1 00:00:02,287 --> 00:00:06,647 Our nation's history hasn't just been built by leading players 2 00:00:06,647 --> 00:00:09,087 making a lot of big political decisions, 3 00:00:09,087 --> 00:00:13,087 but by a huge supporting cast of ordinary men and women 4 00:00:13,087 --> 00:00:15,607 prepared to do some really lousy jobs. 5 00:00:15,607 --> 00:00:17,087 This time... 6 00:00:17,087 --> 00:00:21,687 The hot and sweaty job behind the Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition, 7 00:00:21,687 --> 00:00:27,007 the exhausting legwork of keeping the nation's canals moving, 8 00:00:27,007 --> 00:00:31,927 and why cleanliness in the past meant someone boiling up roadkill. 9 00:00:31,927 --> 00:00:36,205 Welcome to The Worst Industrial Jobs in History. 10 00:00:58,847 --> 00:01:01,087 Britain invented industry. 11 00:01:01,087 --> 00:01:02,927 In the 18th century, 12 00:01:02,927 --> 00:01:06,207 the industrial revolution brought mass production and mechanisation 13 00:01:06,207 --> 00:01:10,727 to jobs that previously had been done by hand. 14 00:01:10,727 --> 00:01:14,686 Britain became the technological and economic powerhouse of the world. 15 00:01:17,887 --> 00:01:22,807 She produced two-thirds of the world's coal, over half the world's iron. 16 00:01:22,807 --> 00:01:24,607 It made the nation rich. 17 00:01:24,607 --> 00:01:28,527 But for thousands of people working like ants in the factories, 18 00:01:28,527 --> 00:01:32,236 there was a new and mind-numbing form of poverty. 19 00:01:33,807 --> 00:01:38,967 The industrial revolution brings to mind images of dark, satanic mills 20 00:01:38,967 --> 00:01:42,287 and smoking chimneys and crowded towns. 21 00:01:42,287 --> 00:01:45,167 We all know that the workers had a pretty rough time. 22 00:01:45,167 --> 00:01:47,687 But until you see some of the jobs they actually did, 23 00:01:47,687 --> 00:01:51,607 you don't realise quite how awful things were for them. 24 00:01:51,607 --> 00:01:54,767 Some worst jobs spring immediately to mind, 25 00:01:54,767 --> 00:01:56,607 like the workers in the cotton mills, 26 00:01:56,607 --> 00:02:00,247 or the men who laid the track for Britain's amazing railway network, 27 00:02:00,247 --> 00:02:03,207 or the hot and dangerous job of producing iron and steel - 28 00:02:03,207 --> 00:02:07,567 the basic building blocks of the industrial revolution. 29 00:02:07,567 --> 00:02:11,007 But for me, the worst are ones you might not have thought of- 30 00:02:11,007 --> 00:02:12,887 anonymous workers 31 00:02:12,887 --> 00:02:17,247 who ensured that the great icons and geniuses of the industrial revolution 32 00:02:17,247 --> 00:02:18,805 went down in history. 33 00:02:21,447 --> 00:02:25,007 I mean, we've all heard of Isambard Kingdom Brunel 34 00:02:25,007 --> 00:02:27,087 and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. 35 00:02:27,087 --> 00:02:32,567 But he'd have been nowhere without the terrifying job of bridge builder. 36 00:02:32,567 --> 00:02:34,247 Before the industrial revolution, 37 00:02:34,247 --> 00:02:36,927 no-one would have dreamt of spanning a gorge like this 38 00:02:36,927 --> 00:02:39,687 with a traditional wooden or stone bridge. 39 00:02:39,687 --> 00:02:42,967 And then along came Brunel with new technology 40 00:02:42,967 --> 00:02:46,847 and brand-spanking-new designs for a suspension bridge, 41 00:02:46,847 --> 00:02:48,807 and the job was done. 42 00:02:48,807 --> 00:02:52,047 But it was this very pushing at the boundaries of engineering 43 00:02:52,047 --> 00:02:55,407 that made the job of bridge building much, much worse. 44 00:02:55,407 --> 00:02:57,687 John, how did they actually build this? 45 00:02:57,687 --> 00:03:01,567 Well, first of all, you have to build the abutments and the towers. 46 00:03:01,567 --> 00:03:03,607 And to a degree, that's the easy bit. 47 00:03:03,607 --> 00:03:08,327 Except, imagine how you're gonna get all that stonework on top of these cliffs. 48 00:03:08,327 --> 00:03:11,927 Then the really difficult bit is putting the bridge across yourself. 49 00:03:11,927 --> 00:03:13,407 So how do you start? 50 00:03:13,407 --> 00:03:18,487 You've got to get a platform the same shape as the chain 51 00:03:18,487 --> 00:03:20,127 from one side to the other. 52 00:03:20,127 --> 00:03:23,447 And that was done with three wire ropes, 53 00:03:23,447 --> 00:03:26,567 and then strapping a wooden platform to it. 54 00:03:26,567 --> 00:03:33,207 You then laid each of the plates of the links onto this platform and... 55 00:03:33,207 --> 00:03:36,007 ...starting at both ends at the same time, and when you reached the middle, 56 00:03:36,007 --> 00:03:39,167 you put the pin in and you've got a thin chain. 57 00:03:39,167 --> 00:03:42,407 But until you've got that chain, you've got nothing underneath you, have you? 58 00:03:42,407 --> 00:03:45,327 I know. This is a very dangerous place to be. 59 00:03:45,327 --> 00:03:48,444 You know, I wouldn't have liked to have been anywhere near it! 60 00:03:49,487 --> 00:03:51,567 You can imagine that first conversation 61 00:03:51,567 --> 00:03:53,319 between Brunel and his bridge builders. 62 00:03:54,407 --> 00:03:59,287 "Yes, a small wooden walkway from the top. No, nothing to hang onto." 63 00:03:59,287 --> 00:04:00,800 "Oh, thanks, Isambard." 64 00:04:03,167 --> 00:04:08,367 The bad news for me is that people still have to go up to check the cables. 65 00:04:08,367 --> 00:04:11,887 It's a frightening echo of the original bridge builders'job. 66 00:04:11,887 --> 00:04:17,200 What looks like a solid walkway is a series of chains that waft in the wind. 67 00:04:19,487 --> 00:04:21,167 TONY: Why do I need a helmet? 68 00:04:21,167 --> 00:04:24,167 If I fall all the way down to the River Avon, 69 00:04:24,167 --> 00:04:27,167 it's not gonna matter much whether I've got a helmet on or not, is it? 70 00:04:27,167 --> 00:04:30,167 Mind you, we haven't got a boat for you, either, Tony. (Laughs) 71 00:04:30,167 --> 00:04:33,487 There we go. How high are we? 72 00:04:33,487 --> 00:04:35,727 Well, I'm 250 feet off the water, Tony. 73 00:04:35,727 --> 00:04:39,087 Uh, you're gonna go higher and higher. 74 00:04:39,087 --> 00:04:41,127 But don't worry about it. 75 00:04:41,127 --> 00:04:44,447 You're gloating. I can hear it in your voice. 76 00:04:44,447 --> 00:04:47,127 Right. Am I OK to come up? 77 00:04:47,127 --> 00:04:50,687 This safety wire has only been in place for eight years. 78 00:04:50,687 --> 00:04:56,007 With no handrail, it does nothing to stop the feeling that you might fall off. 79 00:04:56,007 --> 00:04:58,727 Thing you're most terrified of when you first get up 80 00:04:58,727 --> 00:05:01,847 is that you're gonna fall and get run over by a car. 81 00:05:01,847 --> 00:05:04,487 (John laughs) 82 00:05:04,487 --> 00:05:06,079 OK? Yep. 83 00:05:08,487 --> 00:05:10,527 TONY: Then you look over the other side... 84 00:05:10,527 --> 00:05:12,007 (John laughs) 85 00:05:12,007 --> 00:05:14,007 ...and you think, "Actually, being mowed down by a car 86 00:05:14,007 --> 00:05:15,727 "would be infinitely preferable." 