It must be remembered too that only the accidents of a more or less serious character which are reported to the inspectors and surgeons are included. This last, moreover, does not include casualties in deep mines and quarries, which form another group, together making up a vast total of the martyrdom of labour.

By far the largest proportion of accidents is placed to the charge of miscellaneous "machinery moved by power," being 25,400, out of a total of 92,600. Lifting tackle claims the heaviest toll of all classified machinery, having caused 98 fatal, and 2,633 non-fatal accidents in the year.

A few years ago the practice of fencing and guarding machinery was practically non-existent.

Not till the passing of the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1899 did the matter begin to assume much importance. Even to-day there is a great deal of dangerous mechanism which is either unguarded, or else inefficiently protected. Frequently the greatest carelessness exists on the part of the workpeople, especially when working by the piece, who will run risks rather than occupy a few minutes in replacing a guard.

The parts of machines and motors which are most liable to cause accidents are toothed gears, belts and their pulleys, ropes and their pulleys, shafting, and moving couplings, rods and arms, fly-wheels, emery wheels, circular saws, machine All these knives, rolls, crane chains, and lifts.

are responsible for mutilation and death every year.

The methods of fencing and guarding must needs be varied widely to suit different mechanisms and operations. They must be efficient, in the judgment of the factory inspector. They should not interfere with the operation, or proper observation of the machine, and if made removable, they must be capable of ready replacement. The nature of the material employed for guards depends on circumstances. Latterly many firms have included the fitting of proper and neat guards to the dangerous sections of their machines, but that is as yet a practice more honoured in the breach than in the observance. In Germany the practice is nearly universal. Manufacturers are better able to fit such guards than purchasers and

users, because the cost of making patterns for castings, or stamps for sheet steel, being spread over large numbers, reduces the expense for a single article. Besides, the neatest and best guard can be studied more thoroughly in a big manufacturing scheme than in isolated instances. Some firms understand this, and fit neat and efficient guards to cover all dangerous sections.

The materials used in fencing are timber, cast iron, sheet metal, bars, rods, and wire. In some cases there is little room for choice, in others the choice lies between three or four. Timber is least suitable of all, partly because it absorbs grease, chiefly because it prevents getting at the parts enclosed, for examination or lubrication. Its most suitable sphere is in fencing round belts that come up, or pass down right through floors, or that come down to pulleys situated at about the floor level, or a little higher, as in the case in many machines used in wood-working factories, in boiler shops, and others. Matchboarding is the material used.

But the same protection can often be afforded by guards of wire netting, which are cleaner and neater, and which do not obstruct light from the pulleys, or bearings enclosed. Such netting is utilised largely for other classes of protection.

Engines generally have their moving parts protected by horizontal rods or rails carried in pillars. It is well in addition to this to enclose the lower portion of the area with wire netting in order to prevent risk of anything rolling along and getting entangled with the moving parts. In some portions of machinery, such as connecting rod ends, and in bearings lying behind flywheels, Automatic Lubrication is adopted to avoid the necessity for the attendant to take any risks. The protection of boiler gauge glasses is necessary in case of their fracture.

The guarding of the belts of machine tools can only be partially done. It cannot be applied on the stepped cones of lathes where the belt has to be constantly shifted. It can be, when the drive is on a single pulley, as in some high speed drilling and milling machines, and as in the belt pulleys of fans for blowing and exhausting. But belt pulleys must be guarded whenever possible, and this is done on machines

by fixing a light removable or hinged guard of wire netting round, which offers no difficulty in the way of belt changing. If pulleys and belts are only partially guarded, it must always be done on the ingoing side, where alone there is risk of the hands being drawn in. Pulley arms are a source of danger, and so are collars with heads of set screws projecting. Even on line and countershafts these screw heads should be condemned in collars and couplings.

Toothed gears should always be wholly encased, either with light cast-iron hoods, or with stamped or bent hoods of sheet steel, or with wire netting on a stiff framing. In many cases holes can be left for lubrication, and wire netting does not interfere with this. If protection is only partial, the ingoing side must be covered. Particular cases of gears are those of bevels, and of change wheels. Castings make the best and neatest cover for the first, and wire netting for the second. The latter must be readily removable to permit of changing the wheels. As change wheels are slow running, there is less need to cover these than the high speed wheels of the back gears, both of lathes, and drilling, and other machines.

Many minor accidents occur in lathes due to the continued retention of the bad form of lathe carrier generally used, in spite of the fact that there are better ones to be had. When a man is working up close to the headstock, he needs to keep an eye to the carrier as well as to his work. A frequent cause of minor accidents is due to chips, especially from brass, getting into the eyes, and the "eye doctor" is consequently frequently called in to remove the offending stuff with a bit of pointed stick. This is sometimes guarded against by wearing goggles, but generally generally a leather guard is stuck above the nose of the tool.

Many gear covers can be made to serve a double purpose, that of protection, and that of an oil catcher, or an oil bath. An enclosed hood will prevent oil from flying about, and in the case of worm, spur, or bevel gears it can be used to lubricate the gears, as is now done in travelling cranes, and in the feed gear boxes. of many machine tools.

Rolls, as used by boiler-makers, laundresses, and in textile processes, have been responsible

for many crushed hands and arms. It is difficult to guard these without interfering with their operations. The only effectual way is to bring a guard down as close as possible to the entrance of the rolls, so that a finger cannot be inserted. The revolving knives of wood-planing machines create a danger of a similar character.

Circular saws were formerly never guarded, but now they are generally protected. Many guards, however, are still without riving knives at the back. Any one who has worked saws knows how stuff is liable to be lifted up at the back, and sent flying towards the front, and perhaps drawing in the hands of the attendant stationed at the rear. The riving knife practically extinguishes risk of such accidents. See Saw Guards.

