Thirty-eighth annual report [of the] Local Government Board. Supplement in continuation of the report of the Medical Officer of the Board for 1908-09, containing Reports and papers on the nature, uses and manufacture of ferro-silicon, with special reference to possible danger arising from its transport and storage / by S. Monckton Copeman, Samuel R. Bennett and H. Wilson Hake.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Thirty-eighth annual report [of the] Local Government Board. Supplement in continuation of the report of the Medical Officer of the Board for 1908-09, containing Reports and papers on the nature, uses and manufacture of ferro-silicon, with special reference to possible danger arising from its transport and storage / by S. Monckton Copeman, Samuel R. Bennett and H. Wilson Hake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Office, it was decided that enquiry should be made into the whole subject of the manufacture, uses, and possible dangers, of ferro-silicon; and I was instructed to undertake the investi- gation. For the purposes of my investigation, I visited Sheffield, Rotherham, Hull, and Grimsby, during the month of February, 1909, while, later on, I also visited Liverpool and Manchester, to which ports varying quantities of ferro-silicon are shipped; and Wednesfield, where experimental plant for its manufacture by the British Coalite Company was being installed. Ten days were spent in Sheffield, where, with the assistance of Mr. S. R. Bennett, His Majesty’s Inspector of Factories, the benefit of whose local and technical knowledge was placed at my disposal by the Home Office, detailed enquiry was made as to the extent to which ferro-silicon (an essential ingredient as I found, in the making of liigh-class steel castings), was used by the various firms having their head-quarters in that town and its vicinity. All the firms thus approached, when they realized that the enquiry was being instituted with the dual object of assisting trade and minimizing possible danger, afforded me every assist- ance in their power, and supplied me with details as to: — 1. The amount of ferro-silicon used by them during the past five years, with the percentage grade of each lot purchased. 2. The name and address of the agent through wl^pm pur- chased ; and, where possible, 3. The name and address of the manufacturer. I also placed myself in communication with the local agents for the sale of ferro-silicon and other ferro-alloys, and with the various railway and canal companies by whom I found that the material had been transported. With representatives of these companies, among whom Messrs. Wilsons, of Hull, may be specially mentioned, I subsequently arranged conferences, with the object of obtaining information as to the amount of ferro-silicon handled by them, and the nature of the precautions, if any, which their employees were instructed to observe in the handling, transport, and storage of this substance. In several instances where printed notices had been issued, I obtained copies, reprints of which will be found appended to this report. With Mr. Llewellyn, the Canal Boats Inspector to this Board, I also visited a number of the Canal “ keels,” in dock at Sheffield, from the “captains” of which I obtained particulars of certain cases of illness and even of death, apparently due to the fumes of ferro-silicon, carried on these cargo boats. Several of these men had taken considerable trouble to find out the true nature of cargoes which they believed had been productive of illness, and where, with the object presumably of obtaining lower freight rates, what eventually turned out to be ferro- silicon had been con,signed under such names as “ Scrap-iron.” “ Iron-waste,” &c.