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Safety Movement in the Iron and Steel Industry 1907 to 1917

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Safety Movement in the Iron and Steel Industry 1907 to 1917 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS ROYAL MEEKER, Commissioner BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES\ (WHOLE O'!A BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS/ * * ' ( NUMBER lLJ l INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS AND HYGIENE SERIES: NO. 18 THE SAFETY MOVEMENT IN THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY 1907 TO 1917 LUCIAN W. CHANEY and H UGH S. HANNA JUNE, 1918 WASHINGTON, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1918 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS. Page. Introductory note.............................................................................................................. 9 Part I.—A review of the safety movement, with special reference to the war... 11-32 Safety experience of a large steel plant, 1905 to 1917....................................... 15 Safety experience of a group of plants, 1907 to 1917......................................... 15,16 Results of the safety movement in various departments................................. 16-22 Blast furnaces..................................................................................................... 16,17 Bessemer and open hearth steel works......................................................... 17,18 Sheet mills.......................................................................................................... 18 Tube mills........................................................................................................... 18,19 Unclassified rolling mills................................................................................. 19 Wire drawing department................................................................................ 20 Fabricating shops.............................................................................................. 20,21 Mechanical department................................................................ 4................. 21, 22 Yard department............................................................................................... 22 Summary of departmental experience................................................................. 22, 23 Special study of accidents during the war period.............................................. 23-32 Accident rates, by products.............................................................. ............ 25-27 Accidents in connection with industrial railways...................................... 27 Trend of accident causes, 1913 to 1917.. ..................................................... 28 Illustrative charts.............................................................................................. 29-32 Part n .— Causes and prevention of accidents......................................................... 33-257 Summary..................................................................................................................... 35-51 Purpose of the investigation............................................................................ 35 Scope of the report............................................................................................ 35 Accident severity rates..................................................................................... 35, 36 Physical causes of accidents............................................................................ 36, 37 Control of accident causes in the departments........................................... 37-39 The human factor in accident occurrence................................................... 39-42 Can serious industrial accidents be eliminated?........................................ 42 Nature of the injury......................................................................................... 42-45 Progress of the safety movement in the industry......................................45, 46 Experience by departments and occupations............................................. 46-50 The methods of the safety man...................................................................... 50, 51 Chapter I.—Industrial accident rates................................................................... 52-66 Definition of “ accident” ................................................................................. 52, 53 The meaning of accident rates........................................................................ 53 Accident frequency rates................................................................................. 53-55 Accident severity rates..................................................................................... 55-64 Fatalities...................................................................................................... 56 Permanent total disabilities.................................................................... 56, 57 Permanent partial disabilities................................................................. 57-60 Illustrations of the use of severity rates............................................... 60-63 Growing recognition of importance of severity rating....................... 64 Use of rates in the study of accident causes................................................ 64, 65 Use of rates in the study of nature of injury, labor recruiting, etc........ 65,66 3 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 CONTENTS. Part n .— Causes and prevention of accidents— Continued. - page. Chapter II.— Physical causes of accidents........................................................... 67-88 Principal accident causes in the iron and steel industry......................... 67-71 Importance of principal accident causes in different departments........72-86 Boilers and steam pipes, engines and motors, and power transmission 72 Working machines......................................................................................72-74 Cranes and hoists........................................................................................ 74-76 Hot substances.................................................................. '........................ 76-78 Falling objects............................................................................................ 78-80 Falls of worker............................................................................................ 80-82 Handling tools and objects....................................................................... 82-84 Power vehicles............................................................................................ 84,85 Miscellaneous causes.................................................................................. 85,86 Summary of accident causes, by departments...................................... 86,87 Comparison of causes in iron and steel industry and in machine building 87,88 Chapter III.— Causes of accidents in blast furnaces........................................ 89-105 Working machines...................................... ....................................................... 90 Cranes and hoists................................................................................................ 91 Hot substances.................................................................................................. 91-100 Falling objects.................................................................................................... 100 Falls of worker.................................................................................................... 101 Handling tools and objects.............................................................................. 101 Power vehicles................................................................................................ 101,102 Asphyxiating gas............................................................................................ 102,103 Unclassified causes............................................................................................. 104 Comparison of accident causes, 1906 and 1913............................................ 104 Occupation and causes.................................................................................. 104,105 Chapter IV.—Causes of accidents in steel works and foundries...................106-116 Accident causes in the open-hearth department.................................... 106-1 ]4 Working machines...................................................................................... 107 Cranes and hoists.................................................................................... 107,108 Hot substances........................................................................................ 108-111 Handling tools and objects................................................................... Ill, 112 Power vehicles............................................................................................ 112 Unclassified causes................................................................................. 112,113 Accident frequency, by occupations and causes............................ 113,114 Accident causes in the Bessemer department........................................ 114-116 Accident causes in the foundry department............................................... 116 Chapter V.—Causes of accidents in rolling mills............................................ 117-124 Accident causes in heavy rolling mills..................................................... 117-119 Accident causes in tube mills....................................................................
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