Emery wheels are best guarded with sheetiron hoods, though perhaps the larger number still have hoods of cast iron. The objection to the latter is that a fracture of the wheel might perhaps fracture the guard also, and send the fragments flying. A flexible form of guard is used on many Continental grinders. The sides of a wheel should be protected as well as the periphery. The best modern wheels are rendered practically secure against a disastrous fracture by the fitting of the washers, which are curved to grip curved faces on the wheel, so probably retaining broken pieces. Some makers, too, test their wheels beyond the proper running speed, to give them a chance to fracture before sending them out. See Guards for illustrations.

The best protection for lifts is a subject on which there is no unanimity of opinion. A useful safety device is the bar gripper, that can be used in connection with an automatic catch, which latches the gates and prevents them from being opened except when at the proper floor level.

Even where machinery is properly fenced, many accidents occur through heavy articles falling on men's limbs, or through revolving work flying out of the machines, and from sling chains or ropes breaking, through molten metal running out or splashing, and from scalding water, or steam.

Accidents due to electric shock are now added to those of revolving wheels,' shafts, and belts. The best safeguards are, wearing indiarubber

gloves, and rubber-soled shoes, which should be worn constantly among electrical machinery, but not used indiscriminately out of doors, absolute cleanliness and dryness being essential to perfect insulation. Live wires must never be handled except with indiarubber gloves, nor in case of accident must they be cut except with nippers having insulated handles.

When an accident occurs, the rescuer or rescuers have to exercise great care to avoid receiving shock from the sufferer. In the absence of gloves or shoes, insulation may be secured by standing on an indiarubber mat. Failing this, dry boarding or a heap of dry clothes will supply partial insulation, and the hands must be wrapped in dry clothing before attempting a rescue. Anything damp, whether the hands or clothing, becomes a conducting medium. A piece of dry wood may be used to remove a wire from contact with a person.

The foregoing remarks cover only one aspect of the subject. They do not touch the broad questions which concern the safety of engines, shafting, main belts, and pulleys, the safety of cranes, and crane tracks, electrical conductors, &c.

The prevention of accidents is a subject in which these, and other matters are included. It begins with the designs of mechanisms. In it is involved the prevention of fracture, both under normal and abnormal stresses, by imparting strength sufficient, within the elastic limit, the selection of a suitable factor of safety, the making provision in some cases for ready means of examination and repairs. Again, in many mechanisms provision is embodied for preventing accidents due to "racing," or of a wrong movement. Governors, breaking pieces, stop, and throw-out motions, yielding springs, safety brakes, and grips, relief valves, safety valves, duplication of valves, are the principal among these.

In the working of machinery, in which movements have to be effected at the will of the hands, many safety appliances exist. Belt shippers are among the most familiar of these. Many hundreds have suffered loss of life or limb in the attempt to throw belts on and off their pulleys by hand, either by being caught between the belt and its pulley, or by projecting keys, or set screws, &c., catching in the clothing at the time. A fruitful source of accident also is the

loose clothing worn by factory hands, loose sleeves especially. Many again have occurred in consequence of starting engines without first making sure that no one is working among the machinery, or on the other hand through lack of means of stopping them at once when an accident has occurred. Cranes are frequent sources of accident when handled by unskilful and inexperienced men. So are steam boilers.

An ambulance should find a place in every engineering works, and ambulance classes might be generally held with advantage, as they are in some firms. Many accidents, not dangerous in themselves, become fatal through lack of intelligent first aid.

Conducive to the prevention of accidents is a set of stringent printed rules, rigidly enforced. None are so careless as the hands, who require to be protected against their own indifference to, and neglect of common precautions; and no excuse of haste or profit should be allowed to interfere with the safety of employees.

The factory inspectors, backed up by the Home Office, are always ready to give information and advice as to the best methods of preventing accidents. There are right and wrong ways of fencing, and the wide experience of the inspectors qualifies them for giving valuable suggestions to owners of machinery.

Accounts-Factory.-The accounts of a big modern factory are very complicated. They tend to become more so, besides which they are sometimes elaborated and involved to an unnecessary extent by what the writer considers a craze for system, which tends to degenerate into red-tapism.

It may be conceded that more elaboration of accounts is required in the present period of predominance of limited liability companies than was necessary in the past, when firms were managed and supervised by their private owners, with the aid of confidential clerks, and fairly permanent old hands. Great changes then rarely occurred in those works, and personal character and interest generally prevented much waste or peculation.

The present ideal is, that no matter how men may come and go, the system remains, and so perfect, that new men can come and readily

pick up the threads left by their predecessors. But much more than that is required. It is demanded that in a perfect system the cost of any job shall be readily ascertained in any shop, at any stage of its progress. In many of the older shop systems this has not been the case, but the work has had to be finished before the total costs and the profit or loss could be ascertained even approximately. It is also considered essential that the amount of, and value of any materials, or of work in hand, stock, or order shall be readily ascertained at short notice.

It is further required to ascertain whether men are doing more or less work than at any other periods, a matter which is complicated by the great growth of machine methods. The labour saving due to machines has therefore to be correlated with the mere labour factor, and with the introduction of every new and improved machine and appliance, readjustments become necessary, and prices have to be rearranged. Here too there comes in the question of fair prices, not only for day-work, but for piece-work, and those paid under the bonus, or the premium system.

The accounts of an engineer's factory include the following main heads-Orders, Labour, Materials, Prime Cost, Capital, Profit or Loss. These may be subdivided broadly as follows: