis tances for vehicles under different condi tions, at different speeds, and on pavement surfaces with different characteristics are given in Figure A-5 of the Appendices. Share-the-Road Factors--Pedestrians, cy clists, animals, and other traffic on or possi bly approaching the highway present one of the chief limitations upon driving speeds. Speed reduction generally is necessary at hill-crests intersections, blind curve*, drive ways, and near parked cars and obstruction* along tltc highways to allow for the possible sudden appearance of other highway users in the path of the vehicle. Their potential presence on the highway greatly reduces clear course ahead at many locations. Little is known of the limitation necessary to take into account the presence of pedes trians. However, some reduction of speed is necessary in areas of high pedestrian density and in residence districts where there is a likelihood of small children playing on or near the roadway. Street and High-way Traffic Section 89 The general practice regarding speed often establishes both upper and lower critical speed limits. When a motorist approaches at a speed much higher than is general prac tice, pedestrians or other motorists may mis judge the approach speed and continue some intended action which ordinarily could have been made in safety. Examples are passing movements, lett turns at intersections, and movements into intersections in which the driver making the movement misjudges the high approach speed of the other vehicle and the combination of the movement and the speed results in an accident. In a similar manner, vehicles moving at speed* much lower than is general practice will impede the normal movement of traffic and accidents may result became other motorists become impatient and attempt to pass at locations where or at times when such movement cannot be mode in safety. When there is sufficient traffic so that ve hicles cannot pass one another at will, there is need for a lower limiting value for safe speeds. By speeding up the slower vehicles so that they exceed the lower critical speed, all traffic will be able to move at a reasonable speed with safety. Determining Critical Speeds The point at which speed becomes im proper or dangerous is difficult to determine because of variations in combinations of the various factors. Sometimes the only limi tations arc the conditions of the vehicle and the driver, as may be the case on some open, smooth, rural highway with perfect visibility (or miles in all directions. At other times, vehicular traffic limits the critical speed. At some locations, pedestrians provide a further limitation. Determination of critical speeds must take into account all of these factors, and those at each location requiring the lowest limitation should determine the maxi mum speed at which the average motorist can approach with assurance of safety. Methods now are available for determin ing critical speeds at certain types of loca tions, such as sharp curves, where road fac tors provide the chief limitation. Methods also are available for calculating critical speeds at locations with obstructions to view, where the visibility distances and the pre vailing speeds of conflicting traffic furnish the limitations. Critical speeds fur other con ditions and at other types of locations de pend as yet upon engineering judgment and experience, supplemented by observations of the actual speeds of vehicles at these loca tions and studies of live accident experience. These methods are discussed snore com plete!}' in Section III of the Appendix. Since there now is no lational soluliou Cot determining critical speeds based upon pe destrian and vehicular traffic conditions, there is need for formulation of a basic policy upon which such speeds can be deter mined. We must decide whether critical *l>ccds are to be determined for conditions which assume that motorists will oliey traffic regulations, or whether tower values arc to be used which will permit assurance of safety when other motorists run STOP 9igns, park their cars on the highway near hill-crests, or commit simitar infractions of rules of the road. We must decide whether motorists are to have some faith in live road continuing ahead without obslruction, or whether they must operate at speeds suffi ciently slow to permit them to stop within the distance ahead which ihcy can see is clear. A definite policy is needed regarding the rights and privileges of the pedestrian, espe cially on rural highways where speeds will be greatly limited at many locations if motorists arc to have assurance that they will not strike pedestrians. Another prob lem is whether zoned speed limits are to take into account weather, visibility, and other temporary conditions such as parked vehicles and heavy pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or whether such speed limitations should be set for permanent hazards and daylight con ditions only. Also, if some factor of safety is to be used in* the calculation of critical speeds, it must be evaluated. Until such principles have been established it will be difficult to develop adequate methods for determining critical speeds, conveying this information to drivers, and directing en forcement at dangerous speeds. Accident experience is an important clue in planning corrective treatment and in de termining speed limitation. When nq acci dents have occurred in a particular section, it is apparent that most motorists have been adjusting their speeds to the conditions and it is reasonable to use the speed at or below which 80 or 90 per cent of the vehicles travel as a criterion of critical speed. When there are locations with concentrations oi acci dents, a careful study of the accident experi ence at these locations may reveal the need for highway relocation, removal of view ob 90 Ttocnty-Sixth National Safety Congress structions, or oilier corrective treatment. When hazardous conditions cannot be cor rected by other means, speed reduction by means of posted limits, properly enforced, may be the only solution. Available statistical data and other infor mation, summarized in the following section, throw some light upon the seriousness of the siccd problem and the values of speed safe for different conditions. More reliable data arc needed. The committee recommends that city and state departments undertake studies suggested in the fourth section of this report so as to obtain such information. III. FACTS ABOUT THE SPEED problem A great deal of information on the speed problem has been accumulating during the many years officials have been dealing with it. General statistical information, mass sta tistics on s|K.*clinu accidents, speed observa tion data and experiences of officials with diflvrcnt q>ccl control methods are types of available information. The committee has studied these thoroughly, has undertaken sjK'cial analyses of certain data, and has summarized the available information in tins section and related sections of the Appendix. General Statistical Information Motor vehicle fatalities, as a measure of the size of the accident problem, have in creased 7.1 per cent between 1925 and 1936. the corrcsjionding increases in urban and rural areas being 17 per cent and 120 per cent, respectively. During this same lime, motor vehicle registrations have increased 41.5 per cent and gasoline consumption, as a measure of mileage driven, has increased 110 per cent. Figures on mileage driven in urban and rural areas are not available, but it is probable that mileage has increased more in rural areas than ill cities. Urban--Urban fatalities have decreased 10 per cent since 1930, there being a 33 per rent decrease in urban daylight fatalities and a 10 per cent increase in deaths occur ring after dark. Heavy pedestrian and ve hicular* traffic. parked vehicles, more frequent intersections, and other city condi tions require that s|>ccIs in cities generally be linti|cd to values that arc below the po tential ability of the vehicles. City streets arc lighted, engineering attention lias been directed at dangerous locations, and there generally are sufficient enforcement officials to permit some enforcement of traffic regu lations. Rural--Rural fatalities have increased 32 per cent since 1930, there being a 15 per cent increase in rural daylight fatalities and a 48 per cent increase in deaths at night. This tremendous increase can be attributed largely to increase in miles traveled, but the increase in speeds of operation over rural highways during the same period un doubtedly has had some effect upon this record. The greater increase in rural night time fatalities indicates the need for special consideration of the rural night speed prob lem. Pedestrian -- Urban pedestrian fatalities have decreased since 1930, but rural pedestrian deaths have increased 64 per cent during this time. Because the hazards of pedestrian traffic arc entirely different from the hazards of vehicular traffic, it is neces sary that special study be given pedestrians and their effect upon allowable speeds. Speed Information on Accident Reporta Speeding as an element in accidents and the approximate speeds of involved vehicles arc items included on most accident report forms. These data have limited value as a measure of the importance of speed and its relation to accidents, because the reports are made by drivers involved or by officials not trained in making a true evaluation of speed. Estimates of travel speeds are so faulty that very few* states tabulate them. The reported percentages of speeding drivers shown in statistical summaries generally include only those cases of flagrant violations of arbi trary limits which generally arc not related to critical values of speed safe for the con ditions. Samples of summary' information on speeding accidents and tables of reported speeds of vehicles in accidents are presented and discussed in Section I of the Appendix. Although such summary information is in adequate as a measure of the importance of the speed problem, it docs show the varia tions in methods used in different states for reporting speeds and indicates the need for more uniform and reliable methods. Some worthwhile information, however, may be obtained from available accident re ports through special study of the circum stances of those accidents with reported speed limit violations. A comparison of cir cumstances and types of speeding and non- Street and Highway Traffic Section 91 speeding accidents will reveal data on the importance of speed as a factor in accidents and its relationship to other contributing cir cumstances. Results of a study of this kind, sponsored by the Committee, are reported in a later part of this report. The State Accident Reporting System that has been developed by the National Safety Council, and recently adopted in Indiana. Minnesota, Iowa, and a few other states, has a speed section which undoubtedly will p.mit more accurate and complete reporting of speed as a factor in accident*. Information required for each involved vehicle includes (0 approximate speed before accident, (2) approximate speed at impact, (3) safe speed, and (4) legal speed. Summary analyses are to be made of those accidents investigated by trained enforcement officers, with sepa rate compilations for urban and rural ex perience. The recommended section on the summary sheet for tabulating speed as a circumstance, is shown in Table A-S of the Appendices. The more complete use of such a system for reporting and analysis will permit the accumulation of some really worthwhile mass statistics on the relation ship between speed and accidents. Special Study of the Speeds of Vehicles in Accidents The California Department of Motor Ve hicles has reported the results of a special study of the reports of those fatal accidents for which the estimates of speeds of in volved vehicles were believed to be more reliable than on the usual report. Of 742 deaths occurring In all types of fatal acci dents, both urban and rural, 239 occurred in accidents in which all vehicles wete traveling at speeds less than 45 m.p.h. However, in 501 of the deaths, there was at least one of tlte vehicles traveling 45 m.p.h. t faster, which indicates that in more than two-thirds of the deaths, at least one of the vehicles in volved in the fatal accident was traveling in the higher speed bracket. In contrast, fatality data from accident report summaries of the Michigan, Ohio and Virginia Motor Vehicle Departments indi cate that only about 15 per cent of those ve hicles for which an estimated speed was given, were reported as exceeding 50 m.p.h. White these data are believed to be unreli able and arc not directly comparable with the California data, the extreme variation indicates the need for addition special study. The case study method, following rcliablr accident investigation procedure, will permit the collection of more accurate data on the Speeds at which accidents occur ami the cir cumstances contributing to speeding acci dents. The committee now is sponsoring cooperative accident investigation projects in several enforcement departments and rec- TABLE I Speed And Severity 10,000 New Jersey Accident! for 1030 ratal reaulta occur more frequently in the reported speeding accident,, and a greater per cent of the speeding accident, exceed 9100 property damage. Indicat ing that speeding accidents are more aerere. Type of Accident * URBAN Speeding Accidents** Non-Speeding Accidents RURAL Speeding Accidents** Non-Speeding Accidents VLO 0o Ratio to Fatal to Nou-Falal Accidents 1 to 11 1 to 15 Per cent of Accidents in which over $100 Property Damage was Reported 48.3 28.1 57.2 42.1 *AII are non-pedestrian accidents, since only about 1 per cent of reported speeding ac cidents include pedestrians. * Accidents involving reported speed limit violations, Statistical Bureau, National Safety Council. 92 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress ommends that still other departments un dertake such an activity. Speed and Severity--Available reliable data indicate that severity of accidents in creases as speeds of the vehicles involved in llic accidents increase. Quoting from the 1937 edition of "Accident Facts"-- "Present day reports of actual speeds in motor vehicle accidents arc not believed to l>c reliable. There are sufficient data, however, to determine that in any group of accidents the chances of a fatal result increase rapidly as speed mounts. Whereas in all motor vehicle accidents it i esti mated that there arc 35 injuries for every fatality, in accidents occurring at speeds of less than 20 m.p.h. this ratio increases to 61 non-fataf accidents for every fatal accident and at speeds of 50 m.p.h. the ratio falls and one accident in every' 11 proves fatal." Additional data on speed and severity were developed for the Committee in a special analysis of 10,000 New Jersey accidentsThese data, shown in Table I, indicate that the chances of a fatal result are greater in accidents involving vehicles exceeding the speed limit. Also, more property damage is reported in the speeding accidents. It is a known fact that the amount of energy required to bring a vehicle to a stop increases as the square of the speed, so it is to be expected that damage and aeddent severity be greater at higher speeds. How ever, a study of severity does not indicate whether accidents actually occur more fre quently at higher speeds. Reliable informa tion on the frequency of all types of acci dents occurring at dlfferents speeds would be very helpful in a proper evaluation of speed as a factor in accidents. New Jersey study of Speeding Acci- TABLE II A Comparison Batwoan Raportad Spaading and Non-Spaadlnc Accidents At to Type of Accident 10.000 New Jersey Acoidonta in 1936 (A speeding accident is on accident with a reposted speed limit violation) URBAN RURAL Type, Non-Speed log Accidents Arrirtonfa Non-Speeding Accidents Involving Speed Non All Violations Pedestrian Accidents Accidents* Involving Speed Violations Non Pedestrian Accidents* All Accidents Pedestrian Other .Motor Vch. 1 (onc-Urnwn V'tb. K.iilrixi<) Train Street Car Bicycle Fixed Object Non-Collision Op. Non-Operating Miscellaneous 6% 98.2 1 10 .1 Total llOOU',.-" 85.U% l.l .4 . S:f- 61 2.3 .2 .2 100.0% 32.6% 57.5 .7 .2 1.1 2. t 4.1 1.0% 94.0 .3 26 T= 100.0% 1 ioo.o%*H 7*rr% 5 .3 .2 2.1 13.6 4.7 .1 4 100 0% 11.2% 69 4 .4 .3 .2 1.8 12.1 4.2 .1 .3 >00 0% *Since accidents involving a speed violation are predominantly non-pedestrian, the Sjiecding accidents are more |>ropcrly compared to Non-Pcdcstrian, rather than all non-spccding accklcnU. 671 Urban Speeding accidents. ***381 Rural Speeding accidents. Statistical Bureau, National Safety Council. Street and Highway Traffic Section 93 dents--A thorough study of 10,000 acci dents, about one-third of the 1936 New Jersey accident experience, was recently completed by the Statistical Bureau of the National Safety Council. As one phase of the study, a .special analysis was made of speeding accidents so as to furnish the Com mittee with data on circumstances contribut ing to speeding and non-speeding accidents. The most significant data are summarized here. Supplementary information is included in Section I of the Appendix. The predominant type of accident involv ing a reported speed limit violation, as shown >n Tabic II, is a collision between two or more motor vehicle?. Pedestrians were in volved in only one per cent of the reported rural speeding accidents and 0.6 per cent of the reported urban speeding accident*. Al though this indicates that speed in excess of legal limits is not a major contributing catise of pedestrian accidents, it also reflects the probability that drivers submitting accident reports rarely admit that they have been speeding. The most important information devel oped from the New Jersey Study is data substantiating the belief that speeding viola tions themselves are not a direct cause of accidents, but that vehicular defects, faulty actions, and other violations generally are necessary to bring the speeding driver to grief. In Table Til, it may be observed that violations of non-speeding drivers involved TABLE m A Comparison of Contributing Circumstances In Speeding and Drinking Accidents 10,000 New Jersey Accidents in 1936 Per Cent of Drivers for Which the Circumstance Was Reported (A speeding accident la en aeddent with a reported speed limit violation) Circumstance Drivers in Speeding Accidents Speeding Drivers NonSpeeding Drivers Drivers in NonSpeeding Accidents* Drivers in *** Drinking Accidents Drinking Drivers NonDrinking Drivers Drivers NonDrinking Accidents* Total Driver Violations Urban Rural Per Cent 100.0** 100.0** Total Vehicular Defects Urban Rural 10.0 10.6 Total Driver Defects Urban Rural 23.3 31.4 Left Turn Movements Urban Rural j 1.0 I 2.9 Per Cent 43.0 58.6 4.6 5.7 18.1 21.7 15.9 31.9 Per Cent Per Cent 41.3 54.1 79.5 88.3 4.3 6.8 7 3 8.6 14.2 23.9 100.0*** 100.0*** 9.4 8.3 10.6 j 7.6 Per Cent 13.9 19.8 3. a 4.8 4.3 4.8 4.4 4.2 45.0 56.4 7.6 l>.5 21.5 87 10. 1 *Non-Pedestrian accidents used for comparison as in Table II. Speed limit violations. Had been drinking. Statistical Bureau, National Safety Council. 94 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress in speeding accidents are almost three times as frequent as violations of non-drinking drivers in drinking accidents. Also, viola tions of non-speeding drivers in speeding ac cidents are more frequent than violations in non-speeding accidents. If speed were a di rect cause of accidents, it would be expected that non-sjwcding drivers in speeding acci dent* would be relatively less "guilty/* Left turn movements, driver defects, and vehicular defects are shown to be reported much more frequently in speeding than nonspeeding accidents. For example. Table III >how* that jl.9 per cent of non-speeding drivers in rural speeding accidents were re ported making left turns as compared with n 10.6 per cent normal left turn movement. This indicates that seeding accidents occur more frequently at intersections, which is substantiated by data on road location. 78.8 per cent of the urban speeding accidents were at intersections as compared with a normal 5S.7 per cent for non-speeding acci dents. Similarly, 49.3 per cent of rural speed ing accidents were at intersections while tuily 27.7 per cent of rural non-speeding ac cidents were at intersection*. Simitar special analyse* oi speeding and non-speeding accidents .should be made in other states and cities so that additional quantitative data on circumstances contribut ing to speeding accidents can be obtained. The Committee recommends such studies and will be glad to furnish instructions for making them. Vehicle Speed Observation* Observations of speed practices of vehicles furnish an indication of the speeds that motorists think are safe for the existing con ditions. Most of the observations made by city and state departments have been made for purposes of enforcement, traffic capacity, or merely to find out how fast vehicles were traveling so that speed practices of different areas could be compared. Generally, the ob servations were made under favorable weather and traffic conditions on level, open sections of highway where high speeds would lie expected. As a result, most avail able speed observation data are of little help iu evaluating the relationship between speed and accidents. Summary results of speed observations made in several cities and states are shown in the following table. Data for such states as California, Indiana and Iowa were ob tained under conditions especially favorable to high speed, while observations in other states represent the average of observations taken under a variety of conditions. Supple mentary speed observation data are shown in Section I! of the Appendix. { TABUS IV i Speed Observation Qata Obtained in Traffic Surveys and Speoiai Speed Studies Compiled from Information Furnished the Speed Committee STATK or CTTV Date of Average Speed The 20% Speed The 90% Speed Observations in M. P. H. in M. P. H.* in M. P. II.* California lunncrtHUt Indiana Iowa Michigan Ohio Rhode Island Minneapolis Knoxville Providence Several Lilies in N. J. 1936 1934 1934 1935 1936 1934 1934 * 44.0 , 40.0 50.1 * 49.0 45.4 43.0 33.8 22.6 28.9 23.0 28.0 AS 33 41 42 29--. 35 28 14 21 19 22 54 53 65 63 49.I***' 55 45 32 41 28 38 | The SpnxJ at or below which 20% or 90% of the vehicles travel. Data from 1935 KliI*ORT of National Safety Council Speed Committee. Average of (he slow 15 per cent. Average of the fast 15 per cent. Street and Highway Traffic Section 95 The city speed observation data in Table IV show that urban speeds arp considerably less than those in rural areas. The observa tions in Providence show that only 10 per cent of the vehicles exceeded 28 M.P.H., and that 70 per cent of the vehicles were ob served traveling in the nine mile speed range from 19 to 28 M.P.H. Speed zoning and strict enforcement has prevailed in Providence for a number of years, and (he average speed of vehicles in Providence lias decreased from 26.1 in 1933 to 24.2 in 1936. Information on the relationship between physical conditions and observed vehicle Mxttds is very meager. Sortie special studies have been made in Connecticut, Rhode Island, California and in other places to measure speeds on curves, at intersection approaches and at railroad grade Crossings, but little if any data have been collected to show the relationship between observed speeds and critical speeds at such locations. A sample of available significant data ob tained during the recent Michigan Highway Planning Survey, is shown iu Table A-10 of the Appendices. Observations of the ol>ediencc to posted limits in speed zones have been made in Rhode Island, Michigan, and Illinois, and are stimmaiized in Section II of the Appendix. It lias been found that the lower speed rone limits arc disobeyed much more frequently, which indicates the need for more careful selection of these zones and adequate en forcement of the limits. Vehicle Condition Survey The Illinois Division of Highways is now completing a comprehensive study uf brak ing ability and headlight efficiency in an effort to determine upper critical speed val ues for night driving conditions. Preliminary data indicate that 50 MPH is &> fast as the average vehicle should be operated if the motorist is to be able to identify a pedes trian or fixed object in the roadway and come to a stop before colliding with it. When two vehicles are meeting, the further reduc tion iu visibility permits speeds not more than 30 MPH. As one phase of the study, vehicles were stopped on the highway and (lie condition of the brakes and the lights were tested. Of 22,528 vehicles, 14.2% were found to have both deficient brakes and faulty lights. Only 10.9% were found to have brakes and lights both in good condition. More data arc now being obtained so as to permit a recommen dation on safe night driving speeds for the average vehicle. The tremendous increase iu the night accident problem, especially in rural areas, points to the need tor more definite control of night driving speeds. Speed Observations Related to Accidents The relation between speed practices and the accident records of vehicle owners was investigated as a part of the 1934 Connecti cut speed survey. License numbers of each of about 1,000 vehicles observed in the two speed ranges (35 to 45 M.P.H. and over 50 M.P.H.) were recorded and the accident records of (he owners of each vehicle were investigated by consulting the driver files of the State Motor Vehicle Department. It was found that about 30 per cent more of the operators who traveled at the higher speeds had accident records. Also, owners of (he vehicles in the fast group had been involved in about 45 per cent more accidents than those in the slow group. The investigation did not include special study of the possible effects of difference* in vehicle mileage, ages of the vehicles, and other circumstances which may possibly have had some hearing upon the extent to \vluch speed alone was a factor. The best available information on the relationship between speed and accidents has been obtained in ease studies of high acci dent locations, using the collision diagram method of analysis. The before and after study of speeds, conditions, and accident!; at a rural intersection of two major rural high ways, made for the committee by (he Okla homa Department of Public Safety and shown in Figure I, is a striking example of llie effectiveness of speed control in reducing accidents at locations where it is not eco nomically feasible at the time to eliminate hazardous conditions by road improvement or similar remedy. Motorists apparently had been accustomed to traveling aloi>r the open rural highways at high speeds and had not been aware of the necessity for decreasing speeds to such low values at this intersection. After the signs indicating necessary speed (imitations were erected, the average approach speeds were greatly reduced, and accidents at (his loca tion were practically eliminated. Similar ease studies for other locations in Oklahoma arc shown in Figures A-3 and A-4 of the Ap pendices. % Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress jj . FIGURE I *~*Y (::X',: SPEEDS AND ACCIDENTS BEFORE AND AFTER INSTALLATION OF SPEED CONTROL SIGNS AT RURAL HIGHWAY INTERSECTION IN OKLAHOMA AVCfcAtE SPttft 17 M.P.K. Street and Highway Traffic Section 97 There is definite need for additional data obtained through the use of the accident ex perience approach to the speed problem. Most motorists are able to adjust their speeds to average driving conditions, but at locations where there arc unusual conditions, they need help. Spot maps reveal the types of locations where accidents tend to concen trate. Collision diagrams and studies of speed practices and conditions at these loca tions show whether the hazard can be re moved or reduced or whether speed reduction through special speed control methods is needed. After speed control signs or other methods have been adopted, the accident records will reveal whether they have been effective in reducing accidents. Several cities and states are undertaking .special studies of speed, conditions and acci dents, following the general procedure pre pared for the Committee. It is only after comprehensive data of this sort have been gathered that we can intelligently plan zon ing programs, determine enforcement poli cies and educate drivers to operate vehicles at speeds safe for the conditions. SPEED CONTROL METHODS Progress in speed regulation daring tbc past few years has been rapid, although it has not kept pace with vehicle and highway developments. Few studies of speed control methods hare been made--progress has been based almost entirely upon past experience, each jurisdiction learning through trial and error. Legislation has been greatly improved and engineering and enforcement methods have been developed, but there still is need for more progress if speed control methods are to be adapted to present day conditions In planning speed control methods, there should be proper recognition of highway construction and maintenance as preferred methods for eliminating hazardous condi tions. Highway engineers are constructing new highways and eliminating danger spots in old highways as rapidly as funds become available bq as to permit higher and more uniform speeds with safety. Whenever haz ardous conditions can be corrected through improvement of the roadway or the condi tions surrounding the roadway, that method should be preferred to speed limitation. Speed control methods that have been ued or suggested, either alone or in combination are ()) speed legislation, (2) speed zoning, (3) education, (4) enforcement, (5) traffic signal systems and (6) governors or other vehicle limitation. Speed Legislation---The trend in speed legislation is toward the speed provisions in the 1934 edition of the Uniform Vehicle Code. These provide, (1) a basic rule that "no person shall drive a vehicle on a high way at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions (hen exist ing,** (2) numerical prima facie limits as a guide for drivers and enforcement officials, and (3) authority for the alteration of prima facie limits by the erection of signs, after engineering and traffic investigations have shown nxh alterations desirable. Maximum lawful limits were used for many years prior to the development of the Uniform Code provisions, but were gener ally conceded to be unsatisfactory because the limits generally did not fit the conditions. This resulted in hardships upon both motor ists and officials, because a motorist traveling faster than the maximam lawful speed was violating (he law even though the speed mayhave been safe for the conditions. As a re sult, many states abolished all numerical limits and adopted the basic speed rule. It then was possible to make arrests for unsafe speeds, but it was very difficult to obtain convictions. Now, many states have supple mented the basic rule with prima facie limits as recommended in the last edition of the Uniform Vehicle Code. Exceeding a prima facte limit is unlawful unless the motorist proves that lie was traveling at a speed safe for the conditions. Id contrast, a violation of an absolute limit is always unlawful and it is necessary only to prove that the speed was exceeded. Thus, a motorist can exceed the prima facie limits when conditions permit faster speeds of operation with safety, but he must be careful when exceeding these limits because the bur den of proof will be upon him in the event of trouble. Motorists must also operate at speeds lower than the prima facie jjmils when conditions warrant, but in such cases, the city or state must prove that the speeds were unsafe- The present practice with regard to speed legislation is shown in Table V. Speed legis lation in several states was brought into conformance with the Uniform Code pro visions within the past year. However, there are still many states with obsolete speed provisions. 98 Twenty-Sixth National Safely Congress TABLE V State Bp--d Limit* tor f*Min|er Vehicle* October, IU7 Compiled from State Motor Vehicle Lot-- and beta Furotehed by Official* of State Depart manta State Ark. (c) Cal. Kkx. Ind. Miw. Mo A'cbr. M. N. V. N. C. N. D. Ohio S. C. (c) S. D. Vt. Wurii. U-> XV. X . Wi*. Wyo. Authority to Fix Other Limit* ot Baric Sneed Rule X X X K X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X General Stale-Wide Speed IJmiit Value* in Xf.P.H. Typ<ra Power oi Slate Muidpaliitc* t Zone paw to Fix Stale Hywaya* Or Alier Units Rural Suburl)** _ .. 45 60-20 50 (d; 45 45 40 as _ _ -- 40 40 Rea. ttftt. 25 25 25 2$ 30 25 ZO 25 30 25 25 20 35 25 45 75 30 20 20 4S soon 50 20 25 - -- 50 25 Hut. Ollier Dial. 15-20 20 20 20 IS U) (a) IS ] 3-30 20 20 20 20 15 20-15 20 20 15 30(r) 20 -- 20 00 <>. 25 (> (> 35 (r) (a) 30(e) (a) Cd) 40 40 43 so 45 35 25 20 () 20 20-15 (a) 25 20 (oi 25 20 25 25 Ul 25 20 (A) 45 25 20 (a) 30 35-25 J5-2S (X) J5 20 20 55 35 25 40 20 20-13 (a) - 30 30 (a) 45 so SO <c> 25 20 - -- M 45 25 15 (u> 50 35 * 20 (u> 45 25 25 20 (n) -- 25 20 13 (a) 35 ' " " Prim* Prim* Abso Facie Facie lute Uirila X X X *<) X X X X X X X X X X X X _ X X (tl) X (*.*) X -- -- X-- X X-- x 00 X x (h) X-X X <fj X-- -- X <h> XX X X X-- X- X- -- -- X (C) (0 X - X K X X x(h> X X * 00 X- X X (It) X (u) X -- XX Abso Prim* lute Facie Untie* Limit* _ -- -- -- - * (c.h) a 00 X (to -- -- a <c.) -- -- (lO -- -- -- X *00 *<h) (d) -- a (C) (P) x --(10 -- -- -- X(h) X <h) -- *01 X X 1 .. * 0> X X X 00 X x <0 -- X 0> -- * X X x (f) ill) -- X <l. (p) X g) *00 X 00 Abso lute Unit* x G> -- -- -- -- X -- X -- -- X (c,) X <k) X X * (ni) x 00 -- X a <n) x 00 -- -- X X (J) X a 00 * f|) M x Ik) (aV Special Matits for obsuucted com*, ifUtrsection* und/or at schools. (b> Questionable---Not officially con firmed- (cl New law in 1937. (d) Department irtuktktn (e) Limit In unincorporated place*. (0 30 mile night limit In *0 mile --. 1*1 Enforced ns absolute limits, (h) Authority to decrease limits only, (j) Authority to increase limits only- (k Authority to adjast within values specified in Mate law. (m) May increa** speed on sienaiiscd streets- 00 May port 23 or J5 m.p.h. limit*. (p) No definite auOriz*tion in motor vehicle law. but *>anvindicating *fu weed* have been erected on curves and/or sections of street or highway. (q> Special abso lute limits, (r) Smcnl prima fade limits, (s) Interpreted as absolute limits by Department, (n Indicated speeds--penalties tor violation of the bosk speed rule arc greater when indicated speeds trv exceodod. <u) Also prima facie evidence of reckless driving. * 20 Stales have special authority to act absolute limits at bridges- yes none ? -- not known Sired atiH Uiyhnity Traffic Section Minnesota recently adopted a 50 mile night prima facie limitation lor those spued zones with a sixty-mile day limitation. Oklahoma is considering a special night driving limits* tion, to he enforced as a department regula tion. Sufficient data arc not available for the Committee to recommend a definite night driving- limitation but states should consider its desirability. Although prima facie limits permit much greater flexibility, they are often more diffi cult to enforce than absolute limits. When states use adequate engineering methods based upon critical speed values for selecting speed zones, it probable that absolute limit-* for speed zones will be much more effective in speed control. As shown in the table, new laws in six states provide for absolute limits in speed zones. However, unless ade quate engineering methods for tpeed zone selection are to be used, prima facie limits still are desirable. Speed Zoning--Establishment oi peeri zones based upon engineering and traffic investigation of conditions is a recent speed regulation development. Outstanding ex amples of this development arc in Rhode Island, Illinois and Connecticut. A large number of state departments, as shown in Table V, now have authority for the estab lishment of speed zones, and many of them have traffic engineering departments for making the necessary engineering investiga tions. Caution, warning and regulatory type signs are generally used in present traffic control systems to inform motorists that they are approaching hazardous conditions where speed reduction maj' be necessary. Warning signs arc used at locations of permanent hazard such as at curves or narrow bridges. Caution signs are used at locations where hazards exist only part of the time, such as at cattle crossings, pedestrian crossing*; rr open cross roads. Stop signs, as one regu latory type sign, are placed in approaches to those intersections where safety requires that vehicles come to a stop before entering the intersection. Stated speed slow signs arc warning type signs, while other speed signs arc generally of the regulatory type. Like other warning signs, stated speed signs inform the motorist ol a change in conditions ahead and in addi tion, indicate to him the speed at which he can approach with assurance of safety. Speed zones generally are established at locations whcie unusual conditions require that speeds be lower than prima facie limits, or where the conditions permit speeds greater than these limits. Their purpose is to specify reasonable limits suited to special conditions so as to obtain greater voluntary obedience and permit enforcement directed at speed "too fast for conditions.*' Speeds may be stated for intersection approaches, curves, or other individual locations, but generally a speed zone consists of a section ot highway over which motorists can operate at a fairly uniform speed. When a section is zoned tor a uniform speed, there may be intersections and other locations in ihc zone where reductions below the zoned speeds arc necessary. The Ltriform Vehicle Code provisions now recommend stale-wide prima fade limits for business and residential districts with defini tion* of the terms "business district" and "rcideoce district" sufficiently flexible to permit speed re^ulaliun* adapted to the con ditions. Authority also is given municipal officials to zone certain streets after engi neering and traffic investigation have shown that special limitations arc desirable. This zoning authority is especially helpful in speed control on through streets and at entrances to municipalities. Tabic V shows that of the 37 slat m which municipal limits are specified by stale law, only five have given the municipal au thorities power cither to increase or decrease the limits upon certain streets or at specified locations. However, in at least 13 oilier states, municipalities can increase Ihc general limits. Case studies* of the accident experience often indicate the desirability of adopting special speed limitations at individual loca tions. Stated speed slow signs for use at intersections, curves, hillcrcsts and oilier hazardous locations have been recommended for sonic time by the National Conference on Street and Highway Safely. Although additional data are needed to determine their effectiveness in speed control and atcidcut reduction, there is sufficient informa tion available to show that they have been effective at many location*. Recently, the Missouri Highway Depart ment inaugurated an experimental spued control project involving the marking ol curves with signs indicating the critical speeds. A special instrument adopted from an airplane bank indicator was used to deter- 100 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress mine on a uniform basis the critical speed values for every important curve on one of l/ie federal highways across the state. Re flcctorizcd critical speed signs were erected ui tltc approaches to these curves. Once a motorist becomes accustomed to the zoned values, he can adjust his speed to a value above or below the limits, depending upon his personal limitations. Data on the effec tiveness of this installation are not yet avail* able, but there are indications that motorists are helped by the speed signs. When motorists approach urban areas on rural highways they' lower their speeds gradually as they approach the more conm-ted parts of the municipality. Graduated -.peed zones with tltc zoned limits decreasing in >icps and conforming to the practices of average careful motorists, have been suct*vs>iul when they have been intelligently ap plied and reasonably enforced. Further study of graduated speed restriction* at entrances to municipalities are necessary so that uni form methods for their application can be developed and used as the basis for speed control programs. Studies of methods for the selection of -peed zones have l>cen undertaken by gradu ate students in the University' of Illinois, University of Maine, and Harvard Univer sity in an effort to identity the best procedure ior selecting such zones. A cooperative pro ject of the Highway Research Hoard and the Bureau of Public Roads has just been com pleted although data arc not yet available. Experimental zoning projects also have been started hy highway departments in Michigan and Minnesota. Additional studies are rec ommended so that uniform methods may be adopted and used in each cily and state. One oi the important jobs before the Committee is the promotion of research studies of the effectiveness of various speed zoning methods m securing voluntary obedience and accident reduction. The need for the formulation of the basic principles for determining critical speeds has iiect) ]>otntcd out in section II of the report (page 4). Until such principles have been established, it will be difficult to develop untionri, objective methods for the selection of speed zone*. Driver Education--The education and (ranting of driver* so that they will have a greater appreciation of sound driving prac tices and their own abilities and limitations will l>e an effective means for obtaining bet ter voluntary speed control. High school driver training, mass driver training pro grams, public educational methods and edu cation through intelligent enforcement, all should be extensively developed. Speed control information for use in driver training programs generally must make use of engineering data. Much infor mation on the relationship between speeds and stopping distances, energy and impact, are available now and such information should be incorporated in the educational program. However, it will be much more ef fective after adequate and uniform methods for zoning of the highways for safe speeds have been developed and applied to the high way system. Then, motorists can be edu cated for tlie proper use of uniform engi neering aids furnished them. Enforcement--Information on enforce ment practices in cities and states was ob tained for the Committee through question naire study, and it indicates that most pres ent day enforcement still is directed at speed limits that are 5 and 10 miles above the legislative limits, with some departments making arrests only after legislative limits are exceeded by 20 miles. Many cities and a few states have absolute limits, but the majority have the basic speed rule with prima facie limits. A study of the data in dicates that there is better enforcement in jurisdictions where the speed zones and limits are adapted to the conditions. Enforcement campaigns directed at high speeds have been undertaken in a few juris dictions. The California Highway Patrol un dertook a special drive on speed during the month of July*, 1937. Patrolmen were in structed to arrest all motorists traveling over 50 M.P.H. The rural motor vehicle fatality record for this month showed that there were 32 fewer fatalities than the correspond ing month of the previous year, represent ing an 18 per cent reduction. The drive was not continued because of the danger to high way patrolmen when traveling at high speeds to overtake speeding vehicles. Enforcement of a 30 M.P.H. maximum >l>ced restriction has been undertaken in campaigns by police departments in St. Louis, Minneapolis and St. Paul. The 30 mile campaign in St. Louis showed a substantial reduction in accidents, injuries and fatali ties, but was discontinued after one month. The enforcement programs in Minneapolis and St. Paul are still under way. Fatalities, Strict and Highway Traffic Section 101 as compared to those similar periods of the Traffic Sigoal Tjntsm Fli -lititi pro- preceding year, have been reduced in Min gresrivr signal pcoverly designed neapolis but have increased in St. Paul. to permit uniform aummt at a reasonable, Such enforcement program* directed at yet safe speed, are ideal a mean* for speeds in excess of a ringle arbitrary limit speed control on important <*iry where will undoubtedly have nine if they lead to these is sufficient traffic to warrant the in the development of a cfrimoos program stallation. Thera f a dedwitx trend toward directed at speed "too fast for conditions." their use to control pced a* welt a* t facili However, it is probable (hat motorists are tate traffic movement. unduly restricted at location* where speeds Governor* or Power Limitation- faster than 30 mp.h. are safe, even though Mechanical governor* have brew nrnpifeil to accidents are reduced as these locations. - limit the speed of paxwnger vehicle* to 50 Also, it is probable that both speeds sad ac Or 55 M.P.H. Their <tx will prevent cidents will increase at location* where a 30 ists from operating at exceedingly high m.p.h. speed U too fa>t for conditions. speeds, but cannot prevent operation at Studies of the accident <trihotoo by means speeds "too fa*t for comlition*'* when criti of spot maps, prepared for similar periods cal speeds are less than the limit at which before and after the enforcement drive, each governor is set Present day governor- should give a better iodkariou of the effec limit the flexibility of operating a vehicle, tiveness of the program. especially when driving at a speed near the There is need for development of a method of enforcement directed at drivers operating at speed* "too fa*t for conditions." rather than enforcement directed at speeds in excess of arbitrary Emits. Available en gineering information on critical speed values Has not been used in the enforcement program. Much of this information could be used now, although it will be much more effective when uniform engineering methods for speed zoning are nsed universally . When property engineered speed limits aic available, schedules of critical speeds for each section of street and highway in a city nr state can be furnished to oiforcement officers, prosecutors and judges. General zoned limits and stated speed values at haz ardous locations will be posted for the in formation of the driver. Officers then can make arrests only in cases where critical speed values are exceeded. In this way, rea sonable and effective enforcement programs can be developed (or controlling speed both in urban and rural areas. There is need for a study of methods for securing evidence of speeding violations. Most officers now are required to follow a motorist for several blocks so as to be able to say haw fast the motorist was traveling. However, Kansas City recently has been ex perimenting with radio as a mean* for iden tifying speeding motorists. As limits are revised and made more reasonable, consid eration should be given the admissibility of information obtained through speed traps. Such information is not allowed to he ad mitted as evidence in many states today. governed limit and additional power ineeded to pass another vehicle. Governor* may encourage a totally wrong attitude on the part of the public towards speed control, because they may lead a driver to believe that he is safe when he slays below* the governed limits. Governors have been u*ed successfully on some commercial fleets where there is rigid control of the operators, and there is evi dence available that they have helped to reduce accidents. The Bureau of Motor Carriers of the Interstate Commerce Com mission is now undertaking a thorough ques tionnaire study to obtain cx|>cricnee of inter state fleets with speed governors. As yet, there are few statistic* available to show whethcr governors would be effective in the control of passenger vehicle*. Those that are available for government owned passen ger vehicles indicate that they arc not es pecially effective. Further Information on this point will be collected by the Committee. Difficulties involved in a nation-wide pro gram of compulsory installation of gov ernors, education of drivers to their use, and enforcement of compulsory provisions greatly overshadow the questionable benefits that may be obtained from their nation-wide use. It should be even more difficult for a single city or state to require governors, and the possible benefits undoubtedly would be still more questionable. For the present, the Committee docs not recommend their use, hut suggests that data be gathered to deter mine their effectiveness both for passenger vehicle fleets and for vehicles of chronic speeders and accident repeaters. 102 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Limitation on the power of vehicles so that they cannot be operated at excessively high speeds, has been suggested. However, such limitations would also affect accelera tion, which often is helpful in avoiding acci dents. Indications are that the public would be adverse to a reduction iu vehicle power. More information is needed to determine whether such limitation would be practical and effective. The compulsory u*c of governors in urban areas or in certain mountainous or heavily congested slates Ins been suggested. In such localities, the governed speed possibly could lie set at values which correspond to the critical speeds of a large percentage of the vehicle mileage. These limitations would not be desirable unless methods can be developed for this type of governor control, satisfac tory to motorists as well as to officials. If such methods were to be developed, gov ernors for night driving, in operation when headlight* are required might be a possi bility. Control of Slow Speeds--Slow moving vehicles impede the free movement of traf fic, especially when the volume of traffic or the topography of the territory make it dif ficult for vehicles to pass one another. Slow moving vehicles also are an accident hazard when motorists behind them hccume impa tient and attempt to pass m locations where the passing movements cannot be made with assurance of safety. Many states liave the Uniform Vehicle Code provision which states that it is a mis demeanor t<> continue to o|Kxatc at such slow rate* of speed ns to seriously impede the normal movement of trafiic. With 1 he ex ception of warnings, however, there gener ally has liccn very little enforcement of the provision. Trucks arc among the most serious of fenders, especially upon grades. Ultimately, it may lie necessary to adnirt legislation re quiring that trucks in their normally loaded condition have the ability to ascend grades that arc typical iu the area, at speeds of 20 M.r.H. or greater. However, more study of |Kmer requirements, loads ami speeds of micIi vehicles on different grades is necessary Ik' Tore a definite recommendation can Inr made. More data on the relative importance of slow moving vehicles as a factor in accidents, and data on the effectiveness of different methods for dealing with slow moving ve hicles are needed before the Committee can make any definite recommendations regard ing control of slow moving vehicles. IV. PRESENT AND PROPOSED SPEED.RESEARCH STUDIES The Committee has devckq>cd five differ ent types of field speed studies which city and state departments have undertaken pr arc undertaking as cooperative projects. These studies, all based upon the accident experience approach to the speed problem, are outlined below. Instructions for under taking these studies will be furnished by the Committee. STUDY A---Case Study of Acctdcnis with Complete Engineering Investigation. This study involves the complete engineering in vestigation of typical cases of urban and rural traffic accidents. The investigation will go considerably further than usual po lice investigations. An attempt will be made to evaluate the underlying fundamental causes in addition to determining whether (here have been violations of motor vehicle laws. Speed "too fast for conditions" will be evaluated as one of the contributing causes, and will he correlated with other circumstances contributing to the accidents. STUDY U--Case Study of Accidents with Special Speed Investigation. This study in volves the special investigation of speed as a factor in the accidents which enforcement officers now attend. It is intended that this study enable officers to obtain valuable infor mation on speed without much additional lime and expense. Supplementary speed re port forms and instructions will be furnished so that officers can make reasonably accurate estimates of (a) vehicle speed before acci dent, (b) lawful speed, and (c) safe speed for lltc conditions. Correlations will be made between speed "too fast for conditions'* and other contributing causes, such as defective equipment, stop sign violations, etc. STUDY C--Study of Relation Between Speeds, Conditions and Accidents. High ac cident locations in a section of street or highway are selected and studies are made of roadway and traffic conditions at these locations to determine critical speeds of operation. Speed observations arc made at llicse locations and at nearby accident free locations so as to evaluate changes in speed practices as dangerous locations are ap proached. Differences between critical speeds and actual speeds are related to accident Street and Highway Traffic Section 103 concentrations. Accident studies will be made by means of collision diagram analysis. When special speed control signs have been erected or a hazard removed as the result of a study, the study procedure should be repeated later so as to evaluate the ef fectiveness of the remedy in obtaining vol untary obedience and reducing accidents. Distinct types of the study include the fol lowing: 1. Study of speeds, conditions and acci dents in an experimental section, with con trolled conditions, so as to evaluate the ef fectiveness of speed zoning methods. 2. Studies of the efforts of mrproermenu in physical condition of the highway upon speeds and accidents. J. Studies of voluntary ufedacoc* to limits in existing speed zonev 4. Studies of speeds and accident' at in dividual high accident location*. STUDY D--Study of Efectwemess of Speed Enforcement. Engineering methods arc used to determine critical speed values for sections of street or highway in an area and these values are used m an enforcement program directed at speed "too fast for con ditions." When possible, speed observation* at selected points should be made before and after the enforcement to determine the ef fectiveness of enforcement in reduction of dangerous speeds. Also, before and after studies of accident records, using collison diagram methods of analysis if possible, should be made to evaluate the effectiveness of the enforcement program in accident re duction. STUDY E--Accident Records of Vehicle Owners and Relation to Speed Practices. Observations of license numbers of vehicles in moderate and high speed groups are made at several different locations. The numbers arc used in determining vehicle ownership. Accident records in the State Motor Ve hicle Departments are checked to determine whether the owners of the vehicles in the high speed group have been involved in more accidents than the owners of vehicles travel ing at lower speeds. If possible the age of the cars and the driving experience of the owners should be considered. This study is possible only in states or cities where ade quate driver record* arc available. Statistical Studies--In addition to field speed studies, city and state departments with access to accident records should undertake statistical studies of speeding accidents, simi lar to the reported New Jersey Speed Study. Such studies should include a comparative analysis of actions of vehicles not speeding, as well as an analysis of actions of speeding vehicles. In addition, special study should be given the slow vehicle and its effect upon accidents. V. REPORTS OF COOPERATIVE PROJECTS Officials in 16 states and 16 cities have in dicated their willingness to undertake one or more special speed studies as a coopera tive project with the Committee. Thc.sc of ficials were furnished with general instruc tions for making these studies. Some of llic researches have been completed, others artin progress, and some of the data obtained are included in the factual sections of this report The research program in many juris dictions has been delayed, in others, it has been dropped. It is expected, however, that a great deal of factual data will be collected during the coming year. Following is a brief summary statement of each of the co operative projects: 1. The Kentucky Highway Tatrol is now undertaking Study B---Special accident in vestigation by highway patrol members. Progress has been slow because of inade quate personnel. 2. The Ohio State Highway Patrol is also undertaking Study D, using a modified pro cedure In estimating actual speeds of ve hicles involved in accidents. 3. The Oklahoma Department of Public Safely has completed parts of Study C and has furnished the committee with data on several ease studies of speeds, conditions and accidents. 4. The Illinois Division of Highways is now undertaking a complete speed research program and has already furnished pre liminary data on voluntary obedience jn dif ferent classes of speed zones. Data also have been furnished on experience with governors on state-owned vehicles. * 5. The Ohio State Highway Department lias been undertaking a study of the effec tiveness of different types of slow and warn ing signs in obtaining voluntary speed re duction at hazardous locations and the data will be available to the Committee. 6. The South Carolina Highway Depart ment has been undertaking the study of speeds, conditions and accidents for a nine- 104 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress mile section of highway and the data will be available soon. 7. The California Highway Department has furnished data on speed practices and the frequency of different types of accidents for several sections of rural California high way. 81 The Buffalo Department of Public Safety has completed a special study of speeds conditions and accidents for several sections of city streets. 9. The Memphis Department of Public Safety has completed a study similar to that made m Buffalo. 10. The South Carolina Motor Vehicle Department has completed a comparative ac cident analysis showing before and after extwrience on a 75-mile section of rural high way. where enforcement was directed at ex cessive speed. 11. Other city and state departments that liave indicated willingness to undertake spe cial speed studies have not made a recent report of progress. 12. The Bureau of Molor Carriers of the Interstate Commerce Commission is under taking a questionnaire study of the effective ness of governors on interstate commercial vehicles. Copies of the questionnaire will be furnished the Committee so that the ex- pcricncc of passenger vehicle fleets of Na tion Safety Council members can be gathered. 13. The Statistical Bureau of the National Safety Council has completed an analysis of 10,000 New Jersey accident reports, includ ing a special study of circumstances con tributing to accidents involving excessive speeds. VI. PROGRAM FOR FUTURE ACTIVITY f. Continue cooperation in present speed studies and promote additional researches of a fact-finding nature. 2. Develop more detailed procedure for the researches so as to insure obtaining more uniform and accurate data. 3. Collect, study and analyze all speed data as they become available. 4. Formulate the underlying principles upon which critical speeds are to be deter mined so as to permit the development of uniform, objective methods for speed zone selection. 5. When information becomes available, prepare tentative standards for speed legis lation, speed zoning and enforcement pro grams directed at speed "too fast for condi tions." Kvicrcttcc* made in this report pertain to Jata contained in the appendices. The comj>U*u- report, with ^appendices, is available from the Bureau of Information of the National Safety Council, 20 North Wackcr Drive, Chicago. Street and Hujk&my Traffic Section 105 Committee on Tests for Intoxication Street and Highway Traffic Section Harry K. Pokier, Chief justice. Municipal Court. Evanston. III. Chairman G. H. Barfuss, Commissioner of Public Safety, Sl Paul, Minn. Donald S. Bkrky, Traffic Engineer, National Safety Council. Chicago, 111., Secretary R. 1. Catuw, Aetna Casualty & Surety Company, Hartford, Conn. Dr. T. E. Fkiedemann, School of Medicine. University of Chicago, Chicago, 111. Dr. S. R. Gerber, Coroner, County of Cuyahoga, Cleveland, O. J. A. Greening, Chief of Police. Berkeley, Calif. Dr. R. N. Harcer, Indiana University School of Mcdidne, Indianapolis, Ind. Dr. H. A. Heise, 42S Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wis. A. J. Kavanaugh, Former Director of Public Safety, Miami, Fla. Capt. Wm. M. Kent, Police Department, New York City Lt, F. M. Kreml, Director, Traffic Safety Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, III. Herbhrt McCaske, Inspector, Detroit Police Dept., Detroit, Mich. Dr. C W. Muehurerger. Coroner's Toxicologist, Cook County, Chicago, III. C. C. Reynolds, Supt-, State Highway Police, Wilmington, Del. Capt. Arthur Roth, Department of Public Safety, Cleveland, O. H. D. Scheffer, Auto-Owners Insurance Co., Lansing, Mich. Capt. B. B. Smith, Police Department, Dallas, Tex. Don F. Stiver, Director, State Department of Public Safety, Indianapolis, Ind. Capt. E. W. Tittl, Police department, Phoenix, Ariz. Tests for Driver Intoxication Presented by HON. HARRY H. PORTER Chief Justice, Municipal Court. Evanston, IIL, and Chairman, Committee on Tests for Intoxication The following is a report of progress of the acthniies of the Committee on Tests for Intoxication. It has keen prepared specifi cally for presentation at the Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress m Kansas City, and it should not be considered as a final and conclusive report on'this subject. The Com mittee will continue its study during the en suing year and will present a mare complete report at the Twenty-Seventh Congress. INTRODUCTION Persons driving or walking on public high ways under the influence of alcohol are one of the most serious of present day traffic safety problems. Not only is intoxication an important primary cause of traffic accidents, but test methods, legislation, court procedure and public opinion generally have not been developed to an extent sufficient to permit officials in all parts of the country to deal adequately with the problem. The following are important phases of the problem; 1. It is difficult to identify drivers tint are under the influence of alcohol until after they have committed some driving gror or are involved in an accident. 2. It is difficult to prove that "had been drinking" drivers or pedestrians are under the influence of liquor and that their driving or walking ability has been impaired to an extent sufficient to require that they should be kept off the streets and highways. 3. There are so many pathological con ditions that may produce symptoms similar to alcoholic influence that it is difficult to 106 Tn'ciiiv-Sixth National Safety Congress obtain evidence sufficiently convincing to get convictions. 4. Legal definitions and court interpreta tion of the terms "intoxication" and "under the influence" are so inadequate in many states that it generally is difficult to obtain convictions for any except persons who are obviously drunk. 5. In some states, penalties are so heavy that officials hesitate to arrest or convict persons for driving white under the influ ence nf liquor. tV. Officials often fear to press a charge of driving while under the influence of liQUor because public opinion and court cooperation have not been developed to a sufficient ex tent. This Committee has been appointed to make a thorough study of the problem and to recommend improvements in methods for dealing with drinking drivers and pe destrians. The following data, information and tentative recommendations arc presented as a report of committee progress. ACCIDENT STATISTICS Information on State Accident Report Summaries Reported percentages of "had been drink ing" or "intoxicated" participants in fatal accidents in 26 states during 1936 average only 7 per cent for drivers and 11 per cent for pedestrians, but the differences in re ported percentages far the different states indicate that these percentages underesti mate the true situation. For example, Arizona reports 18.4% of the drivers involved in fatal accidents in 1936 as "had been drinking," while Massa chusetts reports 10% and New York only 1.8%. Virginia reports that 20.4% of pe destrians fatally injured during 1936 were under the influence of alcohol, while Utah finds only 3.2% in that condition. Obvi ously, these differences in percentages re flect incompleteness of reporting rather than real differences in the number of drinking drivers or pedestrians. Case Studies of Accident Victims Special examinations of drivers and pe destrians injured or killed tn traffic accidents have revealed that the percentage of acci dents involving drinking is higher than indi cated in official reports. Dr. Herman A. Heise, in reporting the results of case studies of 119 consecutive automobile acci dents, has classified 60% of them as "alcohol accidents"--those in which a responsible in dividual had more than 0.02% of alcohol in body fluids. A study of HO cases in Cuya hoga County, Ohio, by Dr. S. R. Gerber, revealed that 58.6% of both drivers and pedestrians killed in accidents during 1936, excluding children under 15, had been drinking. In 45% of the total number of cases, alcoholic concentrations of more than 0.10% in the body fluids were found. A blood-alcohol concentration of 0.10% is used by Doctor Gerber as an intoxication border line. Doctor Gerber, with the cooperation of ten of the leading hospitals in Cleveland, also has recently completed a study of 161 additional cases of persous injured or killed in traffic accidents. Of tins number, 59.8% showed no presence of alcohol and 40.2% showed alcohol to be present in varying concentrations. Sixty-seven of the cases, 50.6% of the total, showed alcoholic con centrations in body fluids greater than 0.10%. A similar hospital study of alcohol inci dence in traffic accident victims is now being carried on in the hospitals of Evanston, III., with the cooperation of the Evanston Police Department. Although the results have not yet been summarized, data for almost 600 cases have been obtained and results will be available soon. The extreme variation between percent ages obtained in these special studies and those shown on official reports demonstrates the great need for additional study to evalu ate the real part played by alcohol as a contributing cause of traffic accidents. Special Analyses of Accident Reports City reports indicate that most accidents involving "had been drinking" drivers oc cur at night. Official reports of Honolulu for. 1936 show that 24.7% of the drivers involved in night accidents had been drink ing as compared with 4.9% for those in volved in day accidents. Similarly, data from Dallas show that 42.2% of all night accidents occurring in August, 1937 involved drinking drivers. The worst single hour was from 11 p.m. to midnight, when one out of every two drivers involved in acci dents had been drinking. Dallas also has made a study of improper driving practices of "had been drinking" drivers involved in accidents and reports that 28.4% of these drivers were speeding, 27.0% were on the wrong side of the road Street ami Highxeay Traffic Section RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TIME OF DAY AND ACCI0ENTS INVOLVING DRIVERS REPORTED AS HAD BEEN DRINKING J07 108 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress The most important information developed in this New Jersey study is data that defi nitely indicate that alcohol if in itself a primary cause of accidents. Data in Table \To. 1 show that non-drinking drivers in accidents involving ``had been drinking" drivers generally did nothing to contribute to the collision whereas non-speeding driv ers in speeding accidents are guilty of violations just as often as are drivers in non-speeding accidents. In this New Jersey study only \2.b% of the "had been drinking** drivers were less than 25 years old, whereas 272% of all other ("had not been drinking") drivers in volved in non-pedestrian accidents were less than 25 years old. Further details of the New Jersey study will be found in the ap pendix. Similar special analyses of drinking and non-drinking accidents should be made in other localities to secure additional data. The committee recommends that they be made and will be glad to furnish instructions to cities and states desiring to make them. THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL Both alcoholic intoxication and fatigue produce temporary impairment of a person's ability to act as he would under normal conditions. Intoxication, however, affects a person's judgment as well as his physical condition. Fatigued drivers generally are aware of their decreased efficiency and com pensate by operating at lower speeds. In contrast, persons under the influence of liquor generally are not able to compensate for their decreased ability because of faulty TABLI I A Comparison of Contributing Circwnfnres In Spooding and Drinking Accidents. 