87 00:05:15,727 --> 00:05:19,727 If you do fall off and the cord holds, you hang like a conker 88 00:05:19,727 --> 00:05:23,087 until a qualified abseiler's brought in to rescue you. 89 00:05:23,087 --> 00:05:25,447 The original builders weren't so lucky. 90 00:05:25,447 --> 00:05:28,807 At least two fell to their deaths during construction. 91 00:05:28,807 --> 00:05:32,727 TONY: It is a long way, isn't it? JOHN: Oh, it certainly is. 92 00:05:32,727 --> 00:05:35,647 Can you imagine if there wasn't a road here, Tony? 93 00:05:35,647 --> 00:05:38,647 Just as the guys when they were building it, there wouldn't have been a road - 94 00:05:38,647 --> 00:05:40,447 it would have been straight down to the water. 95 00:05:40,447 --> 00:05:44,007 And they wouldn't have had one of these... harnesses on. 96 00:05:44,007 --> 00:05:46,760 No, they wouldn't! There was nothing to hold them on. 97 00:05:50,967 --> 00:05:53,407 I can... I can walk. 98 00:05:53,407 --> 00:05:56,327 Walking's OK. It's just... 99 00:05:56,327 --> 00:05:59,127 The idea of actually having to do something else at the same time 100 00:05:59,127 --> 00:06:01,800 fills me with absolute terror. 101 00:06:03,167 --> 00:06:07,687 It's the way the wind keeps changing that's really unnerving. 102 00:06:07,687 --> 00:06:10,447 You... you just think you've got it, you understand about the wind, 103 00:06:10,447 --> 00:06:14,607 and then the damn thing gusts in a completely different direction. 104 00:06:14,607 --> 00:06:16,165 It's really swirly, isn't it? 105 00:06:22,487 --> 00:06:26,807 Even on a relatively calm day, the gorge acts like a wind tunnel. 106 00:06:26,807 --> 00:06:29,607 It gets much worse. 107 00:06:29,607 --> 00:06:34,607 In 1863, a freak gust blew the fragile wooden walkway, and the men on it, 108 00:06:34,607 --> 00:06:36,607 70 feet in the air. 109 00:06:36,607 --> 00:06:39,687 Incredibly, they all lived to tell the tale. 110 00:06:39,687 --> 00:06:42,599 I'd have needed a change of underwear. 111 00:06:45,567 --> 00:06:49,607 After a while, you begin to get the hang of being up there. 112 00:06:49,607 --> 00:06:54,287 But taking your hands off the rope and bolting the giant pieces of chain together 113 00:06:54,287 --> 00:06:56,047 would feel like suicide. 114 00:06:56,047 --> 00:07:00,723 It's a huge relief when the section's checked and you start coming down. 115 00:07:04,127 --> 00:07:07,567 This iconic bridge made Brunel immortal. 116 00:07:07,567 --> 00:07:10,367 And although his bridge builders died anonymous, 117 00:07:10,367 --> 00:07:13,967 this is also their monument. 118 00:07:13,967 --> 00:07:18,127 For millions of other forgotten workers beetling away in the world of industry, 119 00:07:18,127 --> 00:07:20,807 there was no such consolation 120 00:07:20,807 --> 00:07:24,277 as theirjobs got worse and worse. 121 00:07:25,407 --> 00:07:29,047 Industry is useless without transport. 122 00:07:29,047 --> 00:07:34,327 In an age of poor roads and no railways, moving goods was a huge problem. 123 00:07:34,327 --> 00:07:38,567 The answer was a monumental engineering project. 124 00:07:38,567 --> 00:07:45,327 Between 1760 and 1850, navvies dug nearly 5,000 miles of canals 125 00:07:45,327 --> 00:07:48,207 to carry 30 million tonnes of cargo. 126 00:07:48,207 --> 00:07:51,167 But barges didn't have engines. 127 00:07:51,167 --> 00:07:55,843 Keeping the freight moving created a unique worst job. 128 00:08:02,607 --> 00:08:05,927 This is all very calm and peaceful and idyllic, isn't it? 129 00:08:05,927 --> 00:08:08,967 Except that this was the M1 of its day. 130 00:08:08,967 --> 00:08:12,607 All the way along here, there would have been queues of barges 131 00:08:12,607 --> 00:08:15,607 waiting to get through to the far side of the Pennines 132 00:08:15,607 --> 00:08:19,327 so they could deliver their goods to the mills and factories. 133 00:08:19,327 --> 00:08:21,007 Why were they queuing here? 134 00:08:21,007 --> 00:08:25,607 Well, it's easy to pull a barge along by horse when you've got a towpath, 135 00:08:25,607 --> 00:08:29,927 but when you get to that tunnel, there was no towpath, so no horse. 136 00:08:29,927 --> 00:08:33,847 And at that moment, in the best traditions of The Worst Jobs in History, 137 00:08:33,847 --> 00:08:38,767 the job was taken over by a poor employee of the canal company, 138 00:08:38,767 --> 00:08:42,887 whose task it was to drag the barge all the way through that tunnel 139 00:08:42,887 --> 00:08:45,247 using only the power of his legs. 140 00:08:45,247 --> 00:08:47,203 And he was known as the legger. 141 00:08:49,887 --> 00:08:51,367 Fred? Yes? 142 00:08:51,367 --> 00:08:53,407 Can I get on your boat? You certainly can, Tony. 143 00:08:53,407 --> 00:08:55,447 Listen, why did they build the tunnel so narrow? 144 00:08:55,447 --> 00:08:58,247 If they'd built it wider, you could have put a towpath down the side, 145 00:08:58,247 --> 00:09:00,527 and then the horse could have dragged the barges through. 146 00:09:00,527 --> 00:09:02,327 One of the things is the cost. 147 00:09:02,327 --> 00:09:05,807 I mean, initially, they said this tunnel would cost about $56,000. 148 00:09:05,807 --> 00:09:09,567 The figure actually went up to $125,000. 149 00:09:09,567 --> 00:09:13,607 If you can imagine the extra expense of putting a towpath in here as well. 150 00:09:13,607 --> 00:09:16,287 It's like the Channel Tunnel, isn't it? Just a bit, yeah. 151 00:09:16,287 --> 00:09:18,127 How long is this thing? Three-and-a-quarter miles. 152 00:09:18,127 --> 00:09:21,367 It's the longest, highest, deepest canal tunnel in this country. 153 00:09:21,367 --> 00:09:23,047 Alright, stop boasting. (Laughs) 154 00:09:23,047 --> 00:09:26,127 So I'm gonna have to pull this boat three-and-a-half miles? 155 00:09:26,127 --> 00:09:28,447 You certainly are, Tony. Come on, then. 156 00:09:28,447 --> 00:09:30,247 Do I get up on here? Yes, you do. 157 00:09:30,247 --> 00:09:33,127 I'll just throw this rope forward, Tony. Right. What now? 158 00:09:33,127 --> 00:09:34,607 Yeah. 159 00:09:34,607 --> 00:09:37,487 Right, what I want you to do now is lie on your back here 160 00:09:37,487 --> 00:09:39,327 with your feet onto that side of the tunnel. 161 00:09:39,327 --> 00:09:41,447 Lie on my back? Certainly, lie on your back. 162 00:09:41,447 --> 00:09:45,127 Nice straight position, feet onto the side of the tunnel, 163 00:09:45,127 --> 00:09:46,607 just so you can reach nicely. 164 00:09:46,607 --> 00:09:48,727 Yeah. Just leave a bit of room for me. 165 00:09:48,727 --> 00:09:50,887 You got your feet onto the side of the tunnel? 166 00:09:50,887 --> 00:09:54,647 Uh... Yeah, I have now. Take sideways steps now, like a crab. 167 00:09:54,647 --> 00:09:56,407 Right. That's the one. 168 00:09:56,407 --> 00:09:58,567 (Strains) Oh, it's moving. 169 00:09:58,567 --> 00:10:01,607 FRED: That's it. We've got to get her moving first. 170 00:10:01,607 --> 00:10:03,086 (Tony groans) It's stuck. 171 00:10:04,327 --> 00:10:05,887 That's it, just push. Yep. 172 00:10:05,887 --> 00:10:07,487 Nice easy pressure. 173 00:10:07,487 --> 00:10:09,807 One leg, then the other, like a crab. 174 00:10:09,807 --> 00:10:11,527 Just keep it going. 