Lucy ELSMORE Accident in Factory in FOD (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, September 18, 2011, 15:21 (4882 days ago) @ kiwiceltic

Hi Kiwiceltic,
my goodness what a story !. As a mechanical engineer this intrigues me although sadly I have no quick answers.

As an apprentice in the late 70s we had to learn to use centre lathes machines to turn/shape metal bar etc. At wealthy Rank Xerox we were lucky enough to have numerous H&S lectures, although I still witnessed accidents with lathes during the next few years. I still distinctly remember a H&S lecturer showing us a clump of long hair that had supposedly been ripped from someone's head where it had got entangled in a bar rotating at many hundreds of rpm despite being in a "modern" = safe factory with guards over the workpiece, "panic" stop buttons you could easily press with your knee and almost instant braking on the lathe's drive motor. This lecture was an effective way to teach young men that if we had long hair(the 70s!) we had to wear caps/hairnets to restrain it. Also being warned of how such a long rotating bar can entangle in your overalls and forcibly take the wearer around with it like a rag doll...
15 years later I'm away from the obviously hazardous factory and within a seemingly much safer aerospace company, bench-testing small but powerful electric fans. We tucked our ties behind our shirts incase they got sucked in, one of my more careless colleagues lost the ends of several ties and was once virtually strangled with his nose 1" away from the fan intake before he could stop it and cut his tie away !

Take that scenario back to Lucy's time and the machines were virtually totally unguarded. The Factory Acts had been introduced but it wasn't until 1844 that basic "fencing" was introduced. That said such Rules were often ignored by employers & employees alike, piecework ruled. Instead of having their own drive motor, each machine tool was driven by long flat leather drivebelts from the ceiling where horizontal pulley shafts went back to a central steam engine or water wheel. Such machines were so powerful and couldn't be stopped quickly at all, anyone getting caught up was in great danger.
This makes good reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Acts

I see you're an old hand on the forum wrt your family research, so forgive me for perhaps telling you how to suck eggs !.

Can you give any more detailed info at all on where Lucy lived and presumably worked, or the nature of the accident, etc etc. How do you know what you've posted, was there a report of an inquest or similar, if so this is crucial. Any extra details would help enormously, please.

I see Lucy's father was a collier, a possible clue perhaps ?

Record_ID: 14978
Entry_Number: 269
Year: 1873
Month: May
Day: 11
Grooms_Surname: MORSE
Grooms_Forenames: Richard
Grooms_Age: 21
Groom_Condition: Batchelor
Grooms_Occupation: Labourer
Grooms_Residence: Ellwood
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Morse
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: Joseph
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Labourer
Brides_Surname: ELSMORE
Brides_Forenames: Lucy
Brides_Age: 19
Brides_Condition: Spinster
Brides_Occupation: [not stated]
Brides_Residence: Ellwood
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Elsmore
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: Edwin
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: Collier
Licence_or_Banns: Banns
Date_of_Banns:
Signature_or_Mark: both mark
Witness_1: Jacob Dorrington
Witness_2: Henry Gunter
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: Jo[hn] Jo[seph] Elsworth Vicar
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P245 IN 1/21
Page_Number: 135
Parish_Chapel: Parkend
Soundex_Groom: M620
Soundex_Bride: E425