10,000 Haw Jersey Aoddanta In 10S0 ^ Showing For Cent of Driran with the Reported Contributing Circumstances. Circumstance 1 )rivtrn Speeding Accidents Speeding Driver* XonSpeeding Drivers Driver* Non- Speeding Accident*" Driver* Drinking Accidents Drinking Driver* NonDrinking Drivers Drivers Non- Drjnking Accidents* Total Driver Violations Rural Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent 100.0** 100.0** 43.0 58.6 41.3 54.1 79.5 88.3 13.9 19.8 45.0 56.4 Total Vehicular Defects 10.0 4.6 4.3 6.8 3.5 Rural 10.6 5.7 7.3 8.6 4 8 4.7 76 Total Driver Defects Rural 23.3 31.4 18.1 21.7 14.2 23.9 100.a*** 100.o*** 4.3 4.8 12 5 21.5 l.cfaTurn Movements Urban Rural 1.0 15.9 V.4 8.3 4.4 2.9 31.9 10 6 7.6 4.2 8.7 10.1 'Non-l'cdcstrian accidents used forjeompariaou. been drinking. Statistical Bureau, National Safety Council. **Speed"liniit violation*. ***Had Street and Highway Traffic Section 109 judgment and generally are very dangerous behind the wheel. Results of many independent investiga tions indicate that relatively small amounts of alcohol are sufficient to cause some im pairment oi a persons ability to act as he ooU under normal conditions. Several of these investigations are summarized in the book "Alcohol and Man/' edited by Dr. Haven Emerson of Yale University. Drinking is not a moral issue from the safety standpoint, but public opinion defi nitely ts against the person who drives while imder the influence of liquor. The pofctic is very hesitant to identify the bor derfine at which driving becomes dangerous, bat it generally recognizes that beyond a Certain point, a person who drives while intoxicated is a menace on the highway. Persons who are so drunk that they can hardly stand can be dealt with easily. It is the driver near the borderline, with suffi cient alcohol to affect his muscular coordi nate and emotional state, that is the most dangerous. Consequently, methods that will obtain uniform results and be effective in securing convictions are necessary for ex amining these persons. More specifically, the problem becomes (1) the determination of the borderline beyood which the "had been drinking" driver is dangerous, and (2) the development and use of methods for identifying this condi tion and obtaining evidence which will secure convictions in court. Better examicatsoQ methods are necessary so that more convictions can be obtained for arrests now made, fewer unwarranted arrests will be made and more arrests will be made for recognized intoxication cases which for merly were changed to "reckless driving" or other charges because of difficulty in obtaining convictions for driving while under the influence. DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC OPINION Although public opinion recognizes to a limited extent that the driver under (lie influence of liquor is a menace on the high way, there ts need for ait educational pro gram to inform the public in a more specific manner of the dangers of driving after drinking. Such a program should point out the effects of alcohol both upon a person's physical condition and upon his judgment. It should stress particularly the impairment of judgment which occurs before physical condition has been noticeably changed. After adequate and uniform methods for determining intoxication are in general use, the educational program can point out the limits above which impairment of driving occurs and arrests arc made. Until that time, it may be well to stress the desirability for adhering to the slogan "If you drive--don't drink; if you drink--don't drive/' The development of public opinion to recognize in a more specific way the hazards of driving after drinking may ultimately reduce the need for extensive test methods and involved court procedure. However, until this public opinion has been developed through educational methods, more scientific methods of determining intoxication may be needed for nearly all cases. LEGAL PHASES OF THE PROBLEM Legal problems include: (l) legal defi nition of the phrases "intoxication" or "under the influence"; (2) penalties for driving while "under the influence"; and (3) legality of the various methods for obtaining evidence and presenting it in court. Definition of "Under the Influence" The legal control of intoxication in the United States rests mainly with state and city courts. The attitudes and definitions of "intoxication" and "under the influence" differ greatly as established by precedent. The Committee, through its chairman, lias undertaken a thorough study of the defini tions used in the various states, and a com plete summary of these is given in Section II of the Appendix. One of the best defi nitions for "tinder the influence" is found in Arizona, and is a$ follows: The expression "under the influence of intoxicating liquor" covers not only all the well known and easily recognized con ditions and degrees of intoxication, but any abnormal mental or physical condition which is the result of indulging in any degree in intoxicating liquors, and which tends to deprive him of that cleanness of intellect and control of himself which he would otherwise possess. If the ability of the driver of an automobile has been lessened in the slightest degree by the use of intoxicating liquors, then the driver is deemed to be under the influ ence of intoxicating liquor. The mere fact that the driver has taken a drink does no Twi-nty'SixIli Xatiotial Safety Congress not place him under the ban of the statute cases, evidence obtained without consent unless such drink has some influence upon or knowledge has been accepted.* Also, re him lessening in some degree hts ability sults of chemical tests of body fluids are to handle said automobile. Steffani vs. generally admitted as evidence if the speci State 42 Pae. (2nd) 615. mens are taken with the consent of the ac The general acceptance of this definition cused persons.* by courts in (he various slates, especially Past experience indicates that urine tests in states without an adequate definition, offer no legal problem, since accused per should be a tremendous help in dealing with sons are always glad to give specimens to the intoxication problem. The committee prove their innocence. Blood tests offer recommends that prosecutors secure the some legal difficulties because of the possible adoptioi of iMs or similar definitions. danger involved in drawing samples, al Ultimately, _.i entirely new definition for '`under the influence," which possibly may be a part of the motor vehicle law, can be formulated. Such a definition could estab lish Fairly definite borderlines, which would make it much easier for enforcement offi cials to obtain convictions than is now the though they have been used in some recent cases in this country. Blood tests are official in Sweden and are mandatory in Germany for persons involved in automobile accidents. A legislative committee in Maine is now con sidering the feasibility of permitting such tests in (hat state. case. Until data are available to permit a There is need for clarification in law and more definite recommendation, the com improvement in court procedure so as to mittee suggests that such a definition con permit the more general use of evidence sist of the following two parts: obtained through chemical tests and through (1) A basic rule defining "under the clioieal examinations by physicians. The gen influence" as impairment of the ability to eral adoption of scientific test methods will operate a motor vehicle, regardless of undoubtedly help to bring about this im whether the person was driving in a dan provement. gerous manner. (2) Supplementary statements or prima facte clauses outlining (a) a combination of general indications and (b) a definite per centage of alcohol in the body fluids, either of wjuch will be prtma facie evidence that PRACTICAL PROBLEMS To obtain convictions for the offense of driving while under the influence, it gen erally is necessary to prove the following: 1. The person was operating on a public the person is "under the influence" accord highway. ing to the intent of the basic rule. Z His physical condition or judgment Penalties State and municipal ordinances prescrib ing penalties for driving while under the influence of liquor often have been very had been impaired so that he was mot in possession of his normal faculties. 3. This impairment was caused by the influence of akohol. severe, with the result that it is much more Medical authorities state that there arc difficult to obtain convictions. More 'rea about 60 pathological conditions that pro sonable fines and jail sentences, with sus duce one or more of the same symptom* pension or revocation of driving privileges, in the human body as alcohol. To be able should result in the securing of many rqore definitely to pronounce a man as under the convictions for this offense. Later, when influence rf alcohol, these pathological con public opinion, test methods and procedure ditions must generally be ruled out. The for handling cases of intoxicated drivers use of specific questions, in the presence of have been developed to a sufficient extent, witnesses, with answers recorded as givett, penalties may be increased. will generally permit the collection of sttffi-1 2 Legality of Methods The legality of using medical evidence has often been questioned, and some courts will not permit its use. Generally, however, most courts will accept evidence obtained from physical examinations that have been made with the subject's consent,1 and in some 1. Sm $ Ohio O 434. 2. New Jersey Ciu--143 Atlantic 730. J. Th Supreme Court of Ariiona has jun re versed an order granting a new trial to perion convicted for driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The Court hold* that the re sult* of a chemical analysis of urine are edmiuiMe U evidence, even though the defendant did not know why he was asked vs. Dugutd, No. 839, Oct. Vto, give s 1937.) sample. (State Street and Highway Traffic Section 111 cient evidence to rule out these conditions. Lay witnesses then can testify successfully as to the impairment of the person's condi tion. Suggested questions for collecting this evidence are given in the attached examina tion report form (page 10). The committee recommends that every intoxication exami nation include such questions. METHODS FOR DETERMINING INTOXICATION Four general methods are now used, either singly or in combination, for deter mining when a driver of a car is under the influence of liquor. These are: 1. General observations by officers and iviluesses- These arc made by police officers and witnesses at the scene of the accident or violation and at the police station. These persons appear in court and testify by giv ing their opinion as to whether the accused was under the influence of liquor. 2. Special examination by officers with a written report. The officers supplement the general observations by noting specific ac tions such as ability to walk, ability to stand, speech, odor of breath, tremor of hands, condition of hair, condition of eyes, color of face, marks or injuries, and unusual acts. Specific Questions arc asked and general coordination is measured by observing the ability to perform simple tests. Generally, the answers to questions and results of ob servation and tests are recorded on a Special examination report form. 3. Clinical examination by police surgeon or other physician. Special examinations arc made by police surgeons or other physi cians. These generally include the detailed examination listed above and, in addition, a general clinical examination for the pur pose of distinguishing genuine illness from intoxication. A physician's certificate usu ally is prepared stating the results of vari ms tests and certifying whether or not the person is under the influence of liquor. 4. Chemical tests of body fluids or breath. Chemical tests are made for determining the percentage of alcohol in the body fluids or breath. By showing specifically the amount of alcohol present in the body fluids, these tests establish the fact that alcohol was present in a quantity sufficient to cause the impairment indicated in the physical examination. Test results also protect the innocent person suffering from some illness or injury. Methods Now in Use The result of a questionnaire study, un dertaken to learn of methods now in use in various cities and states, is reported in detail in the Appendix, ft indicates that over Italf of the city and state departments still rely upon the general observations of officers and witnesses in securing evidence of intoxication. There is a definite trend toward the use of more scientific methods. Many departments recently have adopted special examination forms for use by officers in recording answers lo questions, and re sults of physical examinations and coordi nation tests. Many of the large cities re porting to the committee have police sur geons that make clinical examinations. In Denver, Dallas and several other cities, the physician's certificate generally saves per sonal appearances of physicians in court. The most surprising tiring was the grow ing number of city and state departments making use of chemical tests of urine or breath. State departments in Vermont, Ohio, Indiana and California have made use of these tests in some cases, while police de partments in Cleveland and other northern Ohio cities, Indianapolis. Honolulu, Lincoln, Phoenix and Berkeley have used evideuce from chemical tests in the securing of con victions. Dr. Herman A. Hcise pioneered in the use of urine test9 in western Pennsylvania several years ago. The results arc reported in the Transactions of the 1934 National Safety Congress. In addition to obtaining excellent results in the securing of convic tions for driving while under the influence, he found evidence of a very close correla tion between chemical test results and physical symptoms as observed by trained examiners. Dr. Herman M. Gunn of Ashland, O., has used results of urine tests in a large num ber of medico-legal cases in the northern part of Ohio. Results in Table If on page 8 show that urine tests arc very success ful when the services of a medical man, well versed in medico-legal phases of alco hol, are available for making the necessary court appearances. After the first few cases. Doctor Gunn found that it was rarely nec essary to make a personal appearance in court because pleas were changed to guilty and his certificate was accepted in court as evidence. 112 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress TABLE n Result* with Fm of Urine Test* in 100 Ohio Cues of Driving While Intoxicated Test* made by Dr. Berman M. Qunn, Ashland, 0. Accident Csuh* Involving Intoxication................. Non-accident drinking-dnvinf cues......................... TOTAL CASES TESTED.......................................... PLEAS: Guilty............................................................ Not fuOty................................................... No prosecution......................................... FINAL DISPOSITION; Found guilty............................. Pending....................................... Acquitted................................... No prosecution........................ RESULTS OF URINE TESTS OF THOSE FOUND GUILTY: Average Per Cent of Alcohol found in Urine Calc. Equiv. in Blood Cases with Cases with Ohio State Local Highway Police Patrol Departments Total Caaes Number Number Number 22 30 52* 28 20 48 SO 50 too 26 IS 44 24 30 54 022 43 3 4" 0 36 8 J*** 3 79 11 7 3 Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent .30 .28 .29 .22 .21 .21 'Includes 2 Pedestrian accidents, 12 single vehicle accidents and 38 collisions ot two or more vehicles. " 1 acquitted by test (.05% in urine). 2 cases of driving not proven. ** 3 in collisions acquitted--tests showed only traces of alcohol. The Vermont Department of Health acts as a clearing house for urine tests in that State. According to the State Motor Vehicle Department, results have been excellent, urine tests being used in about 19% of the state cases. Chemical Tests Scientific investigators have pointed out and repeatedly verified the fact that the con centration of alcohol in the body fluids is one of the most reliable and objective cri teria of intoxication. Many of these investi gators have determined the relationship between brain alcohol concentrations and concentrations in spinal fluid, blood, urine. n1iva, and breath, so that the degree of alcoholic influence he evaluated closely when the concentration of alcohol in breath or in the body fluids is known. Blood-alcohol concentrations closely par allel brain-alcohol concentrations and are one o the best criteria of intoxication. Urine-alcohol concentrations are sufficiently significant for practical purposes since there is a fairly definite relationship between con centrations of alcohol m the blood and in the urine. This relationship is fairly con stant one to two hours after drinking, with approximately 1.35 parts of alcohol in the urine to 1 part in the blood. Recent tests by Dr. R. N. Harger have shown tliat the relationships between concentrations in the breath and in the blood and urine also are sufficiently definite for practical purposes. The Committee is studying the relation ship between impairment and alcoholic con centration so as to permit the fixing of definite borderline limits in terms of alco holic concentrations in the body fluids and breath. The Committee suggests the use of Street and Highway Traffic Section 113 two limits; (1) a top limit above which a person should be considered as definitely under the influence of liquor from the standpoint of impairment of ability to. oper ate a motor vehicle, and (2) a lower limit below which a person should be exonerated from the standpoint of such impairment. The gmh of persons with concentrations be tween the two limits could be determined by eeaBaderieg external evidences of intoxi- Uadl more data are available, the Commtace suggests an alcoholic concentration of ft.15% by weight in urine (0.11% in blood or equivalent in saliva or breath) as the Sop fcmrt. aad a concentration of ap proximately 0.10 per cent in the urine or equivalent as the lower limit. Later, the CommitSue msy find it desirable to recom mend lower hunts as additional information is revealed through further study. The preliminary report* of the American Medical Association** Committee that is' studying problems of motor vehicle accidents states that it is important that chemical observations of alcohol in the blood, urine, saliva or breath be used to confirm obvious intoxication. Tbe report also points out that levels of alcoholic concentration even less than 0tl5 per cent by weight in body fluids are moditid with definite impairment of judgment. A summary of the various methods that are available for chemical analyses of blood, urine, saliva and breath is given in Section 1 of the Appendix Tbe committee is study ing the practicability and effectiveness of these methods and will report on them in the next report. Improving Test Methods Officers* reports will be much more valu able when the officers have been adequately trained in questioning suspects, making the physical examination, recording the infor mation on the form and testifying in court. The committee recommends the thorough training of officers in this examination pro cedure. There is definite need for more complete information on the effectiveness of different methods in obtaining convincing evidence and in securing convictions. This informa tion should be obtained for cities of differ ent sires and in different localities, because of differences in public opinion and cooper I. I. Journal June 19, 19W. ation of courts in different parts of the country. It is logical to expect that evi dence obtained by police officers will be sufficient in localities where courts are sympathetic and public opinion has devel oped to the point where it is willing to back the enforcement department. For ex ample, the Minnesota Highway Patrol re ports that such methods are satisfactory in that state. In many slates and cities, more definite evidence is needed, and generally will have to be obtained through improved officer examination, physician's examinations or chemical tests. Possibly chemical tests for all cases may be only a temporary meas ure, used for a time sufficient to develop public opinion and court cooperation. Later, the officers' reports may prove sufficient ex cept for personal injury and other difficult cases, when chemical tests or physician's examinations may still be necessary. The committee is undertaking a more complete and thorough study of the various methods. Forms (see Section I of the Ap pendix) will be furnished enforcement de partments so that they can submit the monthly reports of results obtained in the use of these methods. In this way, it is expected that the committee can collect in formation which will permit more definite recommendations for cities of various sizes and for different conditions. An Officers' Examination Report form, included as a part of this report, has been prepared by the Committee and is recom mended for use either in complete form or in part, by enforcement departments. This will be furnished several state and local enforcement departments with a recom mendation that it be used to gather evi dence In intoxication cases. THE PEDESTRIAN Very tittle attention now is devoted to pedestrians that are under the influence of liquor on streets and highways. Since avail able data indicate that intoxication of pedestrians is one of the most serious con tributing causes of fatal pcdcstriafi acci dents, especially at night, the committee recommends that educational and enforce ment methods should be directed at drinking pedestrians as well as at drinking drivers. recommended procedure FOR DETERMINING INTOXICATION Until additional data are collected to de termine the effectiveness of the various m Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress IM*t Parrtaftr Pedcairian ... . - A* VXatadM m lUeMwt MOTOR VEHICLE INTOXICATION REPORT Caae No_______________ Station________ _.... ...._________Pr. Lie. Kt------------------- QUESTIONS) Ntv yvn kem 4rikiii(f..............Whu)...............-................. All. A.M. (.`uumwntnl KM. Stopped...............P.M. Win*? Arc )uw ill! Are un>(e* a Jncim't cm*I _____ Qttaniiiiaa?______..... ir*c. **ko.......... ...... -... Arc yimj irking medicine? . ir >.**<?....... .... .. ......................dow___________ IX. )*ri Ware Ji^beir*^ . ..................... ... Arc )** taking iMacho?............. Have >* Ikm ** a deniiat?. Mao. ........ An you utlag a no* Are )M iwir . Hot* Mark alacp y-- hr** lM ai|kli. .. Did yw get a Icagi on the bud?. ..................... Hoc much today?.... Haw you let* (kicking timet the attideat What?............................... QaaatUla*? UAMUHATIOlS:--(Uraar ritrlea rcouiad emiir dewribing uimryed condition#) MAT* haaktri iMal Ular al aleafcai --UrM, tlnair. iiwi| COUU Ot tMt CLO nm Awmil; Mnol (Mth iNriy Iharinly ISniyrirmail Kukri IH Jainari OaAari Pala lUiri Saitari t>r vaaait MM by aria* unfit mis Mk Hilariaa* Koturi TrlLritrr lapatav Janwk ese; SnraaAaat t'--tortia* Owe St-- MMoai trtt,e.ik.il-r'i iMhiaa Kfcatof V--klaa %**<( IXaaVa* Wabran. IMiley Cwrriita. UMaartaaa TS1s U mi U CAUutes k*Ci"--tv nwl UppawaOy aanart Pair Sn>Ua 1 a vui Pair tut S*Ha tanae ti wpcts-ipsm twt| fi O Mtaf Pair Skriftd Wrinr DAatari Wittlln *t--Mat kiartnata umm** fcawariag ICiadri"l gaaiag Him atari ISa* iimbi laMl Ctaajr aucfcaKo*a. r-ggr-lri kagnW I>tlja| I'aUng fdVa* HaaMaiafliaari UataW* la Stmm4 MMaa ll.aaml. Carfare* laaabarrat Wkhparhg Jarfcy Kcocladge of lid** S*d place _____ KfugiilanaafUjary ........... ASH ITT TO im*C--AaMat*Mtv M-- --------SgC--------------OEe--a--------------Cm Vi'iiMW* WtumrilM NOTE; moiWCRHM Hm(HMKk tn pkAk (FRONT) fecks Street and Hiyhivoy Traffic Section ns (BACK) 16 Tiventy-Sixth National Safety Congress test methods, the following is suggested as a procedure in obtaining and presenting ad missible evidence. A. Part by Enforcement Officers 1. Establish, by means of questions in the presence of witnesses, with signed state ments of witnesses when possible, that: (a) The person was operating a motor ve hicle on a public highway when arrested. (b) The accused is not a sick man nor is lie under the immediate care of a doc tor. (c) He has not been drinking since the accident or the arrest (d) His actions are not the result of in juries in an accident. (e) He does not have diabetes and has not been using insulin. (f) He has not been to a dentist nor has he been using an alcoholic mouthwash recently. 2. Establish, by means of general ob servations and physical tests of coordination, that the accused is not in possession of his norma) faculties. Do not make coordination tests unless subject is wiliiug. 3. Record answers to questions, observa tions of physical conditions, and results of coordination tests on an examination report form, fn addition, secure signed statements of witnesses when possible. A. Furnish the prosecutor with a copy of (he examination report so that be can di rect questions from it. Have the officers use the information on this form to refresh llicif memory when appearing in court. IV Clinical Examination When the services of a police surgeon or other physician are available and local'condiiions are satisfactory, the clinical observa tions of these physicians as a supplement to general observations of officers and wit nesses may be desirable, especially for cases of injury, illness and other questionable cases. A certificate, signed by the physician, certifying whether or not the person is under the influence of liquor should be pre pared/ In many cases, the physician's cer tificate will result in pleas being changed to guilty and it will be accepted in court as evidence. In others, the physician neces sarily' will have t<9 make personal appear ance. Physicians' examinations will generally not be necessary when chemical tests are made. C- Chemical Tests 1. When the services of an expert chem ist and physician are available, chemical analyses of urine, blood or breath may be desirable for cases of illness and injury and other difficult cases or in localities where it is difficult to secure convictions by other methods. Secure samples of urine, breath, saliva, or Mood for a chemical test, seal in the container, and be able to prove that the sample came from the accused. These should be secured as soon as possible after the arrest, after advising the suspect of his constitutional rights. In many localities samples may be mailed to a central labora tory for analysis. 2. Follow a reliable procedure in deter mining the alcoholic content of the sample, and be able to interpret the test results in terms of alcoholic concentration in the brain. Have reliable information available to interpret the percentage found in terms of the average number of drinks. 3. The evidence obtained from chemical tests may be presented in Court by personal appearance, explaining in simple terms just what is meant by the various percentages of concentration of alcohol. After the pro cedure has developed to a sufficient extent, certificates, stating the percentage of alco hol, may be instrumental in having many pleas changed to guilty and may be ac cepted as evidence in court. The information obtained by enforcement officers should be sufficient in those cases where definite impairment was shown and (he persons did not complain of illness or injury. When the person has been injured or com plains of illness, clinical examinations by a physician or chemical tests of body fluids arc a desirable supplement to the officer's examination to distinguish between the ef fects of akohol and those of illness or injury. In some localities, physicians* ex aminations or chemical tests may be needed for all cases. PROGRAM OF FUTURE ACTIVITY The following program will be under taken by the committee during the coming year; l. Continue the cooperative projects with the Indiana State Police and Police Depart ments in Berkeley, Phoenix and Evanston. Z Furnish special forms to other enforce ment departments so that adequate records Street and Highway Traffic Section 117 of arrests, test methods and disposition of all cases in which alcoholic influence is suspected, can be kept. 3. Arrange for additional research studies of hospitalized accident cases so as to ob tain additional data on the sue of the drinking driver problem. 4. As the data become available, prepare standards for proposed drinking driver laws, definitions of "under the influence," exami nation report forms, and procedure for use in examining persons suspected of being under the influence of liquor. Recommend methods lor use by departments in cities of different sizes and in different parts of the country. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS Until additional data are available to sup port more detailed statements, the Commit tee makes the following recommendations: 1. Every intoxication examination should include questions asked at the scene of the accident or violation so as to collect evi dence for ruling out any false defenses of illness, injury, taking of medicine, drinking since the accident, or non-operation of a motor vehicle. 2. Officers should be thoroughly trained in examination procedure and should use a special report form for recording answers to questions and observations of physical condition. 3. Chemical tests of body fluids or breath, or clinical examinations by physicians, are recommended as a supplement to the officer's examination in those cases when the per son lias been injured or complains of illness. In some localities, these methods may be necessary for all cases until public support has been developed sufficiently and officers trained in examination procedure. 4. Chemical tests of body fluids or breath should not be undertaken unless the services of a person competent to testify regarding the meaning and value of the test, are avail able when court appearances are necessary. 5. City and state enforcement departments should cooperate with police surgeons, physicians, hospitals, and departments of health in the establishment of improved pro cedures for examining persons suspected of being under the influence of liquor. 6. The intoxication examination report form, included as a part of this report, (page 10) is recommended for use in city and state enforcement departments. Parts of tbe report that are not adapted to local conditions may be omitted so as to shorten the form. 7. Legal definitions of the phrases "in toxicated" and "under the influence" should be improved, clarified and made more uni form. The committee suggests the general adoption of the Arizona definition (sec page 5) as the first step in improving legal definitions. When additional data are avail able, a new definition, to be composed of a basic rule supplemented by prima facie clauses, should possibly be incorporated in the motor vehicle law. 8. Educational and enforcement methods should be directed at drinking pedestrians od streets and highways as well as at drink ing drivers. 9. More specific information should be obtained on the relationship between alcohol and accidents and the effectiveness of the various methods for dealing with the in toxication problem. 10. Educational information should be prepared to inform the public in a more specific manner of tire hazards of driving after drinking and to develop public sup port. References made to charts and tables pertain to data contained in the appendices. The complete report, with appendices, is available from the Bureau of Information of the National Safety Council, 20 North Wacktr Drive, Chicago. 118 Twcnly-Si-rlh National Safety Congress Committee on Pedestrian Control and Protection Street and Highway Traffic Section I. esi.ie ). Sohexsov, City Traffic Engineer, Chicago, 111., Chairman. J. W. A. Bolloxc, City* Traffic Engineer, Seattle, Wash. Chas. Bbakenridge, City Engineer, Vancouver. B, C., Canada f Cait. Hugo Goehlln, Traffic Division, Police Dept., Milwaukee, Wis. Cait. N. D. Huie. Jk., Police Dept., Corpus Oiristi, Tck. W. F. I avis', Traffic Study Engineer, Toronto Transportation Comm., Toronto, Ont. I*. Woodall Johnsox, Director of Traffic Safety, Chattanooga, Tenn. John F. Lorenzkx, Asst. Traffic Engr., National Safety.Council, Chicago, 111., Secretary. Lewis A. MacBkavne, Massachusetts Safety Council, Boston, Mass. Geo. W. Mahuno, Chief of Police, Denver, Colo. R. A. Mjtchki.i., City Traffic Engineer, Philadelphia, Pa. K. I.. Mokkisox, Professor of Highway Engineering & Highway Transport, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. W. E. Rai*i*. Office of Commissioner of Public Safety, Syracuse, N. Y. Hawi.ey S. Simpson, Research Engineer, Am. Transit Ass'n, New York City. Capt. Wkiui, Police Dept., Oklahoma City, Okla. Hon. King Williamson, Judge, Corporation Court, Dallas, Tex. Wm. A. Wii.trf.rceh, Police School, San Jose State College, San Jose, Calif. Pedestrian Control and Protection Presented by LESLIE J. SORENSON City Traffic Engineer, Chicago, and Chairman, Committee on Pedestrian Control and Protection The following is a report of progress of the activities of the Committee on Pedes trian Control and Protection. It has been prepared specifically for presentation at the Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress at Kansas City and it should not be considered as a final and conclusive report of this sub ject. The Committee will continue its study for the ensuing year and will present a more complete report at the 1938 Congress. INTRODUCTION Of all traffic deaths those resulting from collisions between pedestrians and motor vehicles arc the most outstanding. In 1936, 13,100 or 40% of the total of 37,800 motor vehicle deaths were pedestrians. Collisions between two or more motor vehicles ac counted tor 9.400 or 25% more. In slightly more than 18% the vehicles overturned, ran c>(T the road or were otherwise involved in non-collision accidents. l ess than 9% of the deaths resulted from collisions with fixed objects, less than 5% from collisions with railway trains and slightly more than 3% were caused by collisions with bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, and street cars. The pedestrian problem has caused in creasing concern in rural districts. While urban districts have been able to reduce their pedestrian deaths 7% since 1930, such deaths in rural districts have increased 64%. Although the exposure of pedestrians U much higher in the cities, 7,950 pedestrian deaths occurred in Urban communities of Street and Highway Traffic Section 119 more than 10,000 population in 1936 as com pared to the 7,150 tiiat happened in rural areas, including cities under 10,000 popula tion. The ratio of pedestrian deaths to pedes trian accidents is also much higher in rural areas. A study of 10,000 New Jersey acci dent reports showed that 32.8% o! the pedestrian rural night accidents were fatal and 9.2% of the pedestrians involved in rurat day mishaps were killed. These correspond ing percentages of fatalities in urban acci dents were only 6.5 by night and 3 by day. However, in spite of the increase in rural pedestrian accidents the pedestrian problem remains one of primary importance to the city. While better traffic control ami regula tion have been able to reduce deaths from collisions between motor vehicles 21%, pe destrian fatalities have been reduced but 7% and, in 1936, were 67.5%. In the larger cities this percentage is even higher. In the rural sections the fatalities from collisions between tsvo or more motor vehicles have increased 118% while pedestrian deaths have increased 64%. Consequently, rural pedes trian deaths represent only 27.5% and fatali ties resulting from collisions between two or more motor vehicles constitute 28.6% of the total motor vehicle deaths From the large numbers of pedestrians being killed each year it would appear that the pedestrian is being mercilessly run down by the motorist. However, statistics from five states show that 55% of the pedestrian deaths resulted from accidents chargeable principally to the fault of the pedestrian himself. Pedestrian accidents arc also much more severe than other motor vehicle mis haps. In all motor vehicle accidents, includ ing pedestrians, one person is killed for every 35 persons injured. In pedestrian ac cidents alone one person is killed for every 22 injured. When a car averaging 3,000 pounds in weight traveling approximately 40 miles per hour strikes a pedestrian weigh ing only 150 pounds and moving about 3 miles per hour there is no doubt al>out which will get the worst of it. Intoxication is an important factor in pedestrian accidents. The 1937 edition of ACCIDENTS FACTS shows that 11% of the pedestrians involved in fatal motor ve hicle accidents are classified as "had been drinking." This average was compiled from figures of only 21 state* and there is a possi- CHART I COMPARING CHILD AND ADULT CARELESSNESS ' V '' \'l V..fH" 1935 (936 AGP GROUPS AGP GROUPS 120 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress bility of differences in reporting, and, in some eases, serious tinder-reporting. The percentages of "had been drinking" pedes trians ran as high as 20% for some states anil as low as 3% for others. Dr. S. R. Gerber, Coroner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, rc(ortcd from a study of I 10 cases that 45% of these pedestrians and motorists who were victims of fatal motor vehicle accidents in that county in 1936, excluding children under 15 years of age, had more than 0.10% alcohol in body fluids. This percentage of alcohol was considered hy him ns an aver age borderline for intoxication. The study of 10,000 New Jersey accident records for 1936 shows that drinking is, for the most part, a night lime hazard. In New Jersey 11.8% of the pedestrians in volved in urban night accidents and 22% of those in rural night mishaps "had been drinking." Experience in the operation of motor ve hicles apiwars to be a safety asset for pedes trians. Data from Connecticut show that 1,238 pedestrians were killed in the last four years. Of these, 1.031 were eligible from hi* age standpoint to have drivers' licenses. Init only -16, or less than 5%, were licensed operators. Similar investigations should be made from the accident records of other jurisdictions. If such studies show that nondrivers are more susceptible to accidents than the pedestrians who drive, this will servo further to define the problem of pedcstriau education and protection. In localities where safety has been taught in schools, the value of child education in pedestrian safety has been shown by the reductions which have occurred in traffic deaths and accidents among children of school age. A Connecticut survey indicates that fewer children are being killed from carelessness on their own part. A study of the age groups of pedestrian accidents in Milwaukee also shows a downward trend in the 5-14 year age group. Similar'informa tion from Providence, R. I., also portrays the same trends. In these three communities the person above 50 years of age is increas ingly susceptible to automobile accidents. This older person probably* over-estimates lus ability to get out of the way of the faster and quieter modern motor ear, and physical deficiencies impair his safety. Education and social status seem to affect the incidence of pedestrian accidents. In CHART H A COMPARISON OF CHANCES IN PEDESTRIAN AND MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS BY AGE GROUPS FOR .. r MILWAUKEE, WIS. PR CERT (CHANCE FROM 19TC TP 1936 , 0-4 5-14 15-64 65 6 OVER TOTAL -10% 0 DC8Ase *10% *20% 30% '40% fmCRSA I' ' MOTOR VEHICLE i PEDESTRIAN *50% $!)% *70% Street and Highway Traffic Section 121 the traffic surveys of Springfield, 111., and it safer for pedestrians to mingle with ve Vancouver, B. C.r spot maps of the resi hicular traffic, pedestrian accidents were dence locations of pedestrians involved in few. It was not difficult to cross a street, accidents showed a definite grouping iu except in -the densest traffic, because a space those districts containing people of poor education and usually those persons of a rather backward social plane. Often they are in foreign districts where the normal of 100 feet between vehicles furnished an opportunity for a pedesliian to walk entirely across a normal street. Walking along a rural highway, even at night, did not present activities ot English speaking educational the same difficulties as it does now. and social agencies arc not effective. Such spot maps focus attention on those locations where safety education is needed and where the educational dollar may be most effec tively spent. Remedies The introduction of higher speed vehicles and the great increase in their number has made it much mote difficult for the pedes trian to be safe in walking along or across the streets. However, accident records and spot maps show that pedestrian accidents In approaching the pedestrian problem it group at certain locations nr in limited zones ought to be recognized that, except in a few and that there are considerable sections cases of suicide, pedestrians do not want to which are almost if not entirely free from be injured or killed in traffic. It should also them. Ii is obvious that, except for irre be admitted that drivers do not waul to in sponsible infants, aged and infirm adults and jure pedestrians. Accidents occur where intoxicated pedestrians, normal walking unexpected conditions arise or traffic be-' habits and ordinary precautions enable pe comes so complex that normal walking destrians to avoid accidents in a great many habits and ordinary precautions do not sup of the traffic situations they face. ply the necessary protection. Where traffic conditions become more In earlier days when the lower speeds of complicated, the differential in speeds be horse-drawn traffic and the smaller number tween vehicles and pedestrians places the of traffic units on streets and highways made latter at a disadvantage in traffic and re- /H, 4//, CHART Hi / <4-,^ A COMPARISON OF CHANGES IN PEDESTRIAN AND MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS BY AGE CROUPS FOR PROVIDENCE, R.I. PR CENT CHANGE FROM 1932 TO 1936 0-4 544 15-64 65 6 OVER TOTAL -20% -10% peateAse (JqI | MOTOR VEHICLE IPE0ESTRIAN I 10%. *20% *30% *40% *50% /HcaeASf 4(, I 7 V- // *60% 122 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress quires supplementary measures for their pro tection. Such measures range from ordinary designation of cross walks by painted lines on the pavement surface to define better the proper place of the pedestrian in the streets and to call the attention of the drivers to it. to complete separation of vehicular and Icdcstrian traffic by pedestrian tunnels or bridges. Such Mippluinentury measures are to be considered aids to the pedestrian traffic rather than restrictions except where it is necessary to require their use. Any such measure which constitutes a serious incon venience to pedestrian traffic creates tire impression (hat jicdcslrian privileges arc Iicing greatly Mtlmrdinatcd to the privileges t other traffic and results in general diso- f*cdienec. Pedestrian Crosswalks One of the most commonly applied reme dies tor pedestrian protection is the marked crosswalk. Generally, its value is largely directional because it is seldom that pedes trians are legally required to use these cross walks and to cross the street at no other places. However, when they arc properly placed they do indicate to the pedestrian that the need for some pedestrian protection is recognized, ami that it has been determined tii.it it the pedestrians cross within the conlines of these walks it wilt be safer than if they cross elsewhere. It is not generally de sirable to mark all crosswalks at all inter sections. In fact, it is not economically feasible to do so. Suclt special designations should hi* reserved for those places where pedestrian accident problems exist as indi cated by the accident record or by compari son with other similar locations where pedestrian accidents have been reduced by such measures. Pedestrian Right-Of-Way The Uniform Vehicle Code, recommended hv the Xational Conference on Street and Highway Safety for adoption by all states ami cities, defines the relative rights anti privileges of pedestrians and motor vehicle drivers. Jt provides tliat in the absence of traffic control signals the driver of a vehicle should yield the right of way. to the point of slowing down or stopping, if necessary, i.r a pedestrian who is crossing the roadway within - marked crosswalk or within the area which is usually considered the cross walk at an intersection. In return for this concession it requires that if pedestrians cross a roadway at any other point than a marked crosswalk or the area usually con sidered a crosswalk at an intersection they shall yield the right of way to vehicles which arc upon the roadway. It prohibits the crossing of a street or highway by pedes trians between adjacent intersections at which traffic control signals are in operation, except where a specially marked crosswalk is provided. To protect pedestrians who are crossing in crosswalks, either marked or unmarked, it is made illegal for one vehicle to pass another which has stopped to allow pedestrians to cross. It further requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid collisions with pedestrians in the roadway, regardless of whether the pedestrians may l>c crossing in conformance with these refrictions. This Uniform Vehicle Code has been quite generally adopted by cities and states. The effectiveness oi its provisions is dependent upon the education, publicity and enforce ment which they are afforded. The Com mittee urges that the motorist and the pedestrian be given every opportunity to learn their relative rights and privileges and that this be followed up by enforcement measures to require those who will not con form voluntarily to do so under compulsion. Stop and Oo Signals For several years cities in different parts of the country have had varying successes with the regulation of pedestrian traffic hy Stop and Go signals. Some cities have had not only legal requirements but a large meas ure of voluntary obedience, and in such sections the actual control of pedestrian traffic by signals is usually successful. In other cities general opinion is that such control is not practical and cannot be im posed upon pedestrians. One generally ac cepted principle is that unreasonable delays due to unnecessarily long cycles of operation of Stop and Go signnls are conducive to disobedience by pedestrians. This has been one of the large factors in reducing the length of cycles to the minimum which will handle traffic successfully. Pedestrian Walk Lights Another development in the use of Stop and Go signals for pedestrian aid and pro tection is the pedestrian walk light. For merly, this was incorporated into the cycle as a separate phase lor pedestrians to walk in all directions during which no vehicular traffic might move. However, this tended to Street and Highway Traffic Section 123 increase greatly the total . ugth of the cycle because it added to the time required for vehicles to move the time required for pedestrians to move in all directions and did not enable pedestrians to take advantage of the opportunity to cross with the green light. This type of special pedestrian signal has generally been discarded in favor of the type which operates in conjunction with the green light at the ordinary four-way inter section. It allows pedestrians to cross in the same direction and at the same time as the vehicles with the exception that the spe cial pedestrian light (usually white or purple) goes off a few seconds before the green changes to yellow beaquse it requires a longer time for pedestrians than for ve hicles to clear the intersection. At special types of intersections where there is almost a continual flow of vehicles across the cross walks, it is necessary to install special pedestrian walk signals if there is appreci able pedestrian traffic and protection is nec essary. Tn such a case it is usually necessary to operate the walk signals as a separate phase of the cycle. To be most successful for pedestrian obe dience a Stop and Go signal should have a face toward each direction of pedestrian movement. If signals do not face all move ments, the pedestrians going in certain di rections will liavc to depend upon the indications of signals at right angles to their direction and, thus, be in danger of becom ing confused and disobeying the signals inadvertently. Pedestrian Actuated Signals The use of push button actuated Stop and Go signals is applicable to those loca tions where pedestrian movements are inter mittent or confined to certain times of the day and cross movements of vehicles are few. The interruption of the vehicular flow periodically when there are no pedes trians to cross is not desirable because it is unnecessary, and it breeds disrespect for the signal by drivers who can see that no pedes trians arc waitiug to cross. Pedestrian Islands In wide, densely traveled streets the pe destrian faces unusual hazards. It is diffi cult for him to find adequate intervals in traffic in both directions simultaneously to enable him (a cross the full width of the pavement safely. The installation of raised islands to separate different traffic move ments and give the pedestrian a place of refuge to which he may cross and wait momentarily for an opportunity to complete his crossing, aids pedestrian safety. These have been used at street centerlines and sometimes at other locations in large inter sections. Tunnels* Bridges, and Subways Pedestrian tunnels and bridges involve some problems in making and keeping them fit and advantageous for pedestrian use. They are apt to be little used by udult pedestrians if they involve ramps or steps at both ends. However, if (he op|K>sitc ends can be at different levels and pedestrians can reach a level before crossing (he street which they would otherwise have to roach after crossing, the tunnel or bridge is likely to be extensively used. However, the tun nel docs require proper drainage and light ing and adequate maintenance to keep it in safe and sanitary condition. By the use of school boy patrols, school children may be required to use the tunnels or bridges in lieu of crossing at street level although they may come back to the same level on the opposite side of the street. Pedestrian tunnels arc more apt to be successful for use by school children than by adults. Sural and Suburban Walkways Along rural and suburban roads very few pedestrian walkways have been provided. Along a large percentage of such roads they may not be necessary because there arc so few pedestrians and traffic is yet relatively sparse. However, in suburban areas, in rural locations adjacent to schools, summer re sorts and in other places where pedestrians are common, wAlkways arc necessary to enable pedestrians to have a convenient and comfortable place to walk separated from the regular pavement surface. If such walk ways are not comfortable and convenient, pedestrians will continue to use the pave ment. Warrants should be established nnd standards provided for construction of side walks along rural and suburban highways based upon the nature and volume the vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Marked progress has been made hi the protection of pedestrians upon rural high ways by encouraging Or requiring them to walk facing oncoming traffic rather than walking in the same direction. This gives the pedestrian an opportunity to see the ap proaching traffic, particularly at night, and to know constantly how close he may be to danger. 124 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Special lighting of Mrcctfr and highways is sometimes desirable to make the pedes trian more visible to the approaching motor* ist and enable him to know better Where he may walk in safety. FUTURE PROGRAM One of the problems before this Com mittee is to evaluate the various measures of pedestrian protection and establish cri teria for their use. These must be based upon the experiences of traffic jurisdictions in all parts of the country- The Committee proposes to be a clearing house for studies of comparative accident experiences before and after the installation of protective meas ures, and invites traffic engineers and police officials to cooperate by making such studies in their own communities. A list of projects and the corresponding procedures is being prepared by the Com mittee for guiding such studies to insure comparable results. The procedures will provide the information which is necessary for determining the results of the measures which are applied in terms of pedestrian observance and obedience and accidents pre vented. They will provide the kind of infor mation which traffic officials need for their own guidance in subsequent installations. They will pertain either to existing installa tions for which the necessary accident records and other information are available TABXJE Z A Table Comparing Various Number*, Rates and Fereeatagea of Pedestrian and Motor Vehicle &batlaties IVur 1927 19.10 lYrreiilngt* change* miuv 1927 All Drafts 25,800 37,800 +179c Pedestrian Deaths No IO,82U % 41.9 15,100 39.9 +*0% Death Rate bCT 100,000 Popu ation Total Ped. 21.8 9.1 29.4 11.7 +35% +2% Year 1927 1930 l\.Tccnluge change* xince 1927 Death Rate Per 10,000 if. V, Total Ped, 11.1 13.4 4.6 S3 +ii% + 15% Death Rate Per to.ooo.ooo Cats, Cas Total Pri. 23.5 9.9 21.0 8.4 --n% --15% TABLE II A Table Showing Pedestrian Death Rates per 100,000 Population 1 fir 1932 1VS3 1934 19J5 1936 Haitimore 12.3 n .4 13.8 12.2 11.0 Boston 11.5 10.8 14.6 13.9 12.8 Ulljffito 12.9 15.1 14.7 14.4 13.5 Ckifugo 18.1 IS.7 19.6 16.9 17.3 Cleveland 14.4 17.8 18.7 17.2 16.6 Mitvrankee 8.7 5. 7 6.5 7.0 9.3 JVwr 1932 1933 19.14 1935 1936 Prnpitlrner 7.8 6.6 7.8 10.2 Louisville 10.5 11.1 18.6 15.1 16.7 Dallas 11.7 11.1 7.9 10.1 11.1 Los A ngeles 18.5 17.8 19.9 22.8 23.2 Philadelphia 9.9 ---- 12.7 10.6 9.4 Pittsburgh 12.1 11.6 10.2 12.6 13.9 Street and Highzvay Traffic Section 125 for comparable periods before and after application, or to proposed installations. The procedures will be applicable to individual intersections, limited sections of streets or highways, ur more extensive areas and, hence, arc adaptable to communities of all sizes with the proper accident records. The experiences with the same remedies at different locations will be studied taking into account the different conditions for the purpose of determining why they are more successful at certain locations than at others. The effects of differences in traffic volumes, street layouts, topography, and types of application of the different reme dies on their effectiveness will l>c deter mined. These studies should reveal the conditions under which the different reme dies arc succcssiul and other conditions which prevent them from providing the protection which is desired. Such research should help greatly in deciding some of the important questions concerning pedestrian protection which now confront traffic officials. TABLE ni A Table Showing Pedestrian Personal Injury Accident Rates per 100,000 Popu lation (Ratos of different cities are not comparable due to differences in accident reporting. Compare only figures for different years of the some city.) Year 1932 1933 1934 1936 1936 Louisville 196.0 187.0 185.0 228.0 215.0 Milwaukee 283 0 307.0 302.0 296.0 324.0 Providence 340.0 284.0 -- 299.0 336.0 Juts Angeles .-- 314.0 .130.0 322.0 355.0 Dallas ------------- 156.0 166.0 179.0 187.5 Philadelphia 404.0 411,0 399.0 362.0 364.0 Pittsburgh 143.0 196.0 250 0 224.0 200.0 TABLE IV A Table Showing Per Cant Pedestrian Deaths to Total Motor Vehicle Deaths yVur 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 Baltimore 73.0 71.5 73.5 73.0 72.0 Boston 77.0 77.5 80.5 79.5 75.0 Buffalo 76 5 84.5 73.5 78.5 75.0 Chicago 73 9 72.6 69.5 74.4 75.6 Cleveland 67.0 76.0 72.0 78.7 70.4 Milwaukee 63.5 71.2 59.0 63.7 80.0 Year 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 Providence 66.6 81.0 --- - 100.0 86.7 Louisville 62.4 50.0 72.0 66.5 74.7 Dallas 71.0 70.5 56.5 56.0 67.4 Los Angeles 54.5 52.3 56.4 61.0 62 5 Philadelphia 71.6 -- 73.6 77.0 74.0 Pittsburgh 65.5 65.3 65.1 64.0 65.0 TSBIJ v A Table Showing Per Cent of Pedestrian Personal Injury Accidents to Total Motor Vehicle Personal Injury Accident* (Rates of different cities are not comparable due to differences In accident reporting. Compare only figures for different years of the same city.) 1932 1933 1934 1935 44.6 41.5 41.0 39.6 51.7 56.2 49.0 54.0 57.1 -5-5-5- 52.5 . __ 26.6 28.1 28.3 33.2 32.2 33.4 49.4 50 0 51.6 52.4 37 4 36.9 13.5 44.5 1936 42.7 51.7 50.0 29.2 36.4 50.9 44.0 126 Twcnfy-Siart/t National Safety Congress TABLE VI A Table Showing Per Cent of Pedestrian Deaths to Total Number of Pedestrian Personal Injury Accidents (Kates of different cities are not comparable due to differences in accident reporting. Compare only figures for different years of the same city.) 1'ear 19.52 1933 1934 1935 936 Louisville 5.3 5.9 10.0 6.6 7.3 MiTxa ulrce 3.1 2.a 2.2 2.4 2.9 Providence 2.3 2.3 -- 2.6 3.0 Los A ngclcs -- 5.7 6.0 7.1 6.5 -Dallas ----- 7.2 4.8 5.6 5.9 Philadelphia 2.5 ___ 3,2 2.9 2.6 Pittsburgh 8.5 5.9 4.t 5.6 6.9 Street unif Hiylnvay Traffic Section 127 Committee on Night Accident Hazards Street and Highway Traffic Section Hakky Tucker, Professor of Highway Engineering, North Carolina State College, Kaleigh, N. C., Chairman. Leon Akonowitz, Director, State Traffic Commission, Albany, N. Y. George \V. Barton, Chicago Motor Club, Chicago, III. Chari.es G. Beckenbach, City Traffic Engineer, Dallas, Tex. W. T. Ri.ACKWLU,Piibhc Service Electric & Gas Co., Newark, N. J. Chaki.ES BraKexkidge, City Engineer, Vancouver, B. C, Canada. Coi.. Michael A. Connor, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Hartford, Conn. Rojikht C. Demakofp, Chief of Police, Flint, Mich. Cot- Fred L. Dennis, Bendix Products Corp., South Bend, Incl. Ralph VV. Eaton. Public Service Engineer, Providence, R. I. R, N. Fai.cc, Chief Engineer, Guide Lamp Division, Genera) Motors Corp., Anderson, Ind. 'Howard F. Ii.cnkr, Superintendent of Electric Service, Milwaukee, Wis. Rufus G. Jasper, Safety Engineer, State Highway Commission, Augusta, Me. Otto K. Jeijnek, Traffic Engineer, Chicago Park District, Chicago, III. John F. Lorenzen. Assistant Traffic Engineer, National Safety Council. Secretary. T. M. Matson, Harvard Bureau for Street Traffic Research, Cambridge, Mass. E. J. O'Meara, Traffic Engineer, State Highway Commission, Madison, Wis. Ben Petty, Professor of Highway Engineering, Purdue University, Lafayette, ImJ. Earl J. Reeder, Chief Traffic Engineer, National Safely Council. KlkK.M. Reid, Illuminating Engineering, General Electric Co., Cleveland, O. Louis J. Schkemc, General Superintendent, Public Lighting Commission, Detroit, Mich. J. E. Sheridan, Supt. of Railway Operation, Tampa Electric Co., Tainpa, Flo. T. E. TkanseaU, Assistant Director, Dept, of Public Safety, Philadelphia, Pa. Arnold H. Vey, State Traffic Engineer. Trenton, N. J. J. C. Vincent, Electrical & Mechanical Engineer, Minnea|>ol>s, Minn. G. E. Weaver, Vice President, Weaver Mfg. Co., Springfield, HI. J. L. Wehiieyer, Safety Engineer, Board of Wavnc County Road-Commissioners, Detroit MicU. L. A. S. Wood, Chief Lighting Engineer, Wcstinghousc Electric & Mfg. Co., Cleveland, O. Night Accident Hazards Presented by RALPH W. EATON Public Service Engineer, Providence, R. I. The following is a report of progress of the activities of the Committee on Night Accident Hazards. It zvas prepared specifi cally for presentation at the Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress in Kansas City and it should not hr considered as a final and conclusive report on this subject. The Committee will continue its study for the ensuing year and will present a more com plete report at the J93fi Congress. 128 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress INTRODUCTION Night traffic accidents have increased rapidly during the past few years. Reports from five states used in preparing the 1937 edition of ACCIDENT FACTS show that from 1930 to 1936 the number of traffic fa talities at night have increased 28%. while the number during lire day have increased only 11%. Accidents during hours of dark ness, too, have more serious consequences than (hose occurring during daylight. Other data show that while 48% of personal injury accidents happen at night, 60% of the total deaths occur during hours of darkness. On the basis of traffic the situation is even more alarming. Less than 30% of the total highway traffic moves during hours of dark ness while it is during these hours that three-fifths of traffic fatalities occur. (Sec graph.) There are many conditions that make higlmay travel at night more hazardous than during the day. To attack (lie prob lem of night accidents pruperlj- it is neces sary to collect data covering numerous night accidents, to analyze these, and thereby to determine tire influence of the various fac tors. It will then fie possible to suggest the remedies needed for making night travel safer. With tlie^e objectives in mind the Com mittee on Night Accident Hazards has col lected certain information arid presents it herewith with a discussion of the numerous factors encountered in an analysis of night accidents. ACCIDENT DATA Table I was prepared from an analysis of nearly 10,000 traffic accidents from the rec ords of (lie State of New Jersey for 1936. It shows the incidence of different circum stances of accidents by day and by night, separately, for both urban and rural.areas. From this table it is seen that some circum stances occur more frequently in accidents at night than during the daytime. Taking into account the predominance of traffic during tours of daylight, which is 70 to 80% of the total traffic for 24 hours, the frequency of night accidents is higher than that of day accidents for every classification. The various circumstances influence the night and day accident records in different ways. Some bear little relation to the dif ference in visibility l>et\veen night and day. 1` Street ami Highway Traffic Section 129 For example, the number of drivers involved in accidents who fell asleep in night driving was more than two and one half times the number of those who fell asleep during the daytime. The number of drivers who had been drinking and became involved in acci dents was nearly four times as great at night as during the day. However, these condi tions accounted for a relatively small part of the total, not enough to compensate for the greater frequency of night accidents in general. Less than one-half of one per cent of the drivers in urban night accidents and slightly less than one and one-half per cent of the drivers in rural night accidents were reported as asleep. Four per cent of the drivers in urban night accidents and six and one-half per cent of the drivers in rural night accidents were reported as "had been drinking.*' Among pedestrians, drinking is a more common factor in accidents although the total number of pedestrians Injured is considerably lower than the number of driv ers involved in accidents. The New Jersey figures showed of the pedestrians in urban night accidents and 22.1% of those in rural night accidents were reported as "had been drinking." Although these data arc for the State of New Jersey only, they do indicate the extent of the night accident problem in this one jurisdiction. Other states need the same type of studies to evaluate their night driving problems and to compare with the data of New Jersey so that the most representative picture will be assured. It seems probable from a study of acci dent statistics that "speed too fast for con ditions" is the important element in the increase in night accidents, particularly with reference to those resulting in fatalities. For example, a study of 10 fatal accidents oc curring in a particular section on Route 6A in Connecticut during 1936 shows that seven of them were at night, and that in five of the seven the cars were traveling at high rates of speed, in several eases estimated to be 70 miles per hour. Other important cleiucuts in night acci dents arc carelessness and inattention. The hours of darkness arc frequently the hours of relaxation when motorists on the high ways are in the pursuit of pleasure and en tertainment. No data covering these ele ments are available at the present time, but the proper agencies of several of the Slates should be requested to collect such infor mation. VISIBILITY Variation in visibility is the major dif ference in driving conditions at night and during the day. This factor has a masked influence on accidents. When sleepy and drinking drivers are omitted, most o( the other circumstances are of a type affected by the degree of visibility. For example, the high frequency of night pedestrian ac cidents and collisions between motor vehicles and fixed objects is associated with lowered visibility at night. Similarly, the prevalence of night accidents involving vehicles on the wrong side of the road and those that were driven off the roadway is also a consequence of this impaired visibility. Again, the higher frequency of accidents during fog, rajn or snow as compared with those during clear weather, and the higher frequency of acci dents on wet, muddy, snowy or icy roads as compared with those on dry roads at night result from decreased visibility and the greater difficulty of distinguishing between safe and unsafe conditions under certain circumstances. The fact that not more than 20% to 30% of the total nunder of vehicle miles arc traveled at night shows, at once, that driving experience is in most cases obtained under daylight conditions. Drivers normally form their driving habits through practice in day light visibility. In such driving the light source is general and objects are readily visible both upon the highway and adjacent to it. Although the driver may have numer ous distractions that bear no relation to conditions that govern his driving, daylight makes visible to him those conditions which do affect his driving and which arc not hidden by obstructions to view. At night visibility is made possible only by localized sources of illumination, vehicle lights either atone or supplemented by fixed lights on or adjacent to the highway. The type of visibility changes many limes during a trip at night. As a result the driver is confronted by widely varying condition* of visibility as contrasted with the normally uniform distribution of daylight. The importance of this is accentuated by a newly recognized factor effecting night time visibility called night-blindness. The ability of the eyes of some persons to ad just themselves to varying intensities of light at night lags materially behind normal and in some cases to extreme degrees. Tests 130 7Vr/v-.V7-r//r .Vtffiontf/ Safety Congress of several thousand mrit and wmiuii from all walks of life made L> two Philadelphia physicians allowed about 15^ were suffering from night-blindness. SPEED AND VISIBILITY Visibility fer operator* of motor vehicle* at night is not constant last i* intermittent and changes rapidly. Tbi* is an important difference between night and day driving. Because of these variations in visibility it >s ordinarily necessary to reduce speed at night in consideration of safety. That this N recognized by drivers is shown by speed data obtained in Connecticut in 1933-1934 in connection with the highway traffic survey conducted by the TJ. S. Bureau of Public Roads and the Connecticut State Highway Department. Observations made on more titan 73.000 cars showed that the average TABUS I Circumstances of 9,97ft Aoddanta Prom tha Mow Jersey Aceidont Records for 1998 CompM by National Safety Council urban bubal total CLASSIFICATION J if il li ii S I*31$ as & QA fl-8 as si l?0 1 A *3* o C*o SS 3 33 22 TOTAL ACCIDENTS 3673 3143 0.85 1612 1448 090 5285 4591 0.87 COLLISIONS WITH-- Fixed Objects Other Accidents 1036 2311 107 219 SEX OF DRIVERS Female >376 569 AliE OF DRIVER 50-over 7$ 2636 1626 487 CONDITION OK DRIVER Asleep Drinking Blinded by Lights 8 54 582 297 -- THE MOTORIST--VIOLATION'S Speeding Cutting In Other 400 328 460 183 28628 102 282 160 969 1877 151 146 4677 271 75 2572 1228 272 22 199 469 218 77 117 281 336 296 124 148 97 180 179 139 0.93 0.81 1.41 0.67 0.87 0.48 0.96 0.98 0.76 0.56 2.75 3.69 .80 .73 1.54 0.70 1.02 0.64 0.66 0.55 1.18 1.76 0.63 0.87 131 1225 154 102 2453 380 40 975 695 316 14 38 257 285 104 240 273 342 47 168 1SS 12 164 62 177 989 179 103 2264 151 22 1036 489 \r> 35 159 232 177 114 150 144 327 138 32 68 199 58 123 56 1.35 0.81 1.16 1.01 0.92 0.40 0.55 1.06 0 70 0 4! 2.50 4.19 0.90 0.62 -- 1.44 .60 1.20 .40 .68 .41 t.06 4.82 .75 .90 1167 3536 261 321 7829 949 118 3611 2321 803 22 92 839 582 --- 180 640 601 802 230 436 114 446 222 .. _ _ 1146 0.98 2866 0.81 330 1.26 249 0.77 6941 0.89 422 0.44 97 3608 1717 401 0.82 1.00 0.74 0.50 .. >7 358 701 395 ____ Z.iV 3.89 0.84 0.68 267 1.48 425 0.66 663 1.10 434 0.54 156 0.68 216 0.50 238 2.08 302 0 68 195 o.ss Street and Higinvay Traffic Section 131 speed in the daytime was 40.6 miles per hour and at night 36.6, *. reduction of four miles per hour However, it is not belies ed that this relative reduction in speed is suffi cient in view of the great difference in con ditions of visibility during the day and at night. The State of Minnesota recently enacted speed legislation making 50 miles per hour the prima facie speed limit at night in zonc m which the limit is 60 miles per hour in the daytime. A problem before this Com mittee is to determine whether legislation or driver education will be the more effre- TABLE I (Continued) URBAN BUBAL TOTAL CLASSIFICATION DIRECTION OF TRAVEL Going Straight Through Turn Right " Left Backing Parked or Standing Still Slowing Down or Stopping Skidding 4010 200 4n4o1 468 278 414 3414 165 444 64 461 163 300 0.85 0.82 1.00 0.38 0.99 0.59 0.73 1851 79 316 36 171 115 270 1758 35 186 19 214 61 163 0.95 0.43 0.59 0.53 1.25 0.SJ 0.60 5861 279 757 206 639 393 684 5172 200 630 83 675 224 463 0 88 0.72 0.83 0.40 1.06 0.57 0.68 TYPE OF VEHICLE Passenger Other 4435 4343 0.98 2233 2061 0.93 6668 0404 0.96 1516 669 0.43 602 367 0 61 2148 1036 0.48 DAY OF WEEK Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 357 596 1.67 286 347 1.20 643 943 1 46 533 415 0.78 216 178 0.82 749 50.1 0.79 527 284 0.54 183 127 0.70 710 411 0.58 527 402 0 77 211 136 0.64 738 538 0.73 525 429 0.82 204 181 0.90 729 613 0.84 533 438 0.82 221 171 0. 77 754 609 0.81 666 573 0.86 289 304 .1.05 955 877 0.92 LOCATION At Intersection Not at Intersection 2090 1792 0.86 584 326 0.56 2674 2118 0. 79 1583 1351 0 85 1028 1122 1.09 2611 2473 0.95 WEATHER Clear Fog, Rain, Snow 3163 2298 0.72 1369 1106 0.81 4532 3404 0.75 510 845 1.66 243 J42 1 .41 753 1187 1.58 ROAD CONDITIONS Dry Wet, Muddy, Snowy, Icy 2875 2041 0.71 1192 1036 0.87 4067 3077 0. 76 796 1101 1.39 418 411 0.98 1214 1512 *1.25 THE PEDESTRIAN Drinking Crossing at Intersection In Street or Road Not at Intersection Playing in Street Coming From Behind Parked Car Not in Roadway 13 265 336 154 255 26 1)4 8.75 380 1.44 337 1.00 77 0.50 161 0.63 14 0.S4 4 39 9.75 17 1S3 9.00 8 33 4.13 273 413 1.51 1060 111 1.87 396 448 l . u 24 0.42 178 87 U.49 534 17 0.50 289 178 0.62 5 1.00 31 19 0.61 U2 J'Ui tUx Sixlh Xatimiol Safety Congress live in securing the required reduction in driving speeds /or safety at night. Further more, the extent of these necessary reduc tions must i*c determined from actual condition*. It is conceivable that these will vary uith automobile headlight design, the presence or absence of fixed lighting, and the general location and tv pc of the high way. AUTOMOBILE LIGHTING Light* on motor vehicles arc the only mans now provided for night visibility on the vast majority of the highways. Insofar a* highways have l*ccn free from night ac cidents, it is obvious that headlights tiave served their purpose quite satisfactorily for accident prevention. However, improve ments for greater convenience and comfort of drivers, and provisions for better visihilitv at points where accidents arc now occurring will ho desirable. One ini|ortant consideration in determin ing the success of vehicle light* in providing night visibility is the wav the accidents arc di'irihtitcri along streets and highways. Spot map* of night accident* show (hat they grutip at certain j>oiuts in certain zot.^s or area* and these are often separated by con'idcrahlc sections of highway that have few, u any, accidents. Not only do these high accident ami low accident *onc> often have the same vohime of traffic, hut they arc traversed by the same vehicles. A com parison of the day and night spot maps shows that sometimes the night-time acci dent zone* arc the same as those for the daytime. Li other eases the night and day high accident zones may be at entirely dif ferent locations. Again, they may be the same locations with abnormally high acci dent experience at one time or the other. W herever a distinguishable accident pat tern indicates that there is a problem of iiiMjtlicicnt visibility, localized supplementary measures must be taken to provide the ad ditional visibility that is required. Such measures may cover a wide range depending upon the local conditions. At the one ex treme is the distinctive marking in the road way to reveal to the driver by reflection from his own headlights the path which he should follow. On the other extreme is the lived street or highway' lighting tliat en ables the driver to distinguish objects in the road ahead by silhouette or reflection and that makes his own headlights necessary mainly as a means ol lurther identifying his car to other drivers. Since so many miles of highways depend on vehicle lights for illumination at night and will probably continue to do so for many years, the important problem in headlight design is to provide adequate illumination of the highway to insure visibility of ob jects on it for the driver and, at the same time, to avoid blinding other drivers com ing from the opposite direction. Poor ad justment as to focus or aim increases the difficulty in both eases because it may limit the visibility of one driver and momentarily blind the other. Permanence of adjustment is desirable, and this has been the aim in recent improvements in headlight design. Substantial research is now being conducted to improve the design further from the standpoint of permanence of adjustment and better direction of the light upon the high way. USE OF HEADLIGHTS Official ami periodic safety inspection of motor vehicles is effective in the mainten ance of headlights in good condition. This lends to insure that (lie best performance oi which any headlight design is capable is obtained. The Automobile Manufactur ers' Association is encouraging automobile dealers to give more attention to the con dition of headlight in their service to automobile owners. This should be an iui|Krtaiil nul in maintaining a high standard of head light performance. As hcadlighfing, supplemented by meas ure* to make it more effective at certain point*, appears to be the only available mrans of illumination for large sections of highways for some time to come, drivers should learn to use the headlights of the motor vehicle effectively. They should be taught to watch the right-hand side of the road and avoid looking directly toward the headlights of approaching vehicles. In this way they wilt ordinarily allow' * greater clearance between passing vehicles than would otherwise be the case, ami at the same lime they will reduce the amount of adjustment which their eyes must make to lights of varying intensities. Then, loo, drivers should learn to watch lor indica tions as to the direction from which vehicles arc approaching in order to discover Uie alignment of the highway ahead which may not be visible. During the last several liun- Sired and HUjhieay Tragic Section 133 tired feet of the approach of Iwo vehicles the alignment, grades, hill-crests and objects on the roadway are normally visible if the driver watches for such indications and studies his driving. Organizations that arc promoting highway safety should strongly emphasize these important features of night driving. the remainder of the pavement surface. Re flector buttons in small metal domes have been used effectively for this purpose, but these should not extend so high above the iwvcment as to be a traffic hazard in them selves. Well painted guard rails often ac complish more in showing drivers the road alignment than in actually stopping vehicles FARM AND OTHER HORSEDRAWN VEHICULAR TRAFFIC which run off the roadway although they arc important for (he latter purpose in many locations. While headlighting and other means of identification between two or more motor vehicles are vital to safe night-lime traffic, the problem of the unlighted, horse-drawn vehicle should not be forgotten It is true that this type i* in the minority upon the highway, but the Committee stresses the danger it presents to the occupants of the unliglitcd, slow-moving vehicle as well as to those riding in the approaching automo bile. The Committee recommends that ah Reflector buttons in signs have added materially to the visibility of important messages. Unless a sign is designed and maintained in such a way a* to have its message clearly reflected by the vehicle head lights, or is adequately illuminated by some fixed lighting, reflector buttons should be used to make the sign as clearly visible by night as by day. Good maintenance of signs for night visibility is necessary. states without adequate legislation requir lug the use of front and rear lights on wagons, carts and other such vehicles should take steps immediately to enact such laws, and those stales having satisfactory laws should provide consistent enforcement. Obstructions in the street or highway pre sent special problems of visibility. The forffier practice of marking the obstruction by fixed light or some type of reflector, without showing clearly the roadway past the obstruction, in general, has not been THE HIGHWAY AND ITS MAINTENANCE successful. By contrast with the light or reflector, the roadway has often been quite Statistics reveal that the element ot sur prise is an important factor in accidents. The location, design and maintenance of highways have an important influence on this element. Even the best constructed highways may stilt have traffic hazards, and invisible. Lighting of the interior of uixlcrpasses and special lighting nr roadways past pedestrian islands and safely zones have often been necessary to prevent tin? accident* that have occurred from failure to miss such obstructions these will be inure dangerous at night due to lowered visibility. Therefore, it is the duty of street ami highway officials to have adequately indicated any unusual and dan gerous feature* of the highway so that they will not constitute a menace to traffic. A development in highway design which reduces the effect of poor headlight adjust ment at the same time that it reduces the conflict in traffic movement, is the separa tion of roadways of four or more lanes by dividing strips. Particularly if these dividing This can he accomplished by the use ot various types of signs properly designed, suitably illuminated and so placed that the drivers of motor vehicles will be given suffi cient warning ot traffic hazards. If these points are observed carefully in the main tenance of highways, the effect of surprise in strip* are wide, the drivers arc not subject to the direct rays of headlights of cars approaching from the opposite direction. Wide dividing strips also provide a place of refuge for left turning and crossing traffic which is not provided by the narrower strips. night accidents will be greatly reduced. Vividly marked street centerlines or pave ment edge* show drivers where they should go, particularly at curves and turns. These lines should be made of materials of texture and color that provide good reflection of headlights and are strongly in contrast with The light absorbing and reflecting qualities of the different pavemem surfaces arc ele ments to be considered in the design of highways. Some of these surfaces, espe cially when wet, reflect light in such a way as to seriously hamper visibility. This is a question for further study by the Committee. 134 Twcnly-Sixlh National Safely Congress STREET AND HIGHWAY LIGHTING Street and highway lighting has been a subject of considerable research ami devel opment in recent years. Especial efforts have l>ctn made lo direct light upon the highway am! minimize the light that is dissipated into nnimjmrtant space. Types of light sources ami spacing* along the highway have been <IvycIo|kmI towards obtaining the proper il lumination with the minimum amount of glare. These arc problems of illuminating engineering design, and their solutions have l*ccu attempted as the character of highway lighting problems have been revealed. Considerable research is vet required to determine the places where highway light* ing is needl'd for safer motor vehicle opera tion. Studies must he made of accident experiences before and after the installation >f highway lighting or the improvement of existing installations to determine the kinds of accidents that arc reduced following such installations or improvements and the types that |>crsi*t. There have l>ccti numerous trial installations of highway fighting in many pans of the country that were intended to demonstrate the value of such installations in night driving. Unfortunately, there have Ikicii no installations from which adequate detailed studies of accidents before and after installation were available lo show the effect ii|H)ii various types ot accidents and, thus, to make their results valtialdc as guides for other installations. Such installations should be made where accident experience has demonstrated that there is a substantial number of night acci dents of a type which highway lighting can !>c. expected to correct. Then the accident i-xprricnccs Iteforc and after such installa tions should be compared tor a sufficient length of lime to determine the types of accidents which have lieett reduced or elimi nated and the types which have occurred, and, possibly, increased. In this way .the value of such installations in accident pre vention will be demonstrated. The advantage of this type of study is twofold; first, it furnishes a means of deter mining whether the individual installation bus l>ccn a success in actually preventing accidents. Second, it serves as a guide for future installations by revealing more clearly the types of accident* that can be prevented by highway lighting, and subsequently, the kind of location* at which lighting may be considered necessary even in the absence of detailed accident experience. FURTHER INFORMATION NEEDED To determine from an analysis of night accident problems the types of remedies that are effective, the Traffic Engineering Bureau of the National Safety Council has prepared a procedure for comparing the ac cident experience before and after the installation of different remedies. Collision diagrams arc employed. These show the sections of highway under consideration with the individual accidents represented by standard symbols. Separate diagrams should be made for day and night accidents so that the patterns can be compared both be fore and after the adoption of corrective measures. General comparisons of the numbers of night accidents before and after the installa tion of snipe corrective measure are not adequate for applying the resulting experi ence to other locations. The fact, for example, that an installation of highway lighting was followed by a reduction in night accidents doc* not necessarily mean that every installation of that type will pro duce equal reductions wherever there are night accidents. There is no doubt that highway lighting can be effective in reducing night accidents of certain types and in certain locations, just what these types and locations are like must be determined by research of a type which has not yet been carried on to the knowledge of this committee. FUTURE PROGRAM This committee strongly recommends the accident experience approach to the solution of night accident problems. There is great need for the evaluation of the different night accident remedies and the determination of the conditions to which they arc especially applicable. The work of this Committee must be carried on largely through the correlation of data obtained from many local studies on liighivay accident problems and the effec tiveness of the remedies which were applied. A list of research projects and n recom mended procedure is being prepared and will lie supplied to jurisdictions in which studies can be made of the effectiveness of night accident prevention measures. Such meaLS- Strect and Highway Traffic Section 135 ures need not be extensive to qualify tor this research for it is desired to determine the effectiveness of the simple remedies as well as the more elaborate and expensive ones. No jurisdiction can hope to make rapid progress in the solution of its night acci dent problems from its own experience alone. An interchange of data is needed, and to provide this, studies to determine the results of both successful and unsuccessful measures arc required. Through the staff of the National Safety Council this Committee desires to provide a clearing house for such information. Advice will be given on the application of the accident experience ap proach to individual local problems, as well as detailed procedure for conducting studies on the results of local measures. The re sulting information will be gratefully received and compiled with other data from various sources to provide a comprehensive study of the night accident problem. With reliable and sufficient data for anal ysis, the Committee feels that it will then be possible to offer methods that will prove helpful in solving the night accident prob lem. . IDJOURNK'IBNT Commercial Vehicle Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--R. C. Haven, Continental Baking Co.. New York Cii>. Vice-Chairman--W. F. Burk, The Canton Repository. Canton. Ohio. Vice-Chairman--). W. I/OKD, Atlantic Refining Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Vice-Chairman--J. R. Steei-h, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, Oklahoma City. Okla homa. Secretary and Chairman Engineering Committee--Dwight M. McCracken, Liberty Mu tual Insurance Company, Boston, Mass. Chairman Slembership Committee--Cuahus G. Morc.vn, Jr., American Trucking Asso stations, Inc-, Washington, D. C. Chairman Program Committee--H. D. Scheffer Aulo Owners Insurance Company, Lansing, Mich. Executive Committee at Large Marcus A. Dow, Greyhound Management Company, Cleveland, Ohio. Charles H. Ruth, Evening Star Newspaper Company, Washington, D. C. A. X. Lundsteaitt, Bowman Dairy Company, Chicago, 111. C. C. Rqsenbarger, G. I. Service, St Louis, Mo. P. D. Shinclcton, Atlantic Greyhound Lines, Charleston, W. Va. Officers Klected for 1937-38 General Chairman--R. C. Haven, Safety Engineer, Continental Baking Company, 630 Fifth Avenue, New York City, N. Y. Vice- Chairmen-- W. F. BtTRK, Traffic Manager, The Canton Repository, 508 Market Avenue South, Canton, O. J. W. Lord, Safety Engineer, Atlantic Refining Co., 3144 Paasynnk Avenue, Philadel phia, Pa. J. R. Steele, Superintendent of Safety, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., 321 No. Harvey Street, Oklahoma City, OkJa. Secretary; Engineering Committee C/iaimmi--Dwight M. McCracken, Assistant Chief Engineer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 1100 Park Square Bldg., Boston, Mass. Membership Committee Chairman--Earl D. Porter, Director of Safety & Personnel, Hayes Freight Lines, Inc., 119 N. 15th Street, Mattoon, IN. - Program Committee Chairman--P. D. Skingleton, Director of Safety & Personnel, At lantic Greyhound Corporation, 1100 Kanawha Valley Bldg., Charleston, W. Va. Executive Comvtitlee-at-Large-- Marcus A. Dow, Manager, Dept, of Safety & Personnel, Greyhound Managcrov.ni Co., 920 E, Superior, Cleveland, Ohio. T. B. Johnson, Manager, Delivery Division, Marshall Field & Company, 601 W. Polk St., Chicago, III. 137 )38 Trccnly-SLrth Xatiunal Safety Cunyress H. J. Jones, Director of Safety, Automobile Shippers, Inc., Wyan Hoad at Nevada Avenue, Detroit, Mich. H. H. Keu.v, Section of Safety, Bureau of Motor Carriers, Interstate Commerce Com* mission. Washington, D. C. A. E. Lundstcadt, Claim Adjuster, Bowman Dairy Company. 140-158 West Ontario Street, Chicago. 111. A. W. Mejnkje. Engineer, Travelers Insurance Company. Insurance Exchange Bldg. 175 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, III. Chaki.es C. Mokc.an, Jk., Manager, Safety Division, American Trucking Associations, Inc., Investment Building., Washington, D. C. H. O. ScMEFPKN, Safely Director, Automobile Owners Insurance Company, Lansing, Mich. H. It. Vai;<;man, Jk., Major, Corps of Engineers, Munitions Bldg, Washington, D. C. TUESDAY MORNING SESSION October 12, 1937 . The meetings of the Commercial Vehicle Section opened with a "get acquainted" breakfast at which R. C. Haven, Safety Enginecr, Continental Baking Co., New York City, and General Chairman of the Commercial Vehicle Section, National Safe ty Council, presided. A short address was given by J. W. Lord, Vice-Chairman of the section. All those present were introduced. THE VEHICLE AND THE DRIVER The meeting was called to order by Gen* introducing the speakers and directing the era! Chairman K. C Haven, who presided, discussion. Safe Maintenance of the Vehicle--Managements' Responsibility By h. R. GRIGSBY Superintendent of Trnportation. Oklahoma Gaa & Electric Co., Oklahoma City Sale maintenance should begin with the selection ot the vehicle. It should first be de termined just what it will be required to carry. If it is a freight hauling truck, the maximum load mu>t Ik? determined. If it is a special purpose car, such as a public-utility truck used for a crew, it should be deter mined what it will be required to curry in the the way of materials, tools, winches, pole derricks, etc., and the conditions under which it will operate, having in mind the type of roads U will have to negotiate. With this information, the vehicle should be selected with the proper carrying capacity, tires of sufficient sire to carry the load prop erly, and with the proper wheelbase and Commercial Vehicle Section 139 body dimensions to give the correct load distribution. It is extremely important to get a vehicle that will handle correctly on the highway. If it docs not handle properly, it is not safe. The proper design of the body also is important, and special attention should be given to getting the center of gravity as low as possible. This is not a hard task on the types of bodies that are now becoming popular with the public utility companies for use by their crews. In other than platform and van bodies, the aversion to the use of wheel housings has largely disappeared. This not only allows the lowering of the center of gravity, but makes for much easier access to the interior of the body, which in itself makes safer handling of materials and lessens the chances for personal injury to members of the crew. In the selection or designing of the vehicle, it is important that the cab have good visi bility both forward and to the sides. It also should be equipped with an adequate rear view mirror so located that its range will not be obstructed. The cab should be so con structed that the driver sits in a comfortable position and has plenty of room. All of the controls should be so located that they are in easy reach designed to operate easily. The cab doors should be hinged at the front. This not only is a safer door while driving, but it is very helpful to the driver when he hods it necessary to back up his vehicle. If the vehicle is of such size to re quire it, brakes should be power operated or power amplified. Special attention should be given to the ventilation of the cab and the elimination of exhaust gases. The windshield should be equipped with two power-operated wipers. The vehicle should also be equipped with defrosters and heaters. The Interstate Commerce Commission re quires adequate lighting and safety equipmerit. Another important item in the purchasing of vehicles is their roadability. Considerable consideration should be given to how the vehicle steers on the pavement, on gravel roads, in nitty roads and in inud. Considera tion also .should be given to the ease of steering and turning radius. gears with high numerical ratios arc con sidered safer than lower ratios because the high ratio discourages cutting in and out of traffic at sharp angles and at high speeds. The vehicle sfiould be selected with the proper rear axle gear ratio to handle it in the particular district in which it will be used. If the proper truck is selected for the job, it should have enough power to properly handle it. A vehicle which docs not have enough reserve power to pass another vehicle quickly is hazardous. Cars painted a light color have better visibility at night than dark ones. Some operators have painted the rear ends of their vehicles with contrasting colors. This makes the vehicles more conspicuous, reducing somewhat the possibility of rear end col lisions at night. In our company, we have adopted black and yellow stripes running diagonally across the rear end of our trailers, the majority of which arc pole trailers, and in addition, have painted our pole-trailer tongues with the same colors to make them stand out. When traveling with an empty trailer, per sons not expecting a trailer behind a truck could easily miss seeing the tongue, ns they are usually constructed of 5* pipe and arc approximately 1C' tonn, allowing the trailer itself to be considerable distance behind (lie truck. This, we feel, is a good precaution in the interest of reducing accidents. Maintenance of Vehicles Sale maintenance is largely the responsi bility of the managements, and is not a hard problem if the proper inspection schedule is worked out and rigidly adhered to. The driver is a vital factor in securing safe maintenance. All well organized operators now supply their drivers with a manual of safety instructions. Drivers can assist ma terially in the proper maintenance by turning in a written report on the condition of their vehicles at the end of each run; or in ease of vehicles tliat are operated locally juid return tp their garage each night, a report nightly should be turned in. The written report puts the responsibility for the repairs upon the maintenance depart ment. Inspection of Vehicles The proper steering gear ratio either makes for hard or easy steering, fleering The maintenance department should have a well defined inspection system so designed MO Twenly-Shth National Safety Congress that the responsibility for the condition of the vehicle when it leave* the garage is definitely placed. Different types of operations require dif ferent types of regular inspection schedules. All schedules should have two types of inspection. A sliort inspection form for the important item* that require frequent check ing up and a long form lor the less frequent inspections. This long form should be very* complete and very thorough. Vehicles on scheduled long runs should have a short form inspection at the end of each run, supplemented by the long form at definite mileage periods. Vehicles in fleets of low mileage and lo cated at central points can best be scheduled on a time basis rather than on a mileage basis. Scattered fleets can best be served by the use of traveling inspectors who are me chanics and <**n mike many of the necessary mechanical 'its. Our fleet is scattered and the average mileage per vehicle is tow. We maintain eight garages located at our principal operat ing points and serve all vehicles located within a reasonable radius. Our schedule is a short inspection each thousand miles, and a long inspection each five thousand miles. Ours arc primarily mechanical inspections with other items included in the interest of safety. By doing this, our regular inspectors take care of both mechanical and safety items. The additional labor involved in checking the items vital to safe operation adds but very little to the cost of maintaining our licet and saves many times its own cost. Our short inspection includes such items pertaining to safety a* brakes, lights, steering gear adjustment, and steering control parts, rear view mirror, horn and brake fluid level in hydraulic brakes, checking the tires for nails and slugs, and for correct air pressure. Our long ius|cirlion form includes many items |rlaii>i.ig to mechanical conditions of various unit* under the general headings of motor, lubrication *yMn, cooling system, ignitioif system, electrical system, fuel sys tem. clutch, front end assembly, steering t:car. rear axle assembly, frame and fittings, brakes ami tire* and l*ody. Tuder the heading of engine is included cxliau-t leak*. Coder the heading of electrical system come such items as lights, windshield wipers and horn, battery and generator, all vital units for safe operattoo. Under the heading of fuel system is in cluded the item of governor. With this schedule, we hare only had three accidents in the past fifteen years which could be attributed to mechanical failure. Our fleet, at this time, consists of 400 vehicles and has not been less than 300 ve hicles in the past ten year*. The average mileage for the Beet during the ten years' period is 4,500,000 miles per year. This, we fee), justifies the statement that safe main tenance can reduce the number of accidents caused by mechanical failure. The Travelers Insurance Company reports their experience indicates five per cent of all automobile accidents can be classed as being caused by mechanical failure. The cost of repairs caused by accidents to our company-owned vehicles for the past three years is as follows: Total Cost 1934 . . .$ 803.16 1935 . .. 984.5? 1936 . .. 1387.01 Cost Per Mile .00019 .00023 .0003 Cost %Of Per Total Vehicle Cost $2.19 2.66 3.65 A% .39% S% Managements' Attitude and Responsibility The managements' interest in safety is easily reflected in: 1. Public relations and advertising 2. Improved operation 3. Reduced maintenance costs 4. Reduced insurance costs Every piece of transportation equipment is either an asset or a liability. It is an asset when kept clean, well painted and in good condition, and operated by a careful, courteous, conscientious driver. It Is a liabil ity when the reverse is true. Many $SO.OOO damage suits have resulted from the careless and indifferent operation of a light $1,000 truck. Thousands of dollars are spent in advertis ing and in building good public relations, while thousands more are wasted by careless and indifferent operation of the equipment. Drivers should be as carefully selected as vehicles. They should pass a thorough Commercial Vehicle Section 141 physical examination and should be mentally sound and alert. They should know the traffic regulations. A driver mho handles his vehicle cor rectly win materially reduce its maintenance cost as well as accidents. la ecsr own organization, wc have learned that the development of pride in the organi sation and pride in the vehicle is a great aid in obtaining careful operation and is devel oping good public relations. Drivers who have a well-developed pride in their jobs and a sense of responsibility will not only drive safely but will improve vehicle life and operating economy. It is a well-known fact that safety and efficiency both result from the same effort, and the operation and maintenance of fleet vehicles is no exception. Alt operator who takes the attitude that his insurance protects him from all losses due to fire, theft, accidents, and liability lias evidently done very little logical thinking on the subject. For one reason, insurance may protect the business against excessive losses due to high damage claims, but there arc many hidden costs not borne by the insur ance carriers. These include properly dam ages usually borne by the insured, tie up of vehicles in the repair shop, loss of time, delays in schedules, and frequently loss of time of officials investigating accidents, ap pearing at hearings, etc. Furthermore, it is possible to obtain desirable credits on the insurance rates because of good accident ex perience over a period of time. This saving alone is worthy of serious consideration by the managements. Driver Selection and Training Methods By FRED L. STRUGGLES Assistant Manager, Department of Safety and Personnel. Greyhound Management Co. Any fleet safety program to be a success must start with the selection and training of the drivers and the same care, deliberation and patience used as if selecting vehicles for your fleet. A definite procedure for the selecting and training of drivers should be established and rigidly followed. In the case of a large organization with men located in various cities, the finaf approval should rest with those responsible for the safety record of the company, so as to assure full compliance with regulations governing the selection of drivers. If control of final ap proval is not centralized, but left to the judgment of each regional superintendent, there is the danger of breaking down the set standards. It is a comparatively easy matter to set up safety specifications for a vehicle, as we have definite tests, but in the case of the driver we arc dealing with the human ele ment. No two men are exactly alike and, consequently, it is difficult to devise any sure specifications and tests to assure a safe driver. I regret that I am unable to present a foolproof method of selecting and training men to be safe drivers. However, I can present the methods used for the past seven or eight years, with very gratifying results, by the Greyhound Management Company in handling all the driver personnel for Grey hound Lines east of Chicago and St. Louis, a territory which probably is more accidentprolific than any other, due to traffic con gestion. Mr. Marcus Dow, Manager of the Grey hound Department of Safety and Personnel, inaugurated the present training program in 1930. Since that date the accident fre quency has gradually improved year by year, with the result that today we are experieiK ng less than one-tenth of the number of accidents based on a mileage frequency basis as compared lo the record in 1930. Improved vehicles, roads and general safety promotion among the drivers have been contributory causes for this improvement, but it is felt that undoubtedly die basic reason for the reduction in accident fre quency is due to the emphasis placed on selecting and training drivers. The seasonal nature of bus business, with maximum peak period during the summer months, makes it practical to employ new men only once a year, in the Spring. Ap plicants to be considered are selected by the 142 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress regional manager <r >u|crvior at each regional point, liut. Iicforc being allowed to work, tlnv mu-t j;o through a minimum of a week's training cour>c at Cleveland and obtain the approval <4 the Department Safety and i'crmnwl. After f-atisfaciorily completing this course, tliey arc required to return to tlicir regions and ride with regular drivers until they arc thoroughly familiar ivith all routes operating out of the city to which they arc to be assigned. It is a standing rule that every new man, regardless of previous experience or ap parent driving abilitj', is required to attend the training school. This is rigidly enforced ami as a result it is just as important for any man driving a Greyhound bus in our territory to have gone through the training (k.tum1 find have been approved by the Safety and Personnel Department as it is for him to have (he necessary state licenses. Jn this way we have full control of the sclection of the men allowed to drive. Tin? Safety Department has established certain requirements each applicant must meet. For example, all atiplicants must have had at least one year's heavy vehicle driv ing experience and be at least 5 feet 8 inches tail, weighing in excess of 100 pounds and lie between the ages of 24 and 30 years, al though men up In 33 years of age are accepted if they have liad considerable ex perience and a good safety record. These specifications have been arbitrarily set and ii is not meant to imply tlutt any man not coming within these specifications would not make a good driver. However, at least from a psychological standpoint, there are many bus pas>cncr* wlo liavc u greater led mg of Ncctirily when a physically well proportioned and fairly good sized man is Miind the wheel. The minimum age limit i*. sol at 24 in-lead of 21, as it is felt tliat I he -.lightly older man is jtossibly the steadier ami capable of boiler judgment in an emergency. We did experiment on a small scale in IVJ6 with hiring a few* men without any previous heavy vehicle driving experience ami put them through a special course which lasted several weeks instead of one. The majority of these men proved satisfac tory and followed instructions, but the ex periment was not attempted again this year due to the amount of time required to train such men. Each applicant is required to submit to medical examination by a doctor approved by the company. Frequently, unsatisfactory eyesight or physical defects which might affect his driving are revealed by these ex aminations and the applicant rejected if not corrected to the examining doctor's satis faction. Similar medical examinations arc required every six months after employ ment, so as to assure each driver being physically fit. The applicants satisfactorily meeting these requirements arc then given read tests at the regional points by specially selected drivers who arc temporarily pulled off their runs for this work. Each man i> required to drive the bus in which test is nude in both city and couutry traffic to ascertain if his previous experience had developed the necessary qualifications to make him a good subject for our training school. Frequently cases are found where the ap plicant has claimed on his application blank to have had considerably more experience than his road test driving will -obstamiatc, and he is rejected Ik*fore being sent to die Cleveland school. Also, many applicants can handle the vehicle but apjxar to be tialuralboru reckless drivers and chance-takers ami arc promptly rejected as it is felt that, de spite any amount of training and instruc tions given such men, they will revert in time to their own way of driving when not licing watched. The applicants are also given instruction on proper handling of gears on these regional road tests, so that when the student arrives in Cleveland the question of safe driving can be emphasized rather than having to devote loo much time to the mechanical operation of the vehicle. Through the qualification requirement* imposed by' the Safely Department and the road tests given til the regions, considerable weeding out is accomplished and only the most likely candidates are presented for training. It.is essential to have the full cooperation of the regional superintendentwho must select in the first place only those regular drivers to give these road tests to applicants who will take a sincere personal interest in the work. Otherwise, consider able efficiency will be lost in the training school due to instructors having to spend valuable time in weeding out undesirable candidates. However, regardless of the efforts to have the preliminary work done thoroughly in the field, it has been necessary to reject Commercial Vehicle Section 143 amniaily on *u average five to 10 per cent of the applicants after they have been sent to Cleveland. These rejections have been due in part to shortage of time nr lack of thoroughness in making tests at the regional IK>ints. This tends to emphasize the advisa bility for centralizing the control of final approval if a thorough job is to be done. Confidential reference questionnaires for each applicant are sent to his last three em ployers. The replies are carefully checked as to the reason for leaving his last place, the length of employment and previous em ployers' estimate of his character and ability. Men who have been discharged for intoxi cation, dishonesty or unsatisfactory driving records are rejected. While safety is the primary purpose of the school, all matters pertaining to the driver's duties are covered. Two to four hours are devoted each morning to class room instruction ami the balance of each day is spent in the student buses on the road, each student being required to drive under the supervision of the driving instructor. Talks are given to the men in the class room regarding handling of tickets, han dling of baggage, claims and what to do in case of an accident, as well as the allimportant subject of safety. It is essential the instruction be handled in a clear and convincing manner and consequently either the manager or assistant manager of each department concerned gives the instruction to the men. Mechanical instructions are included in the course. It is not expected that a driver should be an expert mechanic but it is deemed advisable that he have a working knowledge of the mechanical features of his bus so that he will be able to make minor repairs and adjustments on the road, if necessary'- This instruction is handled by a garage foreman or superintendent who is assigned to full time duty as mechanical instructor during the three months the school is in session each year, and the in structions cover the brake system and ad justments, the ignition and lighting systems, carburetion and fuel supply systems and other general mechanical instructions, in cluding the changing of tires. Generally just one subject regarding the mechanics of the vehicle is discussed each morning, so that the instructions can be ab sorbed. Actual units taken from the bus are mounted on display racks in the lecture room for illustration purpose-. This instruc tion is also supplemented by demon*!rations on the coach. Various units are tampered with by the instructor so tliat they arc out of adjustment or do not work and the stu dents are required to find the (rouble and make the repairs. The daily safety talks and driving instruc tions arc handled by members of the Safety Department and driving instructors. The men used as driving instructors are taken from the ranks of the drivers who have established outstanding safety records and who show special ability as teachers. When we come down to the final analysis, the reason (or the safety school is to teach men who already know how to drive and handle the vehicle to do it safely and to con vince them of the wisdom and necessity of driving safely at all times. These men have all had driving experience and it is reason able to assume that they know they arc taking a chance when passing overtaken vehicles on curves and hills, or when they follow too closely behind a car or operate at a speed that does not permit them to have their vehicle under control, and indulge in similar unsafe practices. But Lite ma jority of drivers who have not had special training such as ours are not capable of valuing or determining the odds against them when they take such chances. They have not hud an opportunity .to study hun dreds of accident reports and see the actual results of unsafe practices. They develop habits tliat need to be corrected to make them safe. So, in training 'a new man it is not suffi cient to give to him a long list of things he should and should not do and think (he job is done. Instead the points of safe driving must be hammered home time and again in a practical and convincing manner until the man is actually sold on the necessity and wisdom of safe driving practices and until safe habits supplant the unsafe ones. He should be sold on the idea of driviqg in such a manner as to have his vehicle under control at all times. Like any sales job, a well planned program is essential. The ideal time to sell the man safety is before and not after he is actually employed. Prior to employment he is more susceptible to in structions as be is anxious for the position. A safety atmosphere is created in the classroom through the use of appropriate safety posters and photographs. Pictures 144 Twenty-Sixfit Xational Safety Congress of accidents are displayed and labeled with a description of how it occurred as well as what could have keen done to prevent the accident. Safety is discussed each morning in the classroom but not at too great length on any one day. The company's rules, as well as those of the I. C. G, regarding safety and the manner in which our vehicles are to be operated are thoroughly discussed and ex plained. T!e company's accident record is analyzed as to the types of accident which have the highest frequency or greatest claim cost. Each of the more prominent types of accidents are discussed as to causes and means of prevention. Special emphasis is placed upon accidents occurring at intersections and when passing overtaken vehicles. The effect of speed on braking distance and the distance traveled between the time of seeing danger and actually applying brakes due to driver's re action time, arc gone into thoroughly. By means of diagrams the parts that reaction time and improper braking distance play in causing accidents arc explained so as to drive home to the men the minimum pre cautions that must be taken if they arc to have their vehicle under control at all times. In order to further impress the men with the distance required to stop a vehicle at various speeds, actual road tests are made while they arc behind the wheel. The stu dent docs not knour he will be required to make an emergency test stop, ns the first warning lie has is when the driving instruc tor sitting behind him calls out. "Emergency stop!" In such tests the instructor secretly picks out a fixed object along the roadside and then gives the signal as the bus passes this landmark. After the coach is brought to a stop the student driver is required to get out of the coach and pace ofT the dis tance. It is found that practical tests of this nature have a very favorable reaction on the men and the distance required is often con siderably in excess of what they had antici pated. Another test that is given the men aside From routine driving is to place several standards in a zigzag line on a little used highway and require the students to weave in and out bctwccil these standards at various speeds so as to lest their ability to handle the vehicle in an emergency and to judge distances. A card record is kept on the student's driving each day while he is at the Cleve land school. These cards list the various common faults, such as following too closely, improper passing overtaken vehicles, faulty handling of gears, lack of precaution at intersections and excessive speed in con gested areas. The driving instructor, sitting directly be hind the student, calls his attention to mis takes as made and checks therm on the man's card. The cards are reviewed each night and the faults observed discussed by the instructor in the classroom the next morn ing. This card system furnishes a close check on each man's driving and is made a permanent part of his personnel record. If a man continues to make serious mis takes after the third day, he is generally rejected. Experience has indicated that if there is any question as to the student's ability to handle the vehicle properly or drive at atl` times in a safe manner, he should be immediately rejected. There have been times when such men have been al lowed to remain an extra week in the school but in the majority of cases they invariably had to be released later. The training coach is operated at a re duced speed at the start of the week until the instructor has an opportunity to deter mine the ability of the men. Towards the end of the week a route is mapped out and set to a time schedule similar to the regular inter-city routes requiring varying speeds, though never exceeding onr maximum speed limit rule of 45 miles per hour, and the students arc requested to maintain the sched ule as closely as safety will permit so as to sec how the students react under the pressure of a schedule. It is firmly im pressed on tlicir minds that safety comet) ahead of schedule, and this is Rule No. 1 in the Driver's Manual of Rules. At the conclusion of the week, written examinations are given on safety as well as mechanical instructions. The questions have alt been thoroughly covered during the week so that any man that has applied him self should have no difficulty* making a satis factory grade. The purpose of these examinations is, of course, mainly to make sure the men have applied themselves dili gently. The program for the week is dosed with a final forceful lecture outlining the com mon causes and preventive measures for Commercial Vehicle Section 145 accidents, together with the importance of safety to the success of both the employee and the Company. After obtaining the approval of the man ager of the Safety and Personnel Depart ment, the men arc returned to their respective regions. Each new man is re quired to familiarize himself thoroughly with all the routes out of his regional point In this way we endeavor to eliminate the possibility of an accident, especially at night, resulting from a driver suddenly coming upon a hazardous section of road without his vehicle under control, due to being un familiar with the road. These break-in trips are made on regular schedules and the student driver having qualified in the school does the majority of the driving, although at all times the regu lar driver watches his work and occasion ally relieves him. This affords still further training under the supervision of an ex perienced driver. A written report on a prescribed form is made by the regular driver to the superintendent on the perform ance of the student driver after each of such "break-in" trips. The length of time to break in a student driver varies with the number of routes to be learned and his previous knowledge of the territory, but on the average two weeks are required. Even after the man has completed the training as outlined, we cannot consider him a finished, stable product. Our experience has been that at the start the new men are exceedingly careful and may have trouble maintaining schedules, as a result. But as time goes along and they gather confidence, a tendency develops to consider themselves a seasoned driver and as a result they some times become lax in their safety precautions m varying degrees. Consequently, after the school is dosed Ihe driving instructors are sent to the various regions to ride at least one trip with each man recently hired and a report on the trip made to the supervisor for whatever corrective action is deemed necessary'. Thus under our present plan a new man is in training for a period of three or four weeks before he is allowed to "pull" a regu lar run by himself. It might be felt that by requiring an experienced man to spend so much time in training and breaking in that only men unemployed with time on their hands would apply. However, this has not been our experience. For example. 190 men out of a total of 321 that went through our training school last Spring left other positions and did this without any definite assurance that they would be finally lured by Greyhound. Furthermore, the men arc proud of their jobs after they get them and the turnover of per.sonnel is very favorable. Last Spring we hired and trained 304 men along these lines. A total of 321 men were sent to school, of which these 304 were finally approved. The school was operated for approximately twelve consecutive weeks. Selection and training of drivers is nat urally only a part of our safety program. Promotional work is continually being car ried on through safely awards for no acci dent records, safety contests, safety meetings, corrective discipline where nec essary, checking of running times of sched ules, cooperation with the maintenance department where our equipment is main tained in safe mechanical condition amt similar activities. As previously pointed out, our safety record has been showing a steady yearly improvement. It is impossible to allocate the exact benefits derived from each part of our safety program. However, it is firmly felt that our selecting and training of drivers plays as important a role as any. It is the foundation upon which our whole safety program rests, so to speak. The method as outlined sets up a definite procedure which is rigidly enforced and grants to those re sponsible for safety a complete control over the type and character of men employed as drivers. The task of obtaining employment is not made easy and as a result the men value their positions and strive to follow the rules and regulations in order to remain in the employ of the Company. Through a constructive training program the men arc sold on die idea of safety and arc impressed with the importance of their positions and the responsibilities they must carry. Each type of transportation, as well as each company within the same industry, lias its own individual characteristics and prob lems, so that no one program for selecting and training of drivers can perhaps be ap plied to all. However, we feci lliat our own experience proves the wisdom and necessity of having a well organized selection and training program adapted to the needs of each individual company rather than to hire men at random. 1-!'. Trcvnty-SU'th National Safety Congress TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 Sustaining Educational Activities By HAROLD L. HILTON Fleet Engineer, Travelers Insurance Co., New York City ft Inis Income generally apparent that any sulKtaiitial progress in alleviating (lie aiii<>ini<ftilc act'iik'iil situation must be achieved largely through a systematic proc- of nlurulitm. Our ex|K*rience has clearly indicated, however, ti*at such education or training it by no means complete, when vehicle opera tors arc first qualified to drive, even though ihr procedure involved in their selection and preliminary in>lruclious lias l>cen thor nigli. That this first important step is indis- pvii'uMe, we mu>l agree. It is certainly highly desirable to secure 11 it* U>| ty|*c of men available--men who ate physically lit and otherwise suited to driving; likewise it is essential that their ex perience and ability he determined before they mo entrusted with a valuable piece of equipment which imssesse* such tremendous destructive possibilities. While this generally provides assurance that drivers pos-css the necessary physical qualifications ami perhaps somewhat better limit average driving ability, it still leaves U* Is' accomplished. There arc very lew who ever acquire tinii"h pradital experience alone, a sulii- , i, titl> deep knowledge aud understanding ot -.if, vehicle u|K l alion, not to mention the proper regard fur safety, itself, and essentials cannot he llmroughiy ini- i.arlel in tin linn Usually allotted to lire*- Jihiih.ua limning. I'miriricriug the nature anti 'Cope of the present driving problem, it slntuld mt I* expected. The kind of edu cation necessary for rmfiuticd progress in :eiJciti-jM-eveiitioii camutt In? injected with one masterful application. (Getting the necessary inroriiiatioil over to drivers, siting them on safety and keep ing iheui sold is a ta'k requiring constant, systematic efforts. To sivnre and maintain the highest jtossiIde degree of .safe |cr fonunnee in fleet operation, it is invariably necessary to in augurate a permanent follow-up program, which will provide adequate measures, de signed not only to develop safety-conscious ness and maintain interest, but steadily to advance the drivers' knowledge and under standing of safe operating technique. In arranging such a program there are always three important matters to consider: First, the-methods to be employed; second, the nature of-the additional instruction to be given, ami third, the mediums to be used in imparting it. Although there are a number of suitable methods in common use, some more effective than others, it has been my experience that no single one can be depended upon to pro duce the desired results. The reason is quite evident. Thorough training involves more than telling an employee what to do, or even showing him what to do. Tt is also essential to find out if he thoroughly under stands the instructions given, and if lie ap plies them correctly. Any safety educational program to be wholly effective must be organized with a view toward fulfilling these requirements, ami it is my strong contention that this ap plies just as much to the education of driv ers as it docs to those engaged in other lines of employment. Each year it become more and more evident that taking too much for xiamvil Iki* Itvcti liiritdy responsible for making the tratlic accident problem what it is. As the result of our cxjicricnce in render ing accident-prevention service on many automobile fleets we liave found that the most satisfactory results arc obtained through the following measures: group meetings of drivers at regular intervals, in dividual instruction by supervisors, mem bers of the safety department, and others concerned, observation inspections, and periodic driving examinations by qualified Commercial Vehicle Section 147 inspectors, an efficient tie-in with all depart ment heads and supervisors to correlate activities and coordinate efforts through periodic safety -committee meetings or indi vidual conferences held at intervals, and an accident-investigation committee or "court of inquiry-" These measures, together, constitute the framework for an effective program. Al though they arc probably well known to many in this audience, I helicvc their im portance justifies some additional comments. For uniformly advancing the education of all drivers, no better method has been found than that provided by regular drivers' meetings. These, in my opinion, play an important part in any program. Their'effecliveness, however, depends entirely upon the nature of the subject matter. Instruc tions should deal primarily with accidentproducing practices and conditions together with all underlying factors involved, in order to establish not only the rules or principles to be followed, but the reasons for tlicm. Where a series of meetings are contem plated, it has been found advantageous to break down the whole accident-prevention problem and deal individually with specific unsafe driving practices, hazardous roarl and traffic conditions, unsafe delivery methods, etc., so that each may be discussed with sufficient thoroughness. In any case it is best not to try to cover too much at one meeting. In trying to cover all, we invariably cover little or noth ing. The objective should be to send the drivers away with a clear understanding of some one phase of the problem firmly fixed in their minds. In determining whether in structions arc going over, a simple ques tionnaire may be used to advantage. In any group there are always some who, for various reasons, fail to property assimi late the instructions given. These drivers should be reached through individual in struction. Some of this work may be handled by a member of the safety depart ment, but it is largely the supervisor's job. !u no case can it be assumed that group instruction is intended to supplant the coun sel and guidance given by the drivers* im mediate supervisors. Both are important and have their place in the educational scheme. We have used observation inspections, and periodic driving examinations exten sively and found them almost indispensable in determining whether or not instructions are being followed. Trailing inspections have proven more effective than observa tions made from fixed points, bnt both arc very useful in tltat they provide an oppor tunity of observing operating mctliods while the drivers arc not under restraint. They also Ilave a psychological effect which tends to make drivers more respectful of driving rules and regulations. Some fleet operators look upon driving observations with disfavor, but I believe this is due to the fact that they do not fully appreciate their purpose. On the other hand, favorable observations reports form a Im-d* for commendation. Periodic driving examinations also have much to recommend them. We have found them particularly effective in dealing with "accident proneness." In this respect (hey arc superior to observation inspections in that they make it possible to study driving traits and behaviorisms more closely, and take immediate steps to remedy any faults. I should like to clarify my previous statement with regard to securing organ ized efforts in carrying on the various ac tivities. It has become a recognized fact that no safety educational project can make real progress without active participation and intelligent application of effort ami initiative by all those in supervisory capaci ties. Although the safety or personnel de partment in most organizations is largely responsible for the proposal, arrangement aud direction pf safely activities it is, nevertheless, necessary for all supervisors concerned to follow through closely to make sure all instructions are fully understood and properly carried out. But at this point the questions arise: Do they always do this? Have they always the knowledge and experience to do it ? Although these questions may seem rather far-fetched, a number of cases have come to my attention where those in supervisory positions not only failed to follow through, but were obviously unprepared to do so, In each of these eases results attained were far below average. Without doubt, these situations are most undesirable, yet the supervisors are not altogether to blRme. In most instances, the main reason is failure to maintain a sufficiently close relationship between the safety promotion force and the supervisory staff. 