175 00:10:11,527 --> 00:10:14,167 This is the first worst job I've ever done on my back. 176 00:10:14,167 --> 00:10:15,727 Oh! 177 00:10:15,727 --> 00:10:18,407 TONY: Yeah, you can feel it, actually, in the, uh... 178 00:10:18,407 --> 00:10:22,447 ...in the muscles between your knees and your ankles, can't you? 179 00:10:22,447 --> 00:10:26,607 You can imagine how you're gonna be after the next three miles, then. 180 00:10:26,607 --> 00:10:30,087 This tunnel is the Mount Everest of legging. 181 00:10:30,087 --> 00:10:32,847 Even though the barge moves smoothly, 182 00:10:32,847 --> 00:10:36,556 we're pushing the equivalent of a loaded articulated lorry. 183 00:10:40,487 --> 00:10:44,727 (Tony groans) How long would it have taken them to get through this tunnel? 184 00:10:44,727 --> 00:10:47,927 FRED: About three-and-a-half to four hours to take a boat through this tunnel. 185 00:10:47,927 --> 00:10:52,407 But you didn't need someone who was specially qualified to do this, did you? 186 00:10:52,407 --> 00:10:55,207 Anyone could have done it. The bloke off the boat could have done it. 187 00:10:55,207 --> 00:10:58,447 The trouble with that is the... what we call the non-professionals 188 00:10:58,447 --> 00:10:59,967 would actually take longer - 189 00:10:59,967 --> 00:11:02,967 sometimes up to four-and-a-half hours. 190 00:11:02,967 --> 00:11:07,367 And this did actually cause a... like a bottleneck, a traffic jam, on the tunnel. 191 00:11:07,367 --> 00:11:10,687 So they brought professional leggers in 192 00:11:10,687 --> 00:11:12,487 just to speed the boats through the tunnel really. 193 00:11:12,487 --> 00:11:16,127 So these were professional guys who worked for the company, 194 00:11:16,127 --> 00:11:18,727 and the only job that they did was legging, all day long? 195 00:11:18,727 --> 00:11:21,527 That's correct, yeah, but they did actually speed the traffic up. 196 00:11:21,527 --> 00:11:26,367 They could leg a boat through here in sometimes just under three hours. 197 00:11:26,367 --> 00:11:29,687 How much did they get? It varied a little bit. 198 00:11:29,687 --> 00:11:31,727 I mean, mostly they got about one and six, 199 00:11:31,727 --> 00:11:34,287 about seven-and-a-half new pence per boat. 200 00:11:34,287 --> 00:11:36,687 That would have been quite a lot in those days, wouldn't it? 201 00:11:36,687 --> 00:11:39,887 Yeah, some of it did depend on the cargoes that they actually carried. 202 00:11:39,887 --> 00:11:42,567 Did they ever catch their feet between the boats and the side? 203 00:11:42,567 --> 00:11:44,327 It does seem a bit precarious. 204 00:11:44,327 --> 00:11:46,887 I should imagine that they would quite easily, Tony. 205 00:11:46,887 --> 00:11:51,207 There are bits sticking out. There are hollows. There are ledges. 206 00:11:51,207 --> 00:11:54,287 And they were bringing a cargo of limestone, 207 00:11:54,287 --> 00:11:56,807 and one of the leggers actually missed the footing 208 00:11:56,807 --> 00:11:58,607 and the boat actually bumped. 209 00:11:58,607 --> 00:12:03,447 The cargo shifted just enough to cause the boat to take on water. 210 00:12:03,447 --> 00:12:06,047 Yeah. And unfortunately, it did sink. 211 00:12:06,047 --> 00:12:10,127 They sent a backup boat in and they found the crew, 212 00:12:10,127 --> 00:12:14,407 obviously quite wet, but quite happily stood on the roof of the boat. 213 00:12:14,407 --> 00:12:18,167 At the end of the grinding 3-hour plod through the tunnel, 214 00:12:18,167 --> 00:12:21,807 the leggers had to pick up another cargo at the other end 215 00:12:21,807 --> 00:12:24,241 and do the whole thing over again. 216 00:12:25,567 --> 00:12:27,367 So how bad a job is this? 217 00:12:27,367 --> 00:12:31,167 Well, I'm lying here, nattering away to Fred. 218 00:12:31,167 --> 00:12:33,807 There's a nice breeze coming down the tunnel. 219 00:12:33,807 --> 00:12:37,807 The bad bits are the water that keeps splashing into your face. 220 00:12:37,807 --> 00:12:41,687 That's not too bad. But the worst thing is just here. 221 00:12:41,687 --> 00:12:46,327 Those muscles just underneath the knee are screaming with agony. 222 00:12:46,327 --> 00:12:48,367 I've only been doing it for 10 minutes. 223 00:12:48,367 --> 00:12:51,040 So put your back into it. 224 00:12:56,087 --> 00:13:00,927 The industrial revolution gave birth to consumerism. 225 00:13:00,927 --> 00:13:03,327 A new middle class with money to burn 226 00:13:03,327 --> 00:13:06,567 wanted fancy goods to show they'd arrived. 227 00:13:06,567 --> 00:13:11,967 High tea was trendy - white tablecloths, the latest cutlery from Sheffield, 228 00:13:11,967 --> 00:13:15,198 and tea served in fine bone china. 229 00:13:17,727 --> 00:13:23,207 But fine bone china and best Darjeeling don't appear on the tea table by magic. 230 00:13:23,207 --> 00:13:26,647 And up here in the Potteries, there were an awful lot of anonymous workers 231 00:13:26,647 --> 00:13:29,407 who bore the brunt of all this social aspiration. 232 00:13:29,407 --> 00:13:33,407 For instance, to make fine bone china, you need bone. 233 00:13:33,407 --> 00:13:37,527 And the person cleaning all the bone was the bone cleaner. 234 00:13:37,527 --> 00:13:41,767 Angela, I'm supposed to immediately start asking you about bone cleaning, 235 00:13:41,767 --> 00:13:44,567 but as I came round the corner, there was this massive whiff! 236 00:13:44,567 --> 00:13:50,167 These things are literally crawling with maggots. 237 00:13:50,167 --> 00:13:52,127 Why have they got maggots all over them? 238 00:13:52,127 --> 00:13:53,607 Well, it's old bone. 239 00:13:53,607 --> 00:13:56,807 They didn't kill animals just for the pottery industry. 240 00:13:56,807 --> 00:13:59,607 It was bone from anywhere, usually cattle bone. 241 00:13:59,607 --> 00:14:04,367 It had been lying about for a while, and the unpleasant job for you is to clean it. 242 00:14:04,367 --> 00:14:06,847 Oh, it really stinks, doesn't it? 243 00:14:06,847 --> 00:14:10,367 You ought to add some water. You want to get as much as you can off that. 244 00:14:10,367 --> 00:14:13,607 Once they'd cleaned all the rotting meat off the bones, 245 00:14:13,607 --> 00:14:15,167 what did they do with them? 246 00:14:15,167 --> 00:14:16,647 What did they do? 247 00:14:16,647 --> 00:14:20,287 The next thing that happens is that they're more thoroughly cleaned in water. 248 00:14:20,287 --> 00:14:22,367 And then they're burnt, they're calcined, 249 00:14:22,367 --> 00:14:26,567 which takes out all the glue and the jelly from the inside of the bone, 250 00:14:26,567 --> 00:14:28,767 makes it really soft, and then you can grind it down, 251 00:14:28,767 --> 00:14:31,047 mix it with the clay to make bone china. 252 00:14:31,047 --> 00:14:32,167 Ah! 253 00:14:32,167 --> 00:14:33,647 It really is quite hard, isn't it? 254 00:14:33,647 --> 00:14:36,647 I thought it'd be quite easy to cut the meat off, particularly with these knives, 255 00:14:36,647 --> 00:14:38,327 but it doesn't half cling. 256 00:14:38,327 --> 00:14:40,527 Do we know anything about the people who did this job? 257 00:14:40,527 --> 00:14:43,527 It was a job which women did. Um... Surprise, surprise. 