Philanthropy and Light by Prizeman Oriel;

Author:Prizeman, Oriel;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Illustration 4.1 Railway wheels being manufactured, Brunswick Wheel Works, Wednesbury c. 1900. Source: CHAS

In contrast to library designs, however, the interior environments of these workshops were absolutely without comfort. Bare brick walls contained unglazed windows. Confirming the uniformity of this condition in 1910, a sanitary inspector in Rowley Regis had concluded that the ventilation in workshops there was broadly satisfactory for this reason (RRUDC 1906–11: 56). The factories act of 1878 had required that sanitary inspectors instruct that working rooms be lime-washed every fourteen months (Thwaite 1882: 27). Significantly, rather than making nuisance claims for smoke, the main nuisance to be reported between 1906 and 1911 in the Rowley Regis district in terms of working environments was to order that various workshops and factories be lime-washed (RRUDC 1906–11: 56). Although it seems implausible that re-decoration would be the first sanitary issue to provoke action, it was evidently the least contentious to enforce in a region dependent on industry. This humble measure to effectively remove dirt from the walls was a step towards achieving more tolerable levels of illumination. The relative cheapness and ease with which this basic regulation could be implemented provided the means to assert a very minimum standard for the provision of reflected light in working areas.

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