I06 ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEEL AND TIN WORKERS [238 



restriction on the number of heats,* and the hmitation of 

 the weight of the charge had considerably reduced the long 

 hours of the puddler by 1890. The next year, in order to 

 prevent the employment of hard iron from increasing the 

 hours of the boiler, the convention enacted that the limit of 

 time for a heat in a single furnace should be an hour and 

 three-quarters.^ This rule met with determined opposition 

 for a few years on the part of the employers, but was ulti- 

 mately acquiesced in. 



These regulations, directly intended to restrict the output, 

 at the same time prescribed a definite limit to the length of 

 the working day. Five heats averaging an hour and three- 

 quarters per heat would require approximately nine hours. 

 In addition, the puddler must heat up his furnace before 

 starting, do the ordinary "fixing" between heats and 

 leave the furnace in shape for the next turn coming on. 

 The time required for this supplementary work varies from 

 one to two hours. Consequently, on double turn, the pud- 

 dler generally averages over ten hours a day ; and, on single 

 turn mills, in which six heats are allowed, practically twelve 

 hours. Such is the status of the hours of labor in the boil- 

 ing division at present writing.^ 



Attempts to introduce the sys/tem of three eight-hour 

 shifts in boiling have been, in general, unsuccessful. The 

 objections have chiefly been on the part of the workmen, 

 and are twofold : In the first place, earnings are less, since 

 it is not easy to make five heats in eight hours, and it is 

 imperative that the puddler have his heat out by the time 

 the nexit turn comes on. Secondly, the workman enjoys 

 less freedom under an eight-hour system. The puddler 



* See below. 



2 Proceedings, 1891, p. 3330. The time limit for larger furnaces 

 was graded as follows: double furnace, one hour, fifty minutes; 

 double double furnace, two hours; Siemen's furnace, one hour, fifty- 

 five minutes. The time was reckoned from the moment the door 

 was dropped until the heat was ready to draw, barring accidents and 

 unpreventable drawbacks. 



3 The Louisville convention of 1916 adopted the eight-hour day for 

 all departments, but it was not pressed in the conference with em- 

 ployers on account of the temporary scarcity of labor. 



