Factory and Workshop Act

Factory and Workshop Act - extending legal protection to nearly all manufacturing industries first Act to consolidate safety legislation... 

Factory and Workshop Act - a further consolidating Act including, for the first time, powers for the Minister to make Regulations... 

Legislation in pursuance of health and safety dates from the Health and Morals Apprentices Act (1802) which was designed to protect young children working in cotton woollen mills, and other factories where more than 20 persons were employed. Various minor legislation was passed in ensuing years and in 1833 the Factory Act was passed. In view of the multiplicity of legislation and as a result of recommendations in 1876 by a Factory Commission in 1901, the Factory and Workshop Act was passed... 

Parris (1965 226) cites the following examples The Factory Workshop Act, 1901, and the Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act, 1900, which gave the Board of Trade power to act to reduce the danger to employees posed by plant and appliances. Bagwell (1963 107) argues that with union persistence this did eventually lead to increased employee safety. 

This brief summary is devoted to machines, not to the science they permitted. Yet, science relies critically on experimentation, the making of which may start in a laboratory, workshop, or in a factory. Astronomy is quite peculiar in respect of experimentation. It relies almost exclusively on contemplation recording images of inaccessible objects and their spectral properties i.e., recording data cubes (two angular coordinates and a spectral one), without any capability to act on the parameters of the observed object. Few sciences have lesser means to experiment yet none, perhaps, delivers so much with so little. 

Adequate lighting levels to achieve manufacture and joints of fabricated elements and inspection of the finished product should be provided in workshops. The appropriate Factory Acts in force regarding lighting levels of illumination and glare must be met. A level of illumination of 500 lumens/m falling on the work surface should be suitable for most operations. 

Holmes, N (1994) OHS Promotion and Risk Communication in Small Business. Belts to Bytes Factories Act Centenary Conference, Workshop Papers, pp 29-42, Workcover Corporation, South Australia. 

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