"Great heat and suffocating air as soon as the gas is lighted...It is not a rare occurrence that the fumes of a foundry, or the smell of machinery or of cesspools, rise from lower floors and aggravate the evils of the upper floors. The hot air of the lower rooms heats the upper ones by warming the floors, and if the rooms are low and much gas is burned in them, it is a great nuisance. It is still worse in places where steam engines are installed in the lower rooms and fill the whole house with undesirable heat...In general it may be said that the ventilation is defective throughout and totally insuflftcient to remove the heat and the products of combustion of the gas after sundown, and that conditions in many shops, especially if they were formerly living rooms, are most deplorable." In some shops, particularly for weekly papers, where boys of 12 to 16 years are also employed, work is carried on almost unin- terruptedly for two days and one night; while in other print- ing shops, which make a specialty of job work, the laborer does not get a rest even on Sunday so that his days of work are 7 instead of 6 per week. (Page 26, 28.)
The milliners and dress makers occupied our attention also in volume I, chapter X, 3, so far as overwork was concerned. Their work rooms are described in the present report by Dr. Ord. Even if they are better during the day, they become overheated, foul, and unhealthy during the hours in which gas is burned. Dr. Ord found in 34 shops of the better sort that the average number of cubic feet per worker was as follows: "In four cases more than 500; in four other cases 400-500; in five cases 200-250; in four cases 150-200; and finally in. nine cases only 100-150. Even the most favorable of these cases barely suflEices for continued work, when the room is not perfectly ventilated...Even with good ventilation the workshops become very hot and stuffy after dark on account of the many gas jets needed." And here follows a remark of Dr. Ord concerning one of the minor w^orkshops operated for the account of a middleman: "One room, containing 1,280 cubic feet; persons present, 14; space for every person, 91.5 cubic feet. The girls looked haggard and neglected. There wages were said to be from 7 to 15 sh. per week, aside from 114 Capitalist Production.
tea...The liours of labor from 8 a, m. to 8 p. m. The small room, in which these 14 persons were crowded to- gether, was badly ventilated. There were two movable win- dows and a fireplace, which was, however, closed. There were no special appliances of any kind for ventilation." (Page The same report states Avith reference to the overwork of the milliners and dress makers: " The overworking of yonng women in fashionable millinery stores prevails only for about 4 months in that monstrous degree which lias elicited on many occasions the momentary surprise and indignation of the pub- lic. But during these months work is as a rule continued in the shop for fully 14 hours per day, and on accumulated rush- orders for days from IT to 18 hours." In other seasons work in the shop is carried on probably for 10 to 14 hours; those working at home are regularly engaged for 12 to 13 hours. In the making of ladies' cloaks, capes, shirts, etc., including work with a sewing machine, the hours passed in the common work room are fewer, generally not more than 10 to 12, but, says Dr. Ord, " the regular hours of labor in certain houses, at various times, are subject to considerable extension by means of extra paid overtime, and in others work is taken home in order to be finished after the regular working tiny\ We may add that either one of these methods of over-work is often compulsory." (Page 28). John Simons remarks in a footnote to this page: "Mr. Redcliffe, the secretary of the Epidemiological Society, who had especially frequent opportunities to examine the health of milliners and dressmakers ' of the first firms, found among 20 girls who said of themselves that they were " quite well " only one in good health; the others showed difi"erent degrees of physical exhaustion, nerv- ous debility, and numerous functional troubles arising there- from. He names as causes, in the first instance, the length of the working hours, which he estimates at a minimum of 12 hours per day even in the dull season, and secondly, ' over- crowding and bad ventilation of workrooms, air poisoned by gas lights, insufficient or bad food, and lack of provision foi domestic comfort.' " Economies in Employment of Constant Capital. 115 The conclusion at which the chief of the English Board of Health arrived, is that " it is practically impossible for la- borers to insist on that which is theoretically tlieir first san- itary rig'lit: the right of having their common labor freed from all needless conditions injurious to health, so far as may lie in the power of their employer, and at his expense, whatever may be the work to be accomplished by them for their em- ployer. And while the laborers themselves are actually not in a position to enforce this sanitary justice, neither can they expect any effective assistance from the officials responsible for the enforcement of the Nuisance Removal Acts, in sj^ite of the presumable intention of the legislator." (Page 29.) — " There will no doubt be some small technical difficulties in the way of determining the lowest limit where the employers shall be subject to regulation. But...in principle the ciaim to the protection of health is universal. And in the interest of myriads of working men and working women, whose lives are needlessly stunted and shortened by the infinite phvoJcal ills caused by their occupations, I venture to express tlie hope that the sanitary conditions of labor will just as uni- versally be placed under fitting legal protection; at least sufficiently to safeguard an effective ventilation of all closed work rooms, and to restrict as much as possible the particular un- sanitary influences naturally inherent in every dangerous line of industry." (Page 63.)
