Report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the dangers attendant on the use of lead and the danger or injury to health arising from dust and other causes in the manufacture of earthenware and china; and in the processes incidental thereto, including the making of lithographic transfers.

  • Great Britain. Home Office.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the dangers attendant on the use of lead and the danger or injury to health arising from dust and other causes in the manufacture of earthenware and china; and in the processes incidental thereto, including the making of lithographic transfers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    28/312 (page 14)
    COMMITTEE ON LEAD, ETC., IN POTTEMES : They pursued their investigations for ten months, in the North Stafford- shire Potteries, and in Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Germany; on 21st February, 1899, they issued their Report*, a substantial portion of which was devoted to setting forth the case for leadless glazes. In paragraph 11 they make the following statement:—• The conclusions at which we arrive from the inquiries we have insti- tuted at home and abroad, and from the observations and experiments we have made, are: — 1. That by far the greater amount of earthenware of the class already specified [viz., all kinds of table, domestic, and sanitary ware; china furniture and electrical fittings; white, cream, buff, and printed tiles], can be glazed without the use of lead in any form. It has been demonstrated, without the slightest doubt, that the ware so made is in no respects inferior to that coated with lead glaze. There seems no reason, therefore, why in the manufacture of this class of goods the operatives should still continue to be exposed to the evils which the use of lead glaze entails. 2. There are, however, certain branches of the pottery industry in which it would be more difficult to dispense with the use of lead compounds. Evidence Taken by the Present Committee Regarding Leadless Glaze. The present Committee have considered very fully this part of their inquiry, and every firm which was known to make a speciality of leadless glazed ware, was asked to send a representative to give evidence. All except one of the firms in question resj)onded to the invitation, and submitted to the Committee details of their experience with leadless glazes during the ten years which have elapsed since the publication of the report by Dr. Thorpe and Dr. Oliver above quoted. The witnesses who were heard by the Committee respecting the use of glazes free from lead, included 20 who are experienced in the manufacture of pottery, 8 concerned with the buying of earthenware, and china on a large scale, and 16 medical men and others. Evidence of Dr. T. E. Thorpe (now Sir Edward Thorpe). Dr. Thorpe, in the course of his evidence before the Committee, expressed his complete adherence to the conclusions set forth in the Report of 1899, just quoted. The difference in the constitution of the various bodies used in the manufacture of pottery, he regards as of slight consequence; in his opinion the introduction of leadless glazes is practicable for a great bulk of white and cream coloured ware, and is the only means of securing entire immunity from plumbism among the workers. Manufacturers entirely success fid with Leadless Glaze. Of all the manufacturers examined, only two, Mr. Heath, of James Reeves and Co. and Mr. Horn, of Horn Bros., told the Committee that they were entirely successful in using leadless glazes for the whole of their output. The ware manufactured by both these firms is of common quality, and the witnesses admitted frankly that it could not be compared with the highest grade production of British potteries. Both find that they can get a good gloss and bright colours without the use of lead, and their present glaze is much cheaper than the lead glaze they formerly used. They export a large part of their ware to India, Africa, etc., and find that it competes successfully in those markets with lead glazed ware, both British and foreign; they have no difficulty with regard to maintaining a high proportion of saleable ware from the glostt oven, and they have no trouble with crazing.} On the other hand, their ware is admittedly of the cheapest kind, and not subject to any particular selection. James Reeves and Co., Fenlon, Staffs.—Mr. Heath, a member of this firm, * Report on Lead Compounds in Pottery, 1899, C. 9207. t In the glost oven the ware is fired, with its coating of glaze, and comes oat as fully glazed earthenware or china; it is then ready for sale unless special decoration, e.g., gilding, is required. % i.e., the appearance of a fine network of clacks on the surface of the glaze, a defect which some- times becomes apparent at once, sometimes not until months after the ware is finished.