I was researching some razors to put up for sale and was reminded of a sad story I saw on James Bingham’s Hawley entry:
He was interviewed by a government commission on child labour, when he stated that when he was ‘first in the trade the average age of razor grinders at death was 34’. He said that exhaust fans had improved matters, so that ‘we have some men of good age. The effect of the work depends very much on the temperance of the workers’
…we really don’t fully appreciate the labour standards we have, wow.
That was my thought as well. Metal dust doesn’t get into the lungs easily since it’s heavy. I wonder if they were actually running combustion engines (presumably steam engines given the time) indoors?
I agree about the combustion engines. Could have been coal-fired steam also.
When I first started using belt sanders and sharpening wheels to sharpen knives, I noticed metal dust everywhere. Because I like to clean up at the end of the day, I found films of it that I could not see. Since it was obviously airborne, I chose to assume that it could be a problem. A water mist helped with the belt sanders and abrasive wheels, but was a disaster for a paper sharpening wheel. The easy solution was strategically located magnetic metal plates since most knife steels are martensitic.
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That certainly doesn’t sound super healthy! And I remembered another one: I think at one point molten lead was used for hardening steel? Bet that has some lovely fumes too.
And, lead was used as material for bushings in rotating machinery in those days too.
But … the work those guys did was amazing. So much style and attention to detail was put into those razors. Far too few people get to appreciate them.
Oof ya I bet there was a lot of CO poisoning before we understood that. Maybe from forges for hardening?
Probably that too 😬