148 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress The remedy lies in correlating all safety activities properly; in working with and through the supervisors, not around them. Each department head or supervisor should Ikj kept fully informed regarding all steps taken in connection with the educational program. He should be fully acquainted with their nature and purpose, and he should he made lo understand hi* position with re gard to their proper execution. I believe this can be best accomplished through regular central safety committees, or sub-committees if the territory is very large. These always provide the added ad vantage of allowing the supervisors to take a hand in planning the safely work. How ever, where the nature of operations make these impracticable, or where they are held infrequently it is always advisable to ar range periodic conferences between a safety representative and each of the various super visors. in any ease, those in charge of safety activities should consider it an im portant part of their job to make sure that all those acting in supervisory capacities are not only fully prepared to give full support hut that this support is actually forthcom ing. We liavc recommended and assisted in forming "courts of inquiry" on a large number of Heels. They provide a useful means of gaining information since they enable the members to study the circum stances and conditions involved in each ac cident occurrence and to discuss proper means of prevention. As an educational measure their value may be further en hanced by arranging a rotating membership of eligible drivers or having a representa tive group in attendance. Their greatest value, however, is in connection with the. investigation of accidents for the determi nation of cause and responsibility. They are essentially fact finding bodies. They do establish the sources of trouble upon which* efforts must he centered but they have one disadvantage. They arc post-accident in ef fect. Jt is true that we learn primarily through experience-but surely this process docs not have to continue any longer. The intensive study of automobile accidents has already provided ample information regarding the causes and manner of occurrence. Although all drivers are more or less aware of the causes, it is evident that a targe percentage still do not know lmw to exercise the nec essary means of prevention. The fact that accidents occur over and over again due to the same fault)' driving practices, proves this point beyond doubc Therefore, 1 believe that our further efforts should be directed toward providing more definite means o preventing accidents rather than simply go on determining the reasons for their oc currence. Which brings us to the second issue: Tire question of providing additional education. It has long been my belief that the edu cation given to commercial drivers is in some respects entirely inadequate to meet the demands imposed upon them. There has been too much persuasion; too little con structive education. Too much dependence has been placed on the educational value of accident statistics, sensational propaganda and emotional appeal. These arc useful in arousing interest and crystalizing action. Yet it it obvious that simply pointing to the causes and'effects of accidents and em phasizing why they must be prevented, docs not help drivers to prevent them. There has been too much of a tendency to pro ceed on the premise that after preliminary instructions have heen completed, drivers know how to operate their cars safely and therefore the remaining job is to get them to do it. For many years there has been a general lack of understanding of many of the fun damental principles which influence the operation and control of motor vehicles, in some instances complete ignorance of them. I have found that this condition persists to a considerable extent. The principal reason, as 1 see it, is that the instructions generally given to drivers do not thoroughly cover these important points, nor arc they always comprehensive enough to enable them to understand how to apply the driving rules, which are given. Many of the accepted rules themselves arc very general in nature and do not provide definite answers to driving problems. Some are evidently based more on opinion than actual scientific facts. Then, too, there are a number of time-worn admonitions in use which are practically worthless. I am think ing of two which arc heard quite often-- "Be more careful" and "Use good judg ment." Frankly, I consider it the height of futility simply to caution drivers to be care ful. It is generally assumed that if a person Commercial Vehicle Section 149 always uses good judgment in operating his car, he is a good driver. This can hardly be disputed, but the question is, "What is good judgment and how is it acquired ?" Good judgment is a human faculty de veloped through study, introspection, ob servation and experience. Persons with normal intelligence usually develop it by applying themselves conscientiously, but asking a driver to use "good judgment" is a rather large order, particularly after he has just demonstrated the lack of it. One driving rule which lias been in use for several years: "Do not attempt to pass on a narrow street or highway, unless you have three hundred feet of clear road ahead." Anyone who thinks this rule is accurate enough for everyday use might try it under average traffic conditions, but I would advise getting plenty of accident in surance beforehand. This is an example to illustrate my rea sons for believing there is still opportunity for improving driving education. Consider ing the situation as a whole, there are many facts which should be better known and un derstood by drivers in order to raise them to the proper plane of operating efficiency. Really to know how to operate a motorvehicle safety, a driver should be educated to the point where lie has a practical knowl edge of all elementary physical laws and mechanical principles which influence or limit his control over the vehicle, as well as road rules and his own operating limitations. I realize that all this cannot be accom plished overnight. But, surely those who arc devoting time and effort to the educa tion of their drivers should work toward this goal, rather than content themselves with any course which promises less favor able results. Considering the question of progressive education from the viewpoint of the drivers themselves, makes it even more desirable. Commercial drivers, as a whole, resent re ceiving the same advice over and over again, and often come to regard safety rules as unimportant ierau*e they've heard them so often. Like everyone else, they want facts and definite information and unless these arc forthcoming, do not have really deep inter est in safety work. On the other hand, they arc ready and eager to listen to any con structive information which will help them to improve their driving ability. All that is necessary is that the instruction be ac curate and to the point ami be presented in an interesting and assimilable manner. We have found it difficult if not inqiossiblc to educate drivers by oral method alone. As the result we have long used every available medium to assist in illustrating or demonstrating our points. First of all we used blackboard sketches and drawings, but as the work progressed, we found that cer tain problems required more accurate il lustration and therefore resorted to care fully prepared charts, drawings and enlarged photographs. These have proven very satisfactory. We have also used the miniature cars, with which you are probably familiar. Finally, when small projectors using film strips made their appearance, we decided to try this means of conveying our instructions. In making up film strips the necessary charts, etc., were imposed on the film and used with suitable photographs. This last form of visual education has proven most effective, and we are now using them extensively. Of course, all o[ the foregoing are used in connection with direct methods of in struction. In a comprehensive educational program, it is also highly desirable to use other rec ognized mediums of safety education, such as posters, bulletins, dash-board slogans, illustrated pamphlets, etc. These do not take the place of direct methods, yet they pro vide a basis for individual instruction; keep driving rules constantly in the fore ground and maintain safety-consciousness at a high level. In substantiating previous contentions, particularly with regard to education, f should like to describe briefly our exj>crienee in developing and conducting such a program on one of our large fleets in the East. The safety director of this organiza tion who was extremely open-minded and progressive, decided some years ago Ihnt thr accident-prevention program was not pro ducing proper results. He ealted us into conference to discuss means of better edu cating the driving personnel. This started in the Spring of 1932. At that time, all the usual methods in connection with driver education were already in use. A "Court of Inquiry" was maintained for analyzing accidents and the methods of compiling statistics were more than sattsfac- 15n Tu\nrx'Sixth Xatiowtl Safety Congress tory. l(ui t satfd to farther improve tlic driving recurd vhJ the question teas lidH' to acromplish ilii' jnirpoM:. It was finally decided to attempt to raise driving to a higher plane through a progressive method of education. All of the proven steps were retained such us preliminary instruction, ac cident investigation committee, etc. and two new steps were added. These involved a new method of group instruction and observation inspections. We decided to call the group method of instruc tion our '`drivers safety school.'' We further arranged to limit the number in attendance at any class to twenty-five or less. It was evident that if we wished to cover the ground thoroughly, we would have to break down the whole subject of accident-pre vention into specific problems, otherwise, we would have to resort to generalities which we wishes! to avoid. hiMruction.s. therefore, dealt with each specific driving fault and accident producing condition together will) all underlying fac tors. Since statistics showed that "travel ing loo fast for conditions" was the primary cause of many accidents and indirectly in volved >n others we decided to tackle this phase of the problem first. AH physical laws which had an/ hearing on operation were carefully explained. We later gave further instruction in con nection with safe speed*, which involved a study of various sixes and tyje of vehicles, road and weather conditnms and ihetr re lation to various traffic situations. We also thoroughly discw.'vd the physical limitations of the driver which, of rwg, involved the study of rear****-twr. checked the roah- l Urn* mnW* oi tc-is and alsf luvmc nwol* -mm' we explained the rHni Imbw-iubw tipnn control of tl- velmk f the prohlent *> r-*f -<wl rtlwIim'Ii was one of tin- ]irr<linnuHt *!> <! #u dvnt>. The solum** wa* wr djMwnJt ** might |e otjwttrJ ivc a ew***ta* i<i> * vealed that all aacMkttis oi the- upr u. volveil the same nrt*tttiuUwr`< tw uu cidcring tJie varum* iw*tnr w*jlr(l st were able t* e*tal4tsh a fttk is ->m h which was readily mnU-r -tairtlank **m) lie followed with safetv Tin* rc*whrd h, reducing accident* dun to 'ndlowntK too closely** to the vanishing point. It is impossible to describe lirfr il Uk items covered by the program. They in cluded a study of the relation between speed and vision, traffic light control systems, judging time distance in making various maneuvers, the causes of pedestrian acci dents, turning, backing signaling, parking and a large number of other subjects dealing with recognized unsafe practices and con ditions. All of this work proved very interesting and some of the problems were unique. For example, we had been having a number of accidents due to making turns with some of the larger vehicles. Since it was ob viously impossible to eliminate the hazard entirely, we decided to try to establish a rule which would under all ordinary cir cumstances reduce the danger of turning to a minimum. After some study this rule was determined and carefully outlined to the drivers With very favorable results. Incidentally in carrying on this work, we used all of the mediums which I previously mentioned. At first we used charts and photographs to a large extent, but in recent years the instruction has liven given en tirely with the aid of still films. These arc still in use and arc eminently satisfactory. One of the recent film strips was made up to deal wiih the skidding problem. The title of this film was "Keeping the Car under Control** and dealt with the skidding prob lem. In conducting this series of meetings, we emphasized these facts: that there arc several di'tmct types of "skids,** all of winch are preventable; that skidding is not a of accidents but rather the result of improper operating practices; that skidding m cam rd by failure to understand a simple principle of Mechanic*, which governs transutsinikm of power or motion, or failure to <rk m harmony with natural laws under owMtMtg nwditiuci-; tliat skidding itself is an wkvuh'ttt mad the <nly safe procedure is to dr-tvr u avoid skid*. rather than risk being Htfatbir vo correct them, after they occur. t eareyrng cm Ok entire program h licthcr itraiwK with a simple driving problem or * o! a more difficult nature, every at tempt ww* made to evolve rules of safe P <*****. which were simple to understand ami practical to apply. Where the rules were aircad* established oar efforts were directed Upward clarifying them and explaining the >cjm {or Ibrtr eziilawe. In every cae we trird to leave nothing to doubt; to create complete uniformity of thought and action among all drivers. Commercial I't'hicte .SVifiet* 151 At the elose of each session of the "driv ers safety school.** a simple questionnaire containing ten questions ba*cd on the im portant points in (he discussion were dis tributed. We also took this opportunity to pass out bulletins and suitable safety litera ture. The bulletin used in connection with the skidding film was entitled, "Are you an all weather driver?" and lias since been widely used. It is interesting to note that most of tiie men received excellent marks on their questionnaires, although most of them were men with average education, ll was never difficult to maintain their interest. They were all eager to learn and the ma jority had little difficulty in assimilating the instructions. The idea that the average driver cannot absorb knowledge is a fallacy. Constant improvement has been realized year after year since starting this training procedure and the accident frequency is still dropping. Moreover, the severity of acci dents, have shown an even greater reduction, particularly with regard to personal injuries to other drivers and pedestrians. During the entire period we have continued lo fol low up with trailing observations and driv ing examinations to make sure that instructions are being followed. In the ease ot trailing observations, both favorable and unfavorable reports are turned in to the drivers' supervisors. When driving practices are found unsatisfactory, the driver involved is aivi-rd or tliscipiined if necessary- On the other hand, if his driving is entirely satisfactory, be is prop erly commended This procedure is well received by the driver-*. Three other important |H>tou may he introduced here. First i* the matter of courtesy and correct attitude. 1 realize lull well that the*e arc r->ential factors in driv ing safely. However, it is my opinion that the enlightened driver i- much more likclv to be courteous ami considerate o> others He appreciates more fully hi* rc>|>on$ibililic* as a vehicle operator He- takes more pride in his ability ami tends to look with con tempt upon those who use mean mid lowly tactics. The second item is in connection with the question of old and new drivers. Of course, new men always need more attention, not only as regards driving instructions but also the policy of the company. But on the other hand, I have never seen any drivers, regardless of how long they have I>ccm operating a vehicle, who were so proficient that they could not benefit materially from additional instructions. Tiie third i.s in connection with limidling the drivers who arc either extremely slow to learn or untractablc. I shall not attempt to go into this matter, but I am sure you will all agree that it is cither a question of further education or discipline. Try as we may, we cannot always make a good driver out of a poor one. Sometimes, the only safe course is to remove a driver from the ve hicle permanently. I believe, however, that this should come Only after thorough going efforts have been made to convert him. and not before. It has always been my belief that we should accept such eases as a chal lenge to our ability. Every convert becomes a cunquot--every failure a <lyfc.it. PincipttniM-y Proeratna- Awards and Penalties By M. J. CBOSBY Hank mA McLumn. New York City There axe two to rBt*rt*ve acci dent prevmtiua hi mmy induiery we activity --ft IooowVmJisc of tie |leV4<Btft6k c%Mr<l of accidents, and eorrvt'*ve a*!*** based upon this knowledge The institution hi a -nett-m of awards or penalties may hr eon*ader*d. therefore, as one means of getting people to do the things that you determine must he done if accidents arc -to lie avoided. It has been said that every employer has right to demand of paid employees that they perform their work in the right and safe way. However, it is often the-ease lliat neither employer nor employee aetustlly re gards the avoidance of an accident with (he >amc rc*]>cct a* the avoidance of a mistake iit the performance ot <luttc-. Objections have been made (o the adop tion of any kind of an award or penalty 152 Twenly-Si.rth National Safety Congress system, but many operators have found that Mich systems arc important factors in main taining interest in accident prevention. Some companies have adopted a system *t iHMinltics alone, but have restricted it to a question of layoff ami subsequent discha* ge lor outstanding violations. Such systems operate on the basis of fear rather than a spirit of coo|>cration, and arc not as desira ble as the system which combines penalties and awards wherein the accumulated pen alties lessen the award and may ultimately result in layoff or discharge. A driver works atone for the most part. Me docs not liavc the same contact and supervision as a man working in a plant. Ife is more apt therefore to disregard in structions and take chances. Awards serve ns mi incentive to help him keep safety actively in his mind throughout the day. There arc two important parts to the program--the method of computing the ac cident records and the method of distribu tion of the awards. Computing the Accident Record The method of computing the accident record must be fair. It should be as simple as possible, easily understood by all drivers. It it is made too simple it may not be fair. Several factors must be given consideration in fairly rating accidents. For example, one concern charged the driver's record only with such accidents as cost them money. Such a system would permit certain chanceinking drivers guilty of contributory negli gence, lo keep their record clear. For example, such a driver may* drive blindly into an intersection and be involved in a collision wherein the other driver was ctiiclly but certainly not wholly at fault. A fair system of charging accidents should relieve the driver of responsibilities that rightfully belong to the company itself. He should be provided with safe equipment. His car should lie provided with approved safety fixtures such as effective windshield wipers. both for rainy and freezing weather, directional signals, rear vision mirrors of ample size and property set. regardless of whether or not such items arc required by law. There should lie an established system of vehicle inspection and maintenance so that necessary repairs ami adjustments arc made when reported and the driver is not required to lake out a truck with poor brakes, faulty clutch or smooth tires. There should be a regulated procedure for allowing sufficient rest periods for drivers eugaged in long hauls. In an attempt to please an employer men have offered to take extra runs and have become involved iu accidents which could be attributed only to lack of attention resulting from drowsi ness. There should be a "check out" of the load to see that it is properly distributed. Ac cidents have occurred which indicate that the steering of the truck was greatly inter fered with because of the load distribution. Such action on the part of the company will show good faith and sincerity in their efforts to prevent accidents. A fair system of charging accidents should have an established list of definite unsafe driving practices. Charges in each case should be based upon the fact that thor ough investigation proves that the accident was due to one of these unsafe practices on the part of the driver. The degree of pen alty or number of demerits or other meas ure of disciplinary action should be governed by the probability of serious damage or injury that might result from such a practice regardless of the actual out come of the particular case under discussion. For example, we know that fatalities have resulted from every type of automobile accident, yet the probability of serious re sults from backing ivithout having a clear view of the space in the rear is by no means as great as from attempting to pass a car without having a clear view of a sufficient length of open road ahead. The causes of automobile accidents have been fairly well established; a recent review of 1,400 reported accidents for the first six months of the year in one company shows that the outstanding types and causes are practically the same as for previous years. Collisions at an intersection, for example, represented 23 per cent of the total number and approximately 40 per cent of the in curred loss. Tltc outstanding cause of these collisions was failure to grant-the right of way at an intersection especially to the car approaching from the right. Other out standing causes for the same type of acci dent were: 1. Driving into an intersection without having a clear view of llie cross traffic. 2. Driving through an intersection at a high rate of speed. 3. Traveling too fast on a slippery high way. Cofnmcrcial Vehicle Section 53 4. Failing to observe the traffic in both directions before making a left hand turn. Definite causes can be named for other types of accidents. For example, rear end collisions are the result of driving close to the rear of other vehicles and failing to watch the movement of the traffic ahead. Runaway trucks arc the result of failing to follow a definite procedure for parking on an incline. A list of such causes which represents the ones which will probably result in serious loss can be prepared and specific charges made for each cause. All other causes not specifically named would naturally fall into a group and have a fixed minimum charge. These causes when so named are easy to understand. They represent in simple lan guage only what safe driving demands. They permit of discussion with the drivers as thc3' are not technical. They can be published in memorandum form as a frequent re minder to the driver that if an accident should occur lo him and investigation should show that it was the result of one of these causes, he will be charged accordingly. Most automobile accidents do involve a divided responsibility. Regardless of how tlie responsibility is divided however in a single ease, the charge for the accident should be leased on the violation of safe driving performance as indicated by the commission of a definite unsafe act. Such a procedure eliminates a considera tion of territory when branches or subsidi aries may be in competition. Such items as density of population, contour of the country, weather conditions and daily mile age need have no bearing on the accident charge, if the charge is based upon accounta bility for an accident because of disregard of safe driving practices. A fair system of charging should provide for a thorough investigation of all accidents. An accident investigation should take into consideration all of the circumstances lead ing up to the accident occurrence. Jn too many cases where the other driver is found to be chiefly at fault the investigation is not carried to completion. No attempt is made to determine whether the driver was guilty of any specific unsafe act and lltc advantage of the investigation is lost. A jury award of $80,000 was recently made because the driver on questioning, ad mitted that he failed to look back or into his rear vision mirror before attempting to make a left hand turn and therefore, made a turn when he did not know that the other driver was trying to pass him. Truly, the other driver was chiefly at fault. In fact, he was over the center line of the road, speeding, and trying to pass in an intersec tion. There was no contact between the cars Hut iu attempting to avoid the collision the second driver hit the curb and turned over. Passengers in the car were scriouslj- in jured and the first driver was held negli gible in that he had failed to look back be fore starting to make the turn. A fair system of charging accidents should include some provision for penaliz ing a driver who has been guilty of unsafe driving practices but who has been lucky enough to avoid an accident. This involves the establishment of planned observation of vehicle operations. There has been some objection to trailing on the assumption that it is considered "spying." The attitude cre ated by such work all depends upon the manner in which the work is done. Again in the interest of fairness, the man who is honestly trying and docs observe safe driv ing rules should be protected from the clnmce taker who, unknown to his fellow men, may be jeopardizing their opportunity of participating in the distribution of awards. The Distribution of Awards It is not to be expected that the award represents the saving that has been effected for the company. It is difficult even to estimate the amotjnt of such a saving. This is not unfair, for after all the company is not asking the driver to do any more Ilian is rightfully expected of him. He is asked to drive safely, to avoid taking chances, to obey traffic regulations and to adhere to definitely slated driving practices. If he does these things he will not be come involved iu an accident which inves tigation will show was due to his negligence. For such cooperation the company is*will ing to sfiow its appreciation in the form of an award. If we were lo judge from the type of awards that have been distributed, it would be difficult indeed to select one w hich might be considered most suitable for any one case. A Southern concern employing negro drivers awards multi-colored combs, pencils, finger nail cleaners, elaborately inscribed 15-1 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress certificates, and finally tor a prolonged good record (lie driver nets a knife and a gold seal certificate. Ollier concern* Itavc paid a definite amount per month tor a no-accident record and still others allmv each man a certain number of credits which have a designated cash value at the end of a three or six month period. 1 f a driver i$ involved in ait accident during the period credits arc with* drawn in an amount representing the pen alty imposed for the accident. Whatever the method of awarding may he, however, there are certain features that should Ik considered to make a system most effective. Awards should he made at frequent in tervals. If a man can see a goal in the immediate future, he is more inclined to exert himself to attain it. If he must wait a year for recognition, he may delay his efforts until the last few months. Most people like in he given another chance, and if there is the opportunity to Htry again*' without watting ton long a time, there is hound to lie built up a spirit of determinalion to win. Awards should he made to groups of drivers as well as to individuals. Such a method introduces an element of competi tion and rivalry; it builds up cooperation in the separate .croups; it lends a moral supjx>rt to the individual driver, for if he is of a desirable type, he will uoi expose him self to the criticism of his fellow men by lessening their opportunity to participate in an award, due to his negligence. It is true that awarding a group may mean that some drivers will share in the honor who have an unsatisfactory record. This can be partially offset by recognising the accomplishment of the men with good records by some addi tional award. Some accidents may be caused by im proper maintenance. The group system of awarding permits of including garage service men particularly where the company main tains widely separated units. The type of award for groups depends upon the char acteristics of the group. A President's Cup presented at a dinner and inscribed with the name of the winning group, a banquet to which wives and friend are invited, a picnic or attendance at some current event has been used successfully. Ji frequently hap pens that it is not so much a question as to the type of award as it is the manner and importance Attached to the actual presenta tion. Awards should be made with ceremony. The executives of the company should par ticipate and thereby show their continued interest in accident prevention. Being pres ent at such a ceremony gives management an opportunity to emphasise that the awards are not necessarily a measure of any saving to the company, but rather a manifestation of appreciation on the part of the company for the cooperation of its employees. WEDNESDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 13, 15)37 Election ni officer* for the section was the main order of business at the luncheon meeting, at which General Chairman Haven presided. A list of the officers of the Sec tion will be found on page 137.of this vol ume. National Fleet Safety Contest Twenty-three plaques and 30 certificates were awarded in the'National Fleet Safety Contest. A total of 724 fleets, operating nearly 52.000 vehicles, traveled nearly 900 million miles during the contest period. Participants averaged 2.32 accidents per 100.000 miles, Commercial Vchide Section 155 Passenger car drivers Iiad the lowest rates, averaging 1.63 accidents per 100,000 miles. Bus drivers were next with a rate of 237, and truck drivers had the worst experience, with an average of 2.73. Awards were presented to the winning units by R. I. Catlin, Assistant Vice-Presi dent, Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, Hartford, Conn., and member of the Execu tive Committee, National Safety Council. Winners of plaques were as follows; Passenger Car Division, Group L--'Shell Petroleum Corp., Mid-Continent area. Passenger Car Division, Group 2--Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Co., Fort Worth, Texas. Passenger Car Division. Group 3--Pan handle Refining Co.. Central Texas Division. Passenger Car Division, Croup 4--Atlanta Gas Light Co., Atlanta, Ga. Inter-City Bus Division--Large Heels-- Pacific Greyhound Lines, Jnc., Los Angeles, Calif. /tfifr*Ctf.v Bus Division--Smalt Fleets-- Pacific Greyhound Lines. Tnc., El Paso, Texas. City Bus Division--Reading Coach Co., Lebanon, Pa. Inter-City Trucking Division -- Large Fleets--Hugh Breeding Transport Co., Ok lahoma City, Okln. Inter-City Trucking Division -- Small Fleets--Amccn Transfer Lines, Tshperamg. Mich. Bakeries Division--National Biscuit Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Coat and Ice Division---The Union Ice Co., Oxnard, Calif. Miscellaneous Manufacturing Plants Di~ t/irioM---American Bcml>erg CorporationNorth American Rayon Corporation, Eliiabclhlon, Term. Public Utilities Division--Large Fleets-- Shell Pipe Line Cnrp., Telephone and Tele graph Division. Public Utilities Division--Smalt J'lects-- Lone Star Gas Co., Dallas, Texas. Petroleum Division--Large Heels--Pan handle Refining Co., Central Texas Division. Petroleum Division--Large Fleets--Pan handle Refining Co., Oklalmma Division. Dairies Division--Sweitzer Creamery Co., Detroit, Mich. Newspaper Division--Canton Repository Co., Canton, Ohio. CVy Trucking Division--Large Fleets-- City and County Garbage Department, Honolulu, Hawaii. City Trucking Division---Small Fleets-- J. E. Bejin Cartage Co., Inc.. Detroit. Mich. Department Stores Division -- Large Fleets--United Parcel Service, Paterson, X. J. Department Stores Division--Smalt Fleets --General Cigar Co.f Inc* Dcs Muincs, Iowa. Laundries Division--Oregon Dye House. New Bedford. Mass. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH TRANSIT SECTION A. E. Parker, Winnipeg Electric Co.. Winnipeg, Manitoba, and General Chairman of the Transit Section. National Safety Council, presided at the session. The ad dress prepared by O. M. Rrede was pre sented by John Riggs, Service Engineer, General Motors Truck and Coach Division, Pontiac Mkh. 156 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Preventive Maintenance for Motor Vehicles By O. M. BREDE Director at Service, General Motors Truck & Coach Division, Yellow Truck 4 Coach Manufacturing Co., Pontiac, Mich. Thirty years a,;nr the loss of a vehicle wheel or failure of ati axle shaft meant little more limit Wing dumped out in the mud. 1 oduy, such a failure may result in a head- on collision or (rattling over an embankment with every possibility of death. Faster ve hicles ami increased tonnage have caused manufacturers to develop sturdier axles and spindles and efficient wheel Waring*---the old wagon wheel construction will no longer suf fice. How many of von recall stopping your car at sundown In light up the kerosene wick lamps? They seem ridiculous now, but they did a fairly good job at 15 or 20 miles per hour. conscience demands them. No systematic plan of maintenance is observed universally. There is nothing problematic about this matter of maintenance. It consists of work which becomes necessary sometime during the vehicle life, and it must be done in the form of either maintenance or repair. The word "maintenance" has become more generally used in the past few years--it is gradually supplanting the word "repair." We have maintenance departments, maintenance superintendents and the cost of the work performed on vehicles is recorded on the operating statement of most firms, as "Maintenance." Imagine Mopping your car, traveling 60 miles |*'r hour, with a |Kiir of block brakes lime scraj>c on the tire, it would be im possible, of course, yet that is the means by which sonic of the first automobiles were Mopped. Then came the various types of brake hands, exposed in the weather, utterly useless in the rain. Today we have fully inclosed brakes--'hydraulic, air and booster actuated--inpahfc of Mopping thirty too loads within itistniirc unheard of, even among the lighter vehicles a few years ago. This Is a step in the right direction, as we should have Maintenance Departments, Maintenance Superintendents, and we should practice maintenance -- BUT -- observation and investigation of maintenance practices conducted in fleet operations large and small --scattered and concentrated--lead us to be lieve that while operators, apparently, arc gradually becoming aware of the importance of maintenance, too many are still operating a repair department, masquerading under the title "Maintenance Dejwrtjncnr." Today we feel that we are approaching the l*cnk of highway transportation. Naturally improvement* will go on as before, but nevertheless we must recognize the fact that manufacturers arc producing motor vehicles capable of rendering thousands of miles of efficient, economical service providing they receive the proper maintenance. Unfortu nately we have not yet reached the age of materials that will not wear. It is si ill nec Mr. Webster's definition of the word "re pair" certainly applies to many operators who have for many years "restored the vehicle after decay." This decay with its attendant road failures, accidents, and outof-ncrvice lime cause operating costs to reach staggering heights that frequently spell ruin for the operator. Vehicles end their economical usefulness long before their normal mileage life has been absorbed. essary li> dean, adjust or repair various The scientific, as well as the mechanical, ixirls of a vehicle to retain that degree of phase of maintenance must he recognised. efficiency dint existed at the time il was de Replacements must be made hy fact rather livered kv the producer. than by guess and the question why this Looking back over the rapid evolution of transportation we observe (hat maintenance Hictiimis- have not kept pace. With all due credit to Hwl <t'(-iaiors who have recognized failure must take precedence over just re pairing--if customer service is to lie main tained--operating costs kept at a minimum, and a profit on the rapital invested, realized. this science ui oiwrniiosi. we can still safely state that the larnc majority of imilor ve hicles in the United Slates are repaired only In other words, maintenance must be per formed on a systematic basis and rhe aim and objective of maintenance should be pri when they fail to operate or when the need marily to prevent repairs--and thus we find lor repairs i >o obvious that the owner's a phrase which is slowly but surely being CotiUTcin/ Vehicle Section 157 heard throughout the industry -- namely: Preventive Maintenance. The points of a vehicle most frequently responsible for accidents arc brakes, steer ing. lighting equipment and running gear. Preventive Maintenance covers all of these to some degree each 1,000 miles w*ith major Overhaul where wearing parts arc involved at the more advanced mileages. Every pre caution is taken to retain perfect working order at all limes. Tn addition to correcting these items whose failure may be directly responsible for an accident, Preventive Maintenance practically eliminates the medtanical failures which cause a truck or trailer to be parked on or near the highway unable to move until a service car arrives. Some of our worst disasters arc caused by parked vehicles. Another function, although not exactly maintenance, is worth mentioning because it is die responsibility of all maintenance men. That is safety devices such as flags. Hares, tire chains, fire extinguishers, special lighting equipment, turn signals, etc. Many of these articles arc required by law, hence the equipment should be checked each time a vehicle visits the shop. W'c have for many years cooperated with fleet -owners in the development and im provement of truck maintenance methods and to those operators who practice Pre ventive Maintenance only partially or not at all, we offer this Preventive Maintenance System. It is not cumbersome nor intricate, but, on the contrary, simple--easy to operate and one that records maintenance facts. There arc two distinct phases of Pre ventive Maintenance. The first la "A scientific method of anticipating and per forming required maintenance operations." Years of research have established the mileages at which certain truck parts should be inspected, adjusted, or replaced. Let tis understand, first, that maintenance is an ever reoccurring cycle of events in which there are certain distinct phases, and each phase contingent upon every' one of the other phases, if the cycle Is to be kept in tact. To earn' out this cycle, we have a series of five work sheets which prescribe the nivrhiinkul operations to be pel formed at various mileages, throughout the vehicle life. The first of these is the "A" Service, rendered every 1,000 miles throughout the life* of (he vehicle, or, on low mileage ve hicles, every 30 days. It includes the adjust ment of units affecting operating economy and, of course, a thorough lubrication and general inspection. Timing is checked, car buretor adjusted, spark plugs cleaned and spaced, valves adjusted, etc. Second, is the "B" Service--suggested at 5.000 mile intervals. All "A" Service items are included, plus many others requiring at tention at this mileage. For example, wheel alignment is checked, grease retainers and bearings checked, brakes inspected and adjdsted, the crankcase ventilator is cleaned and the generator checked and charging rate adjusted. Third, is the "C Service--suggested every 15.000 miles. It includes all "A" and "13" items and involves arbitrary replacement of inexpensive minor parts which have served their economic usefulness- Certain concealed units are opened up, examined and adjusted to prevent abnormal wear and costly failure. The cooling system is thoroughly cleaned, valves arc ground and springs replaced and the fuel pump overhauled or exchanged. Distributor points, rotor, condenser, and high tension wires arc arbitrarily replaced. The "D" Service is suggested at 30,00.1 miles. This service includes "A," "fl" ami "C" items, together with an exacting ex amination of all major units. The thorough ness of this service insure* continued satisfactory pcrfoinianec and reliability ai a mileage which normally introduces an era of uncertainty. The transmission and dif ferential are removed, cleaned, inspected and adjusted; spindle bolts, bushings ami tic rod end* are replaced: the clutch is di*Asscm hied anti discs, linings, etc., replaced. Uni versal joints and center bearings arc overhauled; wheel bearings washed, in spected and repacked; brakes relined and brake mechanism overhauled; a general check and reconditioning of the engine lake* place--pistons and rods arc removed, bear ings and cylinder walls checked, valves ground and parts replaced where ncccasary. Fifth is the "E" Service at approximately double the "D" mileage. The "E" Service specifies the installation of a factory re manufactured engine or a complete engine overhaul for those vehicles whose manu facturers do not offer (tn exchange engine service. A thorough reconditioning of all major units is contained in the "E" Service. Through its application, the life which 00,- 158 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress INN) or more milvs of service has consumed, i- replaced and the art of maintenance, which keeping, or maintaining a vehicle in as clo*.c lo (lie original state as |M*ssillc, i. [iradici'd. With this plan of maintenance in effect, you will find the small chronic troubles that previously taxed the mechanical personnel almost entirely eliminated. The constant lost motion jumping from one vehicle to another to keep them in operation will be over. The only remaining interruptions, beyond the scoj*c of Preventive Maintenance, are acci dent work body reconditioning and lire repairs. basically, these services arc correct and will apply--generally speaking--to any com mercial vehicle, but because of variation in operations, whether geographical, or voca tional, it is mandators' that the system be flexible, and sufficiently flexible, so that it may l>c applied to any vehicle or any Heel. To circumvent the possibility of failure lucmi'V of one >r more factor*, it is im perative that maintenance facts be recorded and used by management in appraising the efficiency of an operation. Records carefully prepared and filed away in a cabinet drawer arc useless--but records carefully prepared and used as they were intended, may mean the dilTcrcncc between profit and loss. Thus tlie second phase of )Jrevenlive Maintenance is "A >>lvmutic method of accumulating and interpreting o)u*ra1ing ami maintenance data." (ittly two record* arc necessary: First, the Meet Maintenance Record, on winch the maintenance facts of each vehicle are re corded: <latc. mileage, frequency of visits to shop, work )H.-rtormcd, mechanic assigned and work order reference. The work )K*rtorincd is recorded in code, which, to the practiced eye. si**rt Invomcs an oik'ii Uifik. With this record, the romplrtc shop- ac tivity is readily interpreted hy the practiced eye. Frequency ot sen'ire . . . inefficient repairs . . . road failures. eic_ come to the attention of those in charge, daily. Chronic ailments stand out vividly ami corrections liascd on fact can be applied to vehicle or personnel. And ` now, just 'as insurance statistics average out the length of human life, the second, and final record iit the G.M.C. Pre ventive Maintenance System is "The fleet history record" winch refolds the history ami dictates the replacement |hthnI of those units which experience proves rdiould be treated individually rather than under the broad scope of (lie five scheduled jreventive maintenance services. The information recorded on this form, when used in conjunction with the previous forms, constitutes the preventive, or "Re pair-before-failure" type of maintenance system. Forty-three ilems of repair are ar ranged on the left-hand side of the form. They are numbered to correspond with the same code that is used throughout the sys tem. This form is flexible, since items may he changed or added to as found necessary in a particular fleet. Opposite the repair operations are 52 heavy-columns, each rep resenting 1,000 miles of operation, thus pro viding a 52,000 mile history. Previously, I associated the 13, C and P Preventive Maintenance Services with defi nite advanced mileages for purposes of illustration, hut I said that the items con tained in these various services did not necessarily apply literally lo all makes of vehicles and all types of operations. 1 i they did, there would be no necessity for a his tory record such as this. Assuming, however, that Services A. B, C and D, arc in effect at the mileage period* we previously used--namely: 1,000, 5.000, 15,000 and 30,000 miles--deviation* from ttiese definite mileage periods nay be re corded to suit variable operating conditions. It will be recalled that the D, or 30,000 mile service, included a complete brake re fine: however, if because of very severe service, brakes Iasi only 15.000 miles, brake refining--front and rear--is tl*n blocked out on this chart at 15.000 mile intervals. Jn another example, let us assume that new spark plugs at 10,000 mile intervals im prove performance and economy. The chart is blocked out at 10.000 mile period* to care for this. The C, or 15,000 mile, service includes valve reconditioning; but assuming that ex perience has proven that 20.000 miles is correct, this item is removed from the C Service and moved up to 20,000 mile periods. The cleaning and repacking of wheel bearing* and the replacing of grease re tainers are included in the C. or 15.000 mile, service: but. using a low mileage factor, let us assume that experience indicate* that Commercial Vehicle Section 159 iln> should be done a little more frequently. It is (hen moved down to 12,000 mile periods. Thce items arc then removed from the C and I) Service and treated individually each 12,000 miles. These arc a few examples of how fleet history may be rocorded on this chart. The chart is referred to each time the vehicle is brought into the shop for service. Specific analysis of a fleet, as mentioned previously, might also change the periods at which the B. C and D Services should be performed; either moving them up or moving them down the mileage range, and, u Uit* i* done, the chart, of course, should reflect the changes. It may be used cither lor a single vehicle or a group of vehicles identical in make, model and type of opera tion. For instance, assume a fleet in which there arc ten vehicles engaged in practically the same type of work, let us say package delivery, accumulating approximately the same mileage and o|>crating of course, under comparable conditions, generally speaking, one history record will serve such a group, fn the same fleet there may be 10 or 15 ve hicles engaged in similar service hut whose routes extend into outlying districts of a city. Mileage, therefore, being greater, these vehicles probably would constitute, a second group, etc. Make, model and type of serv ice must be collectively analyzed before grouping vehicles is attempted. Preventive Maintenance offers advantages in every angle of inolor vehicle operation. Are Driver Tests Worthwhile? By A. R. LAUER Associate Professor of Psychology, Iowa State College, Ames, la. There is some very foggy thinking on the fundamental principles of driver testing. Some seem to think any device which may be set up tliat resembles any (ihasc of automobile driving is a test and that all such devices arc equivalent. Therefore we must make a clear distinction between tests set up for exhibition mid advertising purpose* and those which have undergone long scientific study. We may say at die outset that the test* gotten together lo interest jieoplc in some product, or a* a merchandising scheme, arc most likely to be valueless. Tn interest a large number of peo ple it is necessary to get them through in a hurry. With speed as the objective there is likely to l>c other quite essential qualities lacking. Some of the important considerations in the development of a scientific test are: 1. Reliability, or the consistency of measure imm one time to the next. 2. Validity, or whether the test measures what it is supposed to measure. 3. Tlte test should further challenge the driver to do his best. If it does not resemble the function it is testing there is danger that the .subject may not do hi* best. This means dial such factors of driving as the pressure on the steering wheel used in turning and other operations to be performed, arc in gen eral harmony with the function supposed to be measured. 4. In general a tot must actually tax the ability of the operator. One could hardly expect to ascertain the strength of a man by having hint pick up 25 lb. bars at spaced inter vals of time. There must l>c weight added until he can hear no more before his strength may lie compared with anotlier'x, or his capa bilities established. Why la a Superior Teat Not 100 Per Cent Effective? The definition of effective is slightly equivo cal. It depends upon wliat we use a* < cri terion. Many superior performer* have acci dents because they take too many risks. Many inferior driver* have .no nrridents because they are extremely careful. One may set up two genera] criteria of good driving. In either ease a number of defects in the criterion may be readily recognized. The two criteria are given below. Their limitations will be dis cussed later. 1. Good performance at the wheel. 2. Freedom from accident* over a period of time. 160 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Comjrcsx Experimentally we have found a very low correlation between these two variables. In the first instance the <k'gree of sujieriurily in driving must Ik established by some observer's judgment. This lias been found to be very unreliable. Again it assumes carefulness all tlic time. This is a fallacy. A watched driver becomes a careful driver. Other things such a* revenue brought in, personal characteristics and general impressions are substituted (or actual knowledge of tle driver on the road. Freedom from accident* in a variable cri terion. It depends entirely upon the definition given. Many accidents arc not reported and many re|K>rted accidents arc not strictly traf fic accidents. This is particularly true oi public carriers. Another weakness of the frequency of acci dents as a criterion of good driving is that otieii no account is taken of the risk which imivt he met hy the driver. Different types i driving arc not con>|>arahlc. Again other factors. Midi as the alnlity of the driver to coiii|K.'it'aic f`r his weaknesses, hi* inability to do his Iwst, and the numerous causes which may lead to a given accident, complicate Ok prohlcm immen>cly. It is easy to see lltat iinlos an accurate account of the driver, his liahit* and driving cxjH.TU.'m'c, tl*e conditions of the accident and numerous other influence* are dc.-crilx'd tliat it would he turd to astertain the degree Manx which may be attached to any single accident or to an accident record. Primary Functions of a Test It i> obvious dial a test il-cli ran have no iiiiriu.'ic value as mn!i. A medical examina tion will have n>> intrinsic value unless it is pfvlimiiuiry t.i a th<-mjeutkr jvofdlure wltidi i aimed to help tlx jiaiicrit. Tire function f a driver tot >lv<uld Ik for one r more f the following purp*M-s, 1. To a|>pri-c him i iiossihlc weaknesses in <rder tlut he may avoid danger. 2. To apprir*- him <>t pweaknesses oi tlie tnher driver in r*JiT tliat he may avoid danger In- keeping tit of t)r way of Uk other car. regardless of wh< i Ivgidly right. 3. Together tliex' sl><uld lead to a system atic attdhipt on the jan <>i tlie driver to avoid dangerous traffic situations In taring constantly alert while driving. 4. Another use ofahe driver examination is to obtain data for use a* a l*a>is oi educa tion. To demonstrate objectively what a driver should do to increase his safety factor is not the least function of the driver exam ination, yet it may serve as a basis for a training program. 5. There is also a purely psychological effect. Those employed hy a company which makes frequent chock-ups of its employee* arc quite certain to stretch a point in keeping themselves out of trouble. Their jobs may depend upon it. This is quite likely to reduce accidents. Limitations of Drivers* Tests A driving examination is subject to all the weaknesses of other scientific and practical phases of the application of measurements. They arc not 100 per cent efficient. Mistakes are made as in medicine or other apfdied fields. Perltaps one weakness of the entire testing movement is that it is often not nude an integral part of a general remedial program. There arc several steps which must be taken to make it effective both in organization and application. "To make such techniques worth while ilurir application must be accompanied by : I. Full cooperation of the superintendents ami higltcr administrators. T1k mat must feel that it Is a sixcial Mrrvirc being given them and not a penalizing l*lan fitr `'kicking** some out of their jobs. 3. It should be proceeded hy a careful analysis of accident records, accident Uxa- tHuis. service and personal accident records of employees, etc. In fact there sliuukl Ik first tiand and carefully tabulated data on the con ditions under w hich the operators arc working. 4. Drivers should N- lU^ifieil according !< the ruuditinns under whirh they can drive Ik*L Those night-blind *huM he kept off tlie mad after night if They may be (terferUy safe as day service men. 5. Special training <qiadi> dsekl Ik organ ized and careful m-trurtn given those who have defects is wit- have had records. 6. Some alert a)K-r\iw4' imt<4 Ik given full charge f tlw acrirtmt irtwntkm pro gram. In otlx-r wnrd* it nm*t he made to "click** front thr licgbvimg The supervisor should lavr tl> eth trsnme in traffic engi neering- l^yrhohuo. iatisira1 mrihul*. per sonal maiiagrtnetn and traffic survey work. Hr mtut hr traihrd in thr mtr f tkrse methods. 7. Hath acodrtit should lie very carefully tudrd to ascertain the real causes: i.e.. the proximate can**. The toting uf the driver's Cowwercial Vehicle Section 161 capacities should be correlated with the nature oi tlte accident. A few- months of such studies would put the science of accident prevention on a much higher plane titan it lias formerly enjoyed. Feasibility of Program There is nothing new in the principle in volved in accident prevention: It is a con tinuous job of applying known principles In the situation in hand. There is no more ;i once-and-for all solution for accidents than there is a formula for making a business pay. Trained personnel is the first prerequisite. The second 1$ application of up-to-date meth ods in whatever form they may be must applicable. Keeping a group of drivers out of acci dents ; j.e., keeping them all fit--is somewhat like maintaining health. Prevention is half the battle. When one docs liavc an accident after method-; of prevention have failed, he should have $|xeial and individual attention. At such time Uk use of precision instruments and methods of diagnosing the trouble may be the must important item in accident pre vention. Would Such a Program Pay? This depends more or less on the point of view of tlte operator. Me stands to lose from accidents ami inefficient drivers, through varumr* avenues. Some of these arc: 1. Higher insurance rales. 2. Loss in damage to equipment. 3. J.o>s in time of the driver and equipment. 4. Loss in time oi administrators and ad justers. 5. Loss in business through inefficiency in distribution, etc. (>. Losses in legal services ami damage suits. Loss in Good Will of the Public There arc other ways losses may Ik in curred hy accidents. Docs it pay a business man to modernize his store? Does it pay n farmer to harvest hi* crop? The answers are quite obvious. Over a short period of time, no. Over a long period of time, yes. The necessary steps to promote safety in a plant (Krhaps come under the same general cate gory. Tlie use of bona fide scientific methods to reduce accidents sliould be worthwhile, in the meantime it must be remembered tiial tl>cre arc many substitutes. The latter may appear as good as the real thing--they may be even more spectacular. Our answer to the original question is "drivers' tests arc worth while if properly given, interpreted and used.*' Tlie most difficult part is to find those who know enough about the prohlcm to give and apply tlte test in an effective manner. Psychological Testing at the Capital Transit Company By J. V. WAITS Personnel Psychologist, Capital Transit Company, Washington, D. C. Psychological testing is in an early experi mental stage at the Capital Transit Company. At present we arc using an intelligence test and a small battery of physical and motor skill tests. This battery consists of: A Snel len vision test, a test of peripheral vision, Ishihari color vision test, a color vision lest on standard traffic signals, a test uf depth perception, a multiple choice reaction time test, and a test of tapping or speed of mus cular movement. The term "psychological testing,'' as used in this paper, denotes those examinations administered to determine aptitude for bus or street car operation. While numerous elements are involved in the ability to oper ate a bus or street car, it can hardly he questioned tliat motor skills play an impor tant, if not the most important, rote. Psy chological testing for hits and si met car operators has been predicted on the assump tion that tests which indicate general motor skill in an individual should give some clue to his subsequent driving ability. Attention should Ik directed to the fact that most of the tests of motor skill now in use arc of a general nature. Their use as indicators of motor skill has met with small success in the past. Investigators liavc found there is a fairly low degree o( re- 162 Twenty-Sixth Notional Safety Congress lationship between them. Thus we find indi viduals who liave a fast reaction time and who are slow' in speed nf muscular move ment. Furthermore, when these motor skill tests have been applied to such problems as the prediction of typewriting speed, we find they do not give very reliable predictions. These (acts have led some investigators to the con clusion that motor skill is a specific and not a general ability. If such is the case, an in dividual might become very skillful at one motor task and still lack the ability to be come skillful at another, so it would not ap pear tenable to expect genera) tests to give accurate prediction of later driving. The problem would thus resolve itself into one of finding certain specific motor skill tests which would give a high rela tionship with subsequent success or failure. Even if wc were to admit that none of tIsc present psychological tests will predict driv ing ability, wc should still contend the pros pect is far from hopeless. While adequate data to draw reliable con clusions is not yet available, certain obser vations arc indicated in the results obtained during the past 15 months at the Capital Transit Gomjiany. There arc definite indi cations that "on the average" those who make good scores on the psychological tests tend to be successful drivers. But there arc a number of exceptions in both direction*. Sonic individuals were poor or below aver age on the tests and have made good opera tors; some did well on the tests and have l>cen failures. Yet "on the average" we have secured a somewhat better group of drivers. What the personnel director wants is not a series of tests which will deal in average results, hut one which give him individual prediction. He must answer the question, "Should 1 employ this specific individual? Will he later become a liability or will be be au asset?" It psychological testing is to become a permanent necessity of the transit industry we must be able to answer those questions with a reasonable degree of ac curacy. The writer believes we will eventually be able to do so, but that before we reach that goaf wc must solve two problems. First, we must find those tests which give specific prognosis of driving aptitude. When wc find them, they will probably be those which indicate that an individual possesses specific motor coordinations, and uot that be is able to make a good score on certain more or less general motor tests. Secood. wc must develop some numerical measure of driving efficiency against which to relate our testing results. At present there is no such criterion. Wc rate effi ciency in terms of the number of accidents llie individual lias; the number of accidents per 1,000 miles or per 1,000 hours; the num ber of preventable or chargeable accidents; the number of limes a man is up for disci pline; the number of dangerous practices charged against the individual; the number of "misses" he has; or the reports of the division superintendent, inspectors or in structors. In most cases we would admit none of these is an adequate measure of the man*s efficiency as a bus or street ear opera tor. Yet one of tlii'sc or some combina tion of them plus our own personal opinion is being widely used. To the writer it seem* wc have placed the cart before the horse. We arc attempt ing to find tests that will give a reliable prediction of driving ability before tve have any method of measuring that ability, when and if wc get it. The development of an adequate criterion which can be stated in numerical terms, and which has a known reliability, is an urgent necessity before wc can expect much success in psychological testing. The Effect of Parking on Boarding and Alighting Accidents By HAWLEY S. SIMPSON Research Engineer, American Tran.it Association, New York City When- the subject of the effect of parking u|Hm boarding and alighting accidents was assigned to me, I made inquiries within the transit industry for pertinent information and soon found that there was nothing to show any direct relationship between parking, in general, and boarding and alighting accidents on cars or buses. Commercial Vehicle Section 163 I did discover, however, that there seemed to be a relationship between boarding and alighting accidents involving buses and the parking regulations immediately adjacent to the intersection, particularly with respect to the size of the zone set asxk for the bus stop and the location of the stop at the intersec tion; that is, whether the stop is on the near or far side. When I had gotten to this point, I learned that E. J. Kreh, Manager of Accident Pre vention, Philadelphia Company, Pittsburgh, was preparing a paper on this subject. I have read this paper for presentation at this Con gress and it covers the field much more fully and better than I could liave done. The members of the American Transit As sociation have recently approved a program for accident prevention work within the transit industry and the establishment of ait accident prevention department at Associa tion headquarters. At the time the plan wax approved, a substantial sum of money was pledged to the support of the undertaking, sufficient to assure its operation for at least three years. So that you may ki>ow something more of the importance of the accident problem to the transit industry; so that you may know that we arc sincerely interested in reducing accidents for financial reasons as well as from humanitarian considerations, I should like to read two brief paragraphs from the report presented by T. Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Association's Committee on Accident Preven tion, which led to the adoption of the program I have jut mentioned. The report says: "Accidents are costing, the transit industry between $25,000,000 and $30,000,000 annually. This sum is equivalent to at least four per cent of the total operating revenue and more than five per cent of operating expense, and runs much higher on individual properties. "In electric railway operation, accidents cost approximately onc-lialf as much as the expenses charged to way and structures; onehalf as much as all equipment expenses; and one-third as much as power. In bus operation, accidents cost nearly one-half as much as does the maintenance of bus bodies and chassis, and more than half as much as all gasoline and lubricants. Furthermore, in cither rail way. or bus operation, fur every dollar set aside in the depreciation account, 50 cents is paid out for accidents; and for every dollar in operators' wages, approximately 20 cents must be paid out to comitcnsatc persons in volved in accidents." Before concluding, there is just one other thing which t should tike to say to you. The chief traffic engineer of the National Safety Council, Earl J. Reeder, has at numer ous times* within the past several years, made recommendations which liave conveyed the impression that far-side stops are more advan tageous than near side stops. As you all knuw, transit companies are among the largest supjwrtcrs of organized safety activities in their communities. This is because wc have a real and sincere interest iu reducing street acci dents. It seems to me, because of the concern which we have in this problem, and because of the interest expressed by us in our financial support of organized safety work, that wc should at least be given the courtesy of pre senting our viewpoint to the staff members of the National Safety Council before any region is issued containing recommendations which concern in such a vital way the operation of a city transportation system and which may have an appreciable effect upon our accident record. To illustrate what I mean, I want to read some brief excerpts front the report of the Honolulu traffic survey made by Mr. Reeder in February and March of this year. It is what I liave read in this rctiort which is largely re*ixmibl fur my making this state ment at the present time: '`Except at a point where a right turn is to he made, it is always easier for a bus to enter a bus stop from the far side of an inter section than on the near side because in the latter case it is difficult to bring the rear end of the bus to the curb unless the zone is very long. It Is easier to swing the bus out of a far-side zone than it is to enter one on the near-side." Here it is implicit that the far-side stop is more advantageous than the ncar-sidc stop except where the bus is about to make a right turn. This is exactly the reverse of general practice. Operating companies liave.found tliat it is more advantageous to make far-side stops at intersections where the bus makes a right hand turn, stopping after having made the turn. At other points, generally, the near side stop has been found to be superior. Then, the report goes on to say : `Editor'* note: Recommendations for far side hu stops In limited areas have been made by Mr. Reeder in two traffic surveys. 164 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress "When buses arc stopped on the near side <u receive or discharge passengers, right turns hv other traffic arc seriously interrupted and mu''l be made, if at all, on the portion of the >trccl beyond the bus. Then, if the bus starts when such a right turn is being made, col lisions arc likely to occur." Here is illustrated a fundamental difference Ixrtwccn the thinking of llte transit operators and the safety experts of the National Safety Council. In the paragraph I have just read alarm is expressed at die fact tliat right turn ing automobiles may be "seriously inter rupted'' when buses make near-side stops. Public transportation, handling 60 to 80 per cent of all the passengers on heavy' traffic thoroughfares, should be inconvenienced, the rct>ort recommends, to add to the convenience of private outomohilc passengers. Buses, car rying perhaps 30 or 40 passengers each must, then, find a (dace to stop where they will not inconvenience passenger automobiles using approximately the same space and carrying only 1.75 passengers per vehicle. Furthermore, right turns in traffic on an average street will not amount to more than a>K>ut 10 per cent of the total and, on a heavy traffic bus thoroughfare private vehicles mak ing right turns will carry probably uot to exceed 3 or 4 per cent of the passengers using llic street. The suggestion that buses, carry ing the great bulk of the load, composed of IH-upIc who arc unable to afford the luxury of IK-Tsonalizcd transportation, sliouM be incon venienced for the advantage of such a rela tively negligible number of automobile own ers, exemplifies what I mean when I say tliat there is a fundamental difference between our {mint of view and that of live safety* experts of the National Safety Council. The latter think of traffic in terms of vehicles; we think of it in terms of passengers. Those of you who heard Ross Schram deliver his excellent address on "The Approaching Revolution by the Riders of Public Carrier Vehicles on City Streets" will know exactly what I mean. * The report then says: "The choice between near-side and far-side bus stops is not to be made arbitrarily for all locations* but must depend upon local condi tion*. Wherever there is much right turning traffic and considerable parking adjacent to mi intersection, far-sidp bits stops arc advan tageous. At other points, where traffic is less complicated, little parking exists and right turns are few, near-side bus stops may be equally advantageous." Following tins line of reasoning to its con clusion, bus stops on all heavy traffic streets would be located on the far side of the inter section. On these streets there is almost invariably considerable parking adjacent to the intersection, and also a fair volume of right turning traffic and so bus stops should be transferred to a location which we know will considerably slow down schedules and which, on the basis of the little information available on the subject, we believe will in crease the accident hazard at intersections. I shall quote next from the succeeding paragraph of the report which, ttiough not directly on tins subject, is still further indica tive of the difference in point of view which I have just mentioned: "Waiting for scheduled departures in bus zones in a busy business district is conducive to traffic congestion. It should be discontin ued. Such waiting for schedules sltould be done outside of business districts where inter ference with other traffic will not be a prob lem.'