BLEACHING POWDER WORKS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LV, Issue 5657, 10 March 1893, Page 3

BLEACHING POWDER WORKS.

{Daily Chronicle) A b we go back to the works and place ourselves once more under the guidanoe of the officials of the great syndicate, I will aßk those who are aocompunyiog me on these gruesome errands to try and grasp this point. Tbe system m tbe chemical works, the white lead works, and many another industry, is simply this— bo much work must he done, and so mush pay per piece, say per ton, will be given for it. Anything extra done bo much the better. The tendency jb for tbe minimum to inorease ; more work gets edged m year after year, until the speed has got to crushing point, and so it goes on. The unhealthy nature of the work and the pace of it act and react on one another, and the workman goes with compound velocity towards the ash - heap. This infamy is kept up because the wage Byßlem bribes the workman to exhaust himself; he becomes bis own slave-driver, and unlesß ho is strong enough m his union with other men to regulate the hours of work, one stronger than be will do it for bim, no system of bondage ever devised can lash him into suoh recklessness of toil as he will indict upon himself. You will Bcnrcely recognise thoße figures groping m a dense white mist that you make out through the door of a low and very spuciouß chamber m tbe chemical works aa men at all. i hold my handkerchief tightly over my mouth, for the venomous chlorine licks out and well nigh etfles you as you look on a few yurds away from the entrance. One of tho creatures shuffles into the open, and goes at a trot with his Bpade into another chamber. He is muzzled with folds of Btuff that stands out six inches from his face, which is scarlet and swollen, what you can see of it, by the cords which bind the muzzle on His breathing is fearful to hear, for it is that of a storng man being suffocated. Great goggles cover hiß eye?, be wears a white cap and his legs were swathed m rough gaiters ol paper. Tais is the bleaching powder man, whose duty it is to shovel tbe stuff —lime soaked with chlorine- -into casks They stay m the chamber?, breathing through the muzzle, for periods varying from twenty minutes to an hour, according to the state oi ihe temperature and tho density of the gae which is hanging about tho chamber when tbe door is opened. They are paid at so muob a ton, and have to clear so many chambers a dß.v. In the opinion of the United Alkali Company's officials, the work is extremely healthy, and one gent'eman, Mr Glendinning, the manager of some large works m Bt. Helens, over which he was so good as to show me, is an enthusiast on the delights of oblorine. He assured me that tbe bees and the butterflies carae clustering round the chambers m tbe summer, attracted by tho scent, which resembled tbat of wallflowers, ond he only regretted that he could not keep some of the fragrant odour at bis hou?e. Tho evidence given by Mr Brock* party before the Labour Commission set forth the very healthy character of the occupation, its freedom from sickness, and the like. Several powder packers were prepared themselves to give evidence of this kind. Undoubtedly the men employed upon this work are of prodigious power, but after eeeing some of the finest fallows I ever set eyes on m my life — one of them the cham pion prizefighter of St. Helens -taking their muzzles off after an hour inside the chambers, I should doubt whether any single manager, let alone a director, would be willing to stand inside one of those chamber? for five minuteß. Tbe powder men at ane ol the works at Widnes did me up m a mGzzle m their little shed, where thly grease their skin and put on their poison toggery, whilst Mr Morrison and three or four foremen looked on through the window. There were thirty-six folds of damp fimnel m this dainty respirator. It was fastened just below my nose, and corded very tightly round and round to prevent' the slightest inlet of gas. " Don't do it too tight," Mr Morrison sang out through the window, at the very moment I was wondering what sort of upper lip these men could have to stand the orußhing of the cord. " All right, I ain't Marwood." my valet gaily retorted, as be put tbe finishing strokes, clapped a horrible portcullis of goggles upon me, and told me not to breathe m through my nose. This being a flat impossibility to any one unacquainted with the art of inspiring air through six yards of folded flannel, I made a sign that I should like to be undone. Mr Mormon declined my invitation to try the thing on. "He knows better," laughed the chlorine giants. The work of the men who prepare the lime and spread it on the floor of the chambers is I only a degree better. They also work irj ! flannel muzzles and groa«e their skins tc protect themselves from the bite of the lime, You meet them wheeling their barrows, white from head to foot, their very eyelashee powdered with lime, and inside the limehouse they are to be Been working m a cloud of burning stuff. Thoy cannot wash for feai of burning themselves, though the sweal aoting upon the lime burns them frequently about the neck and shoulders.