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send to the factory inspector of the district in which the factoiy or workshop is situated a list of outworkers
and the places where they are employed. This requirement extends under the Order of
November 2nd, 1892, to the following occupations, viz.: the manufacture of wearing apparel; the
manufacture of electro-plate; cabinet and furniture making and upholstery work ; the manufacture
of files.
Under the Act of 1895 a minimum space is now required in each room of a factory and workshop
of 250 cubic feet for each person employed, or during overtime of 400 cubic feet, and the Secretary of
State may modify this proportion for any period during which artificial light other than electric light is
employed, and may require, as regards any particular manufacturing process or handicraft, more cubic
space. In every room must be exhibited a notice showing the number of persons who may be
employed in the room. A reasonable temperature must moreover be maintained in each room in
which any person is employed. The Act of 1895 empowers a court of summary jurisdiction, on complaint
of a factory inspector, to prohibit the use until the necessary works are done of any place as a
factory or workshop if it is in such a condition that any manufacturing process or handicraft carried
on within it cannot be so carried on without danger to health, or to life or limb ; the Act also prohibits the
occupier of a factory or workshop, or any contractor employed by him, from giving out work to be done
in any place concerning which he receives notice from the factory inspector that the place is injurious
or dangerous to health. For the prevention of the infection of clothing the occupier of a factory,
workshop or laundry, or any contractor employed by him, is prohibited from causing or allowing
wearing apparel to be made, cleaned or repaired in any dwelling-house, or building occupied therewith
whilst any inmate of the dwelling-house is suffering from scarlet fever or small pox. The
provisions of the Factory Acts are extended to laundries, with certain exceptions, as if every laundry in
which mechanical power is used were a factory and every other laundry were a workshop. In some
other matters laundries are specially dealt with, and in the case of every laundry worked by steam,
water or other mechanical power, it is provided that a fan or other means of a proper construction
shall be provided, maintained and used for regulating the temperature in every ironing-room, and for
carrying away the steam in every washhouse in the laundry. All stoves for heating irons shall be
sufficiently separated from any ironing-room, gas irons emitting any noxious fumes shall not
be used, and all the floors shall be kept in good condition and drained in such a manner as will allow
the water to flow off freely.
The Act of 1895 extends to all bakehouses certain requirements previously limited to bakehouses
not let or occupied before Ihe 1st June, 1883. These requirements are that no water-closet,
earth-closet, privy or ashpit shall be within or communicate directly with the bakehouse, that the
cistern supplying water to the bakehouse shall be separate and distinct from any cistern supplying
water to a water-closet, and that no drain or pipe for carrying off fcecal or sewage matter shall have an
opening within the bakehouse. The Act of 1895, moreover, prohibits the use as a bakehouse of a place
underground unless it is used at the commencement of the Act. The Public Health Committee of the
Council has communicated with London sanitary authorities suggesting the preparation of a register
showing all underground bakehouses existing, so that they may be able better to deal with any underground
bakehouses not occupied at this time.
The duty of notifying to the chief inspector of factories cases of lead, phosphorus or arsenical
poisoning or anthrax contracted in any factory or workshop is imposed upon medical practitioners, and
in every factory and workshop where lead, arsenic or any other poisonous substance is used, suitable
washing conveniences must be provided for the use of the persons employed.
References to inspection of workshops are found in many of the reports of the medical officers
of health.
Paddington.—The factory inspector sent 15 notices to the health department dealing with
overcrowding, want of water-closet accommodation, dirty and dilapidated workshops; all these were
dealt with by the sanitary inspectors.
Kensington.—The work carried on by the women inspectors is set out by the medical officer of
health who regrets that the vestry decided that all the work could be done by one person, and that the
appointment of the second inspector was allowed to lapse at the end of the year for which she was
.appointed. The report of work done from April, 1895, to January 4th, 1896, shows that there were
634 workshops on the register of which 347 were under the heading of dressmakers, 240 laundries
(which after January 1st, 1896, came under the heading of factories), and 47 miscellaneous. All these
were regularly inspected, 144 notices were served, 124 improvements were effected, such as better
ventilation, floors, roofs, &c. repaired, rooms cleansed and whitewashed; in 66 instances overcrowding
was abated, and 88 nuisances were reported to the medical officer of health, who states that he cannot
speak too highly of the way in which the work of inspection has been carried out.
St. George, Hanover-square.—A house-to-house inspection was made in certain districts, and
where complaints were received, special inquiries were instituted. The number of workshops and
workplaces inspected was 120 ; of these the sanitary arrangements of 100 were defective ; of the 165
workrooms in the above, 38 were overcrowded and 12 dirty; there were altogether 131 persons in
excess of the accommodation, taking only 250 cubic feet as the space allowed for each person.
St. James, Westminster.—There were 17 workshops cleansed and whitewashed, and 4 cases of
overcrowding abated.
Marylebone.—A special inspector was appointed to carry out the work connected with factories
and workshops, and the medical officer of health suggests in his report that it might be well for the
vestry to consider the advisability of also appointing a woman inspector as " there are several places
in the parish which cannot properly be supervised by anyone of the male sex." The inspector paid
251 visits to outworkers, ascertained the cubic space and condition of ventilation of 212 workrooms,
and inspected and reported on 26 new places of business, besides attending to necessary works
connected with places previously inspected.