* Here again is a direct statement to tlie effect that buses standing at the curb incon venience "other traffic." It is difficult for me to conceive of a situation in any city in which sufficient space cannot he allotted at terminal points in business districts to allow buses to await scheduled departures within reasonable time limits and, by tliat, I mean a matter of a few minutes. A bus, standing at the curb awaiting pas sengers at its terminal point certainly causes tiu more congestion than a parked vehicle, yet it is in the act of serving a large number of people, while the parked vehicle, occupying practically the same space, is serviug nothing except Use wishes of its owner who uses the street for terminal purposes over a relatively long period of time. To iny mind this report gives undue weight to promoting the convenience of tlie private vehicle owner, with very casual and wholly inadequate consideration of the needs of pub lic transportation vehicles which perform a nnicli more vital service through serving tlie greater proportion of the citizens with a mini mum usage of street space, both while moving and at the curb. Commercial Vehicle Section 165 At the conclusion of this statement, Mr. D. L. Fennell, General Superintendent of Transportation. Kansas City Public Service Company, moved that this matter should be called to the attention of the officers of the National Safety Council and tliat the Transit Section request that, whenever re ports are made by staff members in which recommendations with respect to the opera-tion of public transportation systems are included, such recommendations should be submitted first to a conference with the operators of the locat .public transportation system or systems so that their viewpoints could be placed before die Safety Council's employees. The motion was seconded by E. E. Grover, Manager of Claims, Colum bus and Southern Ohio Electric Company. It was unanimously adopted by the dele gates. Boarding, Alighting and Falls Inside of Cars and Buses By JOHN M. ORTS Director of Safety Education, Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, Newark Uppermost in tlie minds of all operating men engaged in the operation of common car riers is the cost of accidents. This constant gnawing has eaten into the vital organs of many companies to tlie extent of entirely destroying their growth. Outstanding in the classification of these accidents is the tanta lizing fall. They are tantalizing to the claim man, to the operating ntan and to the operator. As we often view them it seems almost unItclicvahle that the average human being can be so careless in conducting himself when traveling. But all one has to do is to review "Accident Facts" of the National Safety Council and note the number of people who lost their lives through falls in the home. What can we ex ited when they become passengers upon our common carriers? I often wonder that we do not liavc more of this type accident (lian we do. The parking problem, as we have it today, beyond a question of doubt has increased this type of accident. Operators of street cars and buses arc compelled to stop at uncertain points, suddenly, and in a position creating a hazardous condition in the discharge or re ceiving of passengers. I dace say that you all have tried every conceivable idea that may have come to your attention, such as tlie best of non-skid mate rials for the steps, aisles, and platforms, the proper height of the step and a constant supervision of your operating conditions, etc. Still we arc liaving falls. Some time ago I made a check to find out who was falling; ffteir vocation in life; young, old or middle-aged; male or female. While this check seemed to be scattered out over the entire range, it brought out uiic peculiar characteristic;--tliat when a person is travel ing alone, he seldom falls. Training of Men Our accident records show that in 19.16 over 1935 there was an increase of 290 in this type of accident. Under the supervision of Robert A. McArthur, who is it: charge of our train ing scltools, a highway was constructed on our property to teach the bus salesman how skidding can be avoided, also in the making of smooth stops and starts. This highway is constructed of the various types of paventents used in the streets and highways in the State of New Jersey, con sisting of concrete, asphalt, brick, stone, block, macadam, wooden block and even wooden planking. Any section of the test course can be quickly flooded with water or greased to produce a slippery effect. In winter the road will be kept slippery with snow and ice. Sharp curves also add to the driving hazard. Each driver must demonstrate his ability to handle his bus, starting, stopping, and turning on each type of pavement under adverse con ditions. Transportation engineers developed tips test course which is believed to be the only one of its kind in this country. This course is also used for giving instructions to regular drivers. Committee Meetings Committees are organized in every carhouse and garage, consisting of one to three drivers from each line, both day and night men, selecting their chairman from the rank and 166 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress ^ r ^omincr^^l Vehicle Section 167 file. These committeemen review tlie acci dents each day and talk with the salesmen of their line who have been involved, going over hi detail, how the accident could have been tion pictures made by ourselves and selected to fit the particular group. This branch of safety educational work is reaching the aver age of 100,000 to 125,000 persons per year. ^FFKIOF MtUM ON COLLISION FlfQUENCI NUMU^*COVU>'M* ^911 so as w i3 6 o in iTttmnoN___________________ Section B follows along the same car line, is 8 lanes wide and has a cross over switch which permits turn backs and car ried in 1936 a total car movement of 607,- avoided if projier consideration had been ttiveit the existing conditions. These meetings arc lield monthly and bi-monthly in some of the larger garages. Each salesman is given the opportunity to make any suggestions in which improvement can be made to avoid accidents. All of these suggestions go to the general manager. Through these committees, conducted as they arc, we arc getting in formation which lias improved conditions. All-Service Vehicles The substitution of all-servicc vehicles for trolley cars, undoubtedly has been a factor in the reduction of this type of accident on our property. Of course, they are new, people arc all attention when boarding and alighting; tliat, of course, may wear away as time goes on and they become to the public just one more operating unit. However, patting into upt rums- i*m owtCTioN 11 LEFT rmws- ors.sutcTiow OUtSWe-tWlM MJTO-OOKSU PARK auu> oh nuxs-QM. oatcy now os cm MHO CVT-H. >** WAfcttlOW flHHU CAR ir k> AyTO CVTM-IAISC wtiorowcuitn(a 000 car miles over 6,660 ft. of street. There were 72 collisions on this section giving a rate of 11.8 per 100,000 car miles. More stores and hotels are located on this section, much through traffic is cared for and cross street traffic with signal control is often heavy. Because of the extra free wheel traffic lane double parking does endanger street cars not so greatly as on Section A. Also, rush hour parking is eliminated on the licavy flow side and the heavy traffic Public Education effect these four courses of education, we have reduced this type of accident on our property AW IO SAAK OllCTlOs. NCAA CAR is not the menace it otherwise would be. A constant campaign in safety, educating the public, is conducted by the Department of Safety 1education. This Is accomplished for the first seven months of 1937 over 1936, by 203 accidents. Whether we are off on the right foot, only time will tell. However, this AUT0 FROM NUSttUAMIOvS A classification of collisions and segre gation by sections (Chart II) indicates there is a marked difference in frequency of those through lectures and safety educational mo reduction is very satisfactory. MM* AMO ousts or ALL COLLISIONS in mb. strut cabs a* autos, sections aanis types of collisions to which parking and double parking contribute. This tabulation and chart show why the total along Section A is so much greater than Section B. The Effect of Parking Conditions and Practices on Frequency of Street Car and Vehicle Collisions largely of local origin and does not follow the car tracks very far. There is too much single and double parking to make this sec classifications used are as shown below, and those which indicate undue parking hazards are prefixed with an asterisk. By H. V. SCHREIBER tion attractive to through traffic, compared to wider streets leading toward the congested These figures indicates how watchful the Safety Engineer, Capital Transit Company, Washington, D. C. area without car lines and where rush hour street car operator must be for autos (hat parking is forbidden on heavy flow side of pull out or back into the curb without warn i Better control oi the parking hazard same, traffic control signals are fcuei^han street Because of the lack of adequate ing, how careful he must be to keep an eye | seems possible by improved training of on the other. yedon- Free wheel tofmc is parking control this section has only one on traffic on the opposite track because it car operators to foresee and prevent the - v-- lane for free wheel traffic along the car may suddenly be forced over on to his hazards and by better enforcement of park ing regulations. EFFECT OF MIKING ON COlllSION FMOURKV track in each direction. Double parking of track. Most of all he must be quick to slow course eliminates this. Except for one Abort down for the motorist who is trying to pass In reaching these conclusions we first listed a number of parking accidents all over nttr system. Then we listed the location, time, direction and class of collision on two quite different sections of one of our lines, section there is no rash hour parking con trol. During 1936 this section had some 450,000 car miles of street car movement and 160 collisions with automobiles occurred, or 33.4 collisions per 100,000 car miles him. He may misjudge his clearance from the moving street car or lie may be forced over on track by autos pulling from curb too closely in front of him. So many motorists pull out a foot or two before they look back, each about 7,000 feet long, on which we are having more than the average number of Classifications for Collisions of Street Cars with Automobiles accidents. The general characteristics of these tvwscctions arc shown on Chart I and are r\turc fully described as follows: Section A starts at the outer end of the lire and about half its length is used for business--principally chain food stores and service stores. The rest of the length is occupied hv apartments 3 to 6 stories high. The street is six lanes wide and cars operate in both directions. Parking is permitted and in front of the stores. Much double park ing occurs during tlc morning rush hours. The number of cro>s streets is about the Sect. A. Collisions in intersections Collisions with autos making left turns from same direction Collision with autos making left turns from opposite direction "Cars sideswipe double parked autos "Collisions with autos passing in opposite direction "Collision with autos stopped on track in same direction "Collision with autos in same direction, cutting in on track striking near front of car Collision with autos in same direction near center of car `Autos colliding with rear of car "Collisions with autos pulling from the curb Miscellaneous vehicle collisions 21 11 1U 6 27 17 29 22 7 5. 2 'Undue Parking Huirdi Sect. B. 12 10 . 10 -- 9 10 11ft 1 0 0 I IkEtt /168 Twenty-Sixth National Safjty&ft lhey scare the approaching motorist who ^ then collides with the street car. Chart III classifying collisions according to lime of day when they occurred and plot ting this time frequency for the two sections on opposite sides of a center vertical base line gives us a different kind of picture when and why one section lias more collisions than the oilier. Still further light is thrown on the subject by superimposing on this chart lor each section a curve indicating the fre quency of car movements each hour. This reveals clearly when we have most collisions and their frequency in proportion to the number of cars moving each hour. Not only do we find on Section A dial collisions arc most frequent during the H a.m. rush hour hut (hat during the 11 a.in. shoppers rush the relative frequency is 9% greater per car. Also wl find that with 60% more cars on Section It we have nearly 60% less colli sions. or Section A has .1^1 times as many collisions per car at 8 a.m. as Section 15. It is of interest to note that on Section R the same number of collisions have occurred at 11 o'clock as at 8 with much lighter car movement, in other words the rate per car at II i> about 22 times that at K compared to 1.09 fur Section A. The highest rate per car is about 9 p.m. when it is about 2.6 lime* that at 8. Summarizing the atx>vc we see why ami when the collision rates on Section A arc 'O high and why tltcy arc 2.83 times those of Section It per 100,000 miles. A compari son for a longer period would give a larger number of collisions for analysis and permit more positive conclusions. Cut the indica tions of peak jurriods and relative frequen cies are prolmldy accurate enough to reveal tendencies of sufficient importance to justify further sludv and an attempt to control (he hazards and reduce frequencies at times and loints where they arc shown to be greatest. In further detail, the practical suggestions which evolve from this study: I'iimIht observation of a.m. parking practice Section A, to determine cause for 1teaks: Count nf overtime parking; Count of double parking; Count uf free qhcel traffic movement along car line and on cross street; Check of tw)liec record of accident, loca tion, frequency ami time of occurrence; Prepare similar charts for free wheel traffic movement and collisions; Chart present parking control and con trol called for by regulations; Determine from this complete data point by point along Section A where and what changes in parking control is needed and where free movement control along car lines and on cross streets will reduce haz ards. Lay these before proper authorities and get correction. Study conditions which may affect fu ture free wheel traffic flow and present hazards. Develop if possible some rough formula which will be au indication of street car collision frequency to be expected with 6 and 8 lane streets with business streets and residential streets. Get a complete picture of`the conditions and use it to get tlie corrections needed. Commercial Vehicle Section THURSDAY MORNING SESSION October 14, 1937 169 COMMERCIAL VEHICLE REGULATIONS The session was called to order by Division, American Trucking Association*, Charles G. Morgan, Jr., manager. Safety Inc., Washington, D. C. Safe Transportation of Liquid Fuels by Motor Carrier By G. O. LOCKWOOD Director of Safety, Cities Service Oil Co., Bartlesville, Okla. I--Reports of Inspections The Kansas Corporation Commission, De partment of Inspection and Registration, and the Highway Patrol, each is charged with the responsibility of inspecting transport trucks to see that the rule*, as formed by each agency-, are being complied with. Some interesting occurrences and findings in connection with the inspection of 12 loaded trucks on'the highway, not included in the official report, follow: Many of the lights were so covered with dried mud that they could not be seen. Only une truck passed the brake require ments. The stopping distance of the others varied from 34to&5 feet. A chauffeur employed by a common car rier made the remark, MYou couldn't hire me to drive one of these trucks; it is too dangerous." This young man was, at that time, on compensation because he had dropped part of the cargo he was delivering upon his foot. Two or three other trucks had slight leaks, consisting of an occasional drip from a fau cet or union. Since leaking transport tanks had been discussed as one of the reasons for the importance of the transport problem, I called the attention of the inspectors and two other patrolmen, who were assisting, to these leaks. They agreed that there was little, if any danger from such a slight condition, but that when people saw this drip of gasoline, they immediately were aroused to a danger of a tremendous fire. While we were looking at other trucks which had been lined up for having leaks, all three of these patrolmen lit cigarettes. My comment on this was that it was just as safe to smoke in most places in otir refineries as it was around the rear of a gasoline truck, hut that if we caught one of nur employees smoking in a refinery it would be grounds for a dismissal. On one truck, back of the regular cab and in front of the gasoline tank, a sleeping compartment had been built out of wall board. This compartment was ventilated through an opening to the driver's cab and an open window in the back. This window was immediately above the end of the ex haust pipe. Another driver, whose brakes did not pass tests, called his boss who ordered him to pay no attention to the inspector but to come on in. This truck was held up at the Port of Entry when it appeared there for clearance to leave the state. The director of the Department of In spection ami Registration, and the State Fire Marshall, have formed the plan of training the state agents at the 20 refineries and 68 ports of entry in the procedure of inspecting all trausport trucks either loaded at a re finery or passed through a port. The writer went to a refinery at El Dorado. Kan., and there not only watched, but also discussed the whole procedure with the two inspectors, who are inspecting trucks and training the state agents. Of 86 trucks, eight were issued licenses to operate after the first inspection. In most of the trucks disapproved because of lighting 170 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress the operators had not complied with the reg ulations as to the location of ctcarance lights and the other lights required in additiou to the headlights, etc. In the inspection of lire extinguishers it was found that four trucks had none; one was equipped with a make not approved by the Hoard of Underwriters and 18 were equipped with extinguishers, one or more of which were inoperative due to tack of maintenance. Most of the trucks not approved because of vents were not equipped with a two inch emergency vent. Some of the trucks were being passed without this equipment where the All cap was fitted with a spring loaded vent which in the judgment of the inspector would meet with the safety requirements. In inspecting the drag chains, it was found that 15 were equipped with chains which did not reach the ground, with three being dis approved for reasons not slated. In inspecting exhaust systems, it was found on four trucks that the muffler had been lost, on ll the exhaust line was too short and on five the exhaust system was in bad repair. Eight of the u ui '^peeled were found to be in good condition on the first inspection. II--Discussion of Accident Reports One of the duties of the Slate Corporation Commission is to make a complete investiga tion and report of each accident which oc curs to a truck with a Commission permit where, in its judgment, such an investiga tion is necessary. The reports of these in vestigations were made a part of the ma terial to be studied, with the understanding that since they were of a confidential nature the Commission would have to approve any reference made to such reports. Some of these accidents have definite bearing on the subject and so are included in this report. In connection with the first accident I quote a paper delivered by J. F. Winchester at the mid-year meeting of the American Petroleum Institute. The pamphlet referred to was published by the National Fire Pro tective Association. "I have never been able to understand the analysis which was given to the accidents listed in the above-mentioned pamphlet, nor can 1 quite comprehend some of the general deductions that are drawn about accidents of the type which are illustrated in this pam phlet ; ** *On July 26 a gasoline transport tank truck overturned in the street of a residen tial section of Ottawa, Kansas. The spec tacular fire which followed the spilling and igniting of the 2,163 gal. of gasoline de stroyed the truck and burned to death the driver and his woman companion who was riding with him in the cab*. "Other facts connected with this accident indicate that the truck was running at high speed, but there is nothing in the pamphlet which brought out that a careful examina tion had been made of the unit to determine whether it had been constructed to the standard specifications of the NFPA, if it was equipped with internal valves; was a single- or multiple-compartment tank and, if it was so equipped, just where it failed. The fact stands out that the opportunity was neglected to check construction against ac tual happenings, and that two outstanding safety regulations were broken; one, the car rying of a woman companion on the seat of the cab which might under many circum stances distract the driver's attention from his duties; and, two, the vehicle was being operated at an excessive speed." 1 did not read the article to which Mr. Winchester refers; however, if his statement is true that the accident was supposedly caused by high speed, this assumption is not based on the facts as revealed in the accident report. One of the witnesses made this statement: "The truck was traveling about the same speed as other traffic." What did cause the accident? A car was seen to come out of a side street directly in the path of the truck. In a heroic attempt to evade this car, the driver risked the loss of his life when his truck hit the curb at the side of the street and a lamppost. Tn other words, the conclusion that the truck driver was directly responsible is false. The primary responsibility must rest on the driver of the car who had violated a city ordinance by crossing the main traffic artery without having brought his car to a stop. While the driver of the truck was appar ently violating a safety order of his company by carrying another person as a passenger, the assumption that this violation had any thing to do with the disastrous occurrence seems lar-lctched. As a result of this accident, gasoline trucks of this size have been barred from the use Commercial Vehicle Section 171 of the streets of Ottawa and some other cities in Kansas. Needless to say that any municipality, at least in Kansas, has this legal authority- Approximately 8l/ per cent of all trucks registered are petroleum carriers, and these petroleum carrying trucks reported approxi mately 21 per cent of all the accidents. A comment was made that this showed that the accident rate for transport trucks was higher than for other carriers. The fre quencies as revealed in this report arc as follows: Live Stock Carriers--5.21 accidents for each 100,000 miles traveled. Merchandise Carriers--1.17 accidents for each 100.000 miles traveled. Petroleum Carriers--.92 accidents for each IOOlOOO miles traveled. All 1teemed Carriers--1.35 accidents for each 1001,000 miles traveled. The Corporation Commission at the time of making this report did not have the mile age oa any trucks not invoh'ed in accidents, nor did they have all of the minor accidents which might have been reported. However, if these figures can be taken as comparable, a frequency of .92 for transport trucks is not only lower than for the other two classi fications, but is also lower than any figure compiled by the National Safety* Council or the American Petroleum Institute covering a large scale of operations. Another interesting fact is that of a lota) of 123 accidents reported to transport trucks, 15 resulted in a fire. More than a million miles were traveled by these trucks tliat re ported accidents per fire. The frequency of fires per 100,000 miles traveled was .0091. This is not a true figure, as the total mileage traveled by all transport trucks was not in cluded. It is estimated that the miles trav eled per fire would be more than twice as great and that the frequency would be less than half of the frequency just given. Of the 123 accidents, 119 caused property dam age of less than $500. Since speed was mentioned ns one of the causes of the Ottawa accident, as it is in many cases, it is interesting to consider the time and mileage of eight trucks clearing through Belleville port of entry. McPbcrsoa McPhenoo McPherson McPherson Augusta McPherson Arkansas Cty Wichita Left Vrrivctl Pit ndlcvillc Mileage 5:30 P.M. 10:05 P.M. 110 Miles 4 ;Q0 P.M. 8:30 P.M. 110 Miles 6:30 P.M. 11:00 P.M. 110 Miles 4:20 P.M. 9:00 P.M. 110 Miles 1 :4S P.M. 9:10 P.M. 187 Miles 4 P.M. 9:15 P.M. 110 Miles 11:45 A.M. 8:15 A.M. 8:55 P.M. 4:45 P.M. 233 Miles )7l Miles Average 24 mph 24 " 24 " 23 *' 25 '* 20 " 25 " 20 " The average speed given in this tabula tion does not indicate that these trucks were necessarily driven at a high rate of speed. In another accident the Investigation in dicated that the driver was "hitting it up" on a down grade to develop sufficient momen tum to make the next grade. Due to road conditions, speed, and one or two other con ditions, the truck piled up. Occurrences such as this lead to a study of the power to load ratio as a factor of safety. Obviously, there are two hazards which accompany the use of an underpowered truck. The first is ex emplified by such accidents as this, relatively few* in number; (he second is the jamming of a number of cars behind a loaded truck which is slowly making a grade. No one cares to be slowed down. As soon as the cause of the reduction in speed has passed, each driver immediately steps on (he gas and some accidents and many narrow escapes result. In connection with this part of Uic study, \ T. Thompson, Highway Research Spccial.Jt of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, was asked for a statement concerning an in vestigation he is conducting. His reply fol lows : "It cannot be said that anyone has as yet worked out any logical reason for any of the various grade-minimum speed stipulations that have been suggested for proposed mo tor vehicle regulations. There is a general 172 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress feeling that 20 mph is about right so far as the speed is concerned, but the rate of grade to lc involved with the speed is still very, very much undecided. The speed of 20 mph is selected for preliminary thinking merely be cause it is believed to be sufficiently above the passenger car low gear to avoid the ne cessity for shifting on the part of passenger car operators and sufficiently low to be rea sonable requirement for trucks. I have ob served that if passenger car operators are permitted to move at 20 mph there is little evidence of impatience and the resulting temptation to take undue chances in passing. "I am at present conducting some hill climbing tests which will perha|is throw light upon the subject generally. However, the Bureau is just inaugurating this work and it will be some time before we can get the apparatus developed and procedure worked out so that a large amount of data will be available." Chapter 283, Section 120, laws of 1937 (Uniform Traffic Laws) passed by the State Legislature states: "Every motor vehicle to be operated out side of business am! residence districts shall have motive |>otvcr adequate to propel at a reasonable speed such vehicle and any load thereon or to l>e drawn thereby;--and if it is a motor vehicle to Ik: used for propelling other vehicles he stall separately insert the total permissible gross weight of such motor vehicle and other vehicles to he propelled by it " A letter from die Motor Vehicle Com missioner's office explains the basis for such determinations. "Tliis department has recently made sev eral tests of various motor vehicles to de termine as far as possible gross loads that may be safely operated upon the highways. The rated carrying capacity as given by the manufacturer* is only used for license pur- _ po'rs. Tit determining the maximum gross weight, we lake into consideration brake* horsepower, torque, age of vehicle, size of tire?, whether high pressure, low pressure, solid, whether or mil the vehicle las over loaded springs, kind of brakes, and condi tion of motor. "As far as 1 can determine. Kansas is pioneering, ami I have definitely made up my mind that we arc proccctling in the right direction to make onr highways safer. So far truck owners seem to Ik pleased with this method of procedure, but the law has not been in force long enough to affect many operators." An executive in charge of a large fleet of trucks commented on this: "We are also considerably concerned re garding the proposed ability factors which are now receiving an increasing amount of attention. By and large, we are in favor of such a move, but in making this statement, we want to qualify it by saying that any such requirement should be accompanied with a number of other changes in (he present laws Regardless of how the ability is arrived at. that is, by simply applying a minimum speed limit on a given grade, determining this ability by traffic patrolmen, or whether it would be determined by calculation prior to issuing the usual license, it will be necessary in general to use equipment with larger en gines in relation to the gross load than is the practice at the present time. We believe it would follow more nearly present bus practice, although the requirement of 20 mph minimum on a 4 per cent grade would be far less than the average bus is capable of doing." In the September 1937 issue of "Commer cial Car Journal," George I. Hook, Editor, summarizes the opinions of 89 truck opera tors on the question of ability factors. The nine questions asked of each arc summarized as follows: 1. 78 considered a slow-moving vehicle a safety hazard on hills; 10 said they did not, and one said trucks were not, but tractortrailer trains were. 2. 79 favored the adoption of an ability factor to make trucks move faster on hills; 6 did not; one said it was not practical, and three gave no opinion. 3. 41 said they favored an ability' factor of 4 per cent grade at 20 mph; 8 favored a factor higher than 4 per cent at 20; 3 wa vered between a factor of ) and 3$-4 at 20; 2 favored 4 at 20 for truck and 2 and 3 per cent at 20 for trains and six-wheelers; 10 definitely favored factors lower than 4 at 20; 15 gave no answer; 8 gave incomplete replies; one did not favor a factor and another thought it impractical. 4. 53 said 75 to 100 per cent, inclusive, of their present trucks could meet the factor they favored; 20 gave replies under 75 per cent and 16 did not answer. 5. 23 asked no time extension to meet the factor they favored; 34 asked 1 to 3 years; Commercial Vehicle Section 173 17 asked 3 to 5 years ; 3 asked 5 to 10 years, and 12 did not answer. 6. 12 said they now specify an ability fac tor of 4 per cent at 20 or better; 12 definitely specified a factor under 4 at 20; 41 said they did not specify a factor; 6 gave in complete answers; 17 gave no answer, and one gave a variable. 7. 60 said from 75 to 100 per cent, inclu sive of their present equipment would meet a safety factor of 4 per cent grade at 20 mph. 20 said less than 75 per cent would meet it, and 9 did not answer. 8. 34 said their maintenance costs would not be affected by the imposition of a 4 at 20 factor; 15 said they would be lower; 6 said the effect would be "very slight," "very little," "not much"; one said they had al ready accomplished a reduction by means of the factor; 13 said maintenance costs would be increased; one said the effect would be "not good"; 18 gave no answers, and one said the effect would be to eliminate old equipment. Seventeen said total operating costs would not be affected; 15 said they would be lowered; 5 said the effect would be "very little;" "not much," "problematical," and "little difference"; 17 said total costs would be increased, a number of them explaining that unit or per mile costs would be reduced as the result of a greater mileage; one said he had accomplished a reduction by means of the factor; 34 did not answer the question. 9. 61 said speeding up of trucks was eco nomically' imperative; 14 said It was not; 14 gave no answer. These opinions all point to the importance of ability factor. A definite formula must be formed. A purchaser of a truck, know ing the load he wishes to haul, should knowall the requirements and conditions consid ered under the factors of brake horsepower, torque, age of vehicle, size of tires, etc. The opinion tliat "unless the industry regu lates its minimum speed to a reasonable pace we believe authorities will do it for them" should not excite fear in the minds of operators unless they believe that "autliorities" may act before sufficient information is developed or will otherwise act unfairly. The writer cannot agree that this is altogether a problem of the industry'. Would it not be better to state that authorities and the in dustry should work out a satisfactory ability' factor than to line up the authorities against the industry? In several other cases it was established that the trucks involved were not following the rules and regulations formed by the slate bodies given this authority. Of course, as stated in the rules, it is the duty of the owner to inform liis driver of tin* rules and see that all requirements arc met. Hut there are sometimes conflicts between the rules of the several departments. Here is part of a letter relative to such a conflict. "A state law gives us the right to carry reflectors. A rule put out by the State Fire Marshal merely requires flares. And a regu lation put out by the Corporation Commis sion under the Motor Carrier Rules and Regulations requires electric lanterns." If the state authorities would publish nil rules in one volume and eliminate any con flicts which may exist, they could more logi cally insist on a complete understanding of their rules. And then, to go a step further, if the enforcing rtf all rules could be done by one agency should be fewer dis agreements on idlripretations. Several other accidents were reported as caused by sleepy drivers. In one of these a total of 8,142 miles was driven in 27 days by two men in a sleeper cah. This is an average of 301.5 miles per day. No indication is made in the information as to how long these men were off duty, how long they spent loading and unloading, etc. However, in this one case these men had been on duty too tong. In fact, they* went to sleep. It might be enlightening to quote from a statement from this report. "Most owners do not instruct their drivers as to the specific number of hours to drive and hours to rest. Their instructions usually are that if they get sleepy' to pull to the side of the road and sleep until they arc ready to go again." Many studies have been conducted of this because of sleepy drivers. The National Safety Council in its pamphlet, "How Long on the Highway" says; "The large proportion of truck drivers who have their sleep accidents only a few hours after they have rested speaks elo quently' as to the quality and extent of that rest; it indicates flat many have no normal rest for some time--after a complete rc|>ort of a study conducted by* this organization, the following general recommendations are made. 17A Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress "(l) The dement of fatigue should be cooperate fully with the Federal govern given a more mi|ortat place on accident re* ment in this matter." |K>rl forms used lay fleet owners, insurance companies. states and cities. In addition to or m place of the usual items concerning the driver, 'asleep* and 'fatigued,' spaces should be provided for recording the numler of hours during which the driver had hern on the way prior to llie accident and the amount and place of sleep during the preceding 2-1 hours. Charles G. Morgan, Jr., in his booklet "Hours and Truck Accidents," published by the American Trucking Association, has a different slant on the reason for these acci dents which occur in the first few hours of service after a period off duty. "While these studies may be of insufficient scope to be used as the basis for Anal con clusions, nevertheless, we believe they cover "(2) There is urgent need for scientific enough ground to indicate tendencies and research lu determine what effect continu inferences which cannot be denied without ous driving, tong Itours without sleep, and more inclusive study. various mechanical aspects of vehicles have cm fatigue and to ascertain the recuperative value ot various rest periods. Such research should also bring out, if possible, what de gree of fatigue i* dangerous and how dif ferent individuals vary in susceptibility. "The first of these inferences is that liours of duty have no relation to accidents, at least up to 16 duty hours. There may be a period when the hours on duty will bring on sufficient fatigue to make a driver onsafe, but wliat the period is cannot be de **(J) Companies operating vehicle fleets, termined from this study which includes al and individual truck owners, should volun most no material on driving accidents oc tarily organize their business to avoid ex curring aflef 16 hours' driving. cessively long hour* of duty for drivers and thu-t to minimize the number and cost of ac cidents which inevitably result from driving while excessively tired. Drivers of private pa<cngcr cars should also be brought to realize the danger ot driving when very tired "During (he recent hearings, many of the driver witnesses placed on the stand by rep resentatives of labor, seeking a short work ing day, testified that throughout their ex tended experience as drivers working long hours, they had not had an accident. or slccjy. "In the few instances when witnesses were "(1) Kvcrv state should limit the hours ot duty of all drivers except those of private |M>>eugcr cars. Such limitation should cover total working and waiting time and not placed on the stand with bad accident rec ords, testimony revealed that these drivers worked as much as 20 hours a day (some times more) week in and week out, some merely the time spent al the wheel or on the road. These laws should specify also the amount and conditions of rest required to interrufd such a period of duty. times without even a Sunday off in which to obtain rest and recreation, and usually getting what sleep they could on the seat of the cab between trips. Naturally, the or "(5) There is need for agreement among ganized trucking industry, like all other hu the slates a* to wlial constitutes time on duty mane and safety-minded agencies, would anti ilw conditions under which rest mny'bc never condone or approve any such require obtained. ment of working hours, and such testimony ~(ti) Definite procedures for the enforce ment of hoors-ot-duty regulations must be undertaken if they arc to be effective. The authorities responsible, the methods to he u>ed and the source oi funds for such en forcement should be fully considered It Is especially important that violations be de tected aud prosecuted when they occur in connection with accidents. is weak because of the extremes repre sented, which are the exception rather than the rules. "J. S. Baker, of the National Safety Coun cil, author of `Too Long at the Wheel' and `How Long on the Highway?,* publications which have aroused a great amount of ani mosity against the trucking industry, testi fied on the witness stand at the above men tioned hearing lliat in his opinion a driver, "(7) Trip records carried on the trucks having adequate rest before going on duty, and systematically ''inspected should be would be a safe driver for as much as IS adopted as the most practical means of se hours of consecutive duty. This statement curing compliance. To avoid hopeless con bears out the evidence set forth by Studies fusion in interstate trucking, all states should 1 to 5 herein. Commercial Vehicle Section 175 "A second inference to be drawn from the materia] here presented is that hours of res! before any period of duty have no effect on the frequency of accidents after going on duty. "A further inference to be obtained from this material is that the time and duration of stops have no effect to slow up accident fre quency. "A final inference Is that perhaps one of the contributory causes in highway acci dents is being 'too fresh,' or too well rested. The general trend of all of these Studies is to show that accidents happen in the early hours of duty or the early time after a stop. It may be deduced, therefore, that these drivers of motor trucks become safer the longer they remain at the wheel within reasonable limits. This can lead to but one conclusion and that is that drivers when first behind the wheel are so refreshed and rested that the duties of driving do not take all of their energy, either physical or mental. They find driving requires so little of themselves that they are inattentive or rather attentive to other things than driving, with resultant accident. As the tour of duty progresses and they begin to tire, they gradu ally concentrate more on their driving and have fewer accidents as the hours of driving increase. "While this Is but an inference, it is our hope that it and this material will not be put aside lightly, but that it will inspire other agencies to pursue the subject, making in quiries of a similar nature not only in truck and bus operation, but also in regard to pleas ure car drivers and accidents." Ill--Can Gasoline Be Transported Safely? This question can be answered only in the affirmative. It not only can be, but it is transported safely every day. In this con nection a statement from C. W. Kelley of the Transport Company bearing his name is included. Mr Kelley's letter follows: "Wc arc outlining below our set up in re gard to safety, etc: "Before a driver is employed his past rec ord is checked carefully to see that he has had at least one year's experience driving a semitrailer outfit, and to see that his rec ord as a safe, careful driver is good. He is also required to pass a physical examination before a licensed physician in compliance with the rules of the Kansas Corporation Commission. He is also required to make at least one student trip with an old experienced driver and get an OK from that driver. He must meet all of the requirements set out above before he is put on the payroll or sent out with a truck alone. "Two drivers arc assigned to each truck and the runs are so arranged that the drivers can be changed cither at Hutchinson, hi idway, Newton or McPherson within eight to fourteen hours after going on duty in the large majority of instances. We have one sleeper cab truck which takes most of the longer trips that cannot be made in 16 hours driving time and, of course, there are two drivers on the sleeper. On the few other long trips one driver takes the truck on the long end of the trip and stops for rest enough that he is never on duty more than 16 hours in. any 24 hour period. "All but three of the trucks operate out of Hutchinson and at the end of 90 per cent of the trips they come into Hutchinson and are put into our shop for inspection and re paired. The driver must turn in a "Shop Ticket" with a record of his trip and a rec ord of his observation as to the condition of the truck, and then the ihechanics inspect the trucks for other defects, etc., and all neces sary repairs are made, oil and tires checked, etc., before another trip is started. "The other three trucks work out of Au gusta and the foreman there inspects each truck at the end of every trip and drives each truck about one trip out of eight, and he sees that all.necessary repairs are made and that the trucks are kept in A-l shape. These trucks get into Hutchinson about once a week and at that time they are inspected in our shop in the same manner as the Hutchinson trucks. "From January 1, 1937 to July 31, 1937, our trucks operated 803,381 miles in Kansas and a total of 856,118 highway miles in Kan sas, Oklahoma and Colorado. During this period our trucks were involved in five (5) minor highway accidents. "This averages approximately one minor accident in a highway distance traveled equal to seven times around the earth at the equa tor." It will be noted that this company has operated with a frequency of .62 accidents for each 100,000 miles driven. Does this figure mean that all of (lie publicity concern- 176 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress in? accidents and tlic danger of tlie trailsl>ort business, and (he feeling of the public against the transport business is wrong? The answer to this question is a partial "yes." As long as some few trucking Arms will not pay attention to the principles underlying the safety rules and regulations, the answer will still have to continue to be only a par tial "yes." IV--General Discussion and Conclusions From the material included in this report and the work done in accumulating it, the writer concludes that although some acci dents have been serious and some conditions which did exist were not conducive of safe operations, the great wave of unfavorable publicity given the gasoline transport busi ness has so affected our thinking that we have been content to base our conclusions on the partial truths given us by the news papers. On the other hand there are certain prob lems which must be considered in summing up this entire study. It is the writer's opinion that a brief discussion of such problems and the conclusions drawn will help In the solu tion of similar problems in other states, al though thej* are of primary concern to those operators routing trucks over the highways of Kansas and to the officials concerned with the regulations of the transport traffic in Kansas. There arc certain inconsistencies in the regulations of the several departments. If it is necessary* for several departments to share in the formation of these regulations it is the opinion of the writer, and of sev eral operators with whom this was dis cussed, that these inconsistencies can be eliminated by: (a) The complete revision of all laws and regulations existing and their printing in one volume. (b) Furnishing each enforcing officer not only with the laws and regulations, but also with correct interpretations concerning these. (c) The authorization of one group to en force all laws and regulations, or of each of the several groups to enforce only some specific rules. There is another inconsistency which is an example of what may happen when some states form regulations which differ from those of other states. This condition applies not only to trucks handling gasoline, but to all trucks operating under the jurisdiction of a regulatory body. A truck hauling gasoline from Oklahoma into Kansas, if it complies with the regula tions of both states, will be equipped with the following lights: FRONT--2 headlights; 2 clearance lights; 1 cluster of three lights. REAR-->1 tail light; 1 stop light; 1 license light; 2 clearance lights; I cluster of three lights. (The first three mentioned may be one unit.) SIDE--2 marker tights on each side. The necessity of having clearance lights front and rear and a cluster of three lights at top, both front and rear, has not been satisfactorily explained. Such an installation of lights will use be tween 20 and 22 amperes, which imposes too great a load on standard batteries and generators, which results in burned out gen erators, batteries, lights and fuses. Obvi ously, lights that are not burning are unsafe. Of course, heavy generators, batteries and extra fuses can be installed, but such ex pense, since it will not make the driving of a truck any more safe, is needless. Obviously, such inconsistencies could not exist if all states would adopt the require ments of the Interstate Commerce Commis sion. As a further aid to the elimination of all contradictory regulations, it is recommended that each state select some operators of trucks and safety men to act as an advisory committee in the formation or revision of all laws and regulations which are proposed for the purpose of promoting safety. Given consistent regulations and strict en forcement of these regulations, the safety of the gasoline transport business will depend on those responsible for the operation of each unit. There was an apparent feeling on the part of some truck drivers interviewed that the state inspectors were "cracking down." This is possibly true. The writer noted no feeling on the part of inspectors that they had a quarrel with the trucking industry. However, when the safe principles of operations, which it is their duty to en force, are willfully violated there may be some excuse for the tendency to "crack down." A large majority of the operators of transport trucks are more than willing to Commercial Vehicle Section 177 comply with the safety regulations if they understand them. So much for the question of laws and regulations. The real solution of the prob lem rests with the industry- Drivers should be selected because they arc skilled in the manipulation of a truck and because they are known to be men of good habits and reliable character. Trips must be scheduled so that the driver will get the proper amount of rest and will not be required to become so fatigued that he cannot give proper attention to the busi ness of driving. It is not enough to instruct drivers to rest when needed. Good equipment which will meet all rea* sonable standards of safety must be pur chased and maintained in good working or der. Tanks must be properly mounted; the trucks equipped with sufficient braking ability, etc. In general the safety problem of the trans port business is the same as for the opera tion of any fleet of trucks or cars. The elimi nation of accidents through good safe driv ing will eliminate such instances as we have seen so unpleasantly spread across the pages of our newspapers. In this connection it should be mentioned that many of the acci dents which have occurred in Kansas have been caused by the driver of the other vehicle involved and not by the truck driver. The elimination of the heedless drivers and of un safe driving practices on the part of the gen eral public must he considered if a largo part of the highway safety problem, and of this particular part of that problem, the safe transportation of liquid fuels, is to be solved. The I. C. C. Safety Regulations By H. H. KELLY Chief, Section of Safety, Bureau of Motor Carriers, Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D. C. (Editor's Note; This is an abstract o] the remarks made by Mr. Kelly.) Mr. Kelly explained dial the Interstate Commerce Commission has promulgated safety regulations applicable to interstate motor carriers operating for hire (buses and trucks). He outlined briefly the four parts which comprise these rules, including qualifications of drivers, rules of the road, certain parts and accessories necessary fur safe oper ation aud the reporting of accidents. Although in effect only a few months, these rules have been adopted in whole or in part by 27 states, this action constituting a mate rial contribution to the cause of greater uni formity, greater nation-wide uniformity in safety requirements. They have been re printed by trade associations, publications. Insurance companies and others, and distrib uted in large numbers throughout the United States. Schools have been conducted for drivers and other employes by many large carriers. Numerous manufacturers have prepared "T.C.C. Kits" of such items as flares, fusees, etc. As an example of the rapid acceptance of the regulations, Mr. Kelly cited the Com mission's requirement for amber front clear ance lamps, and said that any observer of night traffic on the highways could not fail to be impressed by the already general use of these lights. He said that the Commission, in continuing action upon its "long-term program" of safety promotion for interstate motor carriers, now has under consideration further important subjects, including hours of service ol drivers, the transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles, mctliods of controlling top speed of vehicles, and the comparative merits of laminated and '`case-hardened" glass for use in buses and trucks. He said tliat the Commission would probably under take in the near future an investigation into the matter of uniform standards of size and weight of motor vehicles, as specifically pro vided for by the Motor Carrier Act, 1935. Outlining enforcement plans, Mr. Kelly stated that the field force of the Bureau of Motor Carriers, I.C.C., although small, Is already checking vehicles as to compliance with the safety regulations, visiting carriers ,and advising them on safety matters, observ ing vehicles in oi>eration on the highways, seeing to the proper reporting of accidents and the like. He emphasized the importance 178 Tu'culy-Sixth National Safety Congress ui state cooperation in enforcement, observing that where states liad identical requirements, their enforcement activities could be effec tively directed to both interstate and intra state operations. As further indication of the Commission's practical approach to safety , >l>lems, Mr. Kelly said that the Bureau of Motor Carriers has a well organized safety program in opera tion for its own held personnel throughout llc country, and that the fleet of official cars driven by these men is enrolled in the Na tional Fleet Contest of the National Safety Council. tu conclusion he said that there is every reasonable expectation of notable success in the safety activities of the Commission in behalf of interstate motor carriers, not only because of its reasonable and practicable regu lations, but also because of the fact that these transportation enterprises must achieve safety if they are to remain in business and their drivers must practice safety to keep their jobs. If a similar sense of responsibility could be developed in the minds of the private pas senger-car drivers of the country, he felt, there would be an immediate and radical re duction in the nation's present highway acci dent toll. hollowing the addresses a flint on the iran$|>ortation of liquid fuels was shown through the courtesy of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14, 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH THE STREET AND HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SECTION The meeting \va* called to order by WilHam C. Knoctk, Chairman of the Street and Highway Traffic Section, who presided, introducing the speakers. Report of Joint Committee on Vehicle Loads Presented by RALPH A. MOYER Professor of Highway Engineering, Iowa State College, Ames, la. This rc|H>rt, prepared by the joint Com mittee on Vehicle Loads, was presented by Prof. Moyer in tl*c absence of Prof. John S. Craudcll, lX*|>artmcnt of Highway Engineer ing. University of Illinois. L'rliaita, chairman of the committee. ** Shortly Ihm'ofc the Atlantic City Congress a year ago. a committee was organized to study vehicle load limitations. Tltc subject assigned was, "What Arc the Elements in the Rela tion Between Loads, Speeds and Grades, and Braking Distances Which Should Govern Load Restrictions?" Such discussion as took place during llte first meeting of the Committee at the Con gress a year ago dealt almost entirely with the difficulties of enforcement of any such regulations as might seem desirable, and the effect of inadequate maintenance on such performance. It was rather apparent that the Committee acknowledged the existence of the problem but recognized that the solution called for the careful consideration of the Commercial Vehicle'Section 179 many varied factors which relate to com mercial vehicle operation. While the primary purpose of tin's Com mittee is to offer suggestions and recommen dations which will contribute to greater safety, there are certain practical limitations which must be recognized in the solution of the problem. In fairness to all of the interested parties, studies which deal with the problem should be so broad in their scope and so complete that the conclusions reached from such a study will be fair and proper. Studies in which only local situations are considered, or in which only a limited number of obser vations arc reported, are likely to give a dis torted picture of the true facts relating load limitations as they affect speed and stopping distance. Tlie Committee seemed to agree that it should not attempt to conduct studies for which it did not obviously have the facilities to get the true facts. However, at this time studies are being conducted in a large number of states as a part of the state-wide planning surveys, in which the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads is cooperating, which will provide the type of information useful for study and inter pretation by this committee. In the administration of certain laws in sev eral states, studies are being carried on. or are contemplated. Also, the Section of Safety, Interstate Commerce Commission, lias con ducted certain hearings and investigations and is planning further investigations along these lines. In view of the lack of adequate information at the present time, the Committee has no definite recommendations to offer in regard to load restrictions. It is the opinion of the majority of the Committee members tliat this subject is of such importance that the Com mittee should be continued and tliat every effort be made to obtain these reports as soon as released, to encourage their early release, and to assist in preparing a report to be presented at the next Congress. Selecting Street Car and Bus Stop Locations By T- E. TRANSKAU Assistant Director, Department of Public Safety, Philadelphia, Pa. Street cars and buses have been a part of our municipal life for more years than most people would suspect. True, both buses and cars were originally horsedrawn. Many horsedrawn and cable cars were not suc ceeded by trolley cars until comparatively recent years. Now, in many cities, the trolley cars have practically passed out of the picture. The great increase in motor buses has taken place in the last 10 years. In the early days, little consideration was given to proper stopping places for trolley cars and buses. The amount of vehicular traffic on the streets was not sufficient for a great many years to cause any real problem. The beginning of this problem can be thought of as running parallel to the vast increase in the motor car, which, a9 we all know, took place following the World War. There were less than 1,000,000 motor cars in the United States in 1911 and, by 1917, there were only 5,000,000. During 1922 alone, the increased registration was 6,000,000. As the motor car increased, the problem of handling the trolley cars and buses likewise increased. At the 1936 National Safety Congress and Exposition, during one of the street and highway traffic safety sessions, there was a spirited discussion on the proper location for trolley and bus stops. The writer, in at tempting to arrive at a solution for this problem, wrote to transportation and traffic officials in a number of our largest cities. Obtaining the Evidence It was felt that, if an expression of views of those charged with responsibility for the movement of traffic could be obtained from a sufficiently representative number of cities, some light might be thrown on the differ ences of opinion that were not satisfactorily explained in the Atlantic City meeting. At present, responses have been received from practically all of these cities and it is now possible to present for the first time authoritative views of the different engineers 180 Tvivuty-Sixth National Safety Congress and. in a considerable measure, to explain why practice differed in the past, and to offer some recommendations for the future. Among the questions asked of those to whom lire questionnaires were sent were the following: 1. In your city, where do the hoses and trolley care stop--near or far side, or a mixture of both? 2. Do you have any mid-block stops ? 3. What has your accident experience been P i. Do you have any decided opinion on the wisdom of near or far side stops? In addition, it was hoped that some of those addressed would go into some detail, expressing their view's and helping to throw light on the whole problem. A summary has been made up of replies to the above questions from 11 principal U. S. cities. The names of the cities have been omitted because in the time available it was not possible to collect and digest the data thoroughly from any veiy large group of cities. Furtltcrmorc, it seemed impossible to get some of these cities to respond to re peated requests for information, SO it was best not to name the cities. Ample oppor tunity will be offered for discussion, either in writing or at the sessions of the Safety Con gress, to those who wish to go on record concerning the practice in their particular municipality. The replies to the principal questions are listed in the table on the opposite page. Analysis of Replies An analysis of these data reveals the near side stop is in Hie majority in most of the eases', although most cities have some far side stops, for reasons which will be touched on later. In two cities, including the largest in the country, it was found that far side stops arc in the vast majority. In one- of these eases, practically all stops in the cen tral districts arc far side, and elsewhere the near side slops are preponderant. Most.citics have some mid-block stops. It is not believed that these are advisable tor any reason except because of extremely long blocks. Also in the case of one city, several important bu>; routes-he along the waterfront and stops arc made at certain piers irrespec tive of street intersections. Mo definite information was obtained on the relative number of accidents due to near or far side stops. In fact, it would not ap pear that any city has any real data con cerning this matter. One engineer believes the buses in general have less accidents than the trolleys. Four cities reported then ac cident experience with both buses and trol leys led to tbe belief that mishaps were very few. One important city stated as a matter of interest that they changed from the far side to the near side stops on their trolley lines 23 years ago and they actually had less accident* in 1937 than in 1912. The following principal arguments were advanced by the correspondents favoring the near side stop: At certain locations, if far stops were made, buses would block the cross street and also obstruct the follow ing traffic. This would be particularly true where the parking demand is heavy. It has been stated also that, with trolley cars, far side stops may cause accidents by pedestrians passing around the rear of trolley cars. Some of the correspondents stressed tbe fact that, where there arc traffic signals or stop signs, it frequently would be necessary to make two stops at the intersection where the far side stop is used. One correspondent pointed out, however, that bases sometimes tend to block the view of traffic signals, and m that particular city at important intersections signals are placed both near and far side. Several corre>pondcsits emphasised the importance of a bus or trolley stopping before crossing the intersection because of redoced speed vkk procceo>ng across tbe intersecting street. In one large Eastern city where both ear and far side stops are in use, it was toami that a survey is in progress with pnrtkalar attention bring paid to the delay or ku time caused on signalized streets by the pos sibility of buses having to stop on the mar side for red light and then stopping again a* (he far side. This city no longer operates many trolley cars. Although it wras one m stated, it appeared from the report that a decision would be made as to tbe general wee of near or far side stops based upon tame sad delay studies which were in progress daring the preparation of this paper and which haw not been completed. Apparently the desire to move traffic efficiently in this city has outweighed in the minds of the traffic authorities any considera tion of public safety that may possibly be inherent in the near or far side stop. Commercial Vehicle Section 181 The following points were made by those who favor the far side stop : 1. In one city it was stated that trolley car loading zones are located on the near side. These zones are 88 feet long and park ing is restricted for 108 feel--street width* are insufficient to permit buses to stop in this bottleneck. City No. I NEAR or FAR Sid. Under Present Conditions Practically all FAR tn Central District, hactically all NEAR otherwise. Mld-Btock 3 or 4 extremely long blocka Aeefdent Data None Opinion of Traffic Manager No comment--not enough dulu. No. 2 9S% FAR side. No. J NEAR side. Yea; some blocks ZOO' long. Yes. sotue Midblock on Water front-at Certain pi era. Few accidents directly doe to NEAR or FAR. Stops. No data. Favoi FAR stops due to trolley load ing zones on NEAR aide. At tigualizad intersections FAR side stop expedites traffic movement. Also right turns are permitted on red light-NEAR side muit be kept clear. In general FAR side stops believed more practical for both buses and trolleys. Favor NEAR side for hotl buses and trolleys. No. 4 No. S No. 6 .Vo. 1 Nw. Mixture--NEAR side greatly in majority. NEAR, few h'AK NEAR and i*Al< Practically all NEAR ode. Opn--Ren to feel it drprads on efficiency; nodies being made. Snnlti indicate NEAR side moot eftvant no far--eery long cydn. Mid-block on exceptionally long blocks. No data--buses less than trol leys. Some Mid-block on very long blocka ordue to otherconditions. No MkS-block None Few, where blocks art long- No definite In formation but states very good accident experience. Favor NEAR side--fu.ii* bust!* would Wrick cross Street and obWruct fol lowing traffic. Particularly true where parking demaml la heavy. Favors NEAR side--states FAR tide (day cause pedestrian accidents by pcoplo passing around rear ot trol leys. Believes conditions may cause de cision, uy* FAR side ruay tat use two stopson red light. Recognises ability of other traffic to pass bus easier at FAR side. Takes same view as No. ? on blocking where trolley soncs are located near side. Prefer NEAR side due to signals or STOP signs. See one disadvantage howeyer, namely obscuring of sigmilNow place signal* on but it aidtt. So. ta No. 11 Vast --joiuy NEAR Few exceptions to NEAR aide Hops. NEAR ndc used except when FAR side seems moze pied text. Practically no Mid-block. None Do not favor mid-block stops. No data11 Change mwdc 25 years ago from FAR to NEAR side. Very few acci dents. Accident exper ience low. List fact all modern trolleys made NEAR side Less accidents in 1937 than in 1912. Opinion NEAR side the best--dies (act bus must come to atop before erasing intersection as Important. NEAR side believed less tiassrdous because of opportunity for bus driver* and cross traffic to observe cachother. Disadvantage oi NEAR side is interference with movement, right turns, etc. In nine places curb terminal facilities better on FAR side. 182 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress 2. If bus stops were made on the near side where these safety zones are located it would create a hazardous condition for pe destrians crossing to and from buses or street cars, presumably because with these long safety zones, car riders do not always use the crosswalks and might be strode be cause of a bus obscuring vision of approach ing drivers. 3. Where the intersection is signalized, the bus stop on the far side expedites the move ment of traffic as there is no delay in one jane of traffic while buses are loading or un loading passengers. -I. Near side bus *tops. under conditions mentioned above, would interfere with ve hicular traffic which is allowed to make a right turn on a red light in some cities but must stop before making the turn. It is claimed that buses loading or unloading would interfere with this traffic movement. Conclusions The writer feels a very good case has been made for the Hear side stop under norma! conditions. However, it is dear that those who have advocated the far side stop did so because thev have conditions in their cities which make it virtually necessary not to slop on the near side of the street although there may be disadvantages in the far side stop. I1 Tactically nil modern trolley cars arc now constructed for near side slops. The advan tages that liavc been cited for the near side slop arc undoubtedly important. Perhaps the principal one is the fact that the vehicle. Ic it trolley or bus, moves across the inter section at a slow rate due to the fact that it is a heavy vehicle operating from a standing start. In Philadelphia, the traffic engineers a number of years ago provided loading and unloading zones along all principal .bus roulo at least 100 feet long. It was found that a modern bus needed approximately 90 feet in which to cut over to the curb so that it could load parallel to and within a reason able distance of it. The increasing use of traffic signals in cities makes the argument concerning the necessity ior double stops of more importance. In Philadelphia, our signal cycles arc hardly ever over SO seconds, which means that if a bu or trolley is unfortunate enough to catch a red light just on the conclusion of loading, the delay need not be very great. On the contrary, with the far side stop, the chances of having to make q. double stop at signalized intersections appear to be about 50-50. It is hoped that the large Eastern city pre viously mentioned now making a study of delay due to near and far side stops, will present these figures publicly at the conclu sion of their survey. Yet--efficiency of move ment alone should not be the sole determin ing factor on the realtive merits of the near and far side stop. ft is unfortunate that none of the cities who responded to the questionnaires were in a position to furnish any data concerning relative number of accidents under the two methods. While Use securing of this data may be quite impossible in some cities, it is strongly urged that wherever possible a start be made in securing accident data. Again, it cannot be denied that iu some cities the far side stop is prefer*We. Nearly all cities u$c some far side stops. In Phila delphia, at one notable location, a far side stop is used because the street width on the far side is considerably greater than on the near side. This permits the bus to stop in a lane of traffic which interferes not at all with moving vehicles. At another Phila delphia location, a far side stop is made by the bus line because the near side stop would necessarily be at a location where a very heavy and important right turn is made and where pedestrian traffic is tremendously heavy. In a few other cases unusual street inter section layouts have brought about for side stops. Those who advocate far side stops appear to feel the necessity for their use m cases where there are safety- zones occupying a considerable part of the street or where right turns arc permitted and vehicles stand in these throats. These reasons diminish the very real advantages of the near side stop. It would appear they recognize the disad vantages of the far side stop but feci that, under their particular conditions, the advan tages outweigh the disadvantages. In conclusion, the writer believes that the evidence favors the near side stop, when ever possible, for the following reasons: Operating I. Permits saving in transportation ex penses by eliminating necessity for double stops at each main street intersection when the far side Stop is used. This permits faster Commercial Vehicle Section 183 time schedules which result in a saving in wages and supervision. In addition, less rolling stock is required. 2. Saves power--fewer stops and starts re duce power consumption and use of motor fuel. 3. Reduces maintenance costs--fewer stops and starts save wear of equipment including motors, brake shoes, wheels, track, tires, etc. 4. Reduces "passing up" of passengers. This practice is encouraged by the far side passenger stop, thus improving public rela tions. Safety tirely too long a cycle in traffic timing. Since 1931, except in very exceptional cases and then mostly at Ihrcc-wav intersection*, no cycle over 50 seconds has been used. As a matter of fact, many of our cycles are only 40 seconds. Our streets are, in general, narrow and permit the use of the leaser cyrlc. Yet, per sonal observation has shown (hat in many cities, merely because the streets are some what wider, cycles are in use which are out of all proportion to the real needs of the traffic, vehicular and pedestrian. Where street widths are great the minimum time re quired for the lesser street may be merely the walking time of the pedestrian. 1. The near side stop reduces accident hazard to alighting and boarding passengers due to the fact that vehicles following and paralleling trolleys and buses approaching the intersection are normally being deceler ated and are therefore under better control. With the far side stop, vehicles following and paralleling street cars are normally being ac celerated after leaving intersection. 2. Fewer starts and stops reduce the hazard of passengers falling inside street car or bus. 3. The near side passenger stop reduces possibility of right angle vehicular and pe destrian collision at the intersection, due to the fact that a full and complete stop is re quired at the near side building line when there are passengers to board or alight. 4. The near side passenger stop, by re ducing the delay occasioned by additional slops required by the far side passenger stop, Serves lo keep the operator in a better frame of mind, which results in reduced accident proneness. Impede Traffic Excessively Jong cycles hold up vehicular traffic to the extent that considerable time is lost after the "Go" signal comes on and many vehicles are not able to start until several seconds have elapsed. If this is the case, an effort should be made to shorten the cycles to a reasonable period. There can be no question that the delays imposed on vehicular traffic by excessively long cycles help to aggregate an enormous amount of valuable lost time, not to mention the psy chological effect on motorists and pedes trians. It is obvious that the full force of the statements made herewith apply to bus and trolley car transportation. Many years ago. we had one experience where traffic signals had to be abandoned on a street because of their unpopularity. This was almost entirely due to the extremely long cycles in vogue at that time, blocking of the street by trolley cars and the impatience of t?ie motorist be hind the trolley. 5. Change at this time to a general policy of far side passenger stops would require rc-cducation of the motoring public. More Data Needed It seems an opportunity should be created for securing of more factual data concerning this matter and that a vast saving could be made in many cities by careful study of the various factors involved. Fur instance, those of us in Philadelphia charged with the re sponsibility for traffic movement have long felt that the average American city uses en Correct Timing Nowadays, we are placing traffic signals on the same street using short and snappy cycles, moviug traffic safely, and pleasing motorists, pedestrians and business men. It is strongly urged that those charged with the rexponsibility for the movement of traffic in our cities, and those interested in bus and trolley car operation, give some time and study to this im|>ortant subject and there can be little question that whatever time may be devoted to this work will have been very wisely invested. 184 / Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Near Versus Far-Side Stops- By . J. KREH Manager of Accident Prevention, The Philadelphia Company, Pittiburgh, Pa. Determination of the relative merits of near and far side stops for mass transpor tation vehicles is a complex problem, involv which slows up traffic delays the transporta tion vehicle, reduces service, raises operating cost, and cuts revenue. ing many factors and the interests of many groups. Unless each clement is considered amt given proper weight in accordance with The transit operator, because he is so vitally concerned, will be the first to relocate stops if such action will minimize delays tlic benefits desired, one is likely to be de ceived and led to believe that through change mi stop location he has corrected a fault when, iti reality, he has created many more. In addition, lie ha* jeopardized the rights, without introducing greater evil. Passen gers are constantly demanding higher speeds to match the performance of the private automobile. This obligates him to do his utmost to promote the free movement of all privileges, safety, and convenience of other traffic. groups. With their background of experience and Speed, direction, and volume of vehicular extended interest in the problem, transit Irafiic, direction and volume of pedestrian operators are unanimous in their opinion trattic, signs, signals, grades, curve*, width that the near side stop generally has many* of street, location of crosswalks, street more advantages than the far side stop. lighting, and condition of street paving arc only a few of the many important (actors which must be considered. Drivers, pedes trians, passengers, abutting property owners, business interests, municipal authorities, and the transit company are a few of the inter ested groups involved. While speed of traffic flow Is important, so arc passenger, vehicle, and pedestrian safety, and passenger convenience. Which shall lake preference is a debatable question answered only by careful consideration of all of the facts and interests involved. In rnv experience in dealing with accidents, which has extended over more than 25 years, I have found that the location of a stop ntatiy times is a contributing factor in the cause of accidents involving the mass trans portation vehicle and its passengers. Stop locations arc elements In the cause of falling in car or bus, collisions, and de railments. The safety phase of this prob Decause there arc ao many different types of cars and methods of fare collection, it is extremely difficult to set forth an argument which is logical under all conditions. It is, therefore, necessary to confine the scope to types of equipment which, I believe, arc most commonly used. The arguments which follow, unless otherwise specified, are based upon the as sumption that the mass transportation vehicle receives and discharges passengers at either front or center doors, or both, and Is one man operated. I set this limit merely IO clarify my reasoning and not to imply that two man, rear door cars and buses arc ex cluded. Many of the arguments apply to them as well. On this basis, die following items arc presented. We believe they justify the con clusion that the near side stop gives greater and more advantages than the far side stop. lem alone demands the interest and attention 1. To protect pedestrian and vehicle traffic of the transit operator. Aside from that, crossing intersections. Safe driving require however, improper location of stops pro ments, as well as highway regulations, signs duces other evils which can seriously hamper and traffic signals, now require slow move the service. A great deal of the agitation for change in stop locations originates with those in terested in the speed of traffic flow. Usu ally, they advance their theories on the basis of consideration for that element alone. The transit operator has as great, if not greatest interest. In the speed of traffic flow than any other group, because anything ment or a full stop on the near side of the intersection for all traffic. Near side stops encourage adherence to these safe practices, whereas, with far side stops, (here will naturally he greater approach speeds to and through the Interesection by buses and street cars. Operators will be encouraged to dis regard caution and slow signs, and will be tempted to beat the changing traffic lights. Commercial Vehicle Section 185 2. AU vehicle drivers an* now educated to expect near side stops. Any wholesale modification would, undoubtedly, lead lo confusion, endanger pedestrians, and cause rear end collisions. 3. When pulling into a stop, the operator's attention should not be diverted by cross traffic. With pay-leave, one man operation. the near side stop enables him lo give full attention to the business of dealing with his passengers arid stopping without jolt or jar in a safe place. Under the same operating conditions, with the far side stop, he is com pelled lo divide hi* attention between traffic movement and the demands of his passen gers. 4. When a car or bus approaches a stop, most passengers intending to alight arc on ftieir feet walking inside the car. With the near side stop, there is little possibility of emergency brake application as the car pulls into the stop, whereas, with the far side stop, there is great possibility that thoughtless drivers or jay-walking pedestrians will com mit acts compelling many sudden stops. Unquestionably, many more falls inside the car wilt occur with the stop on the far side. Also, with vehicular speeds through the intersection increased, the violence of emer gency stops will be increased, adding to the hazard of throwing passengers. 5. With the near side slop, the street car or bus is required to make only one stop at the intersection. With the far side stop established, in many instances, due to stop signs and traffic signals, the transportation vehicle will be compelled to make two stops; one on the near side and one on the far side. It is the experience of all transit operators that most falls inside (he vehicle occur when the vehicle stops or starts. The desirability of avoiding any practice which will increase the number of stops is apparent from the standpoint of safety to passengers, as well as delay to traffic movement. 6. With the near side stop, a Street car or bus held on 'the near side by a red light after loading can keep doors open for addi tional loading while it waits for a change. With the far side stop, the car or bus is held with the doors closed, and the time awaiting the change in the cycle i* lost. With the far side stop established at heavy loading and unloading points, it is quite probable that a car or bus held on the near side of the intersection by a red light would be required by traffic demands to re ceive and discharge passenger* at unauthor ized near side stops and held there so that it would lose the green light entirely and be held over to the next. Then it would have to make the established stop on the far side. Also, when a car or bus is held on the near side at a uon-cstablishcd slop by a red light, passengers on the far side, if they ob served the doors open and other passengers loading on the near side, would rush across the intersection against a red light to the near side ; certainly not safe. 7. With the near side stop, the operator has view of three directions from which his passengers may come; from the left side, right side, and ahead. With the far side stop, unless jay-walking practices are en couraged and permitted, lie will have view of onty one direction, the right side. One of the greatest difficulties in both bus and car operation is to provide the driver with ade quate view of passengers approaching f-otn the rear. As yet, there has been no satis factory development which veil! provide that view. Consequently, when a stop is so lo cated that the driver has bad vision from three-fourths of the area Jroin which his passengers come, accidents and delay natu rally ensue. 8. Street areas in (lie vicinity of cross walks are usually in better condition from the standpoint of paving than elsewhere. At night, areas in the vicinity of crosswalks are usually better illuminated. For the safety of boarding and aligning passengers, good paving and well lighted areas are important. If passengers board or alight in the vicinity of crosswalks, they are encouraged to use them; that promotes safety to the pedesIrian. When passengers are received or dis charged at the front or center doors, or both, it is possible at the near aide stop to bring the car or bus to a stop with the steps over or in the immediate vicinity of the crosswalk. This is a distinct advantage in favor of the near side stop. It is not possible to have the same advantages with the far side stop unless loading and unload ing is restricted to the rear end of the bus or car. Intending passengers usually con gregate on or near the crosswalks. Witli front and center loading and unloading, the near side stop permits the car or bus to load at the crosswalk. In residential districts, there is usually a grass plot between the sidewalk and the curb. Any concrete fillers are directly in front of private residences. Obviously, it is 186 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress not practical to stop opposite these fillers in front of private residences because of objec tions of ll>c property owner. Under con ditions such as these, the near side crosswalk provides the only available safe place. Stops opposite grass plots would be extremely hazardous to boarding ami alighting pass engers. 9. With the far side stop, the hazard to passengers coming to board and those alight ing will increase for the following reasons: a. Assume that the car or bus is stopped on the near side by a red light. When traffic starts to move on the permissive signal behind the bus or street car, there will be an urge to pass in the curb lane before the bus or car reaches the far side stop. It is easy to visualize the danger to passengers alighting or those coming to board under these conditions. In the case of buses, if traffic is very' Iteavy* automo biles passing to the right of the bus might keep the bus stranded out in the center lane and effectively prohibit it from get ting into the curh, with the result that passengers would have to be discharged in the street. b. On one-way streets with vehicles passing on the left side of a street car stopped far side, passengers who liave alighted at the front doors, and who de sire to cross tlte street, undoubtedly, would do so in front of the car or bus and step directly into the path of traffic passing on the left. People usually use the shortest route. Therefore, if the front end of the car or bus is stopped 50 to 100 feet from the crosswalk, passengers who have alighted at the front end will cross there. 10. Buses stopped for curb loading on the near side have the advantage of a long radius turn back into the traffic lane. This is provided by the width of the cross street. Obviously, short radius turns back into the traffic lane arc a distinct hazard to other traffic. This fact is recognized by highway and traffic engineers. On all the newer high speed highways, traffic coming into them from right angles is provided with a special lane of trout 100 to 200 feet in length within which they are free to merge with other traffic at slight angle in order to create greater safety. This is exactly what is ac complished hy the near side slop where the bus has the entire length of the intersection to execute its maneuver, whereas with the far side stop, the movement back into the center lane must be executed within very confined limits. 11. Even in cities where parking regula tions are not rigidly enforced, one will usually find a small area in the vicinity of tltc crosswalk on both near and far side free of parked vehicles. This small area on the near side piovidcs sufficient space for the bus or street car to load or unload its passengers safely at the front or center doors. The same size area on the far side cannot be used as advantageously for this purpose. The bus in the curb lane stopping fir side must have ample space not only to pull in and clear the intersection, but also am ple space to pull back out into (lie center lane. A street car is 40 to 50 feet long. To clear the intersection, its front end will necessarily have to be at least 50 to 60 feet beyond the intersection when it stops. If parking is not well restricted, and ample space for loading zones provided far side, leaving and boarding passengers at the front and center will be compelled to weave their way between parked vehicles. Anything which hampers their free movement will lead to boarding and alighting-accidents. 12. On streets heavily laden with street cars and the near side stop established, it is now possible for several cars to load and unload passengers at the same time. With the far side stop, unless traffic flows very* freely, and there is considerable headway between cars, the first car might stop at the far side and several following cars antici pate that the first car will move ahead promptly. If the operator** judgment is in error, the second car might pull across the intersection and be compelled to stop be hind the loading car, thus completely block ing the intersection. To eliminate intersec tions! blocking created by such a condition, it might seem advantageous to move the far side stop ahead to the middle of the block. However, where the block is sltorl, this practically amounts to the establishment of a near side stop at the next intersection and really results in the elimination of one stop. 13. On two way streets, with turning movements allowed in all directions, the far side stop might create a distinct hazard. With tltc bos or street car stopped with its rear end near the far side crosswalk, it obstructs the view of both right and left turning traffic and would, unquestionably, lead to many headon collisions between ve- Cotntnercial Vehicle Section 187 hides attempting a turning movement right or left behind the standing car or bus. 14, Good updating practices make it de sirable to have street cars pass over the crossovers and switch points at low speed. Trolley contactors controlling electric switches are necessarily on the near side. These, too, must be passed at slow speed; otherwise, incorrect switch operation will occur and lead to derailments and collisions with passing traffic. Therefore, even though the near side stop is abandoned, street ears must slow down on the near side; thus any advantage which might be assumed in favor of the far side stop, from the standpoint of accelerating movement of traffic flow, is materially decreased. In the foregoing discussion, I have dealt with this problem in the main from the standpoint of safety and traffic flow. While reference has been made to passenger con venience, I do not believe I have given that phase deserving emphasis. Trolley and bus patrons comprise the majority of the group who use public and private transportation facilities. The interests of this majority must be satisfied. Any transit operator can testify to the frequent insistent demands that stops be placed where they are con venient for riders. Wherever possible, the transit operator and the municipal authority are obligated to see that these demands arc met if they are reasonable and may be com plied with without adversely affecting other factors and interests. It is also logical that stops conveniently located, where they will serve the greatest number of riders, facilitate loading and un loading and usually permit of tltc elimina tion of other stops. This helps to reduce the number of stops, which speeds up traffic flow. While I have set forth arguments in favor of the near side stop, it must be re membered that the industry is not adverse to the far side stop when facts aud intelli gent reasoning indicate its desirability. We do believe, however, that the near side slop has many more advantages and sliould not be arbitrarily abandoned without careful study of each location and every factor and interest involved. ` The free and rapid movement of all traffic is perhaps more important to a transit company than it is to any other interested groups. If the location of the stop is a factor in the cause of delay, and it can be remedied without conflicting with the safety or interest of others, the transit company can be relied upon to take action. The proper location of stops is a vital part of any successful mass transportation system. It is evident, therefore, that the transit company's interests must be guarded and no attempt made to set arbitrary standards. The Balanced Fleet Safety Program Talks presented at the Commercial Vehicle Accident Prevention School on Wednesday and Thursday mornings By JAMES C1. HAYDEN Fleet Engineer, National Safety Council, Chicago Appreciating that it will be impossible to cover tire balanced fleet safety program tlioroughly in the limited time alloted us, 1 shall attempt to touch only upon the high spots. It takes a well rounded program to bring about permanent reductions in accident expe rience. Spotty methods or concentrated drives may bring temporary results, but there is a tendency to revert to former con ditions as soon as the employees lose their first enthusiasm. Enthusiasm so developed will not do tl)c job alone. It takes something more concrete, something the driver can get his teeth into. Management must want safety. I am con- 188 Twenty-Sixth Notional Safety Congress viuccd more and more every day of the importance of a close relationship between tlic safely department and management. The officials must take an active part in the work of the safety detriment. This activity should not be handicapped by a lack of funds. Tle expenditure need not necessarily be enormous, but managentent must appreciate at the outset that the safety department has lu be considered in the budget. It is not reasonable to expect anything approaching efficiency \vl>crc it is necessary to spend val uable time developing makeshift methods and begging from other departments. Certainly tltcrc is need fur stenographic a>sistaurc. I know of u number of capable wifely men who have failed to do a good ji4 Iwcatisc they were forced to devote a large part of their time to matters which cotihl (tare lcn handled more effectively by a Mciurgraiilicr or assistant. An efficient safety department is a money making pr*pf*>itkm and 1 can quote many instances where the expenditure on safety brings a higher percentage of profit than the regular Ihiwucns o! Uk firm. For example, lake the Cmiinental Baking Company. They get $4 lack fr every dollar spent on safety. Their lKisinos is bread amt cake, and I doubt flat the sale of these item results in a .am jut mil profit. Munacc-intiit usually docs not appreciate iIh- c*t <<f accidents. In the past, the rec ords kejrt liv the average fleet liave been nv-.t iiudnjwuo. There lw* Ixcn a tendency to leave this |dui>c of the business up to tlsc m'urancc carrier. 'Hie cost of insurance is only a snail part of the total. Surely we must consider such items as extra equipment and personnel, legal fees, time lost by drivers involved in accidents. tel<|hone calls, towing, time siicru investigating accidents, and the numerous mlxr direct charges. Then, too, there arc the intangibles such as loss qf customers' good will, inability to meet sclicdulc*. etc. It Is of the utmost importance to lave someone wholly responsible for safety. Ex cept in a general way I shall not attempt to arrive at a warrant in number of vehicles for establishing the need for a full-time safety nan. A full-time safety man can pay ior himself in the flq?t of fifty vehicles or over. A part-time safety man is warranted in tlx* twenty vehicle fleet. However, part-time safety men have not been too successful. I have in mind one Urge fleet where this plan was tried. The individual selected was primarily interested in other phases of the business. Because of his dual interests, safety was pushed into the background and the accident experience was exceptionally high. The drivers in this fleet were also salesmen, and in many instances the cost of accideuts far overbalanced the profit shown from sales on specific routes. In general, the problems confronting this fleet are no different from many others with which I am familiar. The difficulty can be traced to the ineffective safety department. The railroads and many of our bus com panies have long appreciated the importance of safety. I remind you that in most in stances their safety men carry the title of "Director of Safety and Personnel." You will notice that safety is given first imjx>rtancc. The records of our railroads and buses testify to the value of an effective safety program. Good safety men don't come cheap. Again I do not mean to indicate that you must pay enormous salaries. Rather, that standards he sufficiently high to interest fully qualified men. Ilis position in the organization must carry weight. He mutt have authority and com mand the respect of all employees. There is need for a close relationship between this man and the officials in high command. Management must be "sold" oil safety. At least a monthly report should be required of the safety department. The safety direc tor is obligated to see that this report is carefully scrutinized by management and that it is not pigeon-holed. There should be regular conferences between management and the safety director. Certain departmental relationships are valuable and necessary; such as a close con tact with the mechanical department. Even the best drivers cannot efficiently operate faulty equipment. The safety department should have the power to condemn unsafe vehicles, to demand a high standard of inaintciancc and even to assist in the preparation of purchase specifications. As specific types of accidents are traced to defects in vehi cle design or operations, recommendations should come from the safety department for their correction. While we are on the subject, we should discuss the proper care of equipment. Sto- Commercial Vehicle Section 189 tistics attribute only some IS per cent of our motor vehicle accidents to mcdtanical failures. On the otlier hand, I wonder just how many of the remaining accidents would liave occurred liad the vehicle been mechan ically perfect. We cannot ask our drivers to be more efficient or careful than we have been in providing properly designed and maintained equipment for them to work with. There is too much repair and not enough maintenance -- many fleets not appreciating the difference. Repair bills, constituting the costly part of conditioning equipment, can be materially reduced through tlic closer inspection and better care of the vehicle. Minor deficiencies accumulate and soon be come serious enough to require major repair. One medium sized fleet was able to reduce its repair stop personnel some 30 per cent by improving the inspection standards and increasing the personnel of the maintenance department only 10 per cent. I need not point out that the average cost o( maintenance is far below that of repair. The General Motors Preventive Mainte nance Plan i* excellent for reducing repair expense. Vehicles are routed through the stop in such a way as to spread the work throughout each month. Schedule sheets are prepared so that there is no question as to when such inspections are to occur. As the experience develops for each type of vehicle, these routings are speeded up or slowed down to' bring the best results. Simple re ports are kept on each vehicle to indicate both regular and special repair jobs. Driver abuse is just as apparent as mechanical fail ure. Years of research lave established Ute mileages at which certain parts should be inspected, adjusted or replaced. A scries of five work sheets has been designed to indi cate the mechanical operations which are to be performed at the various mileages throughout the vehicle life. Likewise, this plan provides % systematic method of accu mulating and interpreting operating and maintenance data. The tie-up with the personnel department is of more than passing importance. Stand ards of employment should be established and maintained. Each employee should be required to furnish references concerning previous employment. These records must be carefully checked. If the accident expe rience has previously been bad, surely we want to know of it. Each driver should be interviewed person ally. Such interviews arc invaluable in giv ing us an insight into the individual's atti tude toward the work lie is to do. Dissatis fied. timid, cocky, naturally troublesome or otherwise temperamentally unstable indi viduals usually do not nkc good drivers. Drivers who are repeatedly involved in acci dents must be given more than passing at tention. Experience teaches us that it is practical to rehabilitate drivers who have been in volved in accidents. It costs a considerable sum of money to train drivers properly. If successful corrective treatment can be ap plied to the "repeaters" there is not only a substantial saving but wc already have some picture of what can be expected of that employee. This is not true of the new em ployee. Many organizations ai ` tiding it advan tageous to fingerprint employees. Although we perhaps should not deny employment to persons with a court record, wc certainly should know of it and undoubtedly can make a better citizen and workman out of that person by being aware of the circumstances. The training of drivers is one of the most important and effective things we can do to reduce accidents. Many commercial fleets find it especially advantageous to recruit drivers from aniong helpers; some prefer to train their own pcrsoiuicl; others hire only the expert driver. Whatever the policy may be. every driver whether old or new should have some training in fundamentals. Every applicant should be required to demonstrate his ability to handle a car, pref erably of the type he will have to operate. It is advantageous to exercise considerable of care in developing a standard driving examination, each prospect being rated on a uniform demonstration sheet. The selection program should also include examinations to detect physical or mental deficiencies. These should be followed up periodically to bring out subsequent disabilities. Re-training is just as iin.v.rtant as pretraining. Probably the best way to handle the former is through a scries of well planned safety meetings. I stress the im portance of the term "planned." In the past there (as been a tendency to lean too heavily on inspirational films and speakers in selling safety to employees. If we have selected the proper kind of drivers, those who are inter- 190 Twenty-Sixth National Safely Congress cslcd in becoming more skilled in their accrpiud work--and I doiilrt if we want men who feel that driving is below their station in life--purely inspirational methods arc not going to bring satisfactory results. Tem porary enthusiasm will not bring permanent reductions in accident experience. Plan your meetings carefully and give t1 drivers improved techniques. There are in numerable (Kjssibilities for subject material, hut I tender the following as an example of the main items which should be considered: 1. Improved driving practices, safety in general, courtesy and a thorough discussion of firm policy. 2. The mechanics of the vehicle, its care and maintenance. 3. Traffic rules and regulations. We should interpret the intent of these regulations and the rights given the operator. Tic these in with company policy and likewise require the drivers to become familiar with the legal wording. Also, cover standard signs and sig nals and their part and purpose in the con trol of traffic. 4. Accidents. Cover thoroughly to include pasi accidents, common situations, unusual accidents, seasonal hazards, what to do in the case of an accident, etc. Determine the three or four main tyjws of accidents expe rienced in your fleet and let the drivers join in on a blackboard discussion of their cause :md prevention. (>. First aid. 7. An explanation of the physical prob lems entering into driving such as reaction time, stopping distance, skidding, passing distances, centrifugal force, force of impact. 8. Loading and unloading, how to lift large and small articles, proper storage of cargo, etc. 9. The necessity for. and proper use of, ]>ccial safety equipment, such as flares, flags, chains, sanders, fogHghi*. windshield wipers, *|K>tlights, tarpaulins, etc. 10. Psychological and physiological tests. 11. A. scored examination. 1 mention psychological tests because of tltcir educational value and not as a possible means of selecting drivers. To date we have had little success in Establishing a definite relationship between the scored ratings gath ered front such tests and the operating ability or accident pronencss of drivers. As defects or disabilities are indicated, it is important to discuss them with the individuals con cerned, pointing out where medical correc tion is necessary or where compensation will give improved results. These tests further tend to indicate to employees that manage ment is carefully scrutinizing physical con dition and driving ability. Don't make the mistake of holding too many safety meetings; certainly not more frequently than once each month. It is well to break the monotony by providing food occasionally. These affairs need not be pre tentious. Light fare like doughnuts and coffee, sandwiches, cider, apples, etc., are all that is necessary. The examination is important. Drivers will be more attentive and assimilate more of tlx information presented if they under stand there is to be a "quiz." We should give some thought to the per sons who are to act as instructors. In the past we have concentrated on the driver, neglecting to give proper emphasis to the capabilities of the individual who must act as the intermediary. Instructions should be prepared for use by the teacher and regular meetings arranged for instructors only. In instances where these individuals are plant or terminal superintendents, it may be neces sary to handle this through personal contact. Every fleet should Itave its own safety manual. This treatise should cover depart mental policy, traffic rules and regulations for those states covered by the fleet, what to do in case of an accident, first aid, the causes of vehicle fires, what to do in case of a fire, location of terminals, legal representatives, insurance carriers and adjusters, etc. These manuals make good material for discussion in drivers meetings. Not only should the employees be required to become thoroughly familiar with the content, but examinations should be given to determine proficiency. A complete record of accidents is prob ably the one most important item in the good fleet safety program. Instruct drivers carefully in the proper reporting and han dling of accidents. Afl accidents, regardless of severity, should be investigated. As each accident report is received in the department, it should be thoroughly reviewed and tabu lated on a tally sheet. This form gives a running account of the monthly experience and permits prompt filing of the accident report, or its routing to other departments. Commercial Vehicle Section 191 I would suggest one of two methods for filing the accident report. First, that the report itself is put in the individual driver's file with his complete record. A simple cross nrlcx card file can be used to give the overill experience by date. Or, second, that an individual record card be developed for each driver and the accident information be trans ferred to this from the report. The accident reports would then be kept by serial number in a special file. It is well to keep a special folder for each employee. Information should be included on his employment record, references, accident reports, mileage, complaints, violations and such corrective treatment as has been rec ommended and applied. It is important to make it pleasant for the employee to report unsafe or defective equip ment. Many organizations actually hinder the proper maintenance of their equipment by establishing an atmosphere that makes U*e employees hesitant to register complaints for fear of losing employment. I hope the time will come when there will he some central clearing house--undoubtedly in each locality--where records are kept on all drivers operating in those areas. I am sure that you all know of Instances where drivers have been discliarged for one reason or another by one fleet, only to be hired by another just around the corner. At the end of each month the information tabulated on the tally sheet is summarized. This summary is then used to develop a thorough analysis as to type, location, equip ment involved, time of occurrence, age and experience of drivers, weather conditions, condition of the driver and vehicle, etc. Pre pare breakdowns for each type of operation or terminal and an aver-ail experience. There is no greater safety department asset than statistics to indicate an improved expe rience. Plot tl>c trend as indicated by num ber of accidents, accident rates (number per 100,000 mites of operation), and costs. Hav ing made such reports, you are obligated to see that it comes to the attention not only of the high officials in the company but like wise of every individual who should be in terested. Knowing tlic type and circumstance of your accident experience, steps should be taken to suggest the proper corrective treat ment. The three or four main causes of accidents in your fleet should be established and a concentrated effort directed at their reduction. Accidents can he diagnosed both individually and collectively. In (lie indi vidual analysis, the past experience of the driver sltould be reviewed. We have been working on a method fur studying the individual similar to that used in traffic engineering at the intersection. I. you are not familiar with the collection dia gram, I might say that it is a simple method for superimposing accidents. In traffic engi neering we have found tliat accidents of a similar type occur at specific locations. Studies made so far seem to indicate that drivers likewise have similar accidents. Steps to correct such experience arc not necessarily involved or technical. For instance, take the case of the indi vidual who had experienced a number of side-swiping accidents. A dose scrutiny of this operator's driving habits brought out that he was so overly conscious of the haz ards of driving that he failed to take hi eyes off the road ahead to look to the side or rear. When this was pointed out, this individual operated for more than eighteen months without even a fender scratch. This 19 an example of .the simple treatment which actually brings results. Responsibility should be established in every accident. The kangaroo court or re view committee method of accomplishing ibis has been gaining in favor. These committees should be made up of representatives of the safety department, superintendent of foremen, perhaps insurance and auditing, and an equal number of drivers. The drivers should defi nitely be represented. Some feel tliat this plan will not work because of the tendency on the part of the drivers to favor their fcllowmen. Neverthe less, in actual practice we liave found that the drivers arc more critical than the other committee members. There is a lot of edu cational value in this method of approach. Employees beconrc more safety conscious in knowing that driving records are' under "scrutiny." The safety supervisor should provide forms so that branch terminals and other isolated groups can report periodically on their safety activity. Such reports should include information on afl safety meetings, the minutes of such meetings, those present and absent, outstanding recommendations, progress made since the last meeting, the 192 Twenty-Sixth National Safely Congress findings of kangaroo court or review cominiltce. penalties recommended or enforced, :mard> presented, and die accident statistics. Some fleets require sjiccial memoranda from safety men arid the manager or superin tendent respecting all -repeaters." This is on excellent way to be sure that special attention is given the drivers who Have been involved in more than one accident. If employees are to be disciplined for bad records, they should be rewarded for acci dent-free records. This can be handled through some form of award or bonus. The onlv complaint we ever hear about such awards is that it should not be necessary to pay employees to do something which is already a part of their job. This may be true, but tlie fact still remains that this method does bring results. There are various types and methods of awards. Probably the most common is the nu-accidcm award similar to that presented hy tlie National Safety Council, where the driver is given a certificate and medal to indicate every consecutive twelve months of accident-free driving. Generally, the type of award should de pend on the type of driver and operations. SiHiic fleets operate with colored drivers, whore gaudy prizes bring tlsc best results. A cash Ixmuis is always well received. It is important to give something the driver can use. In scheduled operations, such as in bus .r taxi fleets, it is often possible to make awards on Lite mileage or fare basis. In nianv instances the base rate of pay is re duced so tliat the poor driver gets slightly lower than the average and the exceptionally good driver slightly more. In any award plan there should be a.de ferred payment as well as some recognition for the shorter jicriods. One bus company pays a quarter of a cent per mile for every thirty days in which no accident is expe rienced; likewise, a quarter of a cent.per mile in addition for every six months of accident-free driving. We all like to try again, and the shorter award provides the stimulus in this direction. One taxi company awards 2 per cent on all money booked during 30 consecutive days of accident-free driving. For every consecu tive 90 days. $2.50''in addition; for every consecutive 180 days, an addition of $S; and for every 365 consecutive days, an additional week of vacation with pay. Many firms use the point system. One plant gives the driver a credit of one point for every accident-free mile driven. Acci dents arc debited on a sliding scale, the minimum being 1,500 points for an accident where the driver was not at fault and a maximum of 8.000 points for total respon sibility. A credit balance of 2,500 points gives the driver a $10 bonus, at which time he is debited 2,500 points if no accidents have been experienced. The debit balance of 8,000 points restricts the driver from oper ating a company vehicle. He is then laid off or put on some other type of work. Under this plan the driver could have a minor accident, not hts fault, every 2,500 miles indefinitely but would receive no bonus. He could have an accident where the re sponsibility was doubtful every 5,000 miles or an accident where he was not necessarily reckless every 8,000 miles. This plan is based on and adjusted to the company experience so that the good driver could have an aver age number of accidents and yet not be dis charged. 1 wonder at the desirability of setting any number of accidents as the ex pected goal. Probably the most important thing iu con nection with the presentation of awards is to place emphasis on the show and ceremony. Company executives sltould be present and take part in the presentation as an indication of sincerity. You can assist in the promotion of good public relations by having some representative present from the police depart ment We must not forget the assistance which the wives of our drivers can give us, and they should occasionally be invited to a dinner or dance. I even know of some fleets where management writes a letter to the wives of drivers who are involved in accidents, asking them for cooperation. A contest can always be considered an other worth-while activity'. An over-all competition should be arranged between the leading units such as divisions, garages, etc. Local contests can be established as separate units of the major competition. A large trophy should be provided for presentation to the winlter. This prize would rest in the possession of the winner during the period of the next contest, to become the property of the unit winning it three times. Again it is advantageous to provide a dinner or banquet in connection with the presentation of the contest awards. Commercial Vehicle Section 193 A house organ or monthly bulletin should be sponsored by the safety department. Con test winners can be announced and no-accident drivers listed as a regular feature. Some firms also indicate the names of driv ers who have had accidents. Likewise it is good to review several of the more serious accidents each month, pointing out both the liazardous practices which undoubtedly caused the accident and the desirable pro cedures which should have been observed. These bulletins can also include items each month on seasonal hazards. Most of you are undoubtedly familiar with the National Safety Council's pocket-size magazine, "Safe Driver," which goes out each month to drivers of affiliated member organizations. Every terminal should have at least one bulletin board. Safety posters should be changed regularly. Recently a number of fleets have been posting actual photographs of accidents on their bulletin board with great success. A number of fleets arc now using safety patrol cars. In most instances, the main objective of tliese units is to assist the driver, prevent cargo losses and do actual road checking rather than to make mechan ical repairs. Another fleet has been using the moving picture camera successfully. As complaints arc received on bad driving practices, or as some one in the organization sees evidence uf such practices, the camera man goes out and takes pictures unbeknown to the drivers involved. Later, the desirable and proper practices are staged and photographed. These films are then shown at the next meeting of drivers. In otlter words, an attempt is made to prevent accidents before tliey occur. I need not point out the value of dash cards and safety letters. I appreciate that it takes some time to handle this phase of safety, but I sincerely believe the result are worth the effort. Some firms are requiring drivers personally to change the dash cards each week in their vehicle. At this point 1 want to touch upon the reg ulations recently adopted by the Interstate Commerce Commission for (lie control of the inter-state carrier. To date these regulations do not concern tiic private operator. How ever, in the interest of standardization and in view of the fact that these regulations are not overly stringent, I know of no bet ter means of pushing uniformity than by their adoption hy every operator. We know that accidents can be reduced. If your experience is high, you can like wise show results. Commercial vehicles, registered in the National Fleet Safety Con test, have reduced accidents some 47 per cent since 1930. Reports were received from 74,013 vehicles traveling 1,263,547,000 miles over a twelve months period, with an aver age accident rate of 2.67 accidents per hun dred thousand miles. Presented iu a different manner, this figure indicates an experience of 37,500 miles per accident. As you know, all accidents are reported regardless of how small the damage or who was at fault except where the vehicle was properly parked. The National Safety Council will welcome requests for further information on the de velopment of a fleet safety program. ADJOURNMENT Committee on the Driver* THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 14. 1937 The meeting was called to order by the Honorable John Gutknccht, Judge, Munici pal Court, Chicago, and Chairman, Commit tee on the Driver, National Safety Council. What Are the Fit and Unfit Drivers? By A. R. LAUER Associate Professor of Psychology, Iowa State College A. Fitness for driving is dependent upon several factors--operating simultaneously or successively. Research reveals several types of unfit drivers. These types may be grouped into five categories: 1. The irresponsible driver. 2. The incapable driver. 3. The untrained driver. 4. The unthinking driver. 5. The over-confident driver. B. The classification is elastic and a driver may belong to one or more groups at the same time and in varying degrees. He may also change from one group to another over a period of time. There is evidence that one or two rather serious accidents removes the most intelligent drivers from class 1. It is obvious that class 3 may be temporary al though, by ordinary methods of learning to drive, 10 years are necessary to develop a safe motor vehicle operator. C. A certain few may be classified as in capable drivers. These persons should be allowed to drive only under restricted li censes or by special permits. D. The methods of improving driving 'Editor's Note: The four foliowing addresses were made at the Commiitee on the Driver Syml>osium. "What Are Fit and Unfit Driven?" The talks of Dr. Lauer, Mr. Marsh and Dr. Vitetes are presented here in outline form, while Dr. Lee'* speech is briefed. fitness are varied and need be rotated to keep the driver "on his mettle.'' A few sug gested arc: 1. Classify unfit drivers according to their abilities and types of accidents. 2. Train those who are inexperienced in time or service, 'framing must be spe cific and according to needs. 3. Saddle responsibility on the irresponsi ble and unthinking driver by strict enforcement and revocation practices. 4. Create attitudes toward safe driving and try to persuade the over-confident driver of his fallacy. A few danger ous altitudes will be discussed. E. Good roads, per sc, will not reduce accidents. Even super highways will intro duce more new hazards llian they will elimi nate from present types. This docs not mean that roads should or could not be improved. It means that as long as men who have not been thoroughly trained drive cars, accidents will persist. Whether the highway costs $12,000 or $6,000,000 a mile, tle unfit drivers will continue to get into jams until they are properly disciplined by one of the following methods: 1. Training and suitable experience. 2. Sufficient highway patrols. 3. Limited privileges of driving. 195 196 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress 4. Public sentiment in favor of safe drivg F. Suggested methods for handling each type of unlit driver will be discussed. Driver Requirements By DR. R. L. LEE General Motors Corp., Detroit* Mich. The Committee on the Driver has as signed me the subject "The Minimum Es sentials Required by Automotive Engineers in the Drivers for whom they Build Their Cars." This is indeed a difficult assignment, for the industry from the very beginning has devoted itself to the task of building its products around people as Uiey come. All sorts of people--from the shortest to the tallest--from the weakest to the strongest-- and from the youngest to the oldest. We have never felt that we could have our customers made to order, although there were times when we wished we could. So I believe I am safe in saying that as far as physical requirements arc concerned, the ef fort required today in the control of a modem motor car is well within the ca pacity of a child much too young to drive in traffic. Much has been done by the industry to bring this about. Over the years brake pedal pressures have been constantly re duced, also clutch pedal pressures* gear shifting has been simplified and improved to a point where the slightest effort is now required. Automatic and semi-automatic gear shifts lessen even this slight effort. Steering gears, through constantly improv ing mechanism, now may be operated by the frailest driver. Through independent springing, front wheels with improved steer ing geometry tend to keep cars going in the direction in which they are headed. In the past, the motor car needed constant attention to keep it in safe working order. Automatic chokes and accelerator operated starters make it possible for the amateur to start Jus engine under all sorts of condi tions, and avoid stalling in dangerous situa tions. Power plants have been improved to a point where they do not need the attention they formerly required. In other words, the industry has done its best to make allow ances in its products for the deficiencies, negligence, and carelessness of the drivers. So again it would be extremely difficult for us to establish the minimum requirements of drivers for safety, for we realize that the control of a motor car has been so grcally simplified that it can be mastered by even the rankest amateur in a very short time, in fact we are convinced that the ability to manipulate the controls of a car is only one small part of the requirements essential to safe driving. A knowledge of the rules of the road, a knowledge of'thc habits and behavior of the other fellow, the judgment of speeds and distances, a proper attitude toward the po tential hazards of the road, a respect for others' rights, health and self-control, pa tience and the ability to concentrate all arc vital to safety on the highway. Out of these only a few art related to automobile design. In spite of this we as motor car manu facturers, realize that for the sake of public safety and the future growth and welfare of our business, there must be certain mini mum requirements drivers must meet, be fore they are permitted to use our streets and highways and before the safety of the public can be entrusted to their care. While the establishment of these require ments is difficult to say the least we have many examples before us. Railroad engi neers* conductors, trainmen and flagmen must pass rigid examinations before they are entrusted with the safety of their pass engers. In fact, all those engaged in activi ties involving public safety must measure up to certain standards before they arc per mitted to operate. So from past experience, it is logical to as sume that now, since motor cars have become so numerous and public safety so much in volved in their use, the time has come when the operators of these vehicles must be ex amined for their fitness and licensed accord ingly. And the automobile industry is solidly behind efforts to bring this about. Committee on the Driver 197 However, in establishing these require ments, wc must have as a hasis, an accurate knowledge of the cause of the most of our accidents. With so many drivers involved in traffic, so many complicated situations with accident possibilities and hundreds of factors which can and may enter into these situations, the task of identifying the char acteristics in driver license applicants which are indicative of accident proneness is diffi cult in the extreme. If most of our accidents involved a small per cent of drivers, the problem would be infinitely simpler. For wc could locate and examine such drivers and identify the ab normalities responsible for their accident pruncncss. Unfortunately there is little data indicating that the bulk of our highway accidents involve a minority. While an examination of the accidents in a com munity for a given year, will disclose that a small percentage of the total number of drivers were responsible for all the accidents of that period, next year a new minority moves in and takes ihc place of the old This process continues until over a period of years, we find that most of our accidents involve a large percentage of drivers in that community. Whal this seems to indicate, i.s that most of our accidents involve drivers who have been driving fur years without accidents. Of a necessity these people mut know something about driving, traffic rules and have proved their ability to cope with the vast majority of situations. In one study made of iltc accident records of Massachusetts, it was found that 75% of the accidents involved drivers who had been driving on un average of four years per accident. Let us suppose So such a case that this average driver makes one daily round trip between his home and his office. In modern traffic it is reasonable to suppose that, as a result of his driving experience, skill and judgment, he successfully avoids fifty po tential accidents hi which he could have been involved had he not been vigilant--50 poten tial accidents ia one trip--100 potential ac cidents for the round trip--250 round trips for (lie year would account for 25,000 po tential accidents successfully avoided for that year. Multiply this number by the four years, and we have the astounding total of 100,000 potential accidents avoided. Place above the line the one accident he docs have, and we have a fraction which I believe exemplifies the highway accident situation we are striving to correct. When wc consider the variety if condi tions of ruud and aired, ut weather ami road surfaces, of varying degrees of driv ing skill, and the millions of possible traffic combinations, there is little wonder that we have difficulty in attempting to identify characteristics in the individual applying for a driver's license which are likely to place that applicant in the accident-prone classifi cation. Wc know definitely that in .spite of the distribution of accidents among seasoned and experienced drivers, there is a class of drivers responsible for more than their share of accidents. These drivers must be located, corrected or removed from traffic. How ever, once this is done, the over all accident situation is only slightly affected. In spite of the ability of human beings to compensate for their physical deformities and deficiencies, wc know that there are certain extreme eases where ihc dictates of common sense should prohibit them from tile use of the motor car in public. Wc know that certain diseases render people in capable of safe driving--sight and hearing enter into the picture--the ability to read traffic signs is a factor. Regardless of data or the lack of data regarding the physical or mental condition of people involved in highway accidents, past experience in other fields should enable the medics, psycholo gists and psychiatrists among us, to formu late a practical procedure for examining driver license applicants. This of course is entirely out of the realm of the automotive industry. The need for a knowledge of driving rules and regulations is obvious. We now conic to driving skill, which in the last analysis should he the most reliable indicator of a driver's fitness to take his place in traffic. A person's driving behavior in traffic, theoretically at least, should re flect either the lack of, or the possession of essential requirements for safe driving. Even though we know .that there are many clumsy and apparently unskilled drivers who in some manner or other manage to get by for years without accident, driving perform ance seems to be the best measure of trust worthiness we have at our disposal. Unfortunately, driving proficiency has been gauged intuitively by experienced ob servers. We have very little accurate data 198 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress regarding details of the driving behavior of accident-prone and accident-free driver*. ft) the aeronautical held flying tests have been definitely established and standardized for all hying license applicants. It seems to us that a study of the driving behavior of various classifications of people in traffic for common characteristics should be helpful in the establishment of a scale of minimum driving requirement*. It may be, before we arc through, ami after the obviously men tally and physically deficient have been eliminated from our consideration, we will find that efforts to establish means of de termining driving ability will be more pro ductive of results than efforts to determine accident proneness--iq fact, due to the tre mendous number of factors involved, we may be forced to accept driving tests as our principal gauge of driving fitness. At least (hat is (he way we think in the Automotive Industry. The Highway and the Driver By BURTON W. MARSH Director, Safety & Traffic Engineering Dept., American Automobile Association ], When consideration is given as to where responsibility for accidents falls as between the highway and the driver, there is a frequent tendency to place most of the blame on the driver. This is done on the basis that even if some highway conditions arc not good, if the driver is well fitted lie can negotiate almost any highway condition satisfactorily. The tendency to place blame on the driver is also doubtless based in part on the fact that bad highway conditions exist and many wilt continue to exist and iicncc it's the driver's job to negotiate them safely. The situation reminds me of the attitude of industry some decades ago concerning machine hazards. Operators should know tire hazards and adjust for them at all limes. It was hard for a time to obtain a realization that much could be done to re duce the inherent hazards of machines and that human nature being fallible, it was NOT sound logic to reason that no matter what machine hazards existed, the operator should ALWAYS he able to adjust to them and safeguard himself from them. 2. Despite considerable progress through highway ami traffic engineering and enforce ment control, MANY existing highway con ditions constitute hazards which place a very high quality of fitness on the part of drivers, and 3. Numerous existing highway conditions require a higher quality of fitness than many drivers possess AT ALL TIMES. This fact is clearly indicated by accident records which indicate highway conditions which considerable numbers of drivers do NOT satisfactorily adjust for. Examples : (a) "Death" curves. (b) Many high accident locations (in fact much of traffic engineering corrective procedure is directed against wrireasotiably bad highway conditions or conditions directly related to the street, intersection or highway). (c) Inadequate sight distance for the ap parently reasonable prevailing speed when approaching the comer, curve, hilicrest or dip. (d) Unexpected and inadequate "advanceposted" narrow roads and bridges. (e) Bad shoulders--especially where they are not uniformly bad and hence where the driver believes Un? shoulder is reasonably good. (i) Culvert heads too close to the edge of the hard pavement -- especially where these are not well marked SO that the driver is adequately fore warned both day and night. (g) Inadequate road widths for traffic conditions--especially where there are considerable numbers of w'ide buses and trucks coming In the opposite di rection and where shoulders are bad. (h) Lack of provisions for pedestrians and cyclists where these are found in considerable numbers. (i) Signs whidi are non-standard, too Committal on the Driver 199 small, poorly placed, non-effective at night. (Maryland directional signs parallel to the road.) (j) Signals which are non-standard, poorly located, wrongly operated. (k) Varying curvatures (without ease ments) and varying grade conditions without day and night-efiective indi cation of safe operating jipecd. (l) Lack of center lines where needed and inadequate lane indications. (m) Slippery pavements, especially when not marked and wlicn existing only in non-uniform stretches. (n) Highway conditions of various sorts which constitute especial hazards at night. (o) High crowns, especially on curves and when combined with slippery pavements. 4. We do not know the extent to whidi highway features are important factors in accidents because of the tendency to blame the driver in such accidents and because we do not have satisfactory criteria or "measur ing sticks" with which to judge the extent of blame which should be assigned to highway conditions. A splendid new feature of state highway planning surveys will gradually provide such measures. 1 refer to the new plans for acci dent studies. In the meantime we largely, though not wholly by any means, wait until highway locations prove to be unusually high acci dent locations and then study what to do about them. One very crude criterion which should be more applied, I believe, is: WILL A SOMEWHAT POORER THAN AVERAGE DRIVER BE LIKELY TO HAVE TROUBLE HERE? 5. We sorely need to develop such cri teria as a basis fur remedying existing highttxiy hazards. We need to make such information avail able to all persons dealing with highway matters. 0. Higltway remedies to bring the whole highway to a condition so that the some what poorer than average driver can rea sonably be expected to avoid troubles will fall into several classifications; (a) Adequate signs, signals, markings and islands. (b) Adequate physical corrections such as increasing sight distance, removing culvert heads, constructing wider bridges. (c) Relocation of sections of highway. (d) Design and construction of modem highway facilities to replace whole sections of highways. 7. Future highways must be--and are be ing--designed to counteract for experienceproved defects or conditions which numerous drivers do not always meet successfully. They must and will reduce the burden upon the driver to appraise conditions and to drive safely. Example* of such modern highway features include: (a) Divided highways. (b) Wise use of islands. (c) Well designed traffic circles. (d) Grade separations, especially cloverleafs. (e) Acceleration and deceleration lanes for entering or leaving vehicles. (f) Longer sight distances and more uni form sight distances--especially nonpassing sight distances. (g) Uniform curves properly "eased." 8. The degree of driver fitness required today by many existing highway conditions is PAK above or beyond that now checked or required by even the best slate driver licensing tests. Examples: (a) Physical condition as for example. Vision. Many signs too small and hard to understand at present cus tomary driving speeds--pedestrians on highway at night call for excep tional vision, low glarc-ciTcct and quick glare recovery--dips arc often extremely hard to identify unless vision is VERY good ami alert at tention is given. (b) Knowledge Many slippery curves demand much better knowledge of centrifugal force and friction than many drivers have --much belter understanding is neces sary of when it is safe to overtake and pass. (c) Judgment Many existing highway conditions call for a high quality of judgment. 200 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress (d) Skill Many a narrow road calls for skill jn a high degree of skill in steering, as for example, when llicre is a bus or truck coming and a culvert lead nearby, bad shoulders, a narrow bridge. (c) Alertness, Vigilance, Ability to mainlain constant attention--Many high way features mentioned above call for high fitness in these qualities. (fj Attitude The appreciation of responsibilities imposed because of had highway con ditions must Ik* of a high order. 