The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-07-22

full poisons In many a branch Of manu-
facture: they expose themselves to the
dangers OF fredamp In the mines, to
the dangers of disease in many forms. to
perils unsupported by the users of their
products In order that the world may
progress. Perhaps 1t does not occur to
the reader that the printer who set the
story now being read did his work at a
machine from which arises constantly
the fumes Of deadly gas used to heat
the metal from which the type is cast,
and from which, In cases of disorder. has
squfrted molten metal sufficient to cause
death. And the Illustrations which
adorn this page-what of them? The
photographer who got the photographs
of the structural ironworkers was him
self perched upon an iron beam 10 stories
from the ground when he took the pic
ture. In order to get the photo of the
fire horses In action he had TO wait un-
til the team of plunging equines was
almost upon him. snap the shutter and
jump. One false move and he would
have been trampled under the feet of the
excited beasts.
The taking of the pictures was not suffi.
Client to insure their production. From
paoaoSAuPhSf thcy went ~ tue pnOtO-
engravers. Here again men are Drawing
death that newspaper readers may be
amused. The process of making a half
tone cut can be simply described as a
process of taking a photograph through a
screen and printing it on metal instead of
the ordinary Photographic paper. The
men, In developing the negative, use for
purposes Of cutting out and more sharply
defining the figures on the film a solution
Of potassium cyanide, or, to be more ex-
plicit, Prussic acid, one of the most dead
ly poisons known to science. splinter
of this, so small as to be hardly discern
ible to the naked eye, will kill n dog in
stantly, while particle smaller than a
little green pea will kill a man before he
can walk FIVE steps or utter 10 words.
Its action is upon the heart.
Recently in Chicago several photo-en-
gravers were eating their lunch in one of
the large newspaper engraving plants.
One of the men suddenly spit out his
food and said:
MY God. boys, there's cyanide in my
pie"
He started for the sink but fell. When
his fellow-workmen reached his side he
was dead
Each cut. after 1t is printed from the
ASsatNS upou the luetdl-iH IuOSl cases
zink-is etched away with another deadly
poison, nitric acid. The effect of nitric
acid Is upon the lungs, and half-tone
etchers who remain in the business long
usually die of tuberculosis, as the result
OF constantly inhaling the fumes of the
acid with which they work.
Every occupation that involves the hand
ling of heated metal or the operating of
machinery Is fraught with a certain spe-
cifc danger to life and limb. and the news
paper plant Is no exception, so that not
only the photographers and the cutmakers,
but the sterotypers. the pressmen and all
other mechanics employed in the plant of
an up-to-date newspaper like this take
their life in their hands daily that you
may have your news served hot with your
coffee.
Another Kind of Hero.
In even so prosaic an occupation as the
canning OF meat or the making of sau-
sage heroes move daily In a solid phalanx,
never pausing or showing fear OF the dan
gers that beset them. The fearful ex-
posures OF conditions that existed In
Packingtown. Chicago, and other great
centers of the meat-packing trade have
forcibly drawn the attention of the coun-
try, not only to the dangers in the daily
occupations of those who work In the
packing houses. but to the dangers that
menace the innocent In all parts OF the
land who eat of the canned tuberculosis
and the pickeled disease. Working in poor
ly ventilated shops breathing the foul
air, standing up to their ankles in water
and slowly inhaling and exhaling tubercu-
losis germs, this branch of the great army
of labor is surely entitled to a position at
the right OF the column under banners es-
pecially emblazoned. Specific instances in
which men have fallen into the rendering
watts only TO become a part of the contents
before rescue could reach them are nu-
merous. and one who claims to be an au-
thority recently told OF a case where a
man fell from exhaustion at his work in
certain Western packing house one day,
was carried ont. carted home and died the
next day OF consumption. This latter incl
dent illustrates not only the unhealthful
conditions under which the employees of
the slaughter houses were compelled to
work. but adds striking note to the sound
OF warning to those tlarge numbers among