1841 - Evidence on the employment of children


MR. THOMAS BULLOCK’S HORN BUTTON AND BONE MANUFACTORY, CLEVELAND STREET.

The premises are on two sides of a street. The bone button side is very confined; some of the shops are very small and dark, and close. There is a great quantity of dust in cutting out the buttons from the bone. A little girl was employed in shaking buttons; this causes a great deal of dust. The shaking is done by machinery.
Horn-button side. Premises larger and sufficiently spacious; shops very hot from stoves to heat the buttons for stamping, and for boiling horn. In the shop where young women punch out the horn buttons and prepare them for stamping, it is very hot; a large quantity of steam issues from the coppers, and from the buttons, so that the worker were exposed to dampness. No children in this workshop under 13.
In a shop for trimming buttons after being stamped, three children were at work. The shop is close and confined. One little boy, 7 years old, who has been here 2 months, is so small that he is obliged to stand on a stool to reach the lathe. Another little girl was similarly placed. A woman, with a stick by her side, keeps the children at work.

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