TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. l97 



at the quarrlea are engaged in working as masons, preparing flags, steps, sills, land- 

 ings, and a variety of masons' work. These men work mostly by piece or contract, 

 and earn from 30s. to £3 per week. The stone so prepared, except a portion of 

 the flags and landings, is all sent out of Bradford, as the Bradford Building Trades' 

 Union masons object to stone so dressed being used in this district. 



There is little machinery at work in the stone trade of this district as j^et ; for 

 although stone-dressing and moulding-machines have been at work on the Bath, 

 Portland, and other soft stones in the southern counties, they are not adapted to 

 work the hard stone of this district. Little progress has been made in dressing 

 Bradford stone by machinery, the great grindiug-power of the stone on any tool 

 being a considerable difficulty. Low speed can only be used, and the result is slow 

 progress with the work. Yet something is done in this way, and at half the cost 

 of hand-labour. [The author has constructed a dressing-machine for cutting and 

 squaring stone, and also a rubbing-machine for dressing quoins and plane sur- 

 faces ; a full description of these machines was given to the Mechanical Section of 

 this Association.] At present few masters have iuti'oduced machinery into their 

 workshops; and at present not more than 10 per cent, of this class of work is 

 done by machinery. The small amount of scaffolding used by builders in Brad- 

 ford is a peculiaritj', and must attract the attention of strangers. Our large mills 

 and warehouses are raised without the aid of the forest of poles or heavy timbers 

 to be seen in other large towns. There are about 1400 building masons in 

 Bradford. They are nearly all in the union. They have 7|</. per hour, and work 

 49^ hours per week. They discourage overtime ; and it is very seldom resorted 

 to, it being felt in Bradford, both by master builders find men, that 49| hours is 

 sufficient labour for any week, and not more than nine hours in any one day. 

 There are about 1000 carpenters and joiners, machine-joiners, and steam-sawyers 

 in Bradford. One half are in trades' unions ; and, so far as the author can form an 

 opinion, the better class of workmen in this case are unionists ; and he has never 

 known the union interfere except for good. Their wages are 7id. per hour, time 

 and overtime, as in the case of masons. They have always welcomed the use of 

 machinery, and made the best of it. Much good machinery has been introduced 

 into this trade ; and Bradford is not behind any town in the country for the quality 

 and variety of the machinery in use, some being as yet in exclusive use here. All 

 the heavy work in carpentry (roof-framing, floors, dovetailing of beams, joists, &c.), 

 as well as all the heavy work in joinery, is done by machinery in a first-class 

 manner, making the labour of the joiner easy, care and skill being more in request 

 than hard work. The machinery in this trade executes fully 60 per cent, of the 

 labour in preparing carpenters' and joiners' work (the fixing, of course, having still 

 to be done by hand-labour) — the result being that although wages have risen in 

 this trade upwards of 60 per cent, during the last twenty years, yet the price of 

 finished work, exclusive of fixing, is not more than it was before that time. "We 

 have 260 plasterers in Bradford. They are nearly all in the union. They are paid 

 7^(1 per hour, and work 50^ hours per week. There are about 200 plumbers and 

 glaziers and 50 slaters, with hours and pay similar to those of the joiners. There 

 are 750 masons' labourers, all in the union. They are paid6f/. per hour, and work 

 495 hours per week. There are about 1300 men engaged as excavators, carpenters' 

 labourers, and assisting the other trades ; and, with the exception of 120 plasterers' 

 labourers, they are not in the union ; but the average wages will be about the same 

 as the union labourers, and their hours of labour the same as those of the respective 

 trades with which they are connected. There are about 400 painters, paid G^d. per 

 hour ; grainers and ornamental writers from 7d. to Od. per hour. They work 52J 

 hours per week, and overtime as required. There are 300 smiths and mechanica 

 directly connected with the building and stone trade. They have the same hours 

 as the joiners and masons, and receive 7cZ. per hour. About one half are in the 

 union. There is little clay for hand brick-making in this district, it being largely 

 mixed with stone and shale. Machinery has had to be resorted to for grinding, 

 either in the dry or plastic state. After being ground in a plastic state, it is some- 

 times moulded by hand, sometimes by machinery ; but when ground drj, of course 

 it is always moulded or compressed into brick by machinery. There are about 600 

 men and lads engaged iu this trade, their working hours being the same as masons, 



