Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-04-21
THE GRINDERS OF SHEFFIELD.


The The Edinburgh ReUie,o, for January, fur.
nishes an exceedingly interesting article upon the
"Mortality in Trade and Professions" drawn out
because of the recent appearance of several works
treating upon this important topic. Foremost
among those artisans who suffer from the inhala-
ton of dust and other gritty particles given of in
the pursuit of their employment, are the grinders
of Sheffield, and DR.. j. @. Hall, in a series Of pa
pers, recently published, draws a picture Of the
condition Of these unfortunate men, which is, in
deed, appalling,
"Grinding is divided into dry, wet, and mixed !;
that is, the various articles of steel, turned out of
the cutters shops of Sheffield, are subjected TO the
stone entirely dry, revolving in water, OF to pro.
cesses involving both methods. Of the three, the
former is by far the most deadly (; forks, needles,
bracelets, etc., are ground entirely on the dry
stone, and the amount OF finely divided metal dust
and silicious grit given out in tho process may be
imagined, when we state that q dozen Of razors,
weighing two pounds four ounces as they come
from the forge in the rough, lose, in the process
of shaping on the dry stone, upwards Of five
ounces, and the stone itself, seven inches in diam
oter, would be reduced one inch. To receive the
mixture of stone and steel dust thus rapidly given
off the position Of the grinder in but too convent
ent straddlod across his 'horsing,' as the frame in
which the grindstone ~revolves is called, with his
knees bent in an acute angle, his body inclining
forward, and his head hanging over tho work, his
mouth is brought into fatal contact with the pois-
onous 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
] doodlv oonrroFiOp pnrrno1 in Cbo6old Abopt
Eve hundred men and boys are at present d%evoting
themselves to destruction during the period Of ear.
" nanho, d, for the benefit Of the users of steel
forks. The silver fork school i~magines, perhaps,
that these vile appliances have long been Danish
ed to the same inbo as shutters, and will be sur
prised 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, exemplifes the
awful passage in the burial service-'dust to dust
as the disease thus induced cuts him off at the
average age Of twenty'nine years Il shall be
~sixtysix years old next month"; remarked a grind
err, pathetically, to DR.. Hall, and you know,
measter, that's getting a eery old man in cur
trade
Another operation, almost as deadly as fork
grinding, is that of racing the stone These
& grindstones are but roughly reduced to the circu-
) lar form by the quarry-man, and the grinder un-
dertakes the business of reducing and removing
! all their a~sperites, which he does by revolving
Z them against a piece Of steel-a tremendous dust
being given off in the process. In wet grinding,
which is employed in the manufacture Of saws,
{ files, sickles, table-knives and edge-tools, cOmpar-
. atively little dust is made, and in these employ
ments the grinders enjoy comparatively longer
u life their average age ranging from t~hirty-6ve
to forty years. In addition to the destructive ef
fects of these PARTICLES of metal and stone upon
the delicate membrane of the lungs, the dry grind.
err is subjected to serious injury of the eyes from
g the red hot particles Of steel thrown off in the
shape of sparks. The more careful workmen pro,
K tect themselves from the danger, however, by
9, wearing large spectacles of ordinary window glass
These Spectacles when they have been in use 6
Re little time, give practical evidence of their utility
for on examining them they were found to b.
n s~peckled all over with the particles of stee
which, when red hot, become embedded in tn,
Of glass.
1--WE give q list of the aversge duration of lif
of artisans in steel in Sheffield Dry grinders o
forks, 20 years razors, 81 years scissors, 3:
years edge-tools and wool sheers, 80 years
er spring knives, 81 years ; files, 35 years sickles
38 years-the ascending longevity being in pro
10 portion to the amount of water used on the stone
8, and to the greater amount of adult labor employed
such articles as saws, sickles, and tools, are hapi
ly too heavy to be manipulated by the children
lie employed, and thus early diseased in the manufac
III ture Of light articles"