9. While many existing highway condi tions arc unreasonable for the driver of even average fitness and while there is a major challenge to correct them as rapidly as possible, we must in the meantime--real izing that some such conditions will exist in places for years--devote much greater ef forts to ; (a) Educating and training and retaining drivers in a much better way than we have done to date. Such cffoi ts must produce sound habits as well as much better judgment, skills, attitudes. (b) Driver licensing and re-licensing tests must be VASTLY improved to make sure that driver fitness is of a satis* factory quality to negotiate even unreasonable highway hazards without accident and without causing some one else to be involved in a crash. Fit and Unfit Drivers By MORRIS S. VITELES Director of Personnel Research and Training, Philadelphia Electric Co. A. A large proportion of accidents result from "bad habits'* of operation, habits which arc comparable in kind to those which spoil a man's game of golf nr tenuis or quoits, etc. Specific instances will be cited to illus trate accidents that can he avoided by de veloping operating1 habits which receive practically tu. a. :on from the salesmen <r friends who in most eases train new drivers. 1>. Much stress is laid on such tiahiis in safety education and propaganda, hut mere "telling" does not lead to "doing." Educa tion and propaganda are not proper mI>uiutta' for habit training, which can only l>c carried on under actual operating conditions. C. The development of sate driving liabits in the ca*e of inexperienced drivers rail* for the extension of high rh<x>l train ing program- of the 1>|*v that liavv recently been developed by investigators in this field. D. Training of inexperienced drivers must be supplemented by the rc-cducation of experienced drivers who have formed "bad" driving habits. The value of such re-oducatiou of experienced drivers is shown in the preliminary results of a recent experi ment, initiated by the Philadelphia Electric Company, which calls for the correction of bad driving habits of experienced drivers before they* arc permitted to operate caT>. F.. Re-education in driving must be ba?cd upon ait exact and complete analysis of the driving habits of die so-called "experienced" driver. Such an analyses can only be made by means of a road lest in which the driver operates under actual driving conditions. F. Practical principles for the conduct of the road examination and of subsequent training will be discussed. ADJOURNMENT Trausit Section Officers 1936-37 General Chairman--A. E Parker, Winnipeg Electric Co., Winnipeg, Canada. Vice-Chairman - -R. A. McArthur, Public Service Coordinated Transport, Newark, N. ). Vice-Chairman--E. E. Grovkk, The Columbus & Southern Ohio Electric Ct>., Columlm*, Ohio. Secretary--C. J. Long, Union Traction Co., Albany, N. Y. Neios Letter Editor and Publicity Committee Chairman--Eknkst G. Cox, Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad Co., Higlnvood, ill. Engineering Committee Chairman--A. P. Schknuohk, National Pneumatic Co., Rahway, N. J. Health Committee Chairman--John M. Orts, Public Service Corp., of N. J., Newark, N. J. Membership Committee Chairman--R\v A. Fi.vm, Tennessee Valley Authority, Wilson Dam, Ala. Poster and Slide Committee Chairman--H. V. Schmf.ihkr, Capital Transit Co., Washing ton, D. C. Program. Committee Chairman--II. R. IIokton, Si. Louis Public Service Co., St. Louis. Mo. Statistics Committee Chairman-- H. S. Simpson, American Transit Assn., New York, N. Y. Members at Large-- Mklvjn W. Bridges, Chicago Rapid Transit Co., Chicago, 111. W. A. Brown, Tennessee Electric Power Co., Xahvillc, Temi. Marcus Dow, Greyhound Management Co., Cleveland, Ohio. H. C. Foss, Savannah Electric & Power Co., Savannah. Cn. G. T. Hku-muth, Chicago North Shore it Milwaukee Railroad Co., Chicago, 111. C. O. Keller, Safeway Lines, Inc, Chicago, 1)1. E. J. Kkeh, Philadelphia Co., Philadelphia, Pa. B. G. Noah, Twin City Rapid Transit Co., Minneapolis, Minn.' Samuel II. Reid, The L. E. Myers Co., Chicago, 111. Haroi-D F. W'fuu, Writ iLnrt System, Pittsburgh. Pa. Georcl R, Wjutmokf, Illinois Power and Light Corp . Peoria, 111. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman--R. A. McArthur, Public Service Coordinated Transport, Newark, N. J. Vice-Chairman--C. J. Loxc, United Traction Co., Albany, N. Y. Vice-Chairman--E. E. Grover, The Columbus & Southern Ohio Electric Co., Columbus, Ohio. Vice-Chairman--rP. D. Shincleton, Atlantic Greyhound Lines, Charleston, W. Va. Secretary--H. R. Horton, St. Louis Public Ser' ce Co., St, Louis, Mo. 201 202 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Sews Letter Editor and Eubiicily Committee Chairman--Ernest G. Cox, Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad Co., Highxvood, HI. Euqinecriiui Committee Chairman--H. \V. Whitcomb, Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co., Philadelphia. Pa. Health Committee Chairman--Un. L. RuTTKNHF.i<r., Chicago Rapid Transit Co., Chicago, 111. Membership Committee Chairman--John M. Oktp, Public Service Corp. of N. J., Newark, N.J. I'rogram Committee Chairman--A. P, Schendorr, National Pneumatic Co.. Rahxvav, N. J. Statistics Committee Chairman--Hawley S, Simrson, American Transit Assn., New York, N. Y. Visual Education Committee Chairman--H. V. ScusKiuca, Capital Transit Co., Washing ton, D. C. Memberi Isiryc-- Mki.vix W. Bridces, Chicago Rapid Transit Co., Chicago, III. W. A. Brown, Tennessee Electric Power Co., Nashville, Tenn. Marcus A. Dow. Greyhound Management Co., Cleveland, Ohio. H. C. Foss, Savannah Electric & Power Co., Savannah, Ga. G. T. Hrj.r.xiuTH, Chicago. North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad Co., Chicago, III. E. I. Kkkh, Philadelphia Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. A. E. Parker, \Vimii|>eg Electric Co., Winnipeg, Canada. Samuel H. Rem, The L. E. Myers Co., Chicago, III. Harold F. Wruii, West Penn System, Pittsburgh Pa. Cikhkck K. Whitmore, lllinois-lowa Power Co., Peoria, III. MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 11, 1937 The first session of the Transit Section wa* called to order by R. A. McArthur, Public Service Coordinated Transport, New ark, N. Vice-Chairman of the section, in the absence of Chairman Parker. Mr. McArthur introduced the speakers. The Coming Traffic Revolution By ROSS SCHRAM Twin Coach Co., Kent, Ohio We now face the condition of having 125 city owned motor vehicles per mile of paved street, if all arc in service at once. Can efforts for safety through education and persuasion cope with tins Gargantuan task? Knowing the actual extreme of the situa tions now existing on the streets, the com mon man's public carrier industry should call attention not only to the crookedness of the course of present day vehicle traffic, but also lo the crookedness of the thinking which encourages the aggravation of our zig-zagging city traffic. The National Safety Council, local safety councils, city- adminis- Transit Section 203 irations, editors and Parent-Teacher Asso ciations admonish ahoot highway safety, in printed matter, which, piled end to end. would rival the Empire State Building in height; they blast away with detonations louder than those in the General Electric lightning factory' at Pittsfield. It is all with questionable permanent result. Why talk about designing safer motor coaches with street traffic snarled as it is to<la.y ? Under the Regulations of the New York Transit Commission and various other American utility hoards and commissions, granting adequate maintenance, 1 claim that motor buses and trolley buses arc upwards of 95% safe and fool-proof at the present moment. Inside the coaches, improvements will come, but only as standardization and a matured industry develops. If the regu latory bodies which are so empoweitl would only see the wisdom of focusing the major part of their attention on the segregation or regimentation of street traffic, they could, with one sweep, do more than years of tech nical supervision on the design and function ing of public carrier motor vehicles. In the same way, if the Amcericnn Transit Asso ciation, which has spent five years of major effort in developing the so-called modern street car l>ad exerted more of its coopera tion in the same segregation of traffic on the highway, we would all sec a greater reduc tion of collisions in the street, to say nothing of the freeing of traffic and the reduction of congestion. What 1 tell here is substantiated by files and data forwarded to me by SO men in the city transit business, whom I asked for data as to street vehicle collisions and their classi fication. The facts which they sent me are confirmation of the recommendation I make herewith. They had not the slightest idea of the position I might take, when they gave me this data, and can, in no way, he charged with aiding and abetting propaganda for the utilities. The value of their records lies in the fact that they come from 50 representa tive cities in all parts of the country, and they are from meu who have struggled with the problems of safety in the streets for public passengers for from 15 to 30 years. I firmly believe that the first step in the solution or amelioration of the present situa tion in the streets is a traffic revolution, by patrons of common carriers. Of course, they can go on struggling, but 1 foresee them with a developing national spirit. Their rights, dramatically and properly presented, by some smart politician, will bring on this revolution over night, in some forthcoming hot municipal campaign. Passengers carried during 1930 by the public carrier surface industry, were a little over ten billion. Rapid transit and electrified suburban railroads carried about two nnd one-half billions. It is, of course, difficult for the layman to estimate with any ac curacy, the number of passengers carried by private automobiles when traffic is greatest, that is, when folks arc hurrying either to work or home to dinner. Most folks do not know how greatly di<tproiortionate s the percentage of persona travel ing in the street in private cars anti in public carrier vehicles. Only one in six people in cities over 100,000 own an auto. An authentic check which was arranged between 8 and 10 A.M. ami 4 and 6 P.M. on September 9th, near the intersection of Woodard Avenue and Vcrner Highway, in Detroit, showed a total of morning in-bound and evening out-bound traffic as follows: Private autos Buses Street cars 3,950 229 ldl Of course, the auto* did not average two person* per car, but wc will give them the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, we grant they carried 7,900 people. The small sized buses in use there, averaged, conservatively, 35 persons per ve hicle, or 8.015, and the street cars 100 per sons, or 13,100, making a comparison of 21,115 people riding in public vehicles against 7,900 people riding in autos. I give you this check because it is authentic and is an example on just one avenue, of what checks would show if made here and there throughout the American cities, as to the bad deal the public carrier rider is get ting in the streets. For instance, in the normal rush hour, public transit operation in an average busy city is carrying on with a one-haft to two minute schedule, with vehicles transporting 75 to 150 persons each, in or out of tiie area, on a single route. On even a two minute headway, this means, in round figures, at least 3,000 human beings per hour on a single line, with 100 persons to a vehicle. Multiply it by the many different down town routes. The minority in private cars usurp the 204 Tzi'cHly-Sixth National Safety Congress major part of your right of way. In cities with a population of 10,000 or more, the 1936 tabulation indicated 962 separate and distinct communities; 430 of these arc now served wholly ly buses. Only 62 arc now served exclusively by street cars. Last year, a total of 5,710 buses were bought for service on city streets, compared to only 399 surface street cars. This is nearly onethird of all the buses built in 1936. It docs not include 2,610 inter-city buses which went into service in 1936, and naturally traversed city streets to autl from terminals. At the end of 1936, there were 37,868 trolley cars in service : 22,104 city buses and 1,200 trolley buses. The total street cars decreased by 3,000. These arc official figures, compiled by Transit Journal. Whereas Mr. Common Carrier Rider ami his family, in years past, hurried to work anti home to dinner on a double (rack street car line covering eighteen feet in width In the center of the city street, more and more of their number are now traveling by motor Inis, or trolley bus. In fact, the motor bus passengers increased in 1936 over 1935 l>> 27%. Whereas trolley cars riders increased only lyS%, trolley bus riders leaped 40%. The motoring public has cheered the pass ing of the street cars in the center of the street, and the resultant freeing up of auto motive travel. Muncijialitics have saved un told money in |hc reduction of street widening (Icmntnls Hut. here is (he rub. Here is what starts the great American zig-xag traffic game. Mr. Common Carrier Rider lias breathed a sigh of relief for Ins wife and children inasmuch as in most eases, they can now get their transportation at the curb, but these thousands of motor buses, the more modern, of which, including electric trolley buses, have accelerations ranging from three to lour miles j>cr hour per second, poke their imscs into the curb loading slops, ami * quickly thereafter, shoot bock into the free moving traffic near the center of the street. For a block behind, there is a jam and a breaking of high strung nerves of even' antomobilc-driver, as (he public carrier coach straightens out. The private car driver likely thinks only of personal affairs; he is driving by instinct, nut w'ith his wits fully alert as in (he ease of the bus man. People who drive by subconscious instinct should he placed in segregated lanes, ft will be a protection for themselves and all others in the streets. The records are piling up rapidly, due to the increased speed of coaches and the miserable regulation of parking, to show that accidents in the mid dle of the block between coach and automo bile, cither passing or backing out from a parking space, will soon rival those at inter sections, the expected spot of greatest traffic terror. Lane segregation of traffic seems inevitable and as necessary as steel rail regulation of traffic in a railroad terminal. Whereas the all-electric railway line in most cities had an average speed of nine or 10 miles an hour, the motor coach lines are now offering a speed of 12 to 14 miles an hour. The private car owner finds it increas ingly harder to run circles around the new buses. Lane traffic segregation is inevitable at some speed. We have now reached that speed. The rnmnioti currier speed had to be lifted from the old nine or tO miles an hour to 12, as matter of self-survival. We must realize the situations where car tracks are still in the center of the street, with parking along the curb, and Uuw, to day, we arc trying to run high sliced, rub ber-tired common carrier lines between the trolley car space and the parking space, zig zagging in and out of this 35 or 40 mile an hour mighty river of private cars. There is no place officially left in the street arrangement for the great majority, the common carrier rider. If, as the records show, only one person in six in cities over 100,000 population owns an automobile, why not a common carrier rider revolution ? What would be the platform ? 1. The elimination of parking ott all pub lic carrier streets during the two to two and one-hall hour morning ami evening ru*h periods, and the assignment of the in-bound or out-liound lane adjacent to the curb solely to public carrier vehicles. 2. Compulsory far side slops for public carrier vehicles. The lienefits to accrue arc: A. This would, in many eases, permit in creased speed closely rivaling New York underground rapid transit, which only aver ages 15 to 16 miles an hour. In many cities, rapid transit, so-called, can never be af forded except in this manner. Transit Section 205 B. This must completely eliminate for the period turned, the hazard of parked cars turning or backing into on-coming rush hour traffic. C. This must reduce by an even greater percentage, the striking of rear ends of coaches by on-coming, poorly braked auto mobiles. D. This must reduce drastically, the haz ard of collision at the intersection by fight or left hand turning automobiles with motor coaches. Traffic KNOWS where the bus will be. . In many instances, they might, with advantage, create ccnter-of-tlie-block load ing stations, eliminating loading stations at the following intersection, which has been known to extremely hazardous, for rea sons peculiar to itself. F. This exclusive inside operating line for public carrier would increase the safety record of every coach driver on a line of this kind, by cutting almost in two, the area of vigilance necessary. G. This whole procedure must reduce, unless mathematics lie, the side-swipe haz ard by 50%, to say nothing of the shorten ing of the ride to and from work of the greatest number. Here is the best political program one can imagine in municipal policies. There can be no legitimate objection because, to start out, it might be arranged that the merchants who lose parking facilities in the morning, would get them back at night, while his friend across the street lost them. Of course, that would be a political compromise, but traffic reforms come piecemeal. There is no sub stantial reason for not prohibiting parking on both sides of the street, thereby bene fiting many of the lines, where, at the rush hour, there is considerable traffic in opposite directions. Of course, it would be suicide for a public carrier Utility, as it were, to advocate a plan of this kind, as sensible as it may be proven. Nevertheless, it is my prediction that some group with political acumen is going to make a major political issue, if you want to call it that, out of the rights of Mr. Common Carrier Rider. It would be a likely program for a labor leader in behalf of the workers. They are going to organize precinct by pre cinct, and supply a logical and verbal argu ment for the millions of common carrier riders, for the sake of obtaining lor them not only safety, but rapid transit to and from their homes. They are going as petitions to city councils, once rightly organized. What we really need is more politics and not less in traffic regulations! On safety councils we need more men who have to ride public carriers and who knosv what it means to raise car or bus fare for a big family each week. Here and there, trouble will pop, and m many cases, the down-town property owners association will yell curb rights, but no one who has seen many records and surveys of how people gei to and from down town stores, doubts that the down-town merchants in this year of 1937 who would oppose this kind of parking would be fool ishly opposing their own best interests. The other extreme of this liberal viewpoint on traffic segregation is the attempt to install parking meters. Furthermore, it is pertinent that all should give thought to the creeping tendency to use small and evert higher speed buses on the main arteries such as is being done in De troit and Buffalo, to cope with private car operation. That part of the public which uses them approve heartily, quite naturally. They race away at the traffic lights with the private car traffic, and in the use of .smaller coaches, enjoy a more frequent headway. Those who use them arc those who can afford to pay 10 cent fare, but the business man and public carrier riders should con sider what this effort of a few common carrier operators may ultimately bring about in their respect. As an illustration of this result, if car ried to the Nth degree, remember that in cities the size of Detroit and Cleveland, it requires 2,000 or more of tlic larger type vehicles to serve the public. If full resort is made to these small type coaches, you can multiply the number of vehicles by four at least. Therefore, instead of having 2,000 public carrier vehicles on your streets, you will have 8,000. and in supplying the in creased number, the public carrier fare structure must be raised to meet the great increase in driver labor, with injup' to the down-town business, because the higher the fare, the fewer trips the outlying rider's wife ami family can afford to make down town. Already, in Detroit, there arc signs that this kind of service is eating into the pa tronage of the lower fare car lines sufficiently 206 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress so that the day is in sight when the street car rider will be forced to pay something more to even up the additional cost of trying to handle the city's whole public carrier transportation in almost deluxe taxicab ve hicles. There was a day when the public carriers sought fare increases, but today, it is the exceptional public carrier which is not striv ing to find ways of holding down the fare, or to possibly reduce it in order to attract greater volume. We know that citizens traveling on cars and buses are in the great majority, and their riding habit is a direct criterion of the prosperity of the community. If you hem them in with fare obstacles or reduced pub lic carrier speeds, you are cutting down the liquidity of your transportation, and lessening the equal chance of all merchants in every district to enjoy some of it. A minimum of 40 to 50 per cent of the in come on the public carrier goes to pay the men who drive you, and as attractive as a small vehicle operation may be, in getting through traffic, it is only A, B, C, mathematics to know that if you increase by three or four times the numl>er of vehicles, this percentage of outlay grows and traffic authorities know (hat nothing less than a minimum IQ cent fare will support it, even with the most justifiable capital structure. Matty drivers must work short hours because of unequal number used in base and peak schedules. The operating companies, therefore, often guarantee a minimum wage, which makes rales for hours worked, extremely high. Everything seems to indicate that the only intelligent course fo pursue by American cities in the rush hours, is to segregate the. common carrier traffic in a lane of its own and there is no other logical place titan that next to the curb. This will help everybody, including the private car driver. The com- mon carrier public will then travel at rush hours in greatest safety at the lowest possi ble fare, and the highest speed. Herewith are pertinent excerpts from the data furnished the writer, from cities vary ing in size and situated in many states. They are proof of the menace of rush hour park ing throughout the entire nation. They cry out for lane segregationof bus traffic at least in our larger cities. 1. The American Transit Association, be fore the Interstate Commerce Commission (I.C.C. Docket No. MC 2. Witness H. S. Simpson, Exhibit No. 29) showed that motor coach collisions reach a peak in the three hour period between 3 and 6 p.m. 2. One of the largest surface railways in the country segregated the total bus collision accidents, showing 30.7 per cent of the col lisions were caused by vehicles passing, go ing in the same general direction as the bus; 19.4 per cent of the collisions were when the bus was struck in the rear by a vehicle fol lowing; 12.3 per cent were collisions wlen the bus was making right angle turns. These four types account lor approximately 63$4 per cent of the total bus collisions. This operation shows the majority of its collisions to buses between four and 6:30 pjn. The bus mileage per collision type of accident is almost twice as great as the corresponding mileage for street cars, one man or two men combined. 3. Boston's figures show 26.21 per cent of the collisions over a four year period were those with the vehicle and street car travel ling in the same direction and 12.85 per cent at right angle turns. In Boston, because of the character of its streets, there is very little difference in the collisions per vehicle between street ear and motor coach equip ment 1. The Buffalo operation shows that where automobiles struck a street car or bus, in 24 per cent of the cases, the car or bus was standing, 43 per cent where the vehicle was making an angle turn, and 25 per cent where the automobile was passing the moving car or bus. They believe one of the greatest factors causing bus collisions is vehicles pulling from the curb, frequently without giving a signal. 5. Davenport, Rock Island, Moline. The greatest number of collisions occur between 4 and 6 p.m. the majority of which are side collisions on approaching intersections, or collisions with the rear end of the public carrier vehicles. The second largest group result from collisions with coaches endeav oring to get in and out of loading zones. 6. Providettee. Next to collisions between street cars and private cars, the greatest percentage of collisions is due to vehicles pulling from the curb without a warning signal. Collisions of buses and trackless trolleys as compared to street cars is at least 50 per cent less. 7. St. Louis shows its greatest number of Transit Section 207 vehicle collisions between 7 and 10 a.m. and between 4 and 7 p.m, 60 per cent of (he bus collision accident* al intersections and 39 per cent between intersections. The same property shows that 33.9 per cent arc where a vehicle collides with a car or bus as in a side swipe, and 7.7 per cent of their accidents were when a vehicle crashes into the rear end of one of their pieces of equipment. 8.7 per cent are caused by vehicles pulling from the curb and 10.2 per cent when the vehicle is making a right'angle turn. Ve hicles cutting in as in the center of the block, cause 10.9 per cent of their accidents. I .css than 4 per cent of their accidents are with pedestrians. The collision accidents for 10,000 miles arc almost 50 per cent less in the case of buses over street cars. 8. Atlanta. The majority of collisions oc cur between 5 and 6 pan. The majority of the collisions are side swipes They also indicate the percentage of collisions is ma terially higher on street cars than on buses. 9. Pittsburgh. The greatest number be tween 8 and 9 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. A rough division of the collision accidents shows: 1. Side swipes between bus and passenger vehicle in the same direction. 2. Right angle collisions at intersections. 10. Detroit. 72 per cent of collisions arc with other automotive vehicles, 1.9 per cent with pedestrians, while 197 per cent arc where other vehicles strike the rear of standing buses. Street car collisions are 55 per cent greater than bus. 40 per cent of the collisions occur between 3 and 7 p.m. and the other high period between 7 and 8 a.m. These two periods produce more than one half their accidents. 11. Washington. A great majority of their accidents occur in late afternoon hours up to 5 p.m., their rush hour coming earlier due to the civil service population. Almost half of the 1,694 bus collisions in 1936 were caused either by autos travelling in the same direction or with autos pulling out from the curb, or with autos hitting the rear of their buses. The)* had 214 bus col lisions while the vehicles were making turns at the intersection. An interesting comment from Washington is: "The greatest single factor causing bus accidents in our streets today is the lack of appreciation by the general motorist of the quick acceleration and deceleration of the motor bus." 12. Philadelphia. Greatest number of col lisions between 5 and 6 pin. The greatest majority of accidents happen near the inter section. In 1936, 50 per cent of their collisions were where the vehicle hit the bus to the rear of the driver's scat. They had 62 per cent less collisions per 100,000 miles in 1936 bus operation than in their street rail way operation. Pertinent comment: "Care lessness or lack of anticipation on the part of the drivers of other vehicles following or paralleling our buses is responsible for the 56 per record of vehicles side swiped or rear end collisions." 13. Pacific Electric, Los Angeles. The most collisions occur between 3.30 and 5 ;3Q p.m. and mostly at intersections. The num ber of collisions involving street cars and motor buses are in ratio of 10 to 1. Careless driving and lack of anticipation on the part of the privately owned vehicle is the great est single factor. 14. Memphis. Greatest number of colli sions 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Their comment is to the effect that collisions are greatest as a result of pulling from the curb and rear end contact by following cars. Coach collisions are one half the street car collisions. Comment: "Failure of pri vate car drivers to make proper signal or to show proper caution in pulling from the curb or in making left hand turns at inter sections cause most of the accidents.*' 15. Spokane. Most of their collisions oc cur in the evening rush hour and they cite as the greatest factor, automobiles leaving the curb; rear end collisions due to quick stopping of the motor buses, accelerated by the alertness of -the coach driver when lie receives a signal from inside the bus as a passenger wishes to alight. Comment: "We have found it absolutely necessary to train our drivers to drive in the right hand lane of traffic. We have learned when travelling near the center of the street, autos attempt to pass on the right side, creating a hazard ous condition for the coach driver and alighting passengers." 16. St. Joseph. Mo. "We think the great est single factor for the cause of collisions in the street is the carelessness of the pri vate car driver." Of their collision acci dents, 39 per cent were side swipes and 29 per cent rear end, and 15 per cent curb park ing. Bus and street car collisions are about even. J7. Charlotte, N. C. The majority of col- 208 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress lisions occur in pulling into Or pulling away from designated stops and by being run into when the coach is Stopping or standing at designated slops, particularly where coach is unable to get close to the curb on account of parking. The greatest single factor in the cause of collisions is the quick deceleration of the bus. 18. Canton. The majority of collisions occur between 3:30 and 6:30 pjn. 50 per cent of their collisions arc where a follow ing vehicle hits the rear or side of the coach. 19. Knoxville. Street car collisions are more than twice the number of motor bus collisions. The greatest number of motor bus collisions arc between 6 and 8 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m. 66 per cent of the accidents occurred at intersections and 34 per cent be tween blocks. 25 per cent of the collisions are where the private car cuts in. In fact, the figures seem to indicate that 75 per cent of all collisions are with vehicular traflic moving in the same direction. 20. Roanoke 50 per cent more collisions arc reported with street cars than buses. The greatest number in the afternoon rush hour. A great majority of their down town col lisions occur in the middle of the block, as a result of cutting in traffic. 21. lu a total of 39,010 motor accidents in Massachusetts in 1936, 33,476 occurred on the straight-away when one of the two vehicles involved had cut out of traffic or was operating on the wrong side of the road. 22. Jackson, Miss. The greatest number of collisions occur in the afternoon rush hour from 4 to 7 p.m. Out of 56 accidents in tlie past nine months, 39 of them were where the automobile hit the bus. Jackson has prac tically eliminated street car operation, and finds a safety factor with the increased use of coaches, and in (his nine month period, 23 buses had 56 collisions, whereas 14 street ears had 66 collisions. Comment: "The greatest single factor causing collision ac cidents is the lack of control of traffic in ' the street." 23. Akron. Greatest number of collisions occur between 4 and 6 p.m. The greatest percentage of their collisions occur at inter sections where private cars arc making left hand turns. Comment: "The greatest single factor in the cause of bus accidents in the street is the cutting in tb and getting away from stops by the buses." 24. Columbus. Ohio. The greatest num ber of collisions occur between 4 and 6 p.m. With 94 collisions in the 6rst six months of 1937, 46 occurred at intersections and 20 of these were caused by the bus be ing struck from the rear. Buses travel three times the mileage of the street car before having a collision. 25. Port Worth. Most of the collisions occur during the afternoon rush hour. In 1936^ bus collisions were 33 per cent less than car collisions, on a mileage basis. Com ment: "The greatest contributing factor is carelessness on the part of the private car driver." 26. Baltimore. The greatest number of collisions occur between 4 and 6 p.m. and 9 and 10 a.m. The bus collision record shows 45 per cent better than the street car. The most predominant cause for collisions is autos pulling out from parking spaces with out sufficient warning. Insofar as collisions resulting in considerable damage to the greatest number, 40.8 per cent occurred in the middle of the block and 36.4 per cent at intersections. 27. Toronto. The majority of accidents occur at street intersections and between the blocks where vehicles make contact with the bus in attempting to pass it. For June 1937, the records showed 44 per cent were vehicles coming out of side streets; 11 per cent where they were cutting in; 17 per cent colliding with rear of the bus; 28 per cent colliding with the side of the bus in passing it. The ratio shows 27 per cent more street car accidents than bus accidents. Comment: "A recent study shows of all traffic accidents at intersections having similar traffic han dling characteristics, accidents are more than twice as prevalent at the signalled than at the unsignallcd intersections." 28. Another very large Eastern property reports the greatest number of collisions lit the afternoon rush hour. In 1935 their rec ords show that the greatest number of col lisions were as follows: First: Parked automobiles. Second: Side swiped in the same direction, the latter being identical in number with parked auto collisions. In 1936 travelling almost four times the mileage the bus system had only twice as many collision accidents as a comparison. 29. Ncxo Orleans. The greatest number of collisions occur between the hours of 7 and 10 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m. The majority of their collision accidents occur at places other than at street intersections. Street Transit Section 209 cars had nearly twice as many collisions per 1,000 miles than the buses. Comment: "Our people are definitely of the opinion the greatest single factor contributing to these accidents is the lack of care exercised by the drivers of private vehicles." 30. Denver. The majority of collisions oc cur between 7 and 8 a.m and 3 and 7 p.m. These are broken up 25 per cent at inter sections, 35 per cent in the middle of the block and 40 per cent at loading zones. Their compiled figures indicate thcc causes. At intersections: 2S% motorists disregarding signals. 25% motorists making irregular turns. 25% motorists taking the right of wav. Middle of block: 40% motorists side swiping bus and overtaking or passing it. 40% pulling from curb without ade quate signal of the coach. 15% bus driver side swiping parked machines. At loading zones: 25% hitting rear of bus. 15% huses hitting parked auto. 30% motorists making turn around standing bus. 30% motorists striking bus leaving zone. Buses operated over three times the mile age per collision as did street cars. 31. Youngstown. The greatest number of collisions are between 4 and 5 p.m. 69 per cent occurred aL intersections and 31 per cent between intersections. Of the total number of collisions, 40 per cent occurred in congested areas. 57 per cent of all col lisions arc of the private car with the bus. Comment: "The greatest factor is crowded streets caused by poor enforcement of park ing regulations, and the only improvement possible in reduction of traffic hazards is the enforcement of parking regulations on an intelligent basis, and with proper respect for the rider ol the greatest number," 32. Birmingham. Most of the collisions occur between 4 and 6 p.m. 72.5 per cent of the collisions occurred at intersections. Segregating their collision accidents, we get the following: 'Automobile side swipe of buses 22.1%. Overtaking automobiles cutting in ahead of bu 11.5%. Automobile colliding with rear of bus 11.5%. Bus colliding with parked autos &4%. Bus side swipe of autos 7.6%. Buses ran 9,350 miles per collision while street cars ran 7,560 miles per collision. Comment: "Collisions with street cars arc caused by inefficient handling of autos, by all kinds of drivers. While wc have a driv ers license law in the State, no examination is required. One of our gicatcst difficulties is diagonal parking and the hazard involved with the parker of that vehicle backing out without proper visibility," 33. Erie. The most ot their collisions oc cur between 4 and 7 p.m. The majority of collisions occurred from autos moving out of parking space or endeavoring to get in to one. Of ail their troubles, 62 per cent can be segregated under this caption. In cidentally, 50 per cent are on (he right side of the bus and 12 per cent are on the left while 6 per cent arc collisions at the rear of the bus with the vehicle stopped. Com ment: "The main cause of collisions is the motoring public's unwillingness to observe the rules of the road. The greatest single step to eliminate accidents would be elimina tion of parking on narrow streets and dur ing rush hours." 34. Minneapolis. The majority of accidents are in the afternoon rush hour. 75 per cent of them are right angle collisions and side swipes by autos. Bus collisions are slightly lower than street car collisions. 35. Trenton. The majority of collisions occur between 3 and 6 p.m. Most of these are at intersections where the bus is re quired to make a turn. Comment: "Next to enforcement of traffic regulations on the part of the private car driver, the adequate assignment of street spacing for various types of traffic will help most." 36. Harrisburg: The greatest number of collisions occur l>etwccn 8 and 10 in the morning and 4 to 6 in the afternoon. "Most of the collisions occur at intersections and are almost entirely due to autos cutting around or cutting in ahead of our velMcIc*. We have very many more collisions with trolleys than with buses." Comment: "A great proportion of our collisions arc due to buses turning out into traffic after loading or unloading at the curb. This has not been helped by directional signals on the bus." 37. Rucltford, HI. Most of their collision* occur between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 0 p.m. The majority of collisions occur at 210 Tt.vit/Y Sixth National Softly Congress the husinos district as a result of cutting in and cutting out 38. One of the lar^C't bus ojicrations in the country states (he larger number of collisions arc l>ctwcen ft and 10 and 4 and 7, and the greatest ju rcintaKc occur at or near intersections. Their records arc divided into two classifications, thoc where the coach hits the vehicle, and the vehicle hits the coach. The ratio is 4 to ) eases where the vehicle struck the coach. Comment: "The greatest single factor in the cause of bus colhsions is violation of regulations of traffic, and faulty assignment of street space for different types of traffic is a great con tributing factor." 39. Oakland. Most oi their collisions oc cur between A and 6 p.m. and the majority ;irc at intersections. Records show 18.41 collisions per 100,000 miles for street cars and 8.24 for motor coaches. Comment: "Greatest factor in the cause of collisions is the attitude of the general public in taking chances." 40. Los Angeles: 15 jicr cent of Uicir col lisions arc between 6:30 and 9:30 a.m. and 32 per rent between 3:30 and 6:30 p m. 46.7 per cent of their collisions occur within 50 feet of cross streets or in a cross street, and 453 per cent with automobiles passing the public carrier between streets. Out of 3,350 accidents. 2U00 of them were collisions where the vehicles were travelling in the same direction. In other words, weaving of traffic was responsible. Summing up, out of 6,433 accidents, 4,300 were collisions between private cars and public carriers going the same way. How to Make Good Bus Drivers Out of Street Car Operators By F. G. BUFFE Vice President in Charge of Operations, Kansas City Public Service Co., Kansas City, Mo. In the past ten years there has lce a devuW change in mass transportation Insofar a* the vehicle used is concerned. In 1927 city tran>it lines operated a total of 61,861 surface car- ami 8JJ54 motor buses. In the year end ing December 3). 1936 these same companies (Iterated a total of 37.800 surface ears, 22,100 motor bmeK and 1.154 trolley buses. This radical changeover is still in the progressive stage, and is going forward rapidly. Especially i> this true of the comparatively recent devel opment uf the trolley bus. Tlic operating efficiency and passenger ap- peal of the gasoline motor bus, the need for rxfcn>),n t> meet shifting populations, tftc eitanged riding habits of tle people, the im perative necessity of meeting automobile cont- 1>ctitiou and the need to reduce operating c.\]Krnso art oi the reasons which have brought about this change. In many of the smaller citio rail cars have lecn entirely abandoned am! mot<*r buses substituted. In Portland, Ore., a city of 301,815, the trans portation system ha* been largely changed over to trolley buses. I do not mean to infer that for many years to conic there will not b-` a place for street cars, especially the recently developed mod em car, but their use will be restricted to heavy' lines and larger cities. The situation lias presented of course a jxrsonnel problem to all operators. There is a surprisingly low tabor turnover in trans portation work, and as a result it became necessary to tram men, who for many years had had fixed habits in operating street ears, to operate motor buses. The inference should not be drawn that this choice was a forced one or done only to maintain employment. Mod operators today I think will agree that whore physical requirements are met, trained street car operators make the best bus drivers. There arc of course physical qualifications winch must be met. Many men now efficiently ^Iterating street cars should not be trans ferred to the new vehicle, either because of age or failure to measure up to certaiu definite physical requirements. Tlie&c men have ac quired deeply fixed habits which liave become second nature, and d*cy have reached an age where an entire change of habit is very diffi cult, and in some cases impossible. Bus operation requires definite physical standards which some men are unable to meet--these Transit Section 211 are paroculariy those of sight, hearing, and reaction to outside stimuli. There are also owokkraoom of personal appearance, man nerisms and disposition to which attention must be given as the operator of a motor bus is in moch more intimate contact with his passengers than is the operator of a street car. As a general rule, however, experience has demonstrated that efficient street car opera tors when properly trained and who meet bus requirements make the best operators of motor bases in city transportation work. Perhaps the better way to approach the sub ject voold be to examine a typical operation and its methods of training. Kansas City presents a good laboratory .for this purpose. It was one of the city companies which early recognized the value of the motor bus, and in 1915 combined motor bus operation with its street cars. Kansas City presents most of the problems of the large city, and many which others do not have. It is extremely hilly, the downtown area is fairly confined, many main heavily traveled streets are nar row. the percentage of automobile ownership is high, and while winters are not generally -severe, they can be depended upon to furnish storms which tax all die. resources of the transportation department. For those who are unfamiliar with the property, a few word*, of explanation might he of interest in connection with tlie subject. Kansas City. Mo., and Kansas City, Kans,, with their surrounding suburban area, consti tute prartkally one contiguous municipality for commercial purposes. Population is in excess of 550,000. The Kansas City Public Service Company furnishes mass transporta tion. It has at the present time 279 miles of rail track; maintains 484 street cars and has a fleet of 214 motor buses. None of these buses is over five years old. and the fleet is confined to the standard metropolitan type vehicle. The mechanical department was re cently awarded thfc Gold Award by "Bus Transportation** for die city operating com pany having the best maintenance methods and getting the best results in 1936. Bus operation was inaugurated in 1935 with a fleet of 71 vehicles. 18 of which were 63-passenger double deck six-wheel buses. While they were the best the market offered at the time, they were far front being the up to date, fast vehicles available now. In the twelve years of bus operation, from the beginning there lias never been a bus operator on the property ivlio did not serve an apprenticeship on the street cars. Until a year ago this street car requirement was three years, but it was recently dropped to one year. Therefore our experience lias been entirely with street car operators who have been trained as bus operators. Wlien bus service was instituted there were some in our organization wlx> argued that the bus operation be separate and ^distinct, and that operators should be recruited from tlx ranks of taxicab drivers, truck drivers, etc., because of their driving experience. We de cided however that our bus force would be taken from our own organization and that the bus operation would be another division of our transportation department, operating with the same personnel and supervision. Except for the actual manual and physical operation of the vehicle the duties of tlic bus operator and tlic street car operator are the same as the street cars are entirely one man operated. These cover the collection of lares, issuance of transfers, observance of company, safety regulations, handling of schedules, se curing witnesses for accident cases, making reports, courtesy, passenger handling, etc. In addition, our street car operators were not only familiar with these details and were trained in them, but they had through lung connection with the company become familiar with its policy, its management, and Itad absorbed the organization spirit. They were old members of the family, and we decided that It was much easier to teach these men the physical operation of the new vehicle than it was to recruit new men wliose only qualification was that they had at some time or another been familiar with automobile operation. Wc found that we could select sufficient men trained in street car operation for the original Operation of buses who bad had some truck and automobile experience. Many of them had driven trucks in tlic War. After a street car operator's application has been accepted for bus service, he is sent to the bus division for his preliminary training. Any man may apply for bus position and applica tions are accepted on a basis of company seniority. The applicant must pass physical tests and otherwise meet requirements. A practice course three and ouc-luilf mile* long has been laid out with left and right turns, level ground, grades, and all other road condi tions tliat would be met on a regular bus route. The applicant is assigned to a road instructor. The student spends six to eight 212 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress hours on Ibis course, starting, stopping, and handling a bus until he can shift and reverse shift without raking gears, and make smooth The men appreciate this and respond. A good neat personal appearance is insisted upon but there has been little trouble in secur starts and stops. He is given general mechan ical instructions so that he will be able to tell when the bus is not operating properly, but there is no effort made to give him any highly ing it. Bus operation seems to make an operator very conscious of his appearance and t)>c bus operators exert themselves in this regard more than do the car operators. technical instruction. After the student-bus training he spends 115 hours on the road with operator-instructors, working on each ot the routes on the system. Upon completing hit training lie takes written and oral examina tions by a division superintendent. He is handed a city traffic code and, upon being assigned to duty, a road instructor goes with him foe the first two trips. The younger men naturally are somewhat easier to train insofar as the mechanical oper ation is concerned. Many of them have had previous truck experience and of course all of them have driven automobiles. Their pre vious operating habits have not become so firmly set. they are more adaptable and learn more easily and faster. They are inclined to be less cautious. They tan'c a liking for speed and unless checked they are liable to leave a terminal a little late in order to step on the gas a bit. The older men arc niore cautious, not so Mire of themselves, and have old habits to change. Many of them arc nut so familiar with automotive equipment. It is sometimes necessary for them to spend three or four days on the practice course before they learn the mechanical operation thoroughly. T.hey have been used to rail operation where the road ahead is the oik to watch. This being clear they can let their eyes wander from side to side, which does not do so well on a bus which has to be steered. Tltey have a good idea of side clearance from their former Each operator is held personally responsible for violations of the city transit code. Tltere must be very close cooperation be tween the mechanical and transportation de partments. Poor operation can seriously affect maintenance as well as cause road delays. Operators arc checked frequently on their mechanical operation. The buses on the whole liave a better acci dent record titan the street cars. Steps are lower, passengers are under closer observation of the operator, the vehicle can be steered, it loads and unloads at the curb. There is no definite relation between the accident records of a car operator and the same man on a bus. Many men will improve their previous record when they go on a bus. Accident records improve with experience. For the group of our men with 10 to 12 years of service their records show 2.2 acci dents per year. Newer men run between 2 and 4. In making bus operators out of street car operators there is one problem which seems impossible to limit by lard and fast rules. As bus operation increases and as street car runs available decrease, there is more of a shift on the part of the older men. A transportation company naturally operates under rules of either division or system seniority. In either case men applying for bos positions are con sidered in accordance with their seniority standing. Should there Ik an age limit ? experience. All students both young and old experience muscular soreness in the back and legs and'it takes some time to get over this and accustom their muscles to the strain of bus operation. In Kansas City we have purposely set no definite limit. Management reserves the right to pass on qualifications. Under our system of collective bargaining a man has the right to appeal his case to a committee for review. Supervision is constant and cooperative. The supervisors follow a daily routine cover ing all of (Ik tni)>orlaut points of operation. The staff consists of the division superin tendent, his assistant and road instructors. They work along thejines of helpful coopera tion and of constant instruction. Discipline is not relaxed but there is an avoidance of the old driving methods and of suspension tliat penalize an operator's family as well. We require a strict physical examination on entering service. We also require a yearly examination of all bus operators. Occasion ally a man in late fifties applies and the Super intendent of Transportation will discourage his application. We have one operator of 61 who entered bus service three years ago after 27 years on the cars. He passed all examina tions, operates on our heaviest line and is one of the best operators we have. 7>omrif .Secturn TUESDAY LUNCHEON SESSION October 12, 1937 213 The luncheon session was devoted to a round table discussion. The first part, on "Periodical Physical Examinations/' was led by E. E. Grover, Manager of Claims, Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Co., Columbus, O. The second part on "What to Do With the Accident-Prone Driver/' was led by W. A. Brown, Director of Safety, Tennessee Electric Power Co., Nashville. Brief summaries follow. Periodical Examination of Employees In introducing the subject Mr. Grover dis cussed the values to be reali>.rd in maintain ing the health of transit ei*.* Joyces in rela tion to accident prevention. A well man is more likely to avoid accidents and injury to himself than a sick man. Having a check of the men's physical condition reduces the likelihood of having claims presented, based on alleged injury resulting from hidden and obscure causes. He described the system used in his com pany, which retains a physician (not on full time) to conduct the examinations and to advise the employees. The company also employs a registered nurse to assist in keep ing a check on health matters. Examinations are held at regular intervals, ranging from three years among the younger men to pe riods down to six months, or even more frequently, in special cases. He described the company's experience in dispelling distrust among the men. The men now see that the object of the program is to keep them on the job, not to find reasons for disqualifying them. Mr. Grover stated that such a program can be established and carried on, with wisely chosen medical as sistance, at a reasonable cost, and that it is definitely an important factor in prompting safety work. In their case, it has been instru mental in effecting important savings in their industrial compensation rates. In subsequent discussion it developed that in a number of companies which have es tablished such a program it has been unusual for the program to cause a man to lose his employment In some cases it has been nec essary to take men off the front end of street cars and put them on the rear, or even to take them off the cars entirely; however, in virtually every sudi case, the men have been placed* in other work. In a few cases, they have been retired on annuity. Dr. H. E. Fisher and M. W. Bridges Chief Surgeon and Safety Engineer, respectively, of the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, also spoke, endorsing Mr, Grover's conclusions and emphasizing that the program need not create friction between management and men. It has been possible to place every man removed from his normal occupation, as a result of physical defects, in other more suitable and less hazardous work. What to Do with the Accident Prone Operator In opening the discussion Mr. Brown referred to studies of the subject, speaking particularly of the investigation carried on u the Boston Elevated Railway by Dr. Slo cum and the study conducted on the Cleve land Railways, with Metropolitan Life In surance Company collaboration. He pointed out that all companies have a small percentage of operators who have a disproportionately high number of accidents. He referred to the claim sometimes put forth tliat certain accident tendencies are innate in particular individuals, and that very little can be expected of training, except of 214 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress a negative value. He raised for discussion ihc question, "What can we do with the accident prone man? I training an effective corrective method ?** The experience of many transit companies tends to support the theory that it is, he said. \V. J. McCarter, of the Cleveland Railwavs, sup|*orted Ihc conclusion that the num|>cr of men who cannot be trained out of accident proneness is extremely small. He stated that most accident prone men are so Itecausc they lack something--in most eases the will to prevent accidents. His studies of the subject, he said, disclose that there is practically no statistical rela tionship between slow reaction time and ac cident proneness. This is because the slow reaction time men have had the will to train themselves out of their trouble. It i$ harder to train older men, not because it is harder for them to karn, but because they have lost the will to learn. The principle wilt hold that accident prone men can be trained out of their troubles if they can be imbued with the will to correct their faults. Several other delegates spoke, most of them upholding the view that men disposed to accidents can be helped to prevent them. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 13, 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH COMMERCIAL VEHICLE SECTION Maintenance of vehicle!-, psychological U>l> for operators, ami the parking problem were di-ctisscd hy speakers at the joint ses sion. A complete rejiort of the meeting will l>c found in (he section of this volume de voted to the Commercial Vehicle Section. ADJOURNMENT Child Education Section Officers 1936-37 General t Frederick Archer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala. Viee-Ckairmm Acccs Samuelson, Superintendent, State Department of Public Insluic- tioo, Ik* kiut&rs Iowa. Secretary-- Mari ex To-TORD, Education Division, Motional Safety Council, New York City. Extentire Committee Chairman--Frederick Archer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Elementary School Committee Chairman--Leslie R. Silvernai.e, Supervisor of Safety Education, Public Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. Secondary School Committee Chairman--Edward E. Greene. Vice Principal, Arsenal Technical Schools, Indianapolis, fnd. Statistics Committee Chairman--R. H. Waterhouse. Superintendent of Schools, Akron, Ohio. State Safety Activities Chairman--Charles H. Rmiott, State Commissioner of Education, Trenton. X. I. Officers Elected for 1937-38 General Chairman-- Millard C. Lefi.rr, Superintendent of Schools, Lincoln, Nebr. Ffce-CViuirmaff--.1. Andrew Hou.v, Director of Instruction, State Department of Public Instruction, Oklahoma City, Okla. Secretary--Marian Telford. National Safety Council, Mew York City. TUESDAY MORNING SESSION October 12, 1937 ACCIDENT RECORDS, THEIR MEANING AND USE The meeting was called to order by George Mclchcr, Superintendent of Schools, Kansas City, Mo., who presided. The four addresses revolved about accident records, their meaning and use, and how they may be obtained. 215 216 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress Student Accident Statistics--The Facts and What They Mean By A. D. BATTEY Assistant Statistician, National Safety Council In 1935 accidents caused 21 per cent of all the deaths occurring to children 5 to 14 years old. Twenty-five years earlier, in 1910, accidents caused only 13 per cent of all deaths. Then, they resulted in only onecigluh of the child fatalities; now, they cause nearly one* fourth of the death total. Does this mean that accidents resulting in death doubled in number during these years ? It does not. In fact, if you state the prob lem in terms of death rates (that Is, the number of children killed out of each 100,000 children) you will find there was actu ally a decrease from a rate of 34 in 1910 to a rale of 32 in 1935. Then why the increase in their importance? Throughout these 25 years doctors made great progress in the prevention of deaths from disease among children, with the result that in the Utter year they occurred only half as frequently as at the beginning of the period, if account is taken of the increase in population. Why lias the prevention of accidental deaths lagged behind that of disease deaths? First, because organized work in safety edu cation on a national scale covers only abuut halt of the period, ft is generally stated that it began about 1922. Second, the size and the growth of the motor vehicle acci dent problem had begun to make itself evi dent in 1922, and it has been growing ever since. This is not a problem that can be completely solved by safety education work in the school*. If we disregard motor ve hicle accidents in iltc 5 to 14 age group for a moment we find that fatalities from other types of accidents went down about 40 per cent, thus nearly equalling the reduction in death* from disease. The fact that most of this decrease came after 1922 should be a source of great satisfaction to every one working in the safety education field. The difficulty of solving the child motor vehicle accident problem is compounded of the impossibility of keeping children out of the streets all together, anil the immense increase in the hazard. It can be estimated that total miles travelled in 1935 by motor vehicles was neaHy three times as great as in 1922. In some communities the hazard lias undoubtedly increased much more than three times. Therefore, one might well be amazed that there was a decrease of 14 per cent from 1922 to 1935 in the motor vehicle death rate of children 5 to 14 years old. The sudden increase in traffic volume in 1936 appears to have caught the children only partly prepared for it, for the death rate rose to 132 or 9 per cent higher than for 1935. However, figures now available for 1937 indicate that the 5 to 14 years death rate for the year is about 3)4 per cent below 1936, despite an increase in motor vehicle travel this year of II per cent. If you can reduce motor vehicle deaths even that much in the face of an increase in the hazard, you can take pride in the accomplishment. This point seems clear: If school chil dren were as careless today as they were in 1922, their motor vehicle death rale might well be twice as great as it is. Now, as to what \vc found out about student accidents through our analysts of the monthly reports submitted by cooperat ing school systems. First, let us take an over-all view of the reports. They came from cities ranging in population from a million to a thousand. They represent the eastern part of the country to a someu'liat greater extent than other parts, but they sample the student accident experience as far north as Minnesota, as far south as Tennessee and as far west as central Kansas. They include the records of 830,000 students for the nine months from Septem ber to May. During these nine months a total of 19,109 accidents were reported, each one serious enough to require a doctor's attention or cause at least one-half day's absence from school. In individual grades the number of accidents reported ran from 375 in the kin dergarten to 2,031 in the seventh. A large part of this difference is to be accounted for by differences in enrollment. There were only 37,200 kindergarten pupils, com pared with 68,100 in the seventh grade. This makes it necessary to reduce all the accident figures to some uniform rate basis. The method we have chosen is to state all student accident figures as the number which occurred in each 100,000 student days--that Child Education Section 217 is, the number of accidents which, on the average, occurred among each 100,000 stu dents during one day. These rates place all grades on an equal basis regardless of en rollment, and also make it possible to com pare one School or school system with another or one month's experience with another. The rate per 100,000 student days for the kindergarten pupils was 5.7, while that for the seventh grade was 17.0. Thus, the older pupils had three times as many accidents, on a uniform exposure basis, as the children in kindergartens. If you consider only the raw accident totals presented a moment ago, .your conclusion would be that they had nearly six times as many. This is an illus tration of (he need for rates based on ex posure. The rate for all grades was 13.1. The kindergarten rate was the lowest, followed by the first grade with 9.7. In the second and third grades it was 11.0 and 11.3, and in the fourth and fifth 13-3 and 13.6--each pair of rates representing an increase of about two accidents per 100,000 student days over the preceding rates. In the sixth grade it advanced more moderately to 14.5, then in the seventh jumped to the maximum of 17.0. From this point on there was less change. The eighth grade rate was 16.1. In the first year of high school it dropped to 14.4, then in llie second and third years rose to 15.0 and 15.7. Finally, in the last year, it declined to 132. So much for the over-all view of the frequency of student accidents. We now know something of the size of the problem but we still could not make effective plans for greater safety because we Iiave not yet considered what kinds of accidents occur or where they happen. On the location of accidents, the available statistics show that 18 per cent occurred in school buildings and 17 per cent on school grounds, a total of 35 per cent for all School property. Those accidents which occurred on the way to or from school constituted only 7 per cent of the total--less than one in 10. Accidents occurring in the children's homes made up 28 per cent of the total, more than one in every four, which indicates that the acci dent prevention problem will never be solved until we receive the whole-hearted coopera tion of parents in support of our safety education work. Places away from school or home (vacant lots, parks, streets) have the largest propor tion of accidents, 30 per cent. Here the degree of control which may be exerted is least, and the greatest dependence must be placed on the habits we seek to develop through safety education. It should be pointed out, therefore, that the records of the last five school years showed no signs of improvement for this class of accidents. The rate per 100,000 student days was even a little higher from September, 1936, to May, 1937, than in earlier years. Now, for some details about the accidents at different locations: In school buildings, accidents were more frequently reported as happening in the gymnasium than for any other location during the last school year. One-third of the school buildings total oc curred here. For junior and senior high school grades, alone, they made up 40 per cent of the total. Accidents on stairs were next most important, but there were less than half as many of them as of gymnasium mishaps. They, also, were recorded most frequently in the high schools. Class room accidents occurred as often as those on stairs, but they were more numerous in the elementary grades than in high schools Ac cidents in vocational shops were a little less frequent, but were confined almost entirely to the upper grades. On the school grounds football, alone, made up 15 per cent of the total, but in senior high schools these casualties were half the total. Baseball accidents came next with 11 per cent of all school ground acci dents. These were distributed much more evenly among all grades. Apparatus acci dents, in total, were less numerous, with few above the elementary grades. Unorgan ized, rough-and-tumhic play was involved in nearly half of the school ground acci dents, which may not be surprising to those of you whose duty it is to supervise play ground activity. Accidents occurring on home premises are classified by type of accident rather than by exact location or activity. This classifi cation was chosen in designing the forms, because it apparently would give more use ful information than either of the other methods considering the space available on the forms. From the reports received last school year it is clear that falls occurred more frequently than any other type of ac cident, making up 40 per cent of the home total. Frequency was highest among ele- 218 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress mentary school pupils, but it stayed remark* ably high through the high school grades. Cuts and scratches comprised 20 per cent of the home total and burns only 10 per cent. However, nearly half of the deaths result ing from home accidents were classified as burns. Only part of the accident summaries re ceived showed details of location for the accidents occurring away from school or home. For the school systems giving this information it appears that motor vehicle accidents comprised about one-fourth of the total, other street and sidewalk accidents about one-third, playgrounds other than school one-tenth mid other locations nearly one-third. Motor vchielc accidents occurred somewhat more frequently among the younger students, but the non-motor vehicle injuries were most numerous in the junior high school grades. Absence from school as a result of acci dents averaged 3.4 days per case for all grades, but there was much variation from grade to grade. In the kindergarten the average absence was 5j4 days, and in the first grade a little over 4 days. In contrast, the seventh grade average was slightly above 3 days, while in the senior high school it was only 2^4 days. There are no data available to substantiate it, but I believe this decrease in average absence is due more to the p.; l*' desire in the ease of younger children to make sure that recovery is com plete titan to fundamentally more serious injuries. How Accident Facts and Records May Be Used in Curriculum Building By ROSE WICKEY Curriculum Dept., Public Schools, Kansas City, Mo. The school of today attempts to meet the practical conditions of life and to relate its work to the problems of modem civilization. At the same time it must build up the struc ture of a right relation to life. Xot only the practical results to be achieved, bat also the effects on character and viewpoints toward life, must be considered. Useful habits, practical knowledge, and a wholesome philosophy of living are the desirable out comes of any type of education. Where docs safety enter into this- edu cational plan? In the first place, no more vital problem faces society today than that which involves human safety and progress. Secondly, safety education means more'than the mere training of people to avoid or prevent accidents. In a broad suisc, (be term <aicty comprehends all that goes to make life worth while--health, efficiency, security, happiness, opportunity, exploration, experimental ion, progress. Safely does meet the two criteria outfitted in the preceding -tntements. ami does, there fore.'have an important place in (lie school curriculum. The two recent Kansas City bulletin* ou safety, mentioned at the outset, make the following statement as a part of their underlying philosophy': "Safety is a way of living. It is not an end in itself, but a means to an end: joyous play, new ad venture, efficient work, helpful service. Like other factors which help make living com plete-character, health, correct speech-- safety is an integral part of the school cur riculum. It cannot be taught as ati isolated subject, but must have definitely planned consideration in relation to all the activities which make up the fife of the school. Every department, whether administrative or in structional, has the responsibility of pro viding safe conditions for work and recrea tion, of developing safety habits and atti tudes, and of imparting useful information." The following are specific instances of how our committees used accident facts in llicir curriculum building in the field of safety. Their work from the outset was based on the two-fold principle (1) that an effec tive program of safety education must con sider the hazards peculiar to the student ami * Safviy i,i die Ctirririiliiin--Junior and Senior liittli Schools, i), U. Safely in tint Curriculum -- KlcniciiUry Schools, ji 11. Kansas City Public Schools, Kansas City. Missouri. Child Education Section 219 the community in which he lives as well as those of nation-wide importance, and (2) that accidents can be avoided and it is important, therefore, to have all the facts about their occurrence in order to know how to prevent them. They made a comprehen sive survey of accident records for both the nation and the local community embracing such points as the following: various types of accidents, chief causes of accidents, places where accidents most frequently oc cur, and time of day or season when acci dents arc most common. This general study of existing facts was followed by an intensive consideration of the accident problem in relation to children of elementary and high school levels. Cer tain significant facts were tabulated and ar ranged in two tables for use by the class room teacher: the table for the elementary school bulletin emphasizing especially the 5-14 years age group; the table for the high school bulletin, the 14-24 years age group. Using this study and tabulation as a basis, the committees then built a very compre hensive chart with a classified arrangement of common accidents, their causes, and places of occurrence. Under each type or cause of accident, they listed the safely practices that would prevent the accident and that should become habitual with the children. This chart is published in the elementary school bulletin and is referred to in the high school bulletin. It is intended as a ready reference source for teachers and as a means of checking the effectiveness of safety instruction in so far as habits of action arc concerned. The chart is by no means the subject matter of the course, but it is the foundation on which the subject matter is built. Its items are not presented as learning units, but as desirable practices and knowledge to be acquired in normal, everyday Jiving. Safety education must nut make life drab for the child. It must not fill him witli fears or take adventure and play away from him. Rather it should help him to realize that, to do all the wonderful, joyous things he wants to do, he must keep himself strong, well and sate. As has been stated, the accident facts were gathered first and the desirable safety habits listed in connection with these facts. Then content, or subject matter, was deter mined: Such content as would permit these habits to be acquired in as natural a situa tion as possible and as would develop large, basic understandings and right relationships. A detailed analysis was made by tiic com mittees of natural situations and opportuni ties offered by the daily school program for acquiring safety knowledge, habits, and at titudes. The daily school program was interpreted to include the general school routine, the various subject fields, recrea tion, and cxtia-cui ricular activities. Under general school routine were in cluded such opportunities as entrance to, or exit from, grounds, building, and room: passing in halls and ou stairways ; care of wraps; use of lockers; use of drinking fountains and wash rooms; and conduct in cafeteria, gymnasium, auditorium, shop or laboratory. In considering the subject fields, those fields were chosen in which safety entersnaturally; e.g., the social studies, nature study and the sciences, health and physical education, industrial arts, home economics, English, and art. In the high school various types of accidents were allocated to certain subjects for study; eg., motor vehicle ac cidents to civics, American government, general science, physics, auto mechanics, and biology; drowning to general science, health and physical education; gas accidents in the home to general science, physics elec trical shop, and home economics; accidents in industry to civics, chemistry, economics, ami industrial at ts ; anti so on. In extra-curricular activities were in cluded opportunities, such as arise in con nection with safely clubs, junior safety councils, patrol or traffic squads, automobile clubs, and first-aid units. There arc frequent times when the direct teaching of safety is essential, when teacher and pupils are consciously attacking the accident problem This is especially true in upper grade and high school levels. Here again accident facts connected with (lie school, home, communily, or nation arc re sponsible for the cooperative study. In the beginning, I stated that one of the functions of any type of education is to help the individual build up right viewpoints, broad understandings, and a wholesome philosophy of life. The following arc some of the emphases made by our cotmnittecs in their treatment of this phase of safety edu cation. 