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maintain cleanliness in small sheds in hack yards. Sometimes too,
the processes themselves are of a nature to make cleanliness difficult.
Perhaps 30 or 40 per cent of these workshops are open to criticism
on account of uncleanliness. During the year 113 workshops have
been found to require notices for cleansing.
(b) Air Space.—Taking the standard of 250 cubic feet per head as
laid down in Section 3 of the Act, it may be said that few
Finsbury workshops have been found in 1905 to be overcrowded.
In only 11 cases has it been necessary to issue notices. In other
cases a slight re-arrangement of workers has provided that each
person shall have at least 250 cubic feet. In many of the large
workshops the air space provided is liberal. In general, workshops
in Finsbury are not ventilated by fan or other artificial means.
Nine notices have been sent to the Home Office in respect of factories
and workshops which were not effectually heated. In 12 instances
it has been necessary to issue notices for the carrying off of fumes
from gas heaters and acids.
(c) Ventilation.—It has already been pointed out in previous reports
that the majority of workshops in Finsbury are provided with
sufficient means of ventilation, but that a certain number of them
do not conform to the Section of the Act (7—i), which requires that
" sufficient ventilation shall be maintained." The means of ventilation
provided are not always taken advantage of, and it is no easy
matter to compel their use. If the windows of a workshop are open
at the time of inspection, the persons responsible appear to be
doing their best to maintain a pure atmosphere ; and without a
chemical test of the air the period during which the available
means of ventilation have been in use must remain a matter of
conjecture. During the year 18 notices have been served for
insufficient ventilation of workshops. In addition, the Workshop
Inspector has kept under observation those workshops in which
high readings of CO2 were obtained with Haldane's apparatus in
1904, with the result that more efficient ventilation has been
maintained in these places.
(d) Drainage of Floors where wet processes are carried on.—The
only " wet processes " carried on in Finsbury, speaking generally,