Chemical Analyses (Continued): Lead pipe... Pottery.. Toy... Paint. Matches.. Powders for lead. Dry colors... Other technical analyses in factories in lead, japanning and dry cleaning industry.. Analytical Determinations Relative to Ventilation of Basements of Mercantile Establishlishments in Mechanical engineering problem (elevators)..... Sanitary investigations relative to installations of water closets.. JOHN H. VOGT, Chemical Engineer. 2 1 1 2 (D) REPORT OF FIRE PREVENTION ENGINEER To the Director: In compliance with custom I herewith submit to you my report for the year ending September 30, 1915, giving you a statement of my activities during the year ending with the above date. Early in year, in company with the chemical engineer and the fire prevention engineer in the first district, we made certain inspections of dry cleaning establishments in both the first and second districts relative to their danger from fire and explosion. The result of this investigation will be filed in a separate report in the very near future. This report will cover in detail not only the places in the larger cities, but also in dry cleaning establishments in smaller cities up-state. My time has been occupied principally in making inspections of factories in the second district where orders have been placed to safeguard the employees from fire or panic hazard. This has kept me well occupied during the year. In my territory I have inspected, at the request of either the Industrial Commission, the Division of Industrial Hygiene, the Chief Factory Inspector or the Engineering Division not less than four hundred factories throughout the state. While in many of these inspections I have been met with opposition in carrying out the provisions of the law, I think the average manufacturer is taking more interest in these safeguards and the compensation laws are working a change for the better. I find in many small factories that it is physically impossible to make changes that meet the letter of the law. In these cases I have tried to devise plans whereby the spirit of the law might be met and at least a fairly safe condition enforced. In many buildings in the matter of horizontal exits there is serious objection to having a fire door on both sides of the horizontal opening as the average owner of a building is opposed to spending money where he thinks it unnecessary. He argues from the standpoint that one door with a fusible link in the center of the opening will clearly answer the purpose and meet the spirit of the law. In many cases I am prone to agree with this contention, especially in buildings where the material is non-inflammable. The matter of fire alarm telegraph systems in factories is being somewhat pushed to the front and justly so. In any factory where any great number of people are employed, I think there should be a fire alarm telegraph system to not only warn the people in case of fire but to be used in connection with fire drills. A safe and up-to-date fire drill in the average factory is one of the greatest factors of safety from panic that I can conceive. These frequent drills take the scare from the average employee so that he does not know whether it is a fire or a drill. In many of the smaller plants the fire alarm system need not be an elaborate one but it should be installed in a safe and reliable manner and under reliable supervision. The more economical we can get these plants, consistent with reliability, the easier it is to induce the manufacturer to install them. At the direction of the Industrial Commission, I attended the convention of the state fire chiefs at Peekskill in June where matters pertaining to fire protection were ably discussed by various fire chiefs throughout the state who are alive to the fire hazard. In the latter part of August and forepart of September, at the direction of the Industrial Commission, I attended the convention of the International Association of Fire Engineers at Cincinnati. This association is made up of fire chiefs throughout the world. Some of the most able men in fire protection, fire equipment and fire extinguishment attend this convention. Valuable papers were read and discussed by men who thoroughly understand the question involved and much valuable information was gleaned from these discussions. Representatives of the Underwriters' Labora tories of Chicago were in attendance and gave us valuable infor mation, together with stereopticon views of various appliances used for safeguarding life and limb in factories and other structures throughout the country. It is clearly evident that the propagation of "Safety First" in fire protection throughout the 15,000 factories in my district, where over 500,000 people are employed, is bearing fruit and that a few years will see a vast improvement in the factories of this state. JOHN P. QUIGLEY, (E) REPORT OF TUNNEL INSPECTORS To the Director: Herewith is submitted the report of the tunnel inspectors for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 1915. The work was divided into two districts, northern and southern, with a dividing line at Fourteenth street, Manhattan, since most of the work was being done in New York City. The inspectors alternated in each district every three months. The work inspected consisted of "cut and cover" subway work, hard rock tunnels and subaqueous tunnels working under compressed air. Air pressures were light. In all, fifty-eight contracts were regularly inspected during the year, employing a total average of 16,830 men. The distribution is shown on the accompanying tabulations, in which the work is divided into three general groups: New York City subway systems, Catskill Aqueduct tunnels, and miscellaneous work. By a ruling of the Industrial Commission, contractors no longer report accidents to the Bureau of Inspection, but to the Bureau of Workmen's Compensation. This will eliminate one very desirable feature of our work. By special arrangement heretofore with the Bureau of Statistics, monthly reports of accidents received from contractors on tunnel work, were tabulated under the various separate contracts and divided into causes, and such tabulations were a direct aid and the only systematic guide for the accident prevention work which is a salient feature of the inspection of heavy construction work. During the year there occurred, according to our information, 35 fatalities among workers, divided as follows: Four on the surface but indirectly connected with subway or tunnel work; 1 in a caisson, but after air pressure had been withdrawn and over which this Department has no jurisdiction at that stage of construction; 16 on "cut and cover" subway work; and 14 in connection with tunnel work. The causes of the fatalities were: Falls, 7; haulage and hoisting, 7; falling objects, not dropped, 17; falling objects handled by injured, 2; electric shock, 1. Last year the report to the Department of Labor showed 44 fatalities. It appears, therefore, that the past year saw considerably fewer fatalities than the year before, although, according to our information, more men were employed. During the year the inspections totaled 197, observations 126, and compliance visits 73. The inspectors made special investigations, some not completed as yet, into various features of heavy construction work, such as safety in the use of electricity in tunnels and underground workings, safety in hoisting and haulage in this class of work, and investigations into the possible mitigation of compressed air illness. Those suggestions made in various preceding annual reports relative to changes in the law, need not be repeated in this report. Those changes are desired more and more, but suggesting them in an annual report does not seem to bear much fruit. They will undoubtedly be taken up in a different manner during the coming year. In the new year, subaqueous tunnel work, with its ensuing high pressure compressed air work, will be reaching its maximum, giving the Department ample opportunities for the study of compressed air illness and giving the new law of hours of labor under air pressures with its accompanying legal rates of decompression, its first test. |