220 Tu'cntySirth Notional Safety Congress Jn the field of the social studies: The prevention oi accidents is the pres ervation of life for activities that are of worth and interest both to the individual and to the community. The welfare, happiness, and progress of society depend largely on intelligent adjust ment to the changes incident to an industrial age: increased tempo of life activities, high-powered machines, and rapid develop ment of the automobile. Throughout the ages, altitudes toward safety have resulted in legislation to provide for the welfare ami progress of humanity. The safety and well-being of the com munity depend upon individual observance m law and respect for authority. The present machine age provides greater comforts and conveniences of life, but at the same time increases the hazards and dangers of life. The family, school, industry, and com munity require the willing cooperation of every individual if the desired safety results are to be accomplished. in the field of the seieuees: Man's welfare and progress depend upon hi* wi*c use. modification, and control of hi* environment, and on his ability to adapt liimelf to iliubC aspects of nature that he has not yet learned to control. This is an age of science, and modes of present-day living are dependent on contri butions from the field of science. A knowledge of properties, principles, and processes in the sciences is a valuable aid in meeting health and safety problems. Man's use of matter and energy has added to the complexity as well as to the ease of modern living. The more civilization becomes the prod uct of man's ingenuity, the more artificial and complex it liccomes. The chief value of transforming or trans mitting energy i> that work done thereby will make life more satisfactory and more safe. In the field of health and physical educa tion: Health and safety arc prime requisites of a happy, zestful, qml useful life. Prevention and control of hazards to health and safety arc conducive to the wel fare and progress of the community. Cooperation in community health enter prises is a safeguard to personal security and well-being. In the field of home economics: Among the factors responsible for inter dependence in family life arc accidents, ill ness, unemployment, and old age. The great number of accidents prevalent in the home can be reduced only through knowledge of the common dangers and haz ards of the home and through provision (or preventing or meeting them. Safety devices, control of disease, regula tion of employment, and insurance arc among the means being employed by society for individual security and independence. Application of knowledge and skills gained in the various departments and subjects of the school make the home more safe and pleasant. Cooperation, understanding aflection, and courtesy-are essential to safe, happy home life. In the field of the industrial arts: Acquaintance with materials, knowledge of simple mechanical devices, ability to operate simple machines and to handle tools properly arc important factors in overcom ing many common hazards and dangers. Knowledge and skills gained in school shops are useful in discovering and in cor recting common hazards and dangers in the home. Many safe practices in school shops arc fundamental to safe practices in (he field of industry. The confident, dependable, safe operator of machines is an asset to a world that must depend on machines for the necessities of life as well as for its comforts and luxuries. If some basic truths, such as these, are developed in the various subject fields, pupils will acquire a deeper understanding of, an<) a constructive attitude toward, this problem which menaces human life and well being. They will at the same time he build ing a sane philosophy of life. Accident facts and statistics furnish one very good approach to safety education in the high school. Then is the time when strong appeal can be made to the intelli gence. Then is the time when the youth likes to feel that he is a necessary force in a great movement or crusade. Child Editca/ion Section 221 Lcl figures, graphs, and pictures show the awful toll tliat accidents are exacting in the way oi death, injury', money, and unhappi ness. Make comparisons involving records and statistics: accidents in the United States versus those in other countries; accidents in the home state versus those in other states; accidents versus disasters (Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake, sinking of the Titanic, Ohio River Valley floods. New London school explosion, etc.); accidents versus fatalities in the wars in which our country has engaged; accidents in various age groups; etc. Emphasize especially the tremendous problem that tlic nation faces in moving the mass of traffic on its streets and highways. Stress the fact, and prove with statistics if need he, that incompetent driving is the leading cause of motor-vehicle accidents. The high school youth is vibrant, eager, receptive, and he is legally eligible to drive a car. Impress upon him that learning to drive involves much more than the acquisi tion of mere mechanical skills which make the car perform. Confront, I repeat, the high sdtool stu dent with the enormity of our national ac cident problem and the insecurity in which this problem involves our true wealth and happiness; then capture his enthusiasm and enlist his aid in the campaign for human safety. Above all, help him to realize that the adventures of the benefactors of man kind. Pasteur. Gorgas, Edison, Byrd, Lind bergh, and countless others, are thrilling because they were met with intelligence, forethought, and carefulness. Such considerations as those I have just mentioned in connection with the motor-vchicle-accident problem influenced our com mittees in their preparation of Part IV of the safety bulletin for high schools. This part is in reality a course in driving for high school students, and is entitled "How to Become a Competent Driver." There are five units in the course, the names of which answer the question implied in the title of lire course. These names are: 1. Develop Correct Driving Habits. 2. Understand the Motor Car. 3. Become Familiar with the Highways. 4. Consider All Users of the Highway. 5. Observe Traffic Regulations. The first unit of the course deals with that type of training which contributes to the development of good driving habits; tlic second includes a simple study of the motor car itself; the third points out tin; importance of becomins familiar with the various uses, types, and conditions of the highway; the fourth reminds the young driver of his great responsibilities toward others who use the highways; while the fifth deals with the cflorts of humanity since earliest history to regulate its traffic problem. In this course, as in other parts of (he bulletin, great basic truths anil understand ings are emphasized m the hope that the youth will become a driver, competent in every sense of the. word: skillful in me chanical operations, conscious of the great (>owcr in his control, considerate of others and fair with them, respectful and obedient to law, generous, courteous, open-minded, careful, safe. At the outset I stated that any type of education to Ire elTorlivc must meet the practical conditions of life and at the same time build up right viewpoints toward life. In the light of that statement, my conclu sion will have to be that the test of safety education must be a reduction In the number of accidents and the acquisition of right standards of living. While the scroll of "Accident Taxes for 1936, Due and Collected from the American People" gives staggering information, stilt statistics do show enough decline in spots where education has been particularly stressed--notably in the elementary schools and certain industries--to prove that edu cation is an effective means of meeting the accident problem and that it is the chief hope of future endeavor. Much satisfaction comes from the record of accident reduc tion in the 5-14 years of age group, and wc in Kansas City are particularly proud of the fact that October 6, 1937 marked the close of a year in which no child of school age in our city was killed by a motor car. As for right viewpoints, I believe tliat the palm goes to the same age gfoup of children, that of 5-14 years. This story came to me the other day of a small kindergarten child who was liaving his first experiences in meeting the problem of following the di rections and guidance of schoolboy patrols while crossing the street with many other children. In talking over his difficulties with his teacher, he said, "Miss Blank, I know 222 Twenty-Sixth Notional Safety Congress I'm just a little fellow, but I'm trying awful hard." That is the type of attitude which will help lower our accident (axe*. That is the ty|>c of altitude which wilt meet the acci dent problem, the most serious of all con temporary problems. That must become the viewpoint of everyone of us, for safety is the civic and moral resjionsibility of every man, woman, and child. "f know I am only one individual in the great group of hu manity, I know I am only a little fellow, but I am trying awful hard/' Accident Records--How They May Be Used in Teaching Safety at Home By IRMA GENE NEVINS Professor of Physical Education and Director of Physical Education for Women, Kansas State Teachers* College, Pittsburg, Kans. The success of using accident reports de pends on the cooperation of the members of the family with the agencies which are interested in safety. This involves being acquainted with the purpose and objectives of the safety council. The fact that these organizations arc not based primarily upon commercial sources is a valuable asset to gether with the fact that the material pre sented is sound and based upon an interest in humanity. In using the accident records one is im pressed by tlw? fact that the quantitative accounts should be used as a basis for a qualitative program. The accumulated facts point the direction toward which all thinking people should motivate their actioa This means to arouse an interest in creating a ptacc of safe living and to create a desire to think through the course of action. One of the first points to consider is, why arc people hurting themselves or causing others to he hurt ? There must lie a motive, (or people do not desire to hurt others ex cept in rage; few people have the Intention of killing themselves except in a ease of despondency. As one checks the records and finds the cause for the great number of ac cidents, he is impressed by the fact that the motivation of being safe has not been strong enough, fn dealing with accident statistics the Old algebraic formula is turned around; for one finds *`.r" the unknown in algebra. In safely we have the unknown; our known is "bpy standing in water touching the elec tric wire equals accident." Our problem is to get people to realize that the equal sign is important. Statistics which have been collected defi nitely point die need for safe living. The National Safety Council, through its vari ous departments, has presented us with much valuable information. It is our prob lem to acquaint the public with these facts. There arc two ways in which one can look at this information; one, from the national point of view and, two, from the local. The human brain is accustomed to figures, but if the figures are larger than the ten's they lose their significance. To say that 39,000 people lost their lives in the home last year means nothing, in terms of visualization. To say that 40 people in the local situation were killed is something that can be grasped and visualized. It is our purpose to make con crete the statements which have been col lected. Many times breaking them down to fit the local situation will aid the public in understanding wliat one is talking about. As one studies the accident records of the home, the information which has been col lected by the national and local groups, one finds certain facts which seem to he signifi cant. The first point is: 1. Most accidents are unintentional. The home maker many times docs not realize that Hour thrown into incinerator will burn, or that an electric light cord run under a rug may be worn and short circuit. 2. The second reason for an accident in the home is over fatigue on the part of the parent or the child. Many times, our lady in the home, in her des*irc to do too much, becomes too tired and an accident results. The housekeeper places her emphasis on the wrong thing ami finds to her sorrow the Child Education Section 223 evaluation of her work was improperly placed. To wash and iron on the same day may cause her to drop the iron and burn her foot. Fatigue Factor The child in the home may be at loo high a tension and over fatigued and he does (he tiling he did not intend to do. He did not intend to trip over the rug, knock the vase off the table and break his arm. He was so tired that his legs would not coordinate and lie became a victim of something, for which he should not be blamed. It has been said that spanking time for the child is 5 p.m. on regular days and 4 p.in. on holidays. I do not know whether this is accident time; it would be, however, very interesting to find out. 3. The third reason for accidents occur ring in the home is that familiarity may make one unaware of the conditions as they exist. In this situation famitiarity may breed accidents for one sees the thing so often he fails to realize that there is a need for a change. The frayed rug in the living room is an excellent illustration, for the member of the family being in a hurry trips and falls. 4. Placing the wrong empliasis on econ omy is a reason for disaster in the home. The much used illustrations are; the wiring of the house by ap amateur electrician or the cleaning of one's clothes with gasoline. 5. Sometimes we women make the state ment that this is a man's world. I wonder what indictment the children could make of us, if they could dare voice their opin ions? I think we would find tliat the home, with its furnishings and equipment are all made for the adults. The child must adapt himself to a situation which is beyond his strength, his energy and comprehension. Consequently an accident is the result many times. 6. The putting off until tomorrow is an other cause of accidents in the home. Put ting off the purchasing or installing of an electric light handy to one's bed, has been the cause of more than one serious injury. Another statement of importance in the accident picture is "I'll fix it tomorrow." This indifference to the needs of today has caused a great amount of heart ache and physical pain. This brings to our consideration a safety measure which might be adopted bv (lie utilities companies. If each company would send a man to each home to check their commodity as to its conduction, methods of installing, and equipment, each place would be a safer place in which to live. After analyzing the accidents and finding the reasons for them, our attention must then be directed to a means of preventing their reoccurrence. I think there arc five questions which should be broadcast to all housekeepers; 1. What can I do (o make my home a safe place? 2. How can I accomplish it? 3. Who is to do the fixing or make the needed change? 4. What kind of an evaluation will I give to the labor after I am through? 5. How can I maintain a mental balance which will enable me to be safe even thr .:gh hurried, tired, and emotionally upset? Many times the facts that arc accumulated from the accident records must be sugarcoated and presented in such a way that the interest of the family will be aroused. Some times one must teach without the learner being aware of the fact that he is being taught. The family group must come in contact with the accidents facts and yet not feel as if they are being driven to learn. One of the best methods of presenting the accident facts is through the medium of the printed page. This involves the using of cleverly written articles and news stories which interest and Isold one's attention. This cannot be too frequently presented, for again interest will not last if one continually sees an accident writeup. The publication of the records must be in such a way that they prove constructive, and are concrete; this calls for organization on the part of the person who writes the article. Radio Valuable Another excellent means of attracting at tention to home safely is through the spoken word. The radio is an excellent means of obtaining the public interest, especially if the program is planned in an interesting way and has definite objectives. The police of Wichita have used the public address sys tem to reduce traffic accidents by calling 224 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress aitcnthni to traffic regulations ami the need tor oIkmHi'iicc to rules. The use of pictures is a third, important method of creating a desire for safety. Sometimes the use of the graph is of im portance, especially if it tells a story. Tlic movies, a combination of the spoken word and picture, is one of the most effec tive wavs of stimulating interest. A special safety picture attracts attention to the needs of change or adaptation in the home. We need more pictures which create a desire for inspection, changing and making our homes safer. Persuasion Needed One of the ir|>orlant things that one re alizes the more he studies is the need for persuarimg people to be safe. The educator ran force the child to learn the frequency, the cause and the result of unsafe conduct; 3'ct this docs not guarantee action. We can not coerce ]K-oplc into being safe, but we can persuade them. This is not an easy thing to do, for most people think of an arculcnt as something hapi>ening to the other person, hut not as something happening to themselves. Many habits of living in our complex civilization arc such as to he a detriment rather than an asset to safe living. It is our rociI to make this a safe place in which to live and to enable the |>ooptc to live happily together in the changing world. This may be accomplished by supplying experiences which enable one to participate in an everchanging dynamic society. In order to pro vide the experiences which are satisfying and safe one must consider the environment. The records plainly tell us that the home, is not `'home safe home/' that the school building is not a place of rugged individualism, that human physical development hasn't kept pace with the mechanical advances. The pedes trian can't jump any faster tlum lie* did 10 years ago, even though faster cars have been made With many examples like the above we realize that safe living involves all situations in life. Therefore it is necessary that an environment in the home, school, and com munity be created in which one can ex perience safe living in (he home, cleanliness and orderliness must not rank above safety, hut go hand iu liand, for we know lhat good order is a requisite for safety. The living room may be S|>otless but the halls and stairways may he an invitation (o an accident. The kitchen may be clean and orderly, but the matches or a pan of hot water may be placed so that a child would be unsafe there. Tlic school buildings of today are so con structed tliat to be safe one must cooperate with others. They arc quite different from the one-room school houses of yesterday where in ease of fire, each child could run and jump and be safe. The car driver and the pedestrian must recognize the rights of the other and in so doing provide an en vironment In which both wil] be safe. The second point to consider in the pro viding of safe surroundings is the actual experiences of the individual. One needs to notice what the child, the adolescent, and the adult like to do, the events which at tract and hold (heir attentions. The accident records presented to the different'ages should relate to the safety of the group. The child is not interested in knowing how many people were killed last year by the automobile, but he is interested in knowing how to cross the street correctly. This involves the learning of habits which relate to the needs of (he group in question. In most situations compulsion is necessary to take the child past the stage where he shows little or no interest in the safety of himself ami others, into the period in which he can understand the reason for certain actions. Direction is essential for safe liv ing; values must be taught, for one docs not inherit the best methods of controlling him self. Need Help from Home Creating an interest in the use of accident records in the home is a problem of first magnitude. We cannot say definitely how it can be solved; we know (hat in the teach ing field we need more help from the home. Parents are always generous with time and effort and money in helping schools to carry out projects of benefit to their children. What we need to do is to arouse them to help the school in working out and estab lishing a place where safe living and ex periences can be used in the home. Most parents want clean, orderly, safe, and pleasant home*, but not all achieve that goal. Many times 1 think this is (rue due to lack of motivation and knowledge. The Child Education Section 225 broadcaster of the accident records must liave this thought in mind--the persuading of people to be safe in the home and in their every-day experiences with other people. I have mentioned the use of the priuted word, the spoken word, and the pictures in contacting the home. Another which should he used is that of the schools. The activi ties of the home and the school should be coordinated and these two agencies must cooperate. The schools have the source of information on which to base their safety teachings and practices; these should in turn be taken to the home. The most com mon agency to accomplish this is through parent-teachers associations. It is true that many people cannot be contacted through this medium, but it is a means by and through which the accident (acts can be brought into the home. This last year, the chairman of tlic safety committee of the National Con gress of Parents and Teachers sent to the home of each member much valuable ma terial which can and should be used in cre ating a desire for safe living. The Federation of Women's Clubs and the Women's Civic Clubs are interested in advancing the course of safe living in the home. Many excellent programs have been prepared and are in the process of prepara tion which have and will arouse thinking about and renovating the existing condi tion. All of this brings us to the point which is most essential in safe living. This is tlic ability to think through one's course of ac tion. The ability to think depends upon the knowledge that one possesses. One cannot successfully think out what he should do, if his thinking is hindered by fears, ignorance and prejudices. Fear limits one's course of action, and knowledge liberates him. If we can truly interpret the meaning of the accident rec ords and use them as a means of liberating all people, then we have accomplished some thing that is invaluable. The records give us the tangible thing with which we can work. VVe must take these and use them in an intangible way, to strive to reach our goat--to uiake the. world ?. safer place in which to five. Collection and Use of Accident Records By MBS. PEARL GOETZ Intermediate Grades' Supervisor, Baltimore Public Schools, Baltimore, Md. The problem of accident reduction and prevention holds individual aspects for each school. Physical conditions within and with out school buildings vary a great deal. There arc wide differences in the sizes, types, and equipment of school playgrounds. The homes and neighborhood from which a given group of children come offer advantages or handicaps which may be very different from those of children in another commu nity. All these factors determine to a gTeat ex tent the number and kind of accidents com mon in a certain school. For this reason it is essential that each school plan its own program for reducing or preventing acci dents. Such a program would take into con sideration the total number of accidents for all the schools in a given locality, but more particularly an accident summary which shows the number and kind of accidents lor the school in which the program is to be carried out. In the Baltimore schools the following steps are generally used in obtaining acci dent records and using them to plan help ful programs: 1. An accideut committee is appointed early in the school-year when the Junior Safety Council in a given school is organ ized. It is the duty of this committee to obtain and compile information on accidents in the school. 2. The chairman of the accident committee visits every room about the first of each month to collect the accident record cards. The following information is included on these cards; 226 Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress STUDENT ACCIDENT REPORT Who was Hurt? Nam*....................................................... Address-............. Age.......................Sex___ ________ .School atWndtd........... ...................... Qnd*.................. When Did Accident Bippnt Date.......... ...................................... ...Time..... .......... -.............. -A.M.................................. F-M. . When Did Accident Happen? At school?....................... Jf to, in buOdfog or on playground?............... ............................. On the street?.............................................................II SO, where?.................................................................. Was this an automobile accident?........................ ................... ........ ...... ........ ........................... I? on the street was it on the wap to sehoot?...........................From school?.................... .. At home?............... ........If so, was it In the house?...................... Outside house?................ If somewhere else, state where...................... .... ..................... ........... ...... ..... How Did Accident Happen? What was person doing when hurt?........(.p...l.a..y...i.n..g....b. a...s..e..b...a..l.l.,..c..r..o..s..s. .in...g...s..t.r. e...e..t..,. ju-m....p...i.n...g.... rope, climbing stain, sawing wood, washing dishes, building lire, etc.) Describe the accident..................... ........................ - ...... What Kind of Injury was It? (Broken arm, fractured skuil, out finger, bruised toe, burned hand, etc!) Was a doctor called?..................... Jf so, state his name and address--...................... Number of days kept from school................................... Signature of Teacher. 3. The Accident committee, under the guidance of the safety advisor, compiles the data from each classroom. A record of this completed report is forwarded to the Baltimore Safety Council. 4. At meetings of the Safety Council, the chairman of the accident committee presents a summary of the class accident records for the previous monthi He discusses the rea sons for the accidents and suggests ways to prevent similar accidents. 5. Remedial measures are planned and ex ecuted. If a certain type of accident seems to be common throughout a sclioot, a school assembly may be devoted to a discussion of the problem. This is followed by work in each classroom in which the teacher tries to utilire accident data in connection with the teaching of the regular school subjects, so that proper attitudes toward safety may be realized. Safety education, therefore, is embodied in the entire curriculum. If a school acci- Child Education Section 227 dent affects only the children of one class, the remedial measures are emphasized only with that group of pupils. In such cases the preventive work may be largely a matter of trying to improve the attitudes of certain individuals who through carelessness be come involved in accidents and of others who may be responsible for causing acci dents. It it felt by teachers in Baltimore that work of Ihe kind where attention is directed to individual children is one of the more important factors in reducing school acci dents. For the past three years in Baltimore another activity has stimulated interest in accident prevention--an annual safety cam paign. The wide variety of safety pro grams and activities carried out . by each school is ample evidence that the problem of accident reduction is assuming greater significance in our educational program. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 12, 1937 SAFEGUARDING THE SCHOOL CHILD The meeting was called to order by J. C. Kansas City, Kan., who introduced the Harmond, Principal. Argentine High School, speakers. i What Have We Learned from the New London, Texas, School Explosion? By DAVID J. PRICE Principal Engineer In Charge, Chemical Engineering Research Division,'Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, U. S, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D, C. The explosion iu the Consolidated School Building at New London, Texas, on March 18, 1937, was the most serious school dis aster that has ever occurred in America. As the result of this explosion approximately 300 boys and girls, ranging from fifth grade to high school age, were either instantly killed or died from the effects of injuries received in the explosion. At the request of Governor James V. Allred, the writer was detailed by Secretary Henry A. Wallace of the Department of Agriculture to cooperate with Texas State officials in the investigation of this explo sion. The Consolidated School of the district was located near New London and many of the pupils were brought to the school in buses. The estimated average enroll ment for the district at the time of the disaster was more than 700 pupils. The building was of reasonably good con struction with brick walls backed with hol low tile and having steel beam columns and girders. The auditorium was located in the center of the building, with the high school rooms at the north end and the grade school rooms at the south end. The main building extended from north to south for a distance of 254 feet, with wings at each end about 136 feet in length. Although most of the class recitation rooms and offices, as well as the auditorium, were on the upper or what was commonly known as the first floor, there were also, classrooms oir the lower or basement floor on the east side of the building at the end of both wings. The space on the lower floor on the west side of the building and directly under Ihe rooms on the floor above was practically unoccupied "dead space/* used principally, for storage. The school building was heated by 72 in dividual gas steam radiators, and the gas 228 Tuvnly-Sixth Motional Safety Congress for heating at the time the explosion oc curred was obtained from a nearby residue gas-pipe line owned by one of the oil com panies. The explosion, which occurred about 3:10 p.rn.. shortly after tltc classes had begun work in the last period of the day, appeared to Ik* on tlie lower floor underneath the classrooms on the first floor. The concrete floor was blown upward and many of tlie pupils were hurled up into the air. Tlie walls collapsed and the roof fell, burying large number* of boys and girl* the mass of brick, concrete, and steel dibris. The investigation showed that the explosion ua cauMMl by the ignition of an accumula tion of natural gas in the unoccupied space itmlt-r ihc class recitation rooms, when a jKrialilc plug electric connection was made t<> -tart (lie oiwration of a sanding machine in the adjoining manual training shop. The complete report of the investigation of the explosion, which includes recom mendation* for the prevention of similar occurrences, has been published as U. S. Senate Document No. 56. Copies can be ii)uaim-<l without charge from the Chemical KngiiMreritig Researcli Division of the Bu reau of Chemistry and Soils, U. S. Depart ment of Agriculture, Washington. D. C. The im|>ortant question at the present time is what wilt result from the New London. Texas, explosion insofar as the adoption and application of safety measures in the school* of America are concerned? Tragic as tlie occurrence was, we must recognize that the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago on December 30. 1903, in which more than fiOO people lost their lives, re sulted in the development of many safety meagre* for the protection of people in puhlie buildings. Adequate exit facilities, tirc-rc*i*livc stage materials, fire escapes, fire drill*. <ysicmatic inspection and similar mcaure* ior tlie protection of life have been applied with incalculable value. Tlie most important developments in the investigation of the explosion in the Texas schoothousc can Ik summarized as follows: 1. It muM Ik recognized that open or un occupied spaces underneath class recitation rooms are dangerous. Such spaces are too readily available for the storage of com bustible materials or explosives, or for the accumulation of dangerous gases and vapors. 2. In*i*cclu*n and supervision of school buildings, during construction and before and during occupancy, by competent officials is vitally necessary. This must include the inspection of heating and lighting equipment and appliances and similar installations from the standpoint of safety before boys and girls are allowed to occupy the building. The safety of occupancy is of the most fun damental importance. 3. Hazardous processes should not be car ried on under or adjoining class recitation rooms. The isolation of manual training room operations, smith and forging opera tion*. carpenter shop work, automobile, motor, and engine repair work, and the lo cation of these operations in buildings separate from the main school building is desirable. 4. The inherent danger of using the base ment under class recitation rooms as a garage for buses, automobiles, trucks, etc., must be recognized. The necessary storage of gasoline, oils, and other flammable liquids in connection with Ihe operation and maintenance of garages introduce* a serious hazard in the development of consolidated high schools, particularly in rural areas. 5. The use of effective malodorants for detection of escaping combustible gases due to leaking equipment or other causes, when the gas used for heating or lighting has no odor or toxic effect, is vilally necessary. 6. The importance of the further devel opment of alarm and warning devices in connection with the operation of combusti ble gas indicators as adapted to school buildings and other institutions where large numbers of people are exposed to explosion liazards, has been dearly shown. Tlie National Board of Fire Underwriters lias developed a Self-Inspection Blank for Schools which has been approved and adopted by the National Association of Public School Business Officials. This form recommends that the inspections Ik made each month by a group consisting of a member of the teaching staff, the building custodian, and a member of the local fire department. The completed reports should be filed with the local Board of Education. The National Board also has developed a booklet entitled, "Fire Prevention and Pro tection as Applied to the Public and Pa rochial Schools/' which explains the salient features pertaining to proper maintenance ami safety conditions of schools. This Child Education Section 229 booklet in particularly useful for .school principals and building custodians. of Fire Underwriters. 85 John Street, New York, N. Y.; 222 West Adams Street. Chi The New London, Texas, disaster has cago, 111.; 1014 Merchants Exchange Build renewed interest in inspection plans for ing, San Francisco, Cal., according to the school buildings. One outstanding example location ui the community concerned. is the action taken by the Department of In order that the tragic explosion in the Public Instruction, Commonwealth of Penn New London schoolhouse may not be just sylvania. On March 13, 1937, that depart another "unusual disaster/' the following ment sent out 13,000 copies of this self-* inspection form with an urgent request that the local school officials throughout the State make immediate check of school con ditions. concerted action program is recommended to all responsible and interested agencies in order to prevent similar occurrences in other scliool districts: 1. Arrange for immediate inspection of The Texas Inspection Bureau has been school buildings, with special attention to actively conducting a campaign for tlie self- basements, unoccupied spaces, open and dead inspection of public schools since the dis spaces under classrooms. All combustible aster at New London. A special letter with material should be promptly removed and the caption, "Can It Happen in Your steps taken to prevent the future storage School?" ami emphasizing the importance and collection of flammable and other dan and value of regular injections, has been gerous materials. sent to every school district in the State. This campaign already has given encourag ing results. 2. Provide proper agencies for passing on construction plans for new' school buildings or improvements and additions to existing The Oklahoma Inspection Bureau has buildings with respect to safety for occu prepared a special pamphlet on school fire pancy. See that all heating and lighting hazards, and has done splendid work in equipment and appliances arc installed by bringing this matter to the attention of properly trained workmen in compliance school officials in that state. wills requirements of recognized standard The National Board of Kirc Underwriters advised the Department of Agriculture under date of September II, 1937, that sclf-iirqjcction methods have proved both practical and effective in American schools. Since September, 1934, the National Board has been called upon to furnish, without codes, and that all possible safety measures are adopted before school children are al lowed to occupy the building. 3. Arrange to isolate all processes involv ing fire or explosion hazards from under neath class recitation rooms or in close proximity thereto. charge, more than 425,000 copies of the 4. Make provision for extension of Self-Inspection Blank" for Schools, ami methods for inspection and supervision of their records indicate that the plan has been school buildings and similar institutions as used in approximately 1,100 communities now applied in urban centers to consolidated throughout the country. These self-inspcc- and other schools in rural areas. tion forms and booklets are available to local school and fire officials. Requests should be addressed to the National Board 5. Provide for systematic and regular fire drills under supervision of competent and qualified authorities. Making a Non-Technical Survey of a School By KENNETH N. BEADLE Supervisor of Safety Education, St. Paul Public School! Tlie contribution* made to educational progress by the use of the sui vey are dis tinctive, and practical))* every phase of pub lic school work has been influenced by the studies which surveys have brought forth. Perhaps no movement in education has con tributed more to the professionalization of educational administration than the work of the survey. This method of advancing education is 230 Tx\\'ntv-Sixth A'atioual Safety Congress particularly oseniial m developing a rela tively new phase of the curriculum, such as safety education, in order to meet the situa tion that exists and answer the criticism by an unprejudiced statement of conditions. Over 30,230,000 children, according to the National Education Association, leave their homes every school day of the year, per haps careful in crossing streets, but hurry into danger of lire, danger of panic, sick ness and accident, imperiled in buildings long condemned by Health officials and fire marshals as unsanitary and unsafe. A safety survey in the public schools should include a careful analysis of the various conditions that exist on the play grounds. Common hazards which are being tound in our survey include such things a* using pieces of brick and broken cement for bases on the ball diamond, playground surfacing composed of rough abrasive cinders, foot scrapers at the door that stand up with kniic-likc sharpness, buckled side walks that arc impossible to walk on when covered with sleet, and retaining walla of various heights that are not protected with adequate fencing. Retaining walls surrounding a playground present many hazards. Quite commonly we find walls up to three, four and five feet high with no fences built on lop. There are also walls up to 14 feet high that are topped only by pipe fences with two rails. Last year at one of the grade schools, a boy fell from the top of such a wall and was killed. Con structed on some of these walls are woven wire fence* which arc not sufficiently high to prevent their being easily mounted. We discovered a practice of placing woven wire fence* around retaining walls with the rough sharp ends of wire projecting up into the air instead of extending down at the Itoitnm. as the fence liad been designed to Iw used. The purpose in doing this was to create a dangerous barrier over whtdh it might lie more difficult to climb. Our safety education division has protested vigorously against this practice. We have taken the stand that it is not justifiable to place any safety hazards as a deterrent to prevent children ft m drtnaging property. Fences on to,. these walls are unsatis factory unless they can be constructed close enough to the other edge of the wall to prevent children from climbing along the ledge outride of the fence. A 10. 12. or 14 foot wait w hich is 20 inches wide and which has a fence placed squarely in (he middle of it, making a 10 inch ledge, represents a challenge to any boy. With very little im agination. the wall and fence can be made to represent dangerous exploits in climbing hitherto unsealed mountain peaks. All the lecturing in the world will not keep boys from such an adventure. The only remedy u to avoid building a structure in this way or to diange the construction. 1 have talked somewhat at length about this matter of retaining walls just to indi cate how many aspects there may he to one safety hazard. In the final analysis, of course, neither schools nor playgrounds should be built where retaining walls are necessary. * A comprehensive study of pupil accidents by the National Safety Council has indicated that iff per cent of injuries to school chil dren, resulting in absence from school, occur to pupils while in the school building or on tle playground, and the greatest num ber of accidents in the building happen in the gymnasium. Gymnasiums, shops, laboratories, corri dors, stairways and the like should be singled out for emphasis. Factors to con sider in surveying a gymnasium arc: Con struction and location in accordance with proper standards, utilization of space, giving first consideration to participants, and pro viding seats for spectators well out of the way of participants. If the floor surface is slippery, adequate preparation to put it back in shape for use is essential. Overcrowding play space also presents a serious hazard. Projections such as radiators, sharp corners, uprights and any other obstructions should be podded. All apparatus and equipment should be periodically examined. All ac tivities taking place in the gymnasium should haveUupcrvision at all times. Ah important essential which is still all too frequently neglected is a medical exami nation (or all individuals who will partici pate in strenuous activity. Every physical education department should be equipped to administer first aid to major and minor injuries. Where a nurse is not on the school staff, first aid cabinet* and manuals should be kept in the physical education office, and the principal's o(Kce. Shower and locker rooms should have adequate protection against the spreading of contagious disease. All lockers, locker room floors and shower rooms should be sprayed Child Education Section 231 regularly with a disinfectant A towel and laundry' system will eliminate the filthy towel that three or four different boys use each physical education period. Regular at tendance to toilet facilities ts amazingly neglected in many schools. Supervision of locker rooms will prevent many of the ac cidents that occur in these places. A check might be made on the number of pupils who ride bicycles. Is anything being done to discourage their riding to and from school where it is not necessary? Is the risk of riding bicycles of great enough importance to establish standard rules and regulations for riding? Is a bicycle club organized for the purpose of giving instruc Where there is a swimming pool, there tion to these people and establishing rules can be tragedy if there is no proper organi for safe riding ? According to "Accident zation and supervision. Sanitation of the Facts," 350 people lost their lives in 1935 facilities as well as the individual is essen as a result of accidents while riding bicycles, tial, and every pupil should be taught to and 200 of these were children between the swim. ages of five and 14. In 1936 there were 650 The industrial arts department is a group that is perhaps the most conscious of safety, yet an inspection here should be included accidental deaths on bicycles and 300 of these were children under 15 years of age besides the additional thousands injured. as a very necessary part of any survey. We have discovered so far in 35 schools, Brief suggestions for consideration might which are not quite half the number of be: Condition and inspection of equipment, public schools in the city, that over 4,600 ample space between machines, adequate pupils own bicycles, A bicycle safety league machine guarding, repairs made promptly, has been organized in cooperation with the proper clothing worn, adequate instruction police department and the automobile club for using machines, continuous supervision in order to extend membership to every of shop activities, injuries properly taken pupil in the city who owns a bicycle. Mem care of and accidents reported promptly. bership is optional, but the opportunity Is What about halls and stairways? Are they adequately lighted? T have seen students fall down stairs because they couldn't see, and they couldn't see because the janitors insisted upon keeping the lights out to satisfy the school board who were bent on reducing presented in such manner that those who pledge themselves to abide by the rules and regulations set up, do so sincerely and hon estly. To continue stressing safety in bicycle riding, plans are being made to organize separate bicycle clubs in each school. the light bill. A major item in any school survey is fire .Is the surface on the halls and stairs so prevention. A more complete check list is highly polished that it causes slipping and suggested in a bulletin issued by the Child falling? Are repairs around the building Education Section of the National Safety made promptly? Is freedom from obstruc Council to School Executives in December, tion in the halls given sufficient considera 1936. tion? Is the schedule of passing to and The arrangement and construction of the from classes arranged to avoid congestion building is the first consideration. What and confusion? Is there a school patrol or portion of the building, if any, is not fire ganized to direct traffic in the building and proof? Have the floors, room partitions, around the school grounds ? outside walls and roof covering been Car parking around a school building is a checked regularly ? Are there wooden stairs condition worthy of recognition. Parking down into an open hall? Is the heating plant at the curb on the same side of the street in a separate fire-proof room with fire re where the school building is located presents sistance doors? Is all woodwork protected the dangerous possibility of school children from hot pipes, stoves and burners? Do all running out into the street between the cars. doors open outward, not m--like those in a Lost year this was the direct cause of death school in Ohio where 174 children perished? to a high school boy in St. Paul. The adja cent side of the street surrounding the building must Iw kept clear of parked cars to insure protection from this kind of ac Is the building equipped with automatic sprinklers? Are all emergency exits easily accessible and clearly marked? Can the fir* signal in the building be operated from cident. School buildings situated on comers offer a still greater hazard than tirosc in the center of a block. several places, especially the janitor's room, principal's office and from the corridor in each wing of the building ? 232 Twuty-Sirih Motional Safety Congress Arc lire escaj>cs provided in accordance with the school code? Are they adequate in type, size, and number, and are they kept in good condition? Are Arc drills held in ac* cordatice with the law? Are drills made at irregular intervals and at unusual limes, such as during assembly jteriods? Is the building adequately equipped with Are ex tinguishers of tire proper types and in ac cessible locations? Are these extinguishers inspected regularly, recharged annually, and the noaxles kept free from corrosion? Ts there a fire hose on each floor, and is it inspected periodically? All electric appliances and wiring should be periodically checked by an experienced electrician, in order to make a fire preven tion survey complete. To continue our investigation and study for the safety of school children, is there a plan for reporting accidents? If this mat ter is not put on a sound basis and handled systematically, negligence and indifference will lie the cause of losing much of the beneficial results that could he obtained from such a study. In a long time phut for a program of safety education, a continuous survey ui student accidents is invaluable in setting up machinery for the prevention of accidents. The information obtained is priceless in developing a course of study to meet the need of any given locality. This plan was adopted in our school system start ing early last April. It may interest you to know that in only two months* time, reports of 350 accidents occurring to school children were recorded. Of course; most of these were minor in juries and undoubtedly many accidents were not reported. Forty-five occurred in the school building* one hundred three on the playground, 56 on the street, 14 at home in the house, 59 at home out of doors, 14 were automobile accidents, and 76 accidents oc curred elsewhere. The total number of days lost from school was 474. A survey of a school involving a study of causes and prevention of accidents should never be terminated, but rather should be a continuous process. Any school adminis trator can easily make a preliminary sur vey of his school. There are at least three types of inspec tion blanks now available to schools from the United States office of Education, the National Board of Fire Underwriters, and the National Safety Council. School Building Hazards Ewing B. Fcrfcti*. Branch Manager, Kan- on "What Shall We Do About School sas Inspirtion Bureau. Wichita. Kan., spoke Building Hazards?" FRIDAY MORNING SESSION October 15, 1937 JOINT SESSION WITH STREET AND HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SECTION An account ui I lie joint se*icn of the Street and Highway Traffic Section and Child Education Section, a panel disruption on "The Drivers of the Future," will be found in the 5trect and Highway Traffic Section of this volume. ADJOURNMENT Home Safety THURSDAY MORNING SESSION October 14. 1937 The session was called to order by Rosa mond Losh, Executive Secretary, Children's Bureau, Kansas City, Mo., and Chairman of the Home Safety Committee, National Safety Council. The meeting was in the form of a panel di*>cu*smn. THE HOME ACCIDENT PROBLEM The panel discussion of the home acci dent problem was led by F. C. Lynch, Di rector, Kansas City Safety Council, Kansas City, Mo. Panel participants included: Melville Carr, Director, Life Saving and Accident Prevention Service, American Red Cross, Chicago. Mrs. Frank Goodnow, Girl Scouts, Tnc., Kansas City, Mo. Mrs. Edward Hammett, Chairman on Public Safety, General Federation of WomeiVs Clubs, Sheboygan, Wis, Mrs. W. A. Hastings. Vice-President, National Congress of Parents and Teach ers, Madison, Wis. A, A. Rail, Safety Supervisor, Kansas City Power and Light Co,, Kansas City, Mo. Captain Fred C. Mills, National Director, Health and Safety Service, Boy Scouts of America, New York City. The consensus of the panel was that the proper approach is not now being made to the home accident problem and that there is need of greater cooperation between the various groups concerned with home safety. The need was stressed for better ami more uniform building codes and for safer equipment and appliances. It was pointed out that women were the most Important factor in obtaining sate appliance*, since they spend about 80 per cent of their time in the home and either purchase directly or influence the purchase of the preponderance of appliances. Enforcement oi home safety principles, it was agreed, must come from within the home. Thus it must come about through education, and this education must start in the cradle. Following the discussion an address on "The Psychological Approach to the Studv of Home Safety" was given by Dr. Paul A. Witty, Professor of Education, Northwest ern University, Evanston, III. The session closed with a demonstration of "How Puppetry- Can be Utilised in Teach ing Home Safety/' ADJOURNMENT 233 Accident Prevention Equipment Manufacturers Who Exhibited at the Twenty-Sixth National Safety Congress and Exposition Kansas City, Mo., October 11-15, 1937 Exhibition Hull--Municipal Auditorium Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.. Hartford. Conn. Automobile Driving Tests. Arntzen, Inc., Chicago, III. Auxiliary & Emergency Stretcher First Aid Equipment. Automatic Traffic Control Corp., St. Paul, Minn. Traffic Actuated Control Equipment. Hear Manufacturing Co.. Rock Island, III. Vehicle Inspection Equipment. Hendiv Products Corp., South Bend. Ind. Automotive Equipment. Crouse-Hinds Co.. Syracuse. N. Y. Traffic Signals and Floodlights. Dual Parking Meter Co., Oklahoma City, Okla. Parking Meter Equipment. Donald F. Duncan, Inc., Chicago, III. Parking Meter Equipment. Eagle Signal Corp., Moline, III. Traffic Actuated and Fixed Time Control Equipment. Enameled Steel Sign Co., Chicago, III. Day and Night Steel Reflecting Signs. Harlcy-Davidson Motor Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Police Motorcycles and Equipment. Hoof Products Co.. Chicago, III. Motor Vehicle Speed Control Governors. Indian Motocycle Co., Springfield, Mass. Police Motorcycles and Equipment. Juvenile Wood Products. Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind. Automobile Safety Seats for Children. The Karpark Corp., New York City. Parking Meter Equipment. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.. Boston, Mass. Automobile Safety Service and Insurance. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., Chicago, III. Automobile Safety Service and Casualty Insurance. 235 236 Twenty-Sixth National Sofety Congress The Marlimlalc Kleetric Co.. Cleveland. Ohio. Highway Saiely Sipnak McC'loskey Torch Co., Toledo, Ohio. Domb Shell Torches and Truck Flares. Mclro|>nlitan Life Insurance Co., New York City, Insurance. Michigan Malleable Iron Co., Detroit, Mich. Traffic Stop Signs. Rich Signs Corp., Wichita, Kans. Highway kcllecting Trailic Markers. S-W Supply Co.. Girard. K*n.. Highway Railroad Signals. Threeway Signal Co., Oklahoma City, Okla. Safety Signal Equipment. Traffic Roy, Inc., Canton. Ohio. School Zone Traffic Signs. Vuited Slates Steel Corporation Subsidiaries, Pittsburgh, Pa. Steel Products and Cement. Weaver Maiuifaeiuring Co.. Spnngfichl. III. Vehicle Inspection Equipment. INDEX Accident Prone Drivers; See Personal factors. 21S-227. Accident Records, Their Meaning and Use Session; 215-317. Alcohol and Driving: See Drivers and Driving. Awards: See Rewards. Hatley. A D : Siuilmt Accident Statistics--The ract* and What They Mean, 216-216. Beadle. K. N.; Miking a Non-Tschnical Survey of a School. 22'J-232. Bcckenbacli, C. G.; How Can We Protect Pedes trians in Trailic? 40-44. Bicycles: Protecting the Bicyclist (Rudd). 44-46. Bredc, O. M.: Preventive Maintenance for Motor Vehicle*. 156-159. Buffe. P How to Make Good Bus Drivers Out of Street Car Operators, 210-212. Hinri: Hoarding, Alighting and Falls Inside of _ Cars and Buses (Orta). 165-166. Bus Stop*, 165-165. Tlie Effect of Parking on Hoarding and Alighting Accidents (Simpson), 162-16S. How to Make Good Bus Drivers Out of Street Car Operators (Buffe), 210-212. Near Versus Far-Side Stops (Kreh), 164-187. Psychological Testing at the Capital `Transit Com pany (Waits). 161-162. Selecting Street Car and Bus Stop Locations (Transeau), 179-183. See also Drivers and Driving; Rlectric Rail way*. Directors ot Public Safety Session; 35. Discipline: Disciplinary Programs--Awards and Penalties (Crosby), 151-154 She Drinking Driver Session: 13-20. rivers and Driving: Are Driver Tests Worthwhile? (Latter), 1S9-161. The Balanced Fleet Safety Program. Talks Pre sented at the Commercial Vehicle Accident Prevention School (Hayden). 167-193. Controlling the Driver (Canty), 32-34. Disciplinary Programs--Awards and Penalties (Crosby), lSl-VSV Driver Requirements (Lee), 196-198. Driver Selection and Training Methods (Strug?glM), 141-145. |e Drivers of the Future, 61-79. it and Unfit Drivers (Vitefei), 200 rtarulhng the Cass of the Driver Who Has Been Drlnjong (Williamson), 16-1*. Tlie Highway and, the Driver (Marsh), 196-200 Hours of Duty of Drivers, 173-175. How to Make Good Bus Drivers Out of Street Car Operators (Buffe), 210-612. The^ Influence of Drunk-Driving (G-ibrietson), Periodical Examination of Employees, 213. Psychological Testing at the Capital Transit Company (Waijs), 161-162. Safe Transportation of Liquid Fuels bv Motor Carrier (Lockwuod), 169-177. Studying High Accident Drivers (Traffic LexMm No. Ill, Reeder), 83-64. Sustaining Educational Activities (Hilton), 146. Tests for Driver Intoxication. Report of Progress Activities of Committee (Porter), 105-117. What Arc the Fit and Unfit Drivers? (Lauer), See also Motor Vehicles; Personal Factors: Sliced: Traffic. Drunken Drivers: See Drivers and Driving. Dunlap, R. J.: Can the Public Be Educated? 46-49. Cato. E. R.: What Can We Do About Speed and Accidents? 7-10. " ` ition: Coll_______ _______t (Goetf), 265-227. The Drivm of the Future, 61-79. Mow Accident Facts and Records May Be Used in Curriculum Building (Wickey), 216-222 Student Accident Statistics--Tha Facts and What They Mean (Battey), 216-218. Child Education Section: Joint Session With Street and Highway Traffic Section, 61-79. Minutes. 215-232. Officer^ 215, Chihl Safety: Making a Nun-Technical Survey of a School (Beadle). 229-232. What Have We Learned From the New London, Texas, School Explosion? (Price), 267-229. . City and Slate Police Meeting (Groo), 35. Commercial Fleets: See Drivers and Drivingt Motor Vehicles. Commercial Vehicle Regulations Session: 169-178. Commercial Vehicle Section: Joint Session With Street and Highway Traffic Section. 178-179. Joint Session With Transit Section, 155-168. Minutes, 137-193. Officers. 137-138. Report of Joint Committee on Vehicle f^odt (Moyer), 178-179. Committee on the Driver Session: 195-200. Contests; National Fleet Safety Contest. 154-155. Crosby, K J.: Disciplinary Programs---Awards and Penalties, 151-154. Electric Railways: Boarding, Alighting and Kal ..Jn**de of Cars and Buses (Orts). 165-166. bEmffeect otf PFarkinge* C< onditions and Practices Frequency of Street Car and'Vch7cle"ColM- sions (Schretber). 166-166. The Effect of Parking on Boarding and Alight- lug Accidents (Simpson), 162-165. Hear Versus Far-Side Slops (Kirch), 184-187. Psychological Testing at the Capital Transit Company (Waits), 161-162. Selecting Street Car and Hus Stop Locations (Transeau), 179-183. Enforcement: City amt Sutc Police Meeting .(Groo), 3a. * En^iiieeriiiK li Highway- for Safety Engineering the Vehicle for Safety (James). 2025. * Exhibits: Exhibitor* at the 26th Annual Safety Congress. 235-236. Explosions: What Have We (warned from ill* rfew Londoo, Texa*. School Explosion? (Price), 227-229. Furlong, J. E.: State Highway Officials, 36. 237