Pointe Coupee Democrat. [volume] (False River [i.e. New Roads], Parish of Pointe Coupee [La.]) 1858-1862, 1860-03-17
The DEMOCRAT.
P. A. ROY, Editor.
Mortality in Trades and Professions.

Foremost among those artisans who
suffer from the inhalation of dust and
other gritty particles given off in the
pursuit of their employment are the
grinders of Sheffield. DR.. J. G. Hall, in
a series of papers published lately in the
British Medical Journal, draws picture
OF the condition of these unfortunate men,
which is indeed appalling, and without
doubt gives them the bad pre-eminence
of pursuing the most deadly trade in ex-
istence. Grinding is divided into dry,
wet, and mixed; that is, the various ar.
ticles of steel turned out of the cutters
shops of Sheffield, are subjected to the
stone entirely dry, revolving in water,
or to processes involving both methods.
Of the three, the former is by far the
most deadly: forks, needles, prace-bits,
etc, are ground entirely On the dry stone,
and the amount Of finely divided metal
dust and silicious grit given out in the
process may be imagined, when we state
that a dozen of razors, weighing 2 lbs.
4 ozs. as they come from the forge in the
rough, lose in the process of Shipping on
the dry stone, upwards of ounces, and
the stone itself, seven inches in diane
ter, would be reduced one inch. To re-
ceive the mixture of stone and steel dust
thus rapidly given of, the position of
the grinder is but too convenient;-
straddIed across his horsing, as the frame
in which the grindstone revolves is
called, with his knees bent in an acute
angle, his body inclined forwards, and
his head hanging over the work, his
mouth is brought into fatal contact with
the poisonous dust, and his eyes with
the rush of the sparks. Fork. grinding
is performed entirely On the dry stone,
and consequently it is the most deadly
occupation pursued in Sheffield. About
500 men and boys are at present devot-
ing themselves to destruction during the
period of early manhood, for the benefit
OF the users of steel forks. The silver
fork school imagines perhaps, that these
vile appliances have long been banished
to the same limbo as snuffers, and will
be surprised to learn that more steel
forks than ever are thus fashioned in
Sheffield, and the poor grinder, as he
receives into his lungs the products of
the fashioning in his own person, exem
plifies the awful passage in the burial
dust to dust"-as the disease
thus induced cuts him off at the average
age of twenty-nine years! II shall be
thirty-six years old next month";" re-
marked a grinder, pathetically, to DR..
Hall, land you know, measter, that's
getting a rery old man in our trade."-
Another operation, almost as deadly as
fork-griDding, is that of tracing the
stone" These grindstones ar but rough
ly reduced to the circular form by the
quarry men, and the grinder undertakes
the business of reducing and removing
all their asperities, which he does by re
volving them against a piece of steel-a
tremendous dust being given off in th..
process. In wet grinding, which is elm
ployed in the manufacture of saws. files
sickles, table-knives, and edge-tools.
comparatively little dust is made, and
in these employments the grinders en-
Joy comparatively longer life; their av-
erage age ranging from thirty five t..
forty years. In addition to the destruc
tive effects of these particles of metal
and stone upon the delicate membrane
Of the lungs, the dry grinder is subjected
TO serious injury Of the eyes from the
red-hot PARTICLES of steel thrown off in
the shape of sparks. The more careful
of the Workmen protect themselves from
the danger, however, by wearing large
spectacles of ordinary window glass
fnese spectacles, when they have been
n use little time, give practical evi
icnce of their utility, for on examining
hem, they are found to be speckled all
over with the particles of steel, which.
when red hot, become embedded in the
glass.
In the rough nomenclature of the trade.
the disease which thus early destroys
the fashioner of forks and needles is
termed the grinders rot. The lung,
when examined after death, looks y.s
though it had been dipped in in,k, and
The texture, instead Of exhibiting the
usual spongy character of that organ
when in health, cuts like piece of in
dia.rubber! The color and the solid,fi
cation OF the dry-grinder's lung is owing
to the chronic inflammation to which it
has been subjected by the presence
from an early age of irritating PARTICLES
1f steel and stone within its finest air
passages. But why dry grind at all,
he reader will involuntarily exclaim, if
he wages of the occupation are death?
The grinder replies, that there are Ger,
ain operations which cannot be done
IN the wet stone; giving the rounded
,ack to razors, technically called hump
ng, and the rounded side to scissors, are
quoted as examples. The pressure dur
ng the process Of shaping is so great.