Chapter XLIX: Women’s Labour in Tinplate Works

Tinplates, the material of which canisters, tin boxes, etc., are made, are plates of iron or of steel, which have been dipped in baths of molten tin; the tin unites by this process with the iron or steel, and coats it completely. The secret of tinning plates was brought into England from Saxony at the end of the seventeenth century, and the first works were opened at Pontypool. South Wales still retains the chief part of this trade; a few tinplate works are to be found on the banks of the Severn and in the Midlands, but the majority are in Monmouthshire, Glamorgan, and Carmarthen. In these counties great tinplate works, either singly or in groups, or in a long line at intervals of a mile or so down the still beautiful valleys, are to be seen and heard, pouring out volumes of smoke from tall chimneys, and sending up the ceaseless clang and roll of resounding metal--literally ceaseless, for the work goes on night and day, with shifts of men and boys. More unlikely places in which to find women and girls than these iron and steel works where tinplates are made it would be difficult to imagine, yet there are hundreds of them in those of South Wales, and a few in some of the works in England. Before the Factory Acts restricted their hours of labour, women and girls worked all night through in tinplate works with the men and boys, and such employment seems to have lingered long in these out-of-the-way places, for the older women remember the night alarm of the inspector’s visit and the rush from the works out into the darkness, and the quiet stealing home so as not to be caught. Now, boys working in a night-shift take the place of women and girls in the continuous processes. The actual manufacture of the tinplate as distinct from the manufacture of the material is divided into two distinct departments: (1) The preparation of the iron or steel into plates of the required size and thickness, or rather thinness, and the smoothing and cleaning of their surfaces; (2) the tinning of the plates and their subsequent cleaning, polishing, and packing up.

The first set pf processes is carried on in the mills, the second in the tinhouses; the chief part of the work is done by men and boys, but in both the mills and the tinhouses women and girls find occupation. Their labour falls into five main divisions; in some tinhouses there are also found others subsidiary to these five:--

(1) _Opening._--Separating the plates which have in the process of rolling been almost welded together.

(2) _Washing._--Cleansing the plates in water.

(3) _Pickling._--Lading and unlading the cradle with plates for the pickler (a man) to immerse in dilute sulphuric acid.

(4) _Rubbing or Dusting._--Rubbing the tinned plates with bran, meal, or mineral powder to remove grease and polish the surface.

(5) _Counting and Packing._--Ordinary warehouse processes.

The first three of these processes are carried on in the mills, the last two in the tinhouses and warehouses. Different as are the conditions of occupation in the various processes, all the employés are subject alike to certain conditions: in all departments there is exposure to the weather, the works being more or less open on all sides; everywhere there is noise which in the mills is deafening, danger to life and limb from locomotives and trucks in motion, from red-hot metal, from sharp-edged plates, and scraps strewn about, so that the whole works appears one vast rubbish heap; in all departments alike the lifting and carrying of heavy loads are part of the ordinary work. There is also the association of men and women, lads and girls, working together in these great open works where supervision is impossible, and where, unfortunately, proper provision for women’s convenience, often even for elementary decency, is too often conspicuous by its absence.

In the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1888, Mr Whymper gives a graphic description of tinplate works and the various processes of manufacture, only touching upon the part taken by women and girls, and time seems to have made little or no change in either works or processes.

A few remarks must now be made on the special conditions of each of the processes in which women are employed.

1. _Opening._--Mr Whymper has well described this process as follows: “Holding the plate upright on a stand of the proper height, her right hand fitted with the much-needed guard, she first breaks down the plate’s upper edges with a sort of knife, and starts asunder the tops of the layers which the rolling-mill has pressed together temporarily into one piece. Then having thus got something to take hold of, she wrenches them asunder in their whole lengths, one after another, and lays them flat before her. These at last are the required black plates, the result of so much and such varied labour.” Strength and skill are required for this work; there is some danger of overstrain in lifting the heavy plates, but an opener is more at liberty to suit her load to her strength than are the women and girls in the other departments. The sharp edges of the plates inflict nasty cuts upon the hands in spite of the guards worn, and serious accidents have occurred by women stumbling and falling against the upright plates; one young woman had her arm cut open from wrist to elbow in this way. Fine particles of steel and iron fly off in the forcing open of the layers, and it is surprising that injuries to the eyes are not more frequent. Some doctors well acquainted with these works consider that much injury is caused to the men by inhaling these particles of metal present in the air of the mills, and that the women are more injuriously affected than they themselves know, chest diseases in later life resulting from this cause. The openers are a somewhat superior class to the other women in tinplate works, from whom they hold themselves aloof: their hours, too, are much shorter than those of the others, usually from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M., and they come and go as they like.

