Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-02-24
DEADLY OCCUPATIONS.
Trades Which Eventually Prove
Fatal to Worlmen.
Terrible BardshipS Which some Men Are
Compelled to Undergo In.
Order to Gain
Livelihood.

There are many trades which mean,
sooner or later, sure death TO the work.
man, says the Pail Mall Budget. In
some cases death comes early; in others,
where the man is working among cllmu-
lative poisons, it is lingering and painful
in the extreme. But of ell others, the
. salt-cake, bleaching powder and lime.
house men have death most surely star
ing them in the face. The acid gas
given off from the salt-cake furnaces is
very trying, and flannel protection over
the mouth is used to ward this off, but
in spite of it teeth and gums fall vic
tim to the acid. Very frequently bits
get nibbled by the action of the acid
out Of mems hands and arms. Some Of
the hands have O corrugated look in
consequence. .a.
Lime is the principal ingredient out
of which bleaching powder is made.
Before it goes to the chlorine cham bcrs,
where it is to absorb the gas, it is care
fully treated and reduced to a fine
powder. 1t is sifted, and beaten about,
and slal1ed, and the men who have to do
this work have job which no one need
envy. Imagine working all day or all
night, as the case may be, in fine
mist of incline particles dying
about like n cloud of mosquitoes, with
a far sharper bite, too. To protect
themselves the men resort to a muzzle
or to a piece of rag or flannel held
tightly between the teeth. The ex-
posed parts of the skin arc carefully
CREASED. and a sort of paper mask is
frequently improvised in addition to
the caps which the men wear. In
spite of everything, however, the lime
gets in somewhere and inflicts it's bite.
All the time the work is carried on
breathing is a terrible effort To
breathe through the nose would have
the direst consequences. A single in
halation and the lime particles would
lodge there. So the air has to be in
hailed through the muzzle and given out
through the nose. Naturally nose-
bleeding is q frequent complaint in the
works. Twenty minutes at spell is
as much as a man can stand; after that
he goes out to recover himself and lay
in n little air for his inside. and some
grease for his outside lining. These
lime men, of course, are not able to
wash; they shun water as other people
shun fire. The only wash they get,
sometimes for months together, is in
grease. To insist upon these poor
chaps repeating their attack on the
lime over a period as long as eight
hours seems cruel. 1t is far, far too
long, but it would be a step in the right
direction. AS to the medical evidence,
it does not require much skill to see
how work like this must tell on the
respiratory organs.
The duties of the limehouse men are.
however, child's play compared with
what the packer has to endure. When
the limeman has finished his part of the
job and the lime is sprinkled to depth
of two inches over the floor of the
chlorine and raked lightly over SO that
gas shall have access to as large a
surface area as possible, the doors are
shut, the cracks stopped up with clay,
:. and an opening Is made to admit the
| chlorine. 1t streams in, and through
the glass which is let into the door you
can sec the invasion of the green gas.
A long period has to elapse before the
: lime has drunk It's fill and become
/ bleaching powder of the requisite
strength; but ut length, after the neces.
sary tests, md perhaps rearrange'
ment of the surface and another dose OF
chlorine, things are ready for packing,
The duties of the powder-packer cou'
sist of filing casks with the bleaching
powder. TO do this he has to enter the
chamber, which, for several days past
has been charged with the chlorine gas
Though the worst Of the gas has beer
allowed to pass out Of the chamber be
fore the packer enters it the atmos
phere is still charged with the deadly
fumes. The heat is something tire
Slcndous, especially as the poor wretcl
who has to endure it is swathed abou
the head in a way that would protec
him from the arctic cold.
A WARM bread-and-miIk pouttice. wit