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63
OFFENSIVE TRADES.
Report on Messrs. Link's Catgut Factory, Weaver
Street.
The Sanitary Committee having visited the premises in the
occupation of Messrs. Link, in Weaver Street, presented the
following report to the Vestry:—
There are in Weaver Street two factories, one in the occupation
of Mr. J. D. Link, and the other of Mr. G. Link.
The buildings in which the operations of scraping and preparing
the gut are carried on are not modern, and without re-building it
would be impossible to make them as perfect as could be done with
modern appliances.
The third bye-law of the Metropolitan Board of Works for
regulating the conduct of this business, made under the 37th and
38th Vic., c. 67, requires that every gut scraper shall cause his
business to be so carried on, and shall in all other respects cause
such precautions to be taken as may be necessary to prevent the
emission of any offensive smell into the external atmosphere from
any part of the premises where such business may be carried on.
For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this bye-law,
the process of scraping the gut is performed in, what is called, a
close chamber. The air from this chamber is drawn through a
furnace and burnt; the inlets for fresh air are protected by valves
opening inwards, and the windows and doors are supposed to fit
air-tight.
Upon examination the Committee find that the doors fit very
badly, permitting the escape of a good deal of noxious effluvium
into the external atmosphere, and that the inlet valves are hung so
imperfectly and close so badly as to offer very little impediment to
the efflux of air.
By the twelfth bye-law, every floor upon which any process of
the business is carried on in any part of the premises is required to
be properly covered with a layer of concrete or other suitable
jointless impervious material. Upon examination the Committee
find that the floors of both factories are laid with York flagging