2. _Washers._--These women wash the metal plates in large tanks of water; they carry loads of these heavy, sharp-edged plates, and immerse them in the tanks, the displaced water splashes over the edge of the tank upon the washer, and falls upon the floor. With sleeves rolled up above the elbow, bending over the tank, the woman raises the plates again, and carries them to stack at a little distance, the water pouring from her load down her dress and into her boots. As the same process is repeated again and again the whole day long, it is not surprising that her clothes are saturated even through the sacking tied on as an apron. Nothing more unsuitable for the occupation than the dress of the washer could well be imagined--several thin articles of clothing hanging wet upon her, the dress and petticoat long enough to draggle in the pools of water on the broken flagged or slushy mud floor, and flapping heavily against her ankles, and upon her feet men’s boots filled with water oozing through the eyelet-holes. Rheumatism, colds, and chills are regarded as inseparable, at any rate in winter, from the work of washing tinplates, and other ills consequent upon this wet condition are complained of. Yet the wearing of a waterproof apron (which should be provided by the employer), and of short skirts, woollen under-garments, and clogs, would prevent nearly all the discomfort and risk to health now endured by all these women. The provision of properly paved and drained floors, such as the Factory Acts require in all laundries, might reasonably be looked for from the occupiers of tinplate works, and were mechanical means employed, as in the bottle-washing departments in aerated water works for, lowering into the tanks and raising from them the articles to be washed, the work would be less unsuitable for women than it is at present.

3. _Pickling._--The roughest and dirtiest, and perhaps the most unhealthy occupation for women in the works is that of the “picklers’ assistants.” These girls work in gangs under the man who has the contract for cleaning the plates in dilute sulphuric acid. Their work is to lade and unlade the cradles in which the plates placed in racks are lowered by the pickler into the steaming tanks of acid. Backwards and forwards the girls move with armfuls of plates, carrying each time weights of thirty pounds and upwards, first filling the racks and then removing from them the wet plates fresh from the tanks. The clothing of the girls becomes saturated like that of the washers. It is not only their health that suffers; the girls are “soaked through to the skin” as they say, not with plain water, but with the “pickle,” which rapidly destroys both their upper and under garments, and also the leather of their boots and clogs.

The strength of the solution of sulphuric acid used in different works varies considerably according to the class of plate manufactured, and consequently the degree of discomfort and ill-health to those exposed to its fumes varies also. The peculiar smell of the acid pervades the entire works, and is encountered sometimes at some distance from them. In the pickling department itself it is very strong; here the huge tanks of pickle emit volumes of steam, which only under very favourable conditions of weather and exceptional structural arrangements rises and escapes from the building; usually it hangs about the workers, or blows in clouds across the open shed, irritating throat and eyes. Where the solution used is a strong one, the workers suffer much from running of the eyes, dryness of the throat, and smarting of lips and face, from what they describe as a “stifled feeling,” and from nausea and giddiness; the teeth become black, and the hair is said by the workers to fall out. When the strongest solution is used, the girls tie handkerchiefs across their mouths and cover the hair completely. But in most cases a weaker solution is employed, and very little complaint of ill-health is made; the workers believe that the pickle gives them an appetite and keeps off infectious illness. In Switzerland, by a decree of 1898, pregnant women are forbidden to work where there is any emanation of sulphuric acid, lifting heavy weights, or violent shocks, conditions which are combined in the pickling department of tinplate works.

The only special health provision of the Factory Acts at present applied to tinplate works is the order of the Secretary of State, dated December 1882, prohibiting meals being taken in departments “where metal is dipped in acid solution.” This excludes women and young persons from the pickling department during meal hours, but as no other place is provided where meals can be eaten under shelter by those whose homes are at a far distance, this rule is frequently disregarded.

4. _Tin-houses._--Large numbers of quite young girls, young persons from thirteen to eighteen years of age, are employed in this work, which is that of rubbing the tinned plates with bran, meal, or fine mineral dust to remove all grease and polish the surfaces of the plates. This process is largely done by hand, but machines have superseded hand-rubbing in some works. Where they are in use, girls are still employed to tend the machines, but fewer are required than when all the work is done by hand. The girls work in the tinhouses standing, whether at the tables heaped with bran or at the machines, at right angles to the tinning stacks where the tinman and his assistants are working. The plates are passed on hot from the tinning-pot to the girls, who push them backwards and forwards through the heaped “bran” before them; or if this first process has been done by the machine, the girls pass the plates through the power-driven sheepskin rollers. In either case the fine dust rises into the face of the worker, covers her hair and dress, and diffuses through the air of the tinhouse, which frequently is filled as with a fog with this light, floating dust. This being inhaled, produces more or less injurious effects, according to the nature of the dust and the susceptibilities of the individual. In some works the irritation to the throat is so great as to make speech almost impossible, and complaints of cough and “stuffing up” of the chest are numerous, while in others, whatever may be the ultimate result on the lungs, no discomfort, after once the worker has become used to the conditions, seems to be felt.

A most objectionable feature of the employment of young girls in the tinhouse is the carrying of heavy loads. As this is not essential to the work, and could be done by boy or man with a specially constructed truck or trolly, it is greatly to be deplored. The plates which have been rubbed accumulate upon the table, and must be removed to the warehouse to be weighed and packed, and so at frequent intervals the girl, with both her hands (protected by sheepskin gloves), grasps her pile of plates, and supporting them upon her hip, staggers along to the warehouse. To prevent constant journeys and secure more time for wage-earning (for the “rubbers” are paid so much for a box of plates), the girls carry as much at a time as they possibly can, carrying loads men hesitate to lift. These loads, carried by slight girls of thirteen or fourteen, weighed from 40 to 111 lbs. Injuries known, and unknown, are done by this unnecessary use of young girls as “beasts of burden.”

ROSE E. SQUIRE.