5. Rent-men, or those who pay rent for
a. A “seat” at some domestic worker’s rooms.
b. “Power,” as turners, and others, when requiring the use of a steam-engine. Some operatives have to pay rent for tools or “frames,” as the sawyers and “stockingers,” and some for gas when working on their employer’s premises.
Operatives are further divisible, according to those whom they employ to assist them, into—
1. Family workers, or those who avail themselves of the assistance of their wives and children, as the Spitalfields Weavers.
2. “Sweaters” and Piece-master workers, or those who employ other members of their trade at less wages than they themselves receive.
3. “Garret-master” workers, or those who avail themselves of the labour (chiefly) of apprentices.
Operatives are moreover divisible, according to those by whom they are employed, into—
1. “Flints” and “Dungs;” “Whites” and “Blacks,” according as they work for employers who pay or do not pay “society prices.”
2. Jobbing piece-workers, or those who work single-handed for the public (without the intervention of an “employer”) and are paid by the piece. These mostly do the work at their own homes, as cobblers, repairers, &c.