III. Economies in the Generation of Power, Transmission of Power, and Buildings. •In his report for October, 1852, L. Horner quotes a letter of the famous engineer James I^asmyth of Patricrofit, the in- ventor of the steam hammer, which contains substantially the following statements.
The public is little acquainted with the immense increase of motive power obtained through such changes of system and improvements (of steam engines) as he is mentioning. The machine power of the district of Lancashire was for almost forty years under the pressure of timid and prejudiced tradi- tions. But now the engineers have been happily emancipated.
ii6 Capitalist Production.
During the last 15 years, but particularly in the course of the last 4 years (since 1848) a few important changes have taken place in the operation of condense steam engines. The re- sult was that the same machines accomplished far more work, and that the consumption of coal was considerably decreased at the same time. For many years, since the introduction of steam power in the factories of this district, the velocity which was considered safe for condense steam engines, was about 220 feet of piston lift per minute, that is to say, a machine with a piston lift of 5 feet was limited by regulation to 22 revolu- tions of the shaft. It was not considered appropriate to drive the machine faster. And since the entire installation was adapted to this velocitj^ of 220 feet of piston lift per minute, this slow and senselessly restricted motion prevailed in the factories for many years. But finally, either through a lucky unfamiliarity with this regulation, or for better reasons of some daring innovator, a greater velocity was tried, and, since the result was very favorable, this example was followed by others. The machine was given full rein, as the saying was, and the main wheels of the transmission gear were changed in such a way that the steam engine could make 300 feet per minute and more, while the machinery was kept at its former speed. This acceleration of the steam engine had become general, because it had been demonstrated that more available power was gained from the same machine, and that the move- ments were much more regular on account of the greater im- petus of the driving wheel. The same steam pressure and the same vacuum in the condenser produced more power by means of a simple acceleration of the piston lift. For instance, if by appropriate changes we can accomplish that a machine yield- ing 40 horse power with 200 feet per minute makes 400 feet with the same steam pressure and vacuum, we shall secure ex- actly double that power, and since the steam pressure and the vacuum are the same in both cases, the strain on the various individual parts of the machine, and thus the danger of acci- dents, will not materially increase with an increase of speed. The whole difference is that we consume more steam in com- parison to the accelerated movement of the piston, or at least Economies in Employment of Constant Capital. 117 approximately so; and furthermore, there is a somewhat more rapid wear of the bearings, or friction parts, but this is hardly worth mentioning. But in order to obtain more power with the same machine by speeding up the piston, more coal must be burned under the same steam boiler, or a boiler of a larger volume of evaporation must be employed, in short, more steam must be generated. This was accomplished, and boilers with a greater volume were installed with the old "accelerated" machines. These accomplished consequently as much as 100% more work. About 1842, the extraordinarily cheap genera- tion of power with steam engines in the mines of Cornwall began to attract attention. The competition in cotton spin- ning compelled the manufacturers to seek the main source of their profits in economies. The remarkable difference in the consumption of coal per hour and horse-power shown by the Cornish machines, and likewise the extraordinarily econom- ical performances of the Woolf Double Cylinder Machines, brought the question of fuel into the foreground, also in Nasmyth's district. The Cornish and the double cylinder machines furnished one horse-power per hour for every 33^ or 4 pounds of coal, while the machines in the cotton districts generally consumed 8 or 12 pounds per horse-power an hour.
