Steaming process in Lancashire cotton mills
[1] The 1887 Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Blackburn, a Dr. Stephenson, referred to the "abominable system of saturating the atmosphere of workshops by means of steam", a practice which he believed led to "the wholesale slaughtering of the inhabitants".Roscoe's report of 1897 recommended increasing the infusion of fresh air to 2,000 cubic feet (57 m3) per hour and raised concerns about the purity of water used for steaming.[6] Four years after Roscoe's report, the Factory Act of 1901 obliged cotton employers to ensure that water for steaming came from a pure source or was suitably purified.The committee had included cotton mill employers and Trade Union representatives; the two sides disagreed on an upper level of humidity.The 1928 Home Office Report of the Departmental Committee on Artificial Humidity in Cotton Cloth Factories by J. Jackson recommended that, for comfort, steaming should cease when the hygrometer wet bulb reached 72.5%.