Dry white lead is made by feeding a metal travelling lattice with pulp white lead inside a drying chamber entirely closed in. When dry, the white lead is automatically brushed off, elevated, and automatically packed in a chamber under efficient exhaust draught. In this part of the process, therefore, risk to the workers is very small.

The stringent Special Rules for the White Lead Industry show what other precautions, in addition to exhaust ventilation, are necessary—especially personal cleanliness. The effect of one other factor—casual labour—however, must be referred to. The condition at the present time is very different from that which existed twelve years ago. From one factory in 1899, depending much on casual labour, 111 cases were reported, and from another 72. In an inquiry made by one of us in 1898, information was obtained of the actual number employed on any one date, and of the total number passing through the factories in a year.

Among the firms with regular employment at that time, the incidence of lead poisoning was 60 per 1,000 on the average number employed, and in those with casual employment 390 per 1,000. Work in lead had secured a bad name, and no one who could get employment elsewhere would take to it. Consequently, the class of men applying for work was a low one—men discharged from other employment and those unfitted for skilled labour. Not a few were addicted to alcohol. The work was unskilled, and had the additional advantage to men of that class that much of it was piece work, paid at a good rate, which could be finished as a rule by three o’clock in the afternoon.

Diminution in the number of cases from 399 in 1899 to 34 in 1910 has been brought about mainly by—(1) Improved structural conditions; (2) adoption of mechanical means (cranes, rails, hoists, etc.) for conveyance of material in substitution for hand carrying; (3) exhaust ventilation, where dust arises as in packing and paint-mixing; (4) periodical medical examination; (5) diminution in height of the stoves or adoption of mechanical drying stoves; (6) conversion of white lead into paint by means of direct mixture with oil while in the pulp stage; and (7) substitution of small, square, glazed pots—cockney pots—requiring the lead strips to be placed on them, for the deep castle pots into which the lead grids are folded in the white beds. Prohibition of female employment in the dangerous processes was made prior to the Special Rules of 1899. Their greater susceptibility as compared with men, the special effect of lead on the uterine functions, and the unsuitability of much of the work for women, fully justified the step recommended by the White Lead Committee in 1898.

Earthenware and China.

[22]—The industry includes the manufacture of earthenware, china, tiles, majolica ware, Rockingham ware (teapots), sanitary ware, china furniture, and electrical fittings, and any other articles made from clay; but of the total 6,865 persons employed in lead processes in the whole of the United Kingdom in 1907, 5,834 are included in the manufacture of the first three. And even in the manufacture of earthenware, china, and tiles, the poisoning which occurs is not distributed evenly over the whole of the factories. These number 550, and, taking the period 1904-1908, 5 potteries were responsible for 75 cases, 17 for 119, and 151 for 323, leaving 377 factories out of the 550 from which no case was reported. Incidence seems to depend more on the scale and rapidity of the output of cups, saucers, plates, and tiles, in everyday use, than on anything else.

The number of reported cases year by year from 1900 to 1909 has been as follows:

ALL LEAD-WORKERS IN PLACES UNDER EARTHENWARE AND CHINA SPECIAL RULES. WHOLE OF UNITED KINGDOM (INCLUDING NORTH STAFFORD).

Number of Persons Employed.

China.Earthen-
ware.		Tiles.Majolica.Jet and
Rocking-
ham.		China,
Furniture
and
Electrical
Fittings.		Sanitary.Totals.Totals,
M. and F.
1904M.5362,751557100216 441904,394 -6,694
F.2381,122562110 71158 392,300
1907M.6252,835474 96171 662374,504 -6,865
F.3021,111487170 70179 422,361