Factory Acts are acts passed for the regulation of factories and similar establishments. In the 18th and 19th century it was considered that women and children were not qualified fully to protect themselves against the strain of competition, and asa result the British legislature passed a series of acts to regulate the conditions of their employment in factories.
The immediate occasion of the first act passed to regulate factory employment in England was the outbreak of an epidemic disease which committed great havoc among the younger persons employed in factories in the district round Manchester at the beginning of the 19th century.
An act was passed in 1802, The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, in which provision was made for the regular cleansing and ventilation of mills and factories, and also for limiting the hours of work to twelve daily and forbade night work for children, and made provisions for their proper accommodation.
In 1819 an act followed after Robert Owen, an important factory-owner in Scotland, demonstrated that it was possible to improve factory conditions and make profits at the same time, and later campaigned for State reform. This Act prescribed an hour and a half for meals in the course of a working day, and prohibited children under nine years of age being employed in factorywork at all.
Early Factory Acts were not enforced, and as such were impotent. In 1833 the first truly effective Factory Act was passed. This act applied to all textile factories, and stated that no child under the age of nine was to work in a mill; children under the age of 13 were restricted to working no more than nine hours in a day and children between the ages of 13 and 18 were restricted to working no more than 12 hours in a day. The vital feature of this Act was that it was successfully enforced by full-time inspectors, whose job was to see that it was obeyed in the factories.
Various acts were passed up to 1878, when a general factory and Workshop Act was passed, consolidating the previous series of statutes. Another general act was passed in 1901 and since then numerous regulations and acts have been introduced.
The original acts contained general provisions regarding drainage, sanitary conveniences, overcrowding, ventilation, fencing of dangerous machinery, etc. Addressing what we would now term health and safety.
Factories are distinguished from workshops as making use of, originally, steam or other mechanical power. In the 19th century British textile factories the hours of labour for women and young persons (the latter between 14 and 18 years of age) were restricted to 10, but only 6.5 on Saturday and 56 in the week. In 19th century British non-textile factories and workshops the hours permitted were 10.5 per day and 60 per week at most. Children (of 11 to 14 years) were still employed, but not allowed to be employed more than 6.5 hours on any one day. Provision was made for a certain number of annual holidays. Special provisions for particular kinds of factories were made by separate acts, and under these the employment of females and young persons was regulated in bleaching and dyeing works, lace-factories, manufactories of earthenware, Lucifer matches, percussion caps, cartridges, blast-furnaces, copper-mills, forges, foundries, manufactories of machinery, metal, India-rubber, gutta-percha, paper, glass, tobacco, letterpress printing, bookbinding, etc. The factory act of 1895 included laundries. Certain exceptions in regard to working overtime were provided for; thus women could sometimes work 14 hours a day. Before the start of the 20th century there was no direct interference in any of the factory acts with the labour of adult male persons but it was recognised that indirectly the position of the male-labourer was also affected by legislation of this sort, causing some consternation among the factory owners.
The factory acts were among the first employment laws formalised to protect workers, and while they originally sought to protect primarily women and children, during the 20th century they evolved into more general employment laws offering regulation and some protection to all employees, with the employment of children being stopped all together and later men being treated equally with women, an employee being considered a person irrespective of sex. Research Factory Acts
Count Claude Louis Bethollet was a French chemist. He was born in 1748 and died in 1822. He studied medicine; became connected with Lavoisier and was admitted in 1780 a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. In 1794 he became professor in the normal school there. He followed Bonaparte to Egypt, and returned with him in 1799. Notwithstanding the various honours conferred on him by Napoleon he voted in 1814 for his dethronement, and was made a peer by Louis XVIII. His chief chemical discoveries were connected with the analysis of ammonia, the use of chlorine in bleaching, the artificial production of nitre, etc. His most important works were his Essai de Statique Chimique (1803), and the Methode de Nomenclature Ohimique (1787). Research Claude Berthollet
Thomas Stott was an Irish poet. He was born in 1755 at Hillsborough, County Down and died in 1829. He entered the linen bleaching business at Dromore, County Down and made a lot of money, while also writing poetry published in 'The Northern Star', 'Belfast Newsletter' and other local papers in Ireland and in England including 'The London Morning Post', usually under the pseudonym of 'Hafiz'. Research Thomas Stott
Chloroform (trichloromethane) is a compound of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine, and was made from alcohol, water and bleaching powder. It was discovered by Soubeiran in 1831 and independently by Liebig in 1832. It was first used as an anaesthetic in 1847 by Sir James Simpson of Edinburgh. In the presence of light, however, it tends to decompose, yielding the highly poisonous compoundphosgene. Even when pure, it causes fatal cardiac paralysis in about one out of 3000 cases, and so is seldom used for anesthesia anymore. Research Chloroform
Bleaching is the act or art of freeing textile fibres and fabrics and various other substances (such as materials for paper, ivory, wax, oils) from their natural colour, and rendering them perfectly white, or nearly so.