258 00:14:43,527 --> 00:14:45,007 Surprise, surprise, yeah. 259 00:14:45,007 --> 00:14:47,687 And we know that they hated the stink as well. 260 00:14:47,687 --> 00:14:50,287 They also talk about how sore their hands were, 261 00:14:50,287 --> 00:14:52,407 being in the cold and the wet all the time. 262 00:14:52,407 --> 00:14:54,407 Oh, it's not just me being squeamish? No, it's not. 263 00:14:54,407 --> 00:14:56,687 Oh! It is a bit, though. 264 00:14:56,687 --> 00:14:59,287 How much bone is there in bone china? 265 00:14:59,287 --> 00:15:01,367 It's about half. Half clay and half bone. 266 00:15:01,367 --> 00:15:02,847 Why use bone? 267 00:15:02,847 --> 00:15:07,167 It gives it whiteness, you can make a very thin body, and it's translucent. 268 00:15:07,167 --> 00:15:10,447 All the qualities you associate with bone china come from the bone. 269 00:15:10,447 --> 00:15:12,047 So all these middle-class people 270 00:15:12,047 --> 00:15:15,607 would have been drinking their tea with their little fingers curled, 271 00:15:15,607 --> 00:15:20,207 totally unaware that what they would be drinking out of was 50%- made out of that. 272 00:15:20,207 --> 00:15:21,807 Been a bit of an eye-opener, wouldn't it? 273 00:15:21,807 --> 00:15:23,286 Yep, it would. 274 00:15:28,967 --> 00:15:31,807 You can smell rotting meat a mile off. 275 00:15:31,807 --> 00:15:36,207 But a greater danger was that there were no health and safety inspectors around 276 00:15:36,207 --> 00:15:40,847 to warn you about some of the more invisible dangers, like arsenic and lead, 277 00:15:40,847 --> 00:15:44,807 which did for so many workers during the industrial revolution. 278 00:15:44,807 --> 00:15:49,447 And here in the Potteries, there was this stuff - the dust - 279 00:15:49,447 --> 00:15:52,447 that floated through the air all the time, 280 00:15:52,447 --> 00:15:55,207 particularly during the final stages of the process 281 00:15:55,207 --> 00:15:58,007 when the workers were finishing off the pots. 282 00:15:58,007 --> 00:16:02,487 This stuff could give you potter's rot, or pneumoconiosis, 283 00:16:02,487 --> 00:16:06,567 which was a lung disease which was potentially fatal. 284 00:16:06,567 --> 00:16:10,242 But hazards lurked among even the most innocent-looking jobs. 285 00:16:14,207 --> 00:16:16,887 Even the pressers who made the cup handles 286 00:16:16,887 --> 00:16:19,526 risked injury to their internal organs. 287 00:16:21,687 --> 00:16:25,727 See, look... Press it together. Really push hard. Come on, hard! 288 00:16:25,727 --> 00:16:28,087 They called it jumping, 'cause they actually landed, 289 00:16:28,087 --> 00:16:30,767 landed on their stomachs with it, if you were a bit smaller. 290 00:16:30,767 --> 00:16:32,564 Yep. Yep. 291 00:16:34,527 --> 00:16:36,047 I see what you mean by 'jumping', 292 00:16:36,047 --> 00:16:39,727 because after a while, you just... you want to get your feet off the ground 293 00:16:39,727 --> 00:16:41,287 in order to put your weight on. 294 00:16:41,287 --> 00:16:44,927 I suppose the smaller you are, the lighter you are, the more you've got to do that. 295 00:16:44,927 --> 00:16:47,647 There's testimony that was taken in the 1840s - 296 00:16:47,647 --> 00:16:51,447 a young lad called Herbert Bell. 297 00:16:51,447 --> 00:16:53,887 He talks about how it hurts his stomach, how hot it is, 298 00:16:53,887 --> 00:16:58,087 about 98 degrees in the factory. 299 00:16:58,087 --> 00:17:01,247 You're also right over the clay, breathing that dust in all the time. 300 00:17:01,247 --> 00:17:03,847 How many of these would they have had to make in a day? 301 00:17:03,847 --> 00:17:06,007 They'd have been making about 50 dozen a day, 302 00:17:06,007 --> 00:17:07,967 working with a team of others. 303 00:17:07,967 --> 00:17:10,167 Hang on, 50 dozen - that's 720, isn't it? 304 00:17:10,167 --> 00:17:12,487 No, five... five... What's five times... 305 00:17:12,487 --> 00:17:14,367 600. 600 a day. About 600 a day. 306 00:17:14,367 --> 00:17:17,767 Here we are. Let's see if I've actually managed to cut through. 307 00:17:17,767 --> 00:17:19,527 Oh, not bad. 308 00:17:19,527 --> 00:17:21,647 Then you take the excess off. 309 00:17:21,647 --> 00:17:24,447 Should really let it dry a little bit first, but... 310 00:17:24,447 --> 00:17:26,767 Oh, it has cut hasn't it? Oh, that's good. 311 00:17:26,767 --> 00:17:29,727 Do you know, I think that's the first time in this series 312 00:17:29,727 --> 00:17:33,767 that I've actually managed to complete a job with some degree of efficiency. 313 00:17:33,767 --> 00:17:35,644 Except the middle of it isn't cut out! 314 00:17:37,287 --> 00:17:42,647 Industry reduced workers to tiny cogs in a giant production machine. 315 00:17:42,647 --> 00:17:47,607 Workers did one small, repetitive job day in, day out. 316 00:17:47,607 --> 00:17:53,159 There were fettlers, piecers, placers and saggar-makers' bottom knockers. 317 00:17:54,407 --> 00:18:00,487 The drawer's only job was to take the fired pottery out of the kiln, quick. 318 00:18:00,487 --> 00:18:04,767 Imagine balancing on a ladder inside an oven 319 00:18:04,767 --> 00:18:07,007 that's been heated to 1,400 degrees 320 00:18:07,007 --> 00:18:10,767 and shifting 10 kilos of burning-hot pots onto your head. 321 00:18:10,767 --> 00:18:14,327 Ooh, gosh, it feels like it's gonna go. Oh! 322 00:18:14,327 --> 00:18:19,082 One breakage and every single person in the chain would have their wages docked. 323 00:18:20,207 --> 00:18:22,367 So that's the china sorted. 324 00:18:22,367 --> 00:18:25,127 But our high-tea set also needs cutlery. 325 00:18:25,127 --> 00:18:32,287 And for that, you need another terrible job 100 miles up the road in Sheffield. 326 00:18:32,287 --> 00:18:37,327 The buffer lass worked by hand, polishing knives, forks and spoons - 327 00:18:37,327 --> 00:18:40,478 thousands of them - all day, every day. 328 00:18:43,647 --> 00:18:45,127 Emma? 329 00:18:45,127 --> 00:18:47,087 EMMA: Hi. I want to be a buffer lass. 330 00:18:47,087 --> 00:18:48,927 What do I have to do? Right. Come on. 331 00:18:48,927 --> 00:18:50,647 Let's dress you up first, I think, then. 332 00:18:50,647 --> 00:18:52,847 Oh, yes, please. Right. What do I have to put on? 333 00:18:52,847 --> 00:18:55,207 Buffer lasses, they wore what they call a buff-brat, 334 00:18:55,207 --> 00:18:58,367 a bit like an operational kind of gown, with strings behind your back 335 00:18:58,367 --> 00:19:00,887 so you didn't get them caught in the machine. 336 00:19:00,887 --> 00:19:02,687 This is one of these? Something similar to this. 337 00:19:02,687 --> 00:19:04,367 What's it called again? A buff-brat. 338 00:19:04,367 --> 00:19:05,847 A buff-brat. 339 00:19:05,847 --> 00:19:08,247 So we tie that round your back so they don't get caught. 340 00:19:08,247 --> 00:19:11,367 You want a brown paper. Now, you might think, why brown paper? 341 00:19:11,367 --> 00:19:13,327 Very readily available. 342 00:19:13,327 --> 00:19:18,847 They would use this in the workplace to wrap all the finished products together. 