The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-06

various processes. hydrochloric acid
! gas, whence hydrochloric acid, ana
chloride of manganese. The salt whlch
remains in the furnace after the hydro-
/ chloric acid has been drawn off is what
] is known as saltcake.
Their work consists in spreading and
/ turning the salt in the furnace, and IN
drawing it out when ali the gas has
] been drawn off, for the most part
/ through the high coke towers, where
I it is transformed by trickling water
into liquid hydrochloric acid, and to
some extent into their lungs, where 1t
/ is transformed into death.
a saitcake man can be recognized
] anywhere. His teeth, if not entirely
destroyed, are but black stumps. The
effect makes itself seen in twelve
months. ut takes us thirty minutes
to eat pap which a child could eat in
two minutes said one man.
BY the side of one of the workers,
strewed on the floor. / saw a quantity
Of crusts of bread. His teeth were too
soft to eat them. I'D have to soak 'em
in my can before l could masticate
/ them" he said, land I've no time for
that"
AS fact these men, during their
eight hours daily work, can bearly
snatch minute for their meals. I'VE
haven't a minute for a meals meat"
said one. You have to eat like a dog.
Standing at your work you eat your
chuck
A saltcale man at st. Helens said:
My teeth are all gone. l have been at
saltcake for eighteen years I have
made SIS week at piece-work, working
on Sundays, that is to say, seven shifts
week
Il am standing eight hours on end
in front Of a fiery furnace, melting with
heat, drawing, showing and turning the
salt with an iron bar, which weighs
fifty-siX pounds. The heat is so in
tense that l am perspiring all the time
[ have two towels to wipe myself on.
One is drying whilst I am using the
other. I eat only when / can snap.
But I'm not often hungry, and the gas
makes me sick. But I must stick to
the furnace, or I'm going short of my
wages" He added: mot a man OF
my times but what is gone off or in thu
workhouse." He had lived for weeks
on milk and eggs. MY stomach
wouldn't stand anything solid" He
has to drink to keep up his strength.
There is no Sunday, not even Christ
mas day. for the alkali workers when
trade is busy. At other times they have
weeks and months of enforced idleness.
THE MILLERS, MIXERS AND
PACKERS.
The lime-men, or millers, are those
who load the Stacked lime, after turn
ing 1t over and over, on to the lifts.
by which 1t is conveyed to the chamber
where it is treated with chlorine
Ihese work in shifts of twenty min
utes at time, with few minutes in
terval for rest. for fourteen hours on
the night shift, or for seven hours on
the day Shift
IT is diTfv nd
sottstone as a certain perquisite and
blindness as a possibility. So trifing
a master as large burns need not be
referred to.
The men work with a thick oakum
gag or ''muzzle" in their mouths. in a
cloud of white particles In the sum
mer the heat is quite intolerable. When
they have done their work, they wash
themselves with oil or tallow and drv
themselves on wisps of brown paper. |
l ms is all the toilet that they know.
The use of water would fay them |
alive. Their average wages is Z cents |
an hour. All the men are paid by
tonnage, from the stone-nobblers up /
to the packers.
The mixers who convey to the re- |
volving burners, stone. slack, or salt
cake, or from the burners the fiery |
black ash, an average distance of 260 |
y ;,ale at night in almost total dark
ness nave an average wage of SO cents
a day for eleven such journeys, be-
sides loading and unloading.
Inc packers, whose dangerous work
and strange accoutrement has been
described, receive so cents per ton for
turning and packing the poisonous
bleaching-powder These men literally
carry their lives in their hands One
hears Of too many cases where "men