Such a marked difference induced the manufacturers and ma- chine builders of Nasmyth's district to accomplish by similar means just such extraordinary economies as were then the rule in Cornwall and France, where the high prices of coal had compelled the manufacturers to restrict this expensive branch of their business as much as possible. This led to some very important results. In the first place, many boilers, one-half of whose surface remained exposed to the cold outer air in the time of high profits, were then covered with thick layers of felt, or bricks and mortar, and other material, by which the radiation of the heat, which had been generated at such high cost, was prevented. Steam pipes were protected in the same way, and the cylinders were also surrounded by felt and wood. In the second place, high pressure came into use. Hitherto the safety-valve had been weighted only so slightly that it opened at 4, 6, or 8 pounds of steam pressure per square inch.
ii8 Capitalist Production.
Then it was discovered that considerable coal could be saved by raising the pressure to 14 or 20 pounds. In other v^^ords, the work of a factory was accomplished by a considerably lower consumption of coal. Those who had the means and the enterprise carried the system of increased pressure to its •full extension and employed judiciously constructed steam- boilers, which furnished steam at a pressure of 30, 40, 60, or 70 pounds per square inch, which would have scared an en- gineer of the old school to death. But as the economic result of this increased steam-pressure soon made itself felt in the unmistakable form of so many pounds sterling, shillings, and pence, the high pressure boilers for condensing machines became very common. Those who carried out the reform radically used the Woolf machines, and this took place in most of the recently built machines. These were the Woolf machines with two cylinders, in one of which the steam from the boiler furnishes power by means of the excess of pressure over that of the atmosphere, whereupon, instead of escaping as formerly after each stroke of the piston into the open air, it passes into a low pressure cylinder of about four times the volume of the other and, after accomplishing there some more expansion, goes to the condenser. The economic result ob- tained by such a machine is the performance of one horse-- power per hour for every 3^ or 4 pounds of coal, while the machines of the old style required from 12 to 14 pounds for this purpose. A clever device permitted the adaption of the Woolf system with double cylinders, that is to say, the high and low pressure machine, to already existing machines and thus the increase of their performance and at the same time a reduction in the consumption of coal. The same result was obtained during the last 8 or 10 years by a combination of a high pressure machine with a condensing machine in such a way that the steam used in the former passed into the latter and drove it. This system is useful for many purposes. It would not be easily possible to obtain any accurate statistics of the increased performances of the same identical steam- engines supplied with some or all of these new improvements. - But it is certain that the same weight of steam machinery now Economics in Employment of Constant Capital. 119 performs 50% more service on an average, and that in many cases the same steam-engine, which yielded 50 horse-powers at the time of the limited speed of 220 feet per minute, yields now more than 100 horse-powers. The highly economical re- sults of the employment of high pressure steam in condensing machines, and the far greater demands made upon the old ma- chines for the purposes of business expansion, have led in the last three years to the introduction of pipe boilers, by which the cost of steam generation is again considerably reduced. (Eep. Fact, Oct., 1852, pages 23 to 27.)
What applies to power generating, also applies to power transmitting and working machinery. According to Redgrave's rejiort, on page 58 of the above-cited document, the rapid steps made in the development of improvements in machinery dur- ing the last years have enabled the manufacturers to expand production without additional motive power. The more eco- nomical employment of labor has become necessary through the shortening of the working day, and in most well-managed factories means are always considered by which production may be increased, and expenses decreased. Redgrave has be- fore him a calculation, wdiich he owes to the courtesy of a very intelligent gentleman in his district, referring to the number and age of the laborers employed in his factory, the machines operated in it, and the w^ages paid from 1840 to date. In October, 1840, his firm employed 600 laborers, of whom 200 were less than 13 years old. In October, 1852, they employed only 350 laborers, of whom only 60 were less than 13 years old. The same number of machines, with very few excep- tions, were in operation, and the same amounts were paid in wages, in both years.
These improvements of machinery do not show their full effects until they are used in new and judiciously built fac- tories.
