Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/412

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��Popular Science Monthly

��wire bristles. If you want to see the fur fly, watch one of these combers. The floor on which the man stands is covered inches deep with fur and the air is thick with it. In passing through a room where one of these machines is in opera- tion, one's hair, eyes, ears and clothing become full of the indescribably fine particles of angora fur which are loos- ened by the machine. Sometimes the operator wears goggles and a respirator; sometimes not. Some factories keep the combing machines in box-like compart- ments so the operator does not sufter. Another harmful practice is the beat- ing of finished fur garments by hand.

���When the fisherman is not-a-fishing he

takes off the sail of his boat and uses it

as an awning for his house

The beater uses two rattan sticks with which he l^elabors the garment, causing hair and dust to fly into the air and set- tle all over him. Recently a machine has been invented which does away with the dirt and dust of the hand-])eating meth- od. It consists of a vacuum device in which is placed a rattan beater which can be operated at any one of three speeds electrically. The vacuum princi- ple is employed to draw all the dust and particles of fur into a bag, instead of

��permitting them to be blown about the room. It is believed that asthma is con- tracted particularly by those persons who handle dyed wolf, racoon and coney skins. Unfortunately, many of the fur workers were exceedingly reticent and offered the physicians very little help to- ward determining their physical condi- tion, fearing to acknowledge any ailment lest their working capacity might be curtailed. It is a noteworthy fact that of the workers in the fur and allied trades, seventy-two per cent were under forty years of age and ninety per cent under fifty. This is conclusive evidence that the fur and hatters' fur trades are dangerous to health. As getting rich at these trades is out of the question, so far as the workers are concerned, the only reason for such an early retirement from the work must be disability.

There are many ways in which the evils of the fur trades can be mitigated. As sixteen thousand persons are engaged in these trades in New York City, their condition is of vital importance to the public health. For this reason the De- partment of Health has made an ex- haustive study of these trades and efforts are being made to improve present prac- tices.

When one considers that some of the things suflrered by the victims of mer- curialism are diseased gums, black teeth, severe headaches, nosebleeds, violent tremors of limbs, face and tongue (hat- ters' shakes), and that other diseases among fur workers are bronchitis, asth- ma, tuberculosis, skin diseases, loss of finger nails, blueness of hands, etc., it would seem that the animals whose pelts are used are not the only ones to suffer in order that you may wear a felt hat and a fur-lined coat.

A House with a Sail

THE sail on the little shack pictured is not for the purpose of propul- sion. It is used as an awning so that the sun will not make the contents too warm. The hut belongs to a fisherman, who catches fish and crabs and sells them to the motor tourists between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The fish- erman uses the sail when out in his boat, but when he gets back he removes the sail from his boat to his hut.

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