Chapter LVI: Effects of Concussion of the Air

_Boilermakers and Riveters._

It may be taken as a fact based upon experience, that artisans who are exposed to such loud noises as are made in hammering rivets suffer from deafness. Boilermakers and riveters become deaf at an early age, while their comrades engaged in other kinds of work in the same shipyard do not suffer. Several young boilermakers whom I have examined have stated that they lost their hearing at an early age. Their infirmity dated back to their ’prentice days, when as boys they were sent into the boilers to catch the rivets, and were subjected to the intense noise of hammering inside the cylinder. Workers in sheet-iron factories are sometimes similarly affected with deafness. It is no uncommon thing, as people know, for artillerymen when firing large guns to be rendered temporarily deaf by the noise and force of the explosion, and in some instances for the drum of the ear to be ruptured. In order to prevent such an accident, cotton wadding is sometimes placed in the ear. It is difficult to say exactly what is the cause of deafness in boilermakers, but the extreme vibration of the tympanum, and the intense agitation of the ossicles, cannot but be followed either by a thickening of the drum of the ear, or by a paralytic condition of the minute terminations of the auditory nerve.

There is nothing I know of that will prevent boilermakers’ deafness, short of substitution of machine for hand riveting, and once deafness is established I know of no reliable cure for it.

_Boilermakers, Shipwrights, etc._

Some idea may be formed of the trades included under this heading, by glancing at the reports of the Boilermakers’ Society, and ascertaining from what trades the members of the society are drawn. The members are engaged in the various steel trades, viz., boilermaking, bridge-building, shipbuilding, also in iron and other structural work composed of iron and steel. They mostly come from the boilermaking and shipbuilding industries. As the central office of this Society is in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I have, through the kindness of Messrs Robert Knight and D. C. Cummings, the past and present secretaries, gained considerable information as to the maladies principally affecting boilermakers, and their death-rate, etc. The work is hard, and as it is mostly carried on in the open the workmen are exposed to all kinds of weather. Under these circumstances, therefore, it would be natural to expect that boilermakers would show a tendency to suffer from acute inflammatory affections, especially of the respiratory organs. Boilermakers as a class are not unhealthy. At the present time there are 48,000 members in the Society. In 1899 there died 436 members, a number equal to 9 per 1000, as against 8 per 1000 of the male population of the country generally. As illustrating the effect of the occupation upon their working powers, members are eligible to be placed upon the superannuation fund at the age of fifty-five years. This is an early age compared with some industries, and yet, at fifty-five some boilermakers are, comparatively speaking, old, a circumstance that is attributed to the arduous nature of their calling. The records of the Society, as of many other trade unions, show that with each succeeding decade in the working life of a boilermaker he is annually on the sick-list an increasing number of days. The average age at death of boilermakers is 46.72 years. Hard and exposed as the work is, it is interesting to know that the average age at death of boilermakers is greater than that of the wives of boilermakers, who are leading an indoor and protected life. The average age at death of members’ wives is 45.47 years, a circumstance which I attribute to many of the wives dying during or shortly after their confinement, and also dying at an earlier age than the members from such other diseases, for example, as consumption.

In the accompanying statistical tables in their present form I am indebted to Dr H. E. Armstrong, Medical Officer of Health, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (see p. 754).

One thousand boilermakers, it will be seen, exhibit a slightly higher death-rate from all causes than 1000 of the male population of England and Wales, the numbers being respectively 9 and 8. They have a slightly higher mean death-rate, too, from all forms of lung diseases, including pneumonia, viz., 3.0 as against 2.9 of 1000 male persons over twenty and under sixty-five years of age; but taking tubercular diseases only, the death-rate from this cause is less, being 1.4 as against 1.6; on the other hand the death-rate for diseases of the heart and circulatory organs is slightly higher, 1.2 as against 1.1.

UNITED SOCIETY OF BOILERMAKERS AND IRON SHIPBUILDERS.

_Extracted from the Annual Reports of the Society._

Column headings:
1: YEAR.
2: No. of Members.
3: All Causes.
4: Bronchitis.
5: Pneumonia.
6: Phthisis, not included in cols. 7, 8.
7: Consumption, not included in cols. 6, 8.
8: Tuberculosis, not included in cols. 6, 7.
9: Cancer.
10: Diseases of Heart, Circulatory System.
11: Typhoid Fever.
12: Lung Diseases, including Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Phthisis, etc.
13: Tuberculosis, including Phthisis, and all other forms.

+---------------+--------------------------------------------+----------+ | | DEATHS FROM | TOTAL | | | | DEATHS. | +------+--------+-----+----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+-----+----+ | =1= | =2= | =3= |=4= |=5= |=6= |=7= |=8=|=9= |=10=|=11=|=12= |=13=| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1896 | 40,776 | 346 | 27 | 35 | 51 | 8 | | 12 | 48 | 5 | 121 | 51 | | 1897 | 42,178 | 379 | 32 | 37 | 43 | 12 | 4 | 23 | 52 | 6 | 124 | 47 | | 1898 | 43,905 | 399 | 25 | 41 | 68 | 6 | 2 | 20 | 53 | 12 | 140 | 70 | | 1899 | 47,417 | 436 | 30 | 53 | 62 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 56 | 25 | 148 | 69 | +======+========+=====+====+====+====+====+===+====+====+====+=====+====+ | _Death-Rate per 1000 Members._ | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | |Per col.|Per col.|Per col.|Per col.|Per col.|Per col.| | | 12. | 13. | 9. | 10. | 11. | 3. | | +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | | =14= | =15= | =16= | =17= | =18= | =19= | | | | | | | | | | | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 8.9 | | | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 9.0 | | | 3.2 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 9.1 | | | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 9.2 | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ |Average for four | | | | | | | | years | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 9.0 | +=================+========+========+========+========+========+========+ | [163]ENGLAND AND WALES.--_Per 1000 population, 1881–90._ | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ |Mean Annual }| | | | | | | | Death-Rate of }| | | | | | | | Male Persons 20}| 2.9 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 8.0 | | and under 65 }| | | | | | | | years of age }| | | | | | | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

It is noteworthy, as already stated, that the average age at death of the wives of the members of the Boilermaker’s Society is lower than that of members, viz., 45.47 years for the wives and 46.72 for the members. Fewer of the wives die from phthisis and tubercular disease than the members, the numbers being 1 and 1.4 respectively as against 1.6 of 1000 of the population generally, estimated upon the returns of the Registrar-General for 1881–90. The wives of members die at an earlier age from pulmonary consumption than the members, viz., thirty-four and a half years for the wives, and thirty-nine for members, a circumstance possibly explained by two facts--that males show greater resistance to the disease than females, and that during the early part of the disease at any rate the members spend more of their time in the open air than do the wives.

Although boilermakers are exposed to such risks as burns from red-hot rivets, it is surprising how few accidents are traceable to this cause. When Dr Ogle dealt with the statistics of workers in iron, he concluded that of the three classes--(1) locksmiths, including bellhangers and gasfitters; (2) engine and machine-makers, fitters and millwrights; (3) boilermakers--the engine-makers occupied the most favourable position from a mortality point of view, the mean mortality rate being 863 as against 967 for locksmiths, and 994 for boilermakers. According to the same authority, too, the mean annual death-rate of boilermakers is greater at all the ages between twenty-five and sixty-five years.

THOMAS OLIVER.