According to the testimony of a cotton spinner in the fac- tory reports for 1863, page 110, great progress has been made in the building of factories in which such improved machinery is to be installed. In the basement of his factory he twin':^s all his yam, and for this purpose alone he installs 29,000 120 Capitalist Production.
doubling spindles. In this room and in the shed alone he saves at least 10% in labor. This is not so much the result of improvements in the doubling system, as of the concen- tration of machinery under one gearing. He can drive the same number of spindles with one single driving shaft, and thus he saves from 60 to 80% for gearing as compared to other firms. This furthermore results in a great saving of oil, grease, etc. In short, with perfected installations in his factory and improved machinery he had saved at least 10% in labor, not to mention great economies in power, coal, oil, grease, transmission belts and shafts.
IV. Utilisation of the Excrements of Production.
With the advance of capitalist production the utilisation of the excrements of production and consumption is extended. We mean by the former the refuse of industry and agricul- ture, and by the latter either the excrements, such as issue from the natural circulation of matter in the human body, or the form in which objects of consumption are left after being used. Excrements of production, for instance in chemical industries, are such by-products as are wasted in production on a smaller scale; iron filings collected in the manufacture of machinery and carried back into the production of iron as raw material, etc. Excrements of consumption are the natural discharges of human beings, remains of clothing in the form of rags, etc. The excrements of consumption have the most value for agri- culture. So far as their utilisation is concerned, the capital- ist mode of production wastes them in enormous quantities. In London, for instance, they find no better use for the ex- crements of four and a half million human beings than to con- taminate the Thames with it at heavy expense.
The raising of the price of raw materials naturally leads to the utilisation of waste products.
The general requirements for the re-employment of these excrements are: A great quantity of such excrements, such as is only the result of production on a large scale; improve- ments in machinery by which substances formerly useless in Economies in Employment of Constant Capital. 121 their prevailing form are given another useful in reproduction; progress of science, especially of chemistry, which discovers the useful qualities of such waste. It is true, that great econ- omies of this sort are also observed in small agriculture carried on like gardening, for instance in Lombardy, southern China, and Japan. But on the whole the productivity of agricul- ture under this system is obtained by great prodigality in hu- man labor-power, which is drawn from other spheres of pro- duction.
The so-called waste plays an important role in almost every industry. The factory report for December, 1863, mentions as one of the principal reasons why farmers in many parts of England and Ireland do not like to grow fiax, or do so but rarely, the great waste occurring in the preparation of flax by small scutch-mills driven by water. The waste is rela- tively small in cotton, but very considerable in fiax. Good treatment in soaking and mechanical scutching may reduce this disadvantage considerably. In Ireland flax is frequently scutched in a very slovenly manner, so that from 28 to 30% are lost. All this might be avoided by the use of better ma- chinery. So much tow fell by the side in the preparation of flax that the factory inspector reports having heard it said of some of the scutching mills in Ireland that the laborers carry the waste home and burn it in their fire-places, although it is very valuable. (Page 140 of the above report.) We shall speak of cotton later, in discussing the fluctuations of prices of raw materials.
The wool industry was carried on more intelligently than the preparation of flax. The same report states on page 10)7 that it was formerly the custom to veto the preparation of waste wool and woolen rags for renewed use, but this preju- dice has been entirely dropped so far as the shoddy trade is concerned, which has become an important branch of the wool district of Yorkshire. It is doubtless expected that the trade with cotton waste will soon occupy the same rank as a line of business meeting a long felt want. Thirty years previous to 1863, woolen rags, that is to say pieces of all-wool cloth, etc., were worth on an average about 4 p.st. 4 sh. per ton. But 122 Capitalist Production.
a few years before 1863 they had become worth as much as •i-i p. St. per ton. And the demand for them had risen to such an extent that mixed stuffs of wool and cotton were also used, means having been found to destroy the cotton without in- juring the wool. And thousands of laborers were employed in 1863 in the manufacture of shoddy, and the consumer ben- efited thereby, being enabled to buy cloth of good quality at very reasonable prices. The shoddy so rejuvenated consti- tuted in 1862 as much as one-third of the entire consumption of wool in English industry, according to tlie factory report of October, 1862, page 81. The truth about the " benefit " for the " consumer " is that his shoddy clothes wear out in one-third of the time which good woolen clothes used to last, and become threadbare in one-sixth of this time.
