Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-09-15
IN A SUGAR REFINERY.
PLACES WHERE MEN TOLL IN HEAT
OF l4o DEGREES.

Intense Heat-working for Small Pay
! A temperature of 100 degrees above
zero, the return of which has driven
thousands from the city and has re-
suited in death aud insanity, would be
hailed with delight by the men en-
ployed in the great sugar refneries
that soon are to be among the indus
tries of Greater New York.
OF all the hot places it is the priv
ilege of man to enter these are un-
doubtedly the hottest. In the tall
structures along the river front in
Brooklyn can be seen daily hundreds
of men to whom o temperature such
as has driven most New Workers to
despair would be a godsend. From
morning till night these people labor
in rooms the temperature OF which
seldom falls below 140
In all the tales of suffering from the
heat that come from the large cities OF
the country none are more distressing
than those from the sugar refneries.
It may be an element in the business
that men should literally be roasted to
death in order to carry it forward
The capitalists who conduct refneries
insist that such is the case. They de-
clare that their plants cannot be shut
down during the excessively hot
months Of the summer, and they add
that they keep the buildings rs cool as
possible for the men.
This is one instance, however, in
which it seems incredible that human
beings can long survive the burdens
imposed upon them. The men en-
gagged in this industry get through the
winter months with considerable diff
fculty owing to the heat, and when
the summer sun returns they find
themselves working in vsritable fur
naces, each in modern Dante's in
ferno. They throw the windows wide
open, and resort to mechanical devices
to keep cool, but the effort is vain.
Few men can hold their own against q
temperature of 140, even when no ex-
ertion is required of them. Much less
cal. hundreds of men engaged in the
laborious work of a sugar refinery go
about their duties and long survive
the intense heat.
The department of the Brooklyn re-
fneries IN which the sugar is crystal
lized would be regarded by most per-
sons as extremely hot, yet it is very
comfortable when compared with the
temperature in other departments.
Here the sugar is poured in q semi
LIQUID state into metal cones, which
act as filters or coolers. The heat is
very oppressive, and many employees
drop down while at work, despite the
fact that their dress consists only of
light overalls and heavy shoes. The
cones into which the sugar is poured
stand on their narrow ends in racks
all about the floor, and the workmen
stand over them in the heat rediating
from the hot sugar. Even in the cold
est weather of the year and with the
windows all open the men here cannot
wear thin undershirts with comfort.
Streams of perspiration run down their
backs as they benl over their work.
TO add to their discomfort the air in
the rooms is moist and steamy.
But wearing as is the work on the
lower floors, it is in the upper stories
of the refneries that the extreme
measure of suffering is to be found.
There the temperature stays regularly
in the vicinity of 14o degrees above
zero. is on these floors that work
men fall exhausted day after day.
Some re7ive5on being taken to win
dow, while others are able only to get
TO their homes. But the collapse OF
one or two OF half dozen men in the
afternoon no longer IS regarded as
matter worth mentioning. 1t has
come to be considered as merely Incl
dental to the business.
The majority of the employees in
these departments of the big retineries
are Poles and Hungarians. They de-
eide 10 become sugarsrefners as soon
as they land nthis country, and they
Try to adapt themselves to the eondi-
tions they find in the factories. Those
who seem able to stand the work are
sent to the top floor, where are great
vats, with dark, slippery passageways
between them. In these vats the
sugar is boiled The men stand over
the vats, stirring the sugar with long
sticks. On all sides are big tanks,
and each of these radiates an intense
heat.
When to the closeness of the room
and the heat from the vats is added
the other discomforts of the work, it
becomes little wonder that the men
drop in their tracks from day to day.
They look pale and careworn, all Of
them; their feet stick to the sugar
covered pla1ks as they walk between
the vats, ana they constantly are cov-
cred with perspiration. I am told that
as many as eight unfortunates have
succumbed to the heat in single alley
in one afternoon, and that four men
fell where they stood in the next alley.
One floor of the refneries is of iron,
and it is covered by the 104 heads of
the great charcoal filters below. The
feet OF the workmen have to become
accustomed to the heat OF this floor be-
fore the men can endure it. The
bases of these filters are two floors be-
w, where they are placed so close
together that the fremen and stokers
barely have room to bring coal for tho
furnaces. Here air is almost unknown.
and clothing is a burden. The men
go from furnace to furnace with their
loads of coal, perspiration dripping
from every pore of their half-naked
bodies. Their only opportunity to
get air is when they are waiting for o
new load of coal outside.
And for all of the toiling and suffer
ing in this intense heat the men are
paid from 81. "A to S1.95 for a days
work of from twelve to fifteen hours.