343 00:19:18,847 --> 00:19:20,327 What, I put this on? 344 00:19:20,327 --> 00:19:22,327 You put this on as an apron round your middle. 345 00:19:22,327 --> 00:19:26,327 This absorbed the oil that was used in the buffing process. 346 00:19:26,327 --> 00:19:30,127 They used Trent sand and oil, and this would be absorbed, 347 00:19:30,127 --> 00:19:33,807 rather than getting your nice calico outfit that dirty. 348 00:19:33,807 --> 00:19:35,887 Was it really that mucky a job? Oh, it was. 349 00:19:35,887 --> 00:19:37,487 Definitely, yeah. 350 00:19:37,487 --> 00:19:39,287 The dirt bit comes when you do the buffing 351 00:19:39,287 --> 00:19:42,407 and the sand and the oil flick off from the wheel 352 00:19:42,407 --> 00:19:44,887 as you're passing the knives, forks and spoons 353 00:19:44,887 --> 00:19:48,487 through and underneath the wheel. 354 00:19:48,487 --> 00:19:49,967 Yeah. 355 00:19:49,967 --> 00:19:52,007 And put these round your legs to protect your legs, 356 00:19:52,007 --> 00:19:54,567 because you don't want to get oil on them either. 357 00:19:54,567 --> 00:20:01,527 They often got mucky faces and impregnated dirt in their hands as well. 358 00:20:01,527 --> 00:20:04,127 What, dirt that would actually sort of never come off? 359 00:20:04,127 --> 00:20:05,727 Not come out, no. 360 00:20:05,727 --> 00:20:07,847 What kind of girls were these? 361 00:20:07,847 --> 00:20:10,367 They were notoriously loud, seemingly, and rowdy. 362 00:20:10,367 --> 00:20:13,527 They were often known to be foul-mouthed, 363 00:20:13,527 --> 00:20:16,127 and the language that came out of some of these workshops 364 00:20:16,127 --> 00:20:18,407 was not to be repeated here. 365 00:20:18,407 --> 00:20:22,967 And in their workplaces as well, men didn't dare go through the doors. 366 00:20:22,967 --> 00:20:25,247 I'll bet they were terrifying. I'll bet they were terrified. 367 00:20:25,247 --> 00:20:30,087 They'd probably get shouted at and rubbed down with sand and oil. 368 00:20:30,087 --> 00:20:34,007 This is the buffing wheel, and now you're in your costume, shall we give it a go? 369 00:20:34,007 --> 00:20:35,487 Yeah, yeah. 370 00:20:35,487 --> 00:20:38,607 In the pot here that you can see, we've got Trent sand and oil, 371 00:20:38,607 --> 00:20:41,127 so these were dipped and rubbed before they were ground. 372 00:20:41,127 --> 00:20:42,607 Can you smell it? 373 00:20:42,607 --> 00:20:44,967 It's like smelling a petrol pump! 374 00:20:44,967 --> 00:20:47,767 So, shall we give it a go? We'll start with something easy - a knife. 375 00:20:47,767 --> 00:20:49,247 Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. 376 00:20:49,247 --> 00:20:51,807 Hold it fairly well underneath, 'cause it's gonna come towards you, 377 00:20:51,807 --> 00:20:54,447 and the dirt will possibly flick up at you. 378 00:20:54,447 --> 00:20:55,927 Alright there? 379 00:20:55,927 --> 00:21:00,367 Oh, yeah, all the dirt keeps... bouncing off the wheel onto my face. 380 00:21:00,367 --> 00:21:01,927 Can't have been very good for you. 381 00:21:01,927 --> 00:21:05,687 No. I mean, it would get impregnated in your fingers, all the oil and the sand. 382 00:21:05,687 --> 00:21:11,007 And also you'd get dermatitis. Many of them suffered from that. 383 00:21:11,007 --> 00:21:15,407 As an errand lass to start with, you'd do odd jobs around the factory. 384 00:21:15,407 --> 00:21:17,567 You'd work your way up, then, to doing handles, 385 00:21:17,567 --> 00:21:22,167 and then eventually you'd get to more complex things like spoons and forks, 386 00:21:22,167 --> 00:21:23,967 'cause they're a lot more intricate. 387 00:21:23,967 --> 00:21:25,967 Look at the state of my hands. They're really... 388 00:21:25,967 --> 00:21:27,607 Oh, gosh. It's pretty mucky, isn't it? 389 00:21:27,607 --> 00:21:30,567 Yeah, the oil's becoming impregnated now, which is... 390 00:21:30,567 --> 00:21:34,967 The buffer girls had that, and they were quite disfigured, really. 391 00:21:34,967 --> 00:21:37,967 How many of these girls do you reckon there would have been in a factory? 392 00:21:37,967 --> 00:21:39,727 Several hundred. 393 00:21:39,727 --> 00:21:43,167 But say in, like, one workshop, there'd be long benches down each side 394 00:21:43,167 --> 00:21:47,927 and maybe 25 to 50 people all with their own individual wheels. 395 00:21:47,927 --> 00:21:52,205 So it'd be very loud and rowdy. Imagine this 50 times over. 396 00:21:53,487 --> 00:21:57,967 Buffer lasses were paid by the piece, which kept them glued to their machines. 397 00:21:57,967 --> 00:22:01,167 And every piece had to be perfect. 398 00:22:01,167 --> 00:22:02,759 TONY: There you are. 399 00:22:04,567 --> 00:22:06,207 That's not bad, is it? 400 00:22:06,207 --> 00:22:08,327 EMMA: Well, perhaps compare them to these ones. 401 00:22:08,327 --> 00:22:10,767 That's just the beginning of the process. 402 00:22:10,767 --> 00:22:14,327 So, various stages of buffing, and this is your end product 403 00:22:14,327 --> 00:22:16,477 before they'd be packaged and sent away. 404 00:22:18,047 --> 00:22:23,887 If deafening machines, filth, dermatitis and repetitive work weren't bad enough, 405 00:22:23,887 --> 00:22:26,959 mass production had one more downside for factory workers. 406 00:22:29,447 --> 00:22:32,484 It created a whole artificial working life. 407 00:22:33,727 --> 00:22:37,327 If you lived in the country, you'd be woken up by the church bells, 408 00:22:37,327 --> 00:22:39,527 and you'd stop work when the sun set. 409 00:22:39,527 --> 00:22:43,087 But in the increasingly mechanised world of the towns, 410 00:22:43,087 --> 00:22:45,727 factories could operate 24/7, 411 00:22:45,727 --> 00:22:50,807 and in order to make that happen, the owners instituted the shift system. 412 00:22:50,807 --> 00:22:54,367 And the first shift started at 5am. 413 00:22:54,367 --> 00:22:56,847 Now, if you had to wake up at that time nowadays, 414 00:22:56,847 --> 00:22:59,887 you'd set your mobile phone or your alarm clock radio, 415 00:22:59,887 --> 00:23:02,767 and ting-a-ling-a-ling - hopefully you'd wake up on time. 416 00:23:02,767 --> 00:23:05,447 But in those days, you wouldn't have been able to afford a phone. 417 00:23:05,447 --> 00:23:07,447 But you had to get to work on time, 418 00:23:07,447 --> 00:23:10,527 because as far as the owners were concerned, time was money. 419 00:23:10,527 --> 00:23:16,327 So they invented their own human alarm clock, called the knocker-up, 420 00:23:16,327 --> 00:23:20,167 and his tool of trade was the long stick, 421 00:23:20,167 --> 00:23:26,967 and he went round tapping on everyone's window very early in the morning, 422 00:23:26,967 --> 00:23:30,007 and he used to do this every day for the whole year, 423 00:23:30,007 --> 00:23:33,602 come rain, come shine, come snow. 424 00:23:35,007 --> 00:23:36,567 Morning! 425 00:23:36,567 --> 00:23:38,367 Apart from the factory owner, 426 00:23:38,367 --> 00:23:41,564 he was probably the most unpopular person in the whole town. 427 00:23:44,047 --> 00:23:47,967 But the reason it was a worst job was because there was no knocker-up 428 00:23:47,967 --> 00:23:49,798 to knock up the knocker-up, was there? 