The English silk industry moved on the same inclined plane. From 1839 to 1862 the consumption of genuine raw silk had somewhat decreased, wdiile that of silk waste had doubled. By the help of improved machinery it was possible to make this otherwise rather worthless stuff into a silk useful for many purposes.
The most striking instance of the iitilisation of waste was furnished by the chemical industry. It utilises not only its own waste in new ways, but also that of many other in- dustries. For instance it converts the formerly almost useless gas-tar into aniline colors, alizarin, and more recently even into drugs.
This economy through the re-employment of excrements of production must be distinguished from economies through the prevention of waste, that is to say, the reduction of excre- ments of production to a minimum and the maximum utilisa- tion at first hand of all raw and auxiliary materials required in production.
The reduction of waste depends in part on the quality of the machinery in use. Oil, soap, etc., are saved to the extent that the parts of a machine are constructed accurately and polished. This refers to auxiliary materials. In part, how- ever, and this is the most important part, it depends on the quality of the emj^loyed machines and tools whether a large or Economics in Employment of Constant Capital. 123 small i^ortion of raw material is converted into waste in the process of production. Finally it depends on the quality of the raw material itself. This in turn is conditioned on the development of the extract industry and agriculture produc- ing the raw material (the progress of civilisation strictly so called), and on the improvement of processes through which the raw materials pass before their entry into manufacture. '' Parmentier proved that the art of grinding grain was very materially improved in France in recent times, for in- stance since tlie time of Louis XIV, so that the new mills, compared to the old, can make as high as twice as much bread from the same amount of grain. In fact, the annual consump- tion of an inhabitant of Paris was at first placed at 4 setiers of grain, then at 3, finally at 2, while nowadays it is only 1^ setier, or about 342 lbs. per capita...In the Perche, in which I lived for a long time, the crude mills of granite and trap rock have been rebuilt according to the rules of ad- vanced mechanics as understood for the last 30 years. They have been provided with good mill stones from La Ferte, the grain has been ground twice, the milling sack has been given a circular motion, and the output of flour has increased by one-sixth for the same amount of grain. I can easily explain the enormous discrepancy between the daily consumption of grain among the Romans and among us. It is due simply to the imperfect method of milling and bread making. In this connection I must explain a peculiar fact mentioned by Pliny, XVIII, c. 20, 2:...' The flour was sold in Rome, according to quality, at 40, 48, or 96 as per modius.' These prices, so high in proportion to the contemporaneous prices of grain, are due to the imperfect state of the mills of that period, and the resulting heavy cost of milling." (Dureau de la Malle, Economie Politique des Romains. Paris, 1840, V. Economies Due to Inventions.
These economies in the utilisation of fixed capital, we re- peat, are due to the application of the requirements of labor 124 Capitalist Production.
on a large scale, in short, are due to the fact that these require- ments serve as the first conditions of direct co-operative and social production, a co-operation within the primary process of production. On the one hand, this is the indispensable re- quirement for the application of mechanical and chemical in- ventions without increasing the price of commodities, and this is always the first consideration. On the other hand, only production on a large scale permits those economies which are derived from co-operative productive consumption. Fi- nally, it is only the experience of combined laborers which dis- covers the where and how of economies, the simplest methods of applying the experience gained, the way to overcome prac- tical frictions in carr3ang out theories, etc.
Incidentally it should be noted that there is a difference between universal labor and co-operative labor. Both kinds play their role in the process of production, both flow one into the other, but both are also differentiated. Universal labor is scientific labor, such as discoveries and inventions. This labor is conditioned on the co-operation of living fellow- beings and on the labors of those who have gone before. Co- operative labor, on the other hand, is a direct co-operation of living individuals.
The foregoing is corroborated by frequent observation, to-wit: 1) The great difference in the cost of the first building of a new machine and that of its reproduction, on which see Ure and Babbage.
2) The far greater cost of operating an establishment based on a new invention as compared to later establishments aris- ing out of the ruins of the first one, as it were. This is car- ried to such an extent that the first leaders in a new enterprise are generally bankrupted, and only those who later buy the buildings, machinery, etc., cheaper, make money out of it. It is, therefore, generally the most worthless and miserable sort of money-capitalists who draw the greatest benefits out of the universal labor of the human mind and its co-operative application in society.