The ancient method of bleaching by exposing the fabrics, etc, to the action of the sun's rays, and frequently wetting them, had been nearly superseded by the start of the 20th century, at least where the business is carried on on the large scale, more complicated processes in connection with powerful chemical preparations being then employed. Among the latter the chief are chlorine and sulphurous acid, the latter being employed more especially in the case of animal fibres (silk and wool), while cotton, flax, and other vegetable fibres are operated upon with chlorine, the bleaching in both cases being preceded by certain cleansing processes.
The use of chlorine as a bleaching agent was first proposed by Berthollet in 1786, and shortly afterwards introduced into Great Britain, where it was first used simply dissolved in water, afterwards dissolved in alkali, and then in the form of bleaching-powder, commonly called chloride of lime, the manufacture of which was patented by Mr. Tennant of St Rollox. Glasgow, in 1799.
In calico bleaching the preliminary process is singeing by passing the fabric over red-hot plates or through a gas-flame to remove the downy pile and short threads from the surface of the cloth. The goods next pass to the liming process, when they are uniformly and thoroughly impregnated with a supersaturated solution of lime. The next process is the bowking or boiling for several hours, after which they are washed. They are then soured by being passed through a solution of hydrochloric acid for the purpose of dissolving any traces of free lime which may have been left in the washing, and to decompose the calcareoussoap formed by the bowking process. After boiling in kiers with a solution of soda-ash and rosin and another washing, the cloth is ready for the processes of chemicking or liquoring with bleaching-powder, and white-souring with a very dilute sulphuric acid. Another thorough washing concludes the operations of bleaching proper, after which the cloth goes through various finishing processes. Modifications of the same processes are adopted in bleaching linen, wool, silk, etc. Research Bleaching
Bromine (named from the Greek bromos meaning a getid odour) is a non-metallic element normally a deep red, corrosive, toxic liquid giving of an irritating reddish brown vapour of disagreeable odour. It has the symbolBr. It was first discovered in salt water by Balard in 1826.
In its general chemical properties it much resembles chlorine and iodine, and is generally associated with them. As bromides it is found in minute quantities in sea-water, in the ashes of marine plants, in animals, and in some salt springs. It may be extracted from bittern by the agency of chlorine. It has bleaching powers like chlorine, and is very poisonous. Its density is about three times that of water. It combines with hydrogen to form hydrobromic acid gas. With oxygen and hydrogen it forms bromic acid. Bromide of potassium (K Br) has sedative and other properties, and is used in medicine (for treating scrofula, goitre, rheumatism, &c.); bromide of silver is used in film photography. Research Bromine
Chlorine is a gaseous element with the symbolCl.Chlorine was discovered by Scheele in 1774, who named it dephlogisticated marine acid. It was afterwards proved by Davy to be a simple body, and from its peculiar yellowish-green colour the appellation of chlorine (from the Greek chloros, yellowish-green) was given to it.
Chlorine occurs in nature in combination chiefly with sodium as common salt, from which it is liberated by the action of sulphuric acid and manganese dioxide. Chlorine is very active, uniting with more or less vigour with most elements to form chlorides. It unites quietly with hydrogen in dull light, and explosively in bright light or when the mixture is ignited.
Chlorine is a very heavy gas, being about two and a half times as heavy as ordinary air; it has a peculiar smell, and irritates the nostrils most violently when inhaled, as also the windpipe and lungs. It exercises a corrosive action upon organic tissues. It is not combustible, though it supports the combustion of many bodies, and, indeed, spontaneously burns several. In combination with other elements it forms chlorides, which act most important parts in many manufacturing processes. This gas may be liquefied by cold and pressure, when it becomes a transparent, greenish-yellow, limpid liquid. Chlorine is one of the most powerful bleaching agents, this property belonging to it through its strong affinity for hydrogen. Hence in the manufacture of bleaching-powder (chloride of lime) it is used in immense quantities. When applied to moistened coloured fabrics it acts by decomposing the moisture present, the oxygen of which then destroys the colouring matter of the cloth, etc. It is a valuable disinfectant where it can be conveniently applied, as in the form of chloride of lime. Research Chlorine
Hydrochloric acid is evolved during volcanic eruptions, and is found in the water which collects in the crevices of mountains, as well as in rivers which take their rise in volcanic formations, especially in South America. It is manufactured by decomposing common salt with sulphuric acid. A mixture of equal volumes of hydrogen and chlorine combines slowly in diffused daylight, but explosively in bright sunlight. Hydrochloric acid is colourless, has a pungent odour, and an acidtaste. It is quite irrespirable, extinguishes flame, and dissolves very readily in water. Its solution is ordinary hydrochloric acid, and is used for the preparation of chlorine for the bleaching-powder manufacturer. It is also used in the preparation of glue, phosphorus, carbonic acid, artificial waters, etc. In medicine it was formerly used diluted as a tonic and astringent. In a concentrated form it is a powerful caustic. Research Hydrochloric Acid
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Abbreviations
Research Factory Acts