429 00:23:52,247 --> 00:23:54,207 Where there's brass, there's muck. 430 00:23:54,207 --> 00:24:00,167 And while the industrial revolution brought Britain wealth, it created filth. 431 00:24:00,167 --> 00:24:03,127 Coal and chemicals brought smogs 432 00:24:03,127 --> 00:24:06,047 that would make Los Angeles seem like an alpine meadow. 433 00:24:06,047 --> 00:24:09,887 Industrial Britain lived under a thin film of grime. 434 00:24:09,887 --> 00:24:13,287 And ironically, one of the messiest jobs of all 435 00:24:13,287 --> 00:24:16,327 was one designed to keep everyone else clean. 436 00:24:16,327 --> 00:24:20,247 You needed a strong stomach to apply for the post of soap boiler. 437 00:24:20,247 --> 00:24:25,447 Emanating from somewhere over there isn't the smell of Lux or Palmolive. 438 00:24:25,447 --> 00:24:30,967 It actually smells more like the insides of 1,000 dead wildebeest. 439 00:24:30,967 --> 00:24:37,727 And my head tells me that it's to do with our next worst job - soap-making. 440 00:24:37,727 --> 00:24:41,567 You look like you're boiling a Martian in there. What is that? 441 00:24:41,567 --> 00:24:45,167 Well, actually, I'm not boiling a Martian. I'm boiling parts of a dead sheep. 442 00:24:45,167 --> 00:24:47,527 And, uh, we actually need some more, 443 00:24:47,527 --> 00:24:50,247 so why don't you throw that one in over there? 444 00:24:50,247 --> 00:24:53,847 So is that what you make soap out of, the insides of sheep? 445 00:24:53,847 --> 00:24:59,087 Well, you make soap out of fat and, uh, believe it or not, caustic soda. 446 00:24:59,087 --> 00:25:03,047 The most common form of fat was from boiling down animals. 447 00:25:03,047 --> 00:25:05,327 Will this do? Oh, no, that's far too good. 448 00:25:05,327 --> 00:25:07,327 That's our lunch. Put in the sheep's offal. 449 00:25:07,327 --> 00:25:09,047 (Laughs) 450 00:25:09,047 --> 00:25:10,607 Here we go. 451 00:25:10,607 --> 00:25:13,287 I have to say, I've never got used to this job. 452 00:25:13,287 --> 00:25:16,447 So you're saying they could have used virtually anything at all to go in there? 453 00:25:16,447 --> 00:25:18,887 Well, Tony. You're a soap-maker, OK? 454 00:25:18,887 --> 00:25:22,687 You know that any bit of animal will do to make... to get fat from. 455 00:25:22,687 --> 00:25:25,967 So if you see a dead dog or cat, rat or anything, 456 00:25:25,967 --> 00:25:28,047 you're gonna put it in your soap pan, aren't you? 457 00:25:28,047 --> 00:25:31,527 But first, you have to take the skin off. Yeah. 458 00:25:31,527 --> 00:25:37,127 And then you have to take out its entrails so there's no waste products in it. 459 00:25:37,127 --> 00:25:39,367 'Cause you don't want waste products in your tallow, 460 00:25:39,367 --> 00:25:41,807 but virtually anything else will do. 461 00:25:41,807 --> 00:25:46,927 It does smell fairly disgusting now, doesn't it? What do we do with it next? 462 00:25:46,927 --> 00:25:50,927 You have to cook it, let it cool, take the fat off the top. 463 00:25:50,927 --> 00:25:52,407 Yeah. 464 00:25:52,407 --> 00:25:55,367 And then repeat the process to get a pure tallow. 465 00:25:55,367 --> 00:25:59,607 And eventually it ends up like this. 466 00:25:59,607 --> 00:26:03,127 Why's it clear on the top, but got that big yellow ball in the middle? 467 00:26:03,127 --> 00:26:07,167 Well, this is liquid tallow, and the big ball in the middle is actually solid tallow. 468 00:26:07,167 --> 00:26:08,967 And what are we gonna do with this? 469 00:26:08,967 --> 00:26:11,845 We're gonna pour it in this pot, and we're gonna make soap. 470 00:26:13,007 --> 00:26:14,565 In it goes. 471 00:26:17,767 --> 00:26:19,767 So what do we do now? 472 00:26:19,767 --> 00:26:21,887 Well, Tony, we add in the lye. What's that? 473 00:26:21,887 --> 00:26:27,647 Well, lye is caustic soda, or what they used to call potash, 474 00:26:27,647 --> 00:26:29,447 in a solution of water. 475 00:26:29,447 --> 00:26:31,207 That must be dangerous. Well, it is. 476 00:26:31,207 --> 00:26:34,927 I mean, certainly, if you put your hands in it, it will burn them. 477 00:26:34,927 --> 00:26:37,287 So not only did you have this horrible stink, 478 00:26:37,287 --> 00:26:40,247 but you had the terrible burning stuff as well. 479 00:26:40,247 --> 00:26:44,035 Absolutely, and if you get splashed with it, or it gets in your eyes, it will blind you. 480 00:26:52,047 --> 00:26:54,967 Is this the caustic soda? That's it, Tony. 481 00:26:54,967 --> 00:26:57,727 Right. Cor, it's heavy. 482 00:26:57,727 --> 00:26:59,922 Now, tell me when. I'll tell you when. 483 00:27:02,927 --> 00:27:05,127 That should do nicely. OK. 484 00:27:05,127 --> 00:27:08,367 And now we heat it up. Now we heat it up. 485 00:27:08,367 --> 00:27:12,647 Now, you see, the lye is mixing with the fats, 486 00:27:12,647 --> 00:27:15,847 and then very slowly, very gradually, it will turn into soap. 487 00:27:15,847 --> 00:27:19,647 And that process is called saponification. 488 00:27:19,647 --> 00:27:22,407 I'll tell you what, it's starting to go really frothy. 489 00:27:22,407 --> 00:27:25,847 You normally can't tell how long it's gonna take to saponify. 490 00:27:25,847 --> 00:27:28,007 Sometimes it happens quite quickly. 491 00:27:28,007 --> 00:27:32,487 But normally this process would take about four days. 492 00:27:32,487 --> 00:27:34,762 And you can see the soap forming on the surface. 493 00:27:36,407 --> 00:27:39,927 This is only one little bucket, and it stinks. 494 00:27:39,927 --> 00:27:42,647 Imagine the smell from a soap factory 495 00:27:42,647 --> 00:27:45,684 rendering animal carcasses seven days a week. 496 00:27:47,167 --> 00:27:50,007 That's weird. There's some fumes coming off it now. 497 00:27:50,007 --> 00:27:52,047 They're really making me cough. (Coughs) 498 00:27:52,047 --> 00:27:56,527 Well, that'll be the caustic soda, because it's boiling so vigorously. 499 00:27:56,527 --> 00:28:01,407 So that means that we've now got soap, but a load of caustic soda as well. 500 00:28:01,407 --> 00:28:03,167 What do we do with the caustic soda? 501 00:28:03,167 --> 00:28:08,127 You actually add brine to it, which is salt water, 502 00:28:08,127 --> 00:28:13,487 and what happens is the soap basically floats to the top as pure soap. 503 00:28:13,487 --> 00:28:16,247 You'll have soap on the top, then glycerine, 504 00:28:16,247 --> 00:28:22,887 and then all the bits of animals that didn't make fat, and caustic soda. 505 00:28:22,887 --> 00:28:24,927 What happens to the rest of the caustic soda? 506 00:28:24,927 --> 00:28:28,047 Well, once you've finished, if there's any waste caustic soda, 507 00:28:28,047 --> 00:28:31,487 you'd either use it again or you'd just flush it down the drain. 508 00:28:31,487 --> 00:28:33,087 Into the water supply? Oh, absolutely. 509 00:28:33,087 --> 00:28:34,567 Oh, that's great, isn't it? 510 00:28:34,567 --> 00:28:39,687 So you've got all these fumes coming off, you've got the stink, 511 00:28:39,687 --> 00:28:42,367 and you've got the fact that your water source is being polluted. 512 00:28:42,367 --> 00:28:43,846 It's a messy business. 