No 6207 - A Study in Steel (1935)

[pmcgee]

[BobL]

Fascinating.

A lot of people laugh at OHS but the following is worth a look.

In 1913 about 1 in 40 steel workers per year would die! on the job but by 1927 this had improved to 1 in 120.
In reality death rates were even higher than this because deaths from diseases like asbestosis were not counted as happening on he job..

In 1910 the average steel worker would expect to be seriously injured requiring significant loss of work time on average around 3 times during their (much shorter than today) working life time.
By 1937 this had dropped to once (on average).
By 2004 this had dropped to 0.4 and by 2014 this had dropped again to 0.14 so a factor of ~20x over 100 years.

One also has to remember that;
General health has improved so working lifetimes have increased overall
100 years ago blokes still continued to work even with significant injuries, otherwise they didn't eat.
And if productivity is taken into account i.e. per million tons of steel the injury rates drop even more dramatically.

[Handyjack]

Thank you.

Wonder how you get a job as a counter weight?
I can only imagine the number of workers who suffered industrial deafness working in the foundries, blacksmith and boiler shops. Imagine being on the inside of the boiler during a riveting operation without or with hearing protection.
The sad thing is that in many countries the machines that were used to construct the railway steam engine are no more making it difficult to make new engines and repair those that still exist.

[elanjacobs]

Fascinating.

A lot of people laugh at OHS but the following is worth a look.

In 1913 about 1 in 40 steel workers per year would die! on the job but by 1927 this had improved to 1 in 120.
In reality death rates were even higher than this because deaths from diseases like asbestosis were not counted as happening on he job..

In 1910 the average steel worker would expect to be seriously injured requiring significant loss of work time on average around 3 times during their (much shorter than today) working life time.
By 1937 this had dropped to once (on average).
By 2004 this had dropped to 0.4 and by 2014 this had dropped again to 0.14 so a factor of ~20x over 100 years.

One also has to remember that;
General health has improved so working lifetimes have increased overall
100 years ago blokes still continued to work even with significant injuries, otherwise they didn't eat.
And if productivity is taken into account i.e. per million tons of steel the injury rates drop even more dramatically.

While this is true, there's also a lot of truth in the saying "OHS used to be called 'common sense'"

Not so much for PPE, but definitely for things like keeping a safe distance from spinning belts and shafts etc.

[artme]

Brilliant post Mr. McGee!! and a fascinating review of stats Bobble.

Those steam hammers could be controlled with incredible delicacy. We have see their brute force
in action in this film but equally I have seen film of them used to close a matchbox!