Page:The Factory Controversy - Martineau (1855).djvu/25

 Lord Palmerston, we are told (Report, Oct. 1854) "pointed out various modes and precautions by which danger to the work-people from horizontal shafts might be prevented." It is rather amusing to find the Inspectors, when the Factory Acts are found to be in any respect impracticable, taunting the manufacturers with pretending to be wiser than parliament; while we here find the Secretary of State not only apparently failing to distinguish the single cases of accident from shafting from the thousands which occur among "machinery" generally, but setting up his opinion against that of eminent engineers, and pressing his suggestions in a case in which they declare that none can avail. Lord Palmerston's confident genius in the matter of rectangular hooks brings us to the consideration of that device.

In the second circular of the Inspectors, dated March 15th, 1854, by which the circular of the preceding January was withdrawn, the following paragraph occurs:—

"It is well known that the greater number of serious accidents of this kind have been caused by the lapping of straps upon revolving shafts; and it has been stated to Lord Palmerston that such accidents have, in some mills, been prevented by the adoption of rectangular hooks fastened to the ceiling, and hanging downwards, on each side of each drum, with their horizontal branches running under the side edges of the drum, or by the placing of a beam or strong rod parallel to the shaft, and over it; so that whenever a strap slips off a drum it is caught by the hook, or by the beam or rod, instead of falling on the revolving shaft."—Report, Oct. 1854, p. 15.

Such is Lord Palmerston's suggestion. Mr. Fothergill and Mr. Fairbairn, the engineers, were examined, on occasion of the Oldham trial, about these hooks, and their opinion was found to coincide with that of experienced overlookers, and the workers themselves, whose life and limbs were in question. Mr. Fothergill "explained to the court that, with rectangular hooks affixed, a person putting on the strap would be more likely to receive