513 00:28:47,287 --> 00:28:52,767 So Tony, what we do is we pour the soap into a mould, like this, 514 00:28:52,767 --> 00:28:54,847 and then we let it cool down. 515 00:28:54,847 --> 00:28:57,487 Yeah. And then we take it out. 516 00:28:57,487 --> 00:28:58,967 This is the soap? 517 00:28:58,967 --> 00:29:00,480 Absolutely. 518 00:29:05,327 --> 00:29:06,847 There we are. 519 00:29:06,847 --> 00:29:11,047 That's some travel, isn't it, from the bits and pieces of meat through to that. 520 00:29:11,047 --> 00:29:12,605 Do you want to try some? Yeah. 521 00:29:13,927 --> 00:29:16,247 There we are. Take a chunk of that. 522 00:29:16,247 --> 00:29:19,287 Now, it's not going to lather very well because there's no coconut oil in it. 523 00:29:19,287 --> 00:29:22,447 In the 18th century, soap was made from tallow, 524 00:29:22,447 --> 00:29:26,207 and tallow soap does not lather particularly well. 525 00:29:26,207 --> 00:29:29,007 Well, there's not that much lather here, but... 526 00:29:29,007 --> 00:29:30,647 But it does the job. 527 00:29:30,647 --> 00:29:33,487 It's still got a bit of the old animal smell on it, hasn't it? 528 00:29:33,487 --> 00:29:34,966 Yes, it has. 529 00:29:47,207 --> 00:29:51,527 We all know that the industrial revolution wasn't just driven by sweat and toil, 530 00:29:51,527 --> 00:29:53,327 but by brains. 531 00:29:53,327 --> 00:29:55,327 There was Brunel and his suspension bridge, 532 00:29:55,327 --> 00:29:57,887 James Watt and his steam engine. 533 00:29:57,887 --> 00:30:01,687 But behind these towering geniuses lies another worst job - 534 00:30:01,687 --> 00:30:05,127 those inventors who dedicated their whole lives 535 00:30:05,127 --> 00:30:08,287 to devices that never saw the light of day, 536 00:30:08,287 --> 00:30:11,047 basically because they were complete rubbish. 537 00:30:11,047 --> 00:30:15,887 Like James Boyle and his ingeniously polite saluting device - 538 00:30:15,887 --> 00:30:18,167 a cunning mechanism that meant 539 00:30:18,167 --> 00:30:22,567 if you had a budgie cage in one hand and a pound of sausages in the other, 540 00:30:22,567 --> 00:30:24,956 you could still tip your hat to a lady. 541 00:30:27,847 --> 00:30:31,807 Equally futile, the deliverance coffin. 542 00:30:31,807 --> 00:30:34,767 If Auntie Flo wasn't quite dead when you buried her, 543 00:30:34,767 --> 00:30:37,767 one movement would send a spring-Ioaded mop 544 00:30:37,767 --> 00:30:41,282 shooting out of the 6-foot pipe to alert passers-by. 545 00:30:42,407 --> 00:30:45,807 But there was a job worse than the people who invented rubbish. 546 00:30:45,807 --> 00:30:49,167 It was the bloke who invented something brilliant 547 00:30:49,167 --> 00:30:51,047 and never got the credit for it. 548 00:30:51,047 --> 00:30:53,767 This is Cromford Mill in Derbyshire. 549 00:30:53,767 --> 00:30:57,847 It was here that Richard Arkwright first used his water frame. 550 00:30:57,847 --> 00:31:03,247 This revolutionary device enabled cotton to be spun on an industrial scale. 551 00:31:03,247 --> 00:31:06,167 Arkwright's machine transformed production 552 00:31:06,167 --> 00:31:09,239 and assured his place in industrial history. 553 00:31:11,087 --> 00:31:13,647 The only problem was, it wasn't his invention. 554 00:31:13,647 --> 00:31:17,487 He'd pinched the idea from an inventor called Thomas Highs, 555 00:31:17,487 --> 00:31:20,727 who'd developed the water frame with his partner, John Kay, 556 00:31:20,727 --> 00:31:23,967 but had been too poor to be able to afford a patent. 557 00:31:23,967 --> 00:31:26,967 Arkwright's only contribution to technology 558 00:31:26,967 --> 00:31:29,407 was to buy a few rounds of drinks, 559 00:31:29,407 --> 00:31:33,327 which he poured down John Kay until the poor bloke was so sozzled 560 00:31:33,327 --> 00:31:37,007 that he blurted out the secrets of this wonderful invention. 561 00:31:37,007 --> 00:31:39,567 Arkwright went on to patent it 562 00:31:39,567 --> 00:31:43,327 and installed a water frame here in this factory. 563 00:31:43,327 --> 00:31:48,367 Not only that, but he sold the idea to mill owners throughout the country. 564 00:31:48,367 --> 00:31:53,447 Highs eventually took him to court, and he won, but by then it was too late. 565 00:31:53,447 --> 00:31:58,760 Arkwright had made his millions, and Highs died a forgotten nobody. 566 00:32:04,447 --> 00:32:07,687 But Victorian Britain didn't have time for losers. 567 00:32:07,687 --> 00:32:10,567 This was an age of self-confidence. 568 00:32:10,567 --> 00:32:16,287 In 1851, to show that the UK led the world, we put on the Great Exhibition. 569 00:32:16,287 --> 00:32:19,127 The country's finest technology was displayed 570 00:32:19,127 --> 00:32:21,960 in the purpose-built Crystal Palace. 571 00:32:23,927 --> 00:32:26,927 It was architecture designed to awe. 572 00:32:26,927 --> 00:32:29,967 The architect Paxton got all the plaudits, 573 00:32:29,967 --> 00:32:33,687 but the Crystal Palace was a giant kit of parts 574 00:32:33,687 --> 00:32:37,202 prepared with extreme skill and a lot of puff. 575 00:32:39,807 --> 00:32:47,327 In fact, there were 293,655 panes of glass in the original structure, 576 00:32:47,327 --> 00:32:50,763 which meant an awful lot of work for the glassblower. 577 00:32:53,407 --> 00:32:57,167 Paxton's plans gave glassblowers their ultimate challenge. 578 00:32:57,167 --> 00:33:00,687 They were already working to capacity. 579 00:33:00,687 --> 00:33:04,207 The Victorian building boom meant a huge demand for windows. 580 00:33:04,207 --> 00:33:09,927 Every single one had to be blown into a cylinder, then flattened into a sheet. 581 00:33:09,927 --> 00:33:11,407 But Paxton went further. 582 00:33:11,407 --> 00:33:14,567 He pushed technology to the limit 583 00:33:14,567 --> 00:33:17,718 and demanded the largest panes of glass ever blown. 584 00:33:23,887 --> 00:33:27,207 Working flat out in conditions of extreme heat 585 00:33:27,207 --> 00:33:30,287 meant mistakes were bound to happen. 586 00:33:30,287 --> 00:33:35,567 Glassmakers were a tight-knit bunch. Accidents were rarely recorded. 587 00:33:35,567 --> 00:33:38,927 But as glass is heated to 1,200 degrees to work, 588 00:33:38,927 --> 00:33:44,127 even the briefest of contact causes third-degree burns. 589 00:33:44,127 --> 00:33:46,327 Right, what do I do, Andrew? 590 00:33:46,327 --> 00:33:48,487 OK. Hold the stick. Yeah. 591 00:33:48,487 --> 00:33:50,247 Put your hand quite in close. Yeah. 592 00:33:50,247 --> 00:33:51,847 Yeah, and you want to be pulling away. 593 00:33:51,847 --> 00:33:54,647 Don't want it to fold in on itself. You want it to come out. 594 00:33:54,647 --> 00:33:56,927 And down. No, back hand down. 595 00:33:56,927 --> 00:33:58,527 Right. 596 00:33:58,527 --> 00:34:00,727 And then, as it gets there, then just straight. 597 00:34:00,727 --> 00:34:03,927 Don't worry about the heat. If you can feel something, you're doing it right. 598 00:34:03,927 --> 00:34:05,967 If you can't feel anything, you've burnt your hand off. 599 00:34:05,967 --> 00:34:09,287 And if you do feel heat, just dip it in water afterwards. 