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....................................................................