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In 5 cases the unsatisfactory conditions were caused by gas
stoves used for the heating of irons being unprovided with a flue to
carry off the products of combustion ; and proper hoods and flues were
fixed.
In the other 4 cases suitable means were taken to improve the
conditions complained of. In order to secure these alterations it was
found necessary to serve 5 notices.
In 6 cases the means of warming were found to be unsatisfactory.
Two of these were improved on request, and 4 were reported to H.M.
Inspector of Factories.
Overcrowding.
All the workrooms in the workshops are measured by the Inspectors
and the cubic space in each room is ascertained. The maximum number
of workers that can legally occupy the room is then calculated, and this
information is set out on a card supplied by the Council, which is hung
up in each room. The legal number of occupants varies according as
overtime is worked, or whether the room is used as a sleeping room as
well as a workroom. During 1914, 25 new workrooms were measured.
Overcrowding was found in 4 instances; in 3 cases it was
immediately abated on the request of the Inspector, but in one case it
was necessary to serve a notice.
Abstract of the Act.
Section 128 of the Factory Act provides that an abstract of the Act
" shall be affixed at the entrance of every factory or workshop, and in
such other parts thereof" as the Factory Inspector may direct; and
Section 133 of the Act provides that " when any woman, young person,
or child is employed in a workshop in which no abstract of this Act is
affixed as by this Act required, and the Medical Officer of Health of the
District Council becomes aware thereof, he shall forthwith give written
notice thereof to the Inspector for the district." The object of this
section is to secure that all new workshops in which protected persons
are employed, discovered by the officers of the local authority, shall be
brought to the notice of the Factory Inspector, who supplies the
occupiers of workshops with the abstracts of the Act. The occupier of
a workshop is under legal obligation to give notice of his occupation of
the workshop to the Factory Inspector within a month after it has
begun, but owing to ignorance of the law, and for other reasons, this
obligation is frequently left unfulfilled, and the inspector is informed
of the occupation by the local Medical Officer of Health. Pursuant to
this section, 14 workshops and 1 factory were notified to H.M. Inspector
of Factories as being without the abstract required.