600 00:34:09,287 --> 00:34:10,927 Oh, blimey. OK, in you go. 601 00:34:10,927 --> 00:34:12,487 Right. Closely. In you go. 602 00:34:12,487 --> 00:34:14,967 Yeah. That's it. Pull up. 603 00:34:14,967 --> 00:34:18,047 Hey! That's good. There you go. Yeah? 604 00:34:18,047 --> 00:34:19,527 Oh, I enjoyed that. 605 00:34:19,527 --> 00:34:21,727 Can you feel the heat on your hand? Yeah, not half. 606 00:34:21,727 --> 00:34:24,247 It's still there, then. It was wet a minute ago. Now it's... 607 00:34:24,247 --> 00:34:25,885 Oh, it's still wet. 608 00:34:27,167 --> 00:34:29,527 That's the easy bit done. 609 00:34:29,527 --> 00:34:32,327 The glass cylinders are then cooled and cut lengthways 610 00:34:32,327 --> 00:34:34,047 with a diamond cutter. 611 00:34:34,047 --> 00:34:35,687 Then they're blasted again. 612 00:34:35,687 --> 00:34:37,767 Working in the heat of the furnace, 613 00:34:37,767 --> 00:34:40,247 the glassblowers have to flatten them into a sheet. 614 00:34:40,247 --> 00:34:42,007 This is my big moment. 615 00:34:42,007 --> 00:34:44,567 Right, what do I do? Just ease it that... 616 00:34:44,567 --> 00:34:48,047 Oh, it's gone down that way, yeah. That one'll fall out on that side. Just... 617 00:34:48,047 --> 00:34:49,807 Pick that one up from... as it is. 618 00:34:49,807 --> 00:34:51,527 Don't let it fall down. 619 00:34:51,527 --> 00:34:54,367 That's good. That's it. Oh, no. 620 00:34:54,367 --> 00:34:57,167 Argh! Sugar! 621 00:34:57,167 --> 00:34:59,207 That's not too bad. That's good. 622 00:34:59,207 --> 00:35:01,323 Hey! Well saved! 623 00:35:02,607 --> 00:35:05,327 OK, so, what we do now is we put this one away. 624 00:35:05,327 --> 00:35:06,807 Yeah. 625 00:35:06,807 --> 00:35:09,087 And we get the large block of wood. 626 00:35:09,087 --> 00:35:11,567 So we just run it over the glass 627 00:35:11,567 --> 00:35:13,080 until you get it flat. 628 00:35:15,807 --> 00:35:17,327 I really feel it here! 629 00:35:17,327 --> 00:35:18,999 Yeah. Oh, my gosh! 630 00:35:21,847 --> 00:35:24,927 Does it matter that I've set the pusher thing on fire? 631 00:35:24,927 --> 00:35:28,442 No. Oh, no, no, not at all. It's wood. It's meant to burn. 632 00:35:33,767 --> 00:35:35,527 There you are. 633 00:35:35,527 --> 00:35:40,927 Only another 363,654, or whatever it is, 634 00:35:40,927 --> 00:35:44,078 and we've built the entire Crystal Palace. 635 00:35:45,647 --> 00:35:47,126 I'm going for a beer. 636 00:35:54,287 --> 00:35:56,487 It's funny how something can be really dangerous 637 00:35:56,487 --> 00:35:58,287 and yet we turn a blind eye to it. 638 00:35:58,287 --> 00:36:01,047 The world's very first cigarette-making factory 639 00:36:01,047 --> 00:36:04,367 was opened in London in the year 1856. 640 00:36:04,367 --> 00:36:06,727 For the first time, ordinary men and women 641 00:36:06,727 --> 00:36:09,847 had access to tobacco in a handy form. 642 00:36:09,847 --> 00:36:13,687 But this wasn't the only dangerous thing about smoking. 643 00:36:13,687 --> 00:36:17,447 Match-making was one of the most poisonous jobs 644 00:36:17,447 --> 00:36:20,041 in the entire industrial revolution. 645 00:36:22,367 --> 00:36:24,967 The first generation of cigarette smokers 646 00:36:24,967 --> 00:36:29,047 just loved Bryant & May's strike-anywhere Lucifer matches, 647 00:36:29,047 --> 00:36:33,127 produced in a hellish factory in the East End of London. 648 00:36:33,127 --> 00:36:37,127 In the 1880s, the Bryant and May match girls became famous 649 00:36:37,127 --> 00:36:41,567 not only for their disgusting job, but because they organised, and won, 650 00:36:41,567 --> 00:36:45,527 a strike to get their appalling working conditions improved. 651 00:36:45,527 --> 00:36:49,327 Their action was the beginning of the trade union movement. 652 00:36:49,327 --> 00:36:54,047 But in a world where you could fall off bridges, get lung disease from clay 653 00:36:54,047 --> 00:36:56,247 or burn in a glass furnace, 654 00:36:56,247 --> 00:36:58,687 how did they create a cause celebre 655 00:36:58,687 --> 00:37:01,687 out of a gloop that looks like salad cream? 656 00:37:01,687 --> 00:37:04,887 Louise, it's hard to believe that this tiny little thing could be dangerous. 657 00:37:04,887 --> 00:37:06,647 It's difficult to believe, isn't it? 658 00:37:06,647 --> 00:37:09,327 Of course, it was just the little bit on the end, as well - 659 00:37:09,327 --> 00:37:11,967 it was just the striking tip that caused all the problems. 660 00:37:11,967 --> 00:37:13,447 What was it made out of? 661 00:37:13,447 --> 00:37:16,287 Well, that would have had a mixture like this, a composition - 662 00:37:16,287 --> 00:37:19,087 what the workers called a compo - like this, 663 00:37:19,087 --> 00:37:21,767 which is sulfur and resin. 664 00:37:21,767 --> 00:37:25,007 But presumably not just in a little tin? 665 00:37:25,007 --> 00:37:26,887 Well, no, Bryant & May wouldn't have got very far 666 00:37:26,887 --> 00:37:29,127 if they'd been working on this kind of a scale. 667 00:37:29,127 --> 00:37:31,407 They had a huge factory in the East End of London, 668 00:37:31,407 --> 00:37:34,207 massive rooms, massive vats of this composition. 669 00:37:34,207 --> 00:37:36,247 But what was poisonous about it? 670 00:37:36,247 --> 00:37:39,207 Well, nothing poisonous about this, or I wouldn't be standing here, 671 00:37:39,207 --> 00:37:43,047 but what they would have used to make the Lucifer match was this here. 672 00:37:43,047 --> 00:37:46,607 This is yellow phosphorus here. This is very nasty stuff. 673 00:37:46,607 --> 00:37:50,527 It was used as an insecticide. People used it to commit suicide. 674 00:37:50,527 --> 00:37:52,247 What did it do to the workers? 675 00:37:52,247 --> 00:37:54,047 Well, inhaling or ingesting 676 00:37:54,047 --> 00:37:56,287 even a really tiny amount of this would make you sick. 677 00:37:56,287 --> 00:37:58,287 And not just sick either. 678 00:37:58,287 --> 00:38:00,527 I've heard in the course of my research 679 00:38:00,527 --> 00:38:04,327 that the streets around Bryant & May's biggest factory in East London, 680 00:38:04,327 --> 00:38:06,487 when the girls came off shifts, 681 00:38:06,487 --> 00:38:10,407 was pretty much awash with pools of fluorescing vomit. 682 00:38:10,407 --> 00:38:12,487 Because it would actually make you fluoresce. 683 00:38:12,487 --> 00:38:15,847 If you were poisoned by phosphorus, it would actually make you fluoresce. 684 00:38:15,847 --> 00:38:18,287 It made your clothes glow and made you very sick. 685 00:38:18,287 --> 00:38:20,407 But it got a lot worse than that as well, 686 00:38:20,407 --> 00:38:23,887 and what was special about Fairfield Road, the Bryant & May factory in Bow, 687 00:38:23,887 --> 00:38:25,807 was that they had no canteen there. 688 00:38:25,807 --> 00:38:28,687 So there was no separate area for the women to eat their food. 689 00:38:28,687 --> 00:38:30,767 So they ate their food where they worked. 690 00:38:30,767 --> 00:38:33,287 So whatever bread... probably a bit of bread you'd brought in from home. 691 00:38:33,287 --> 00:38:34,767 Yeah. 692 00:38:34,767 --> 00:38:36,567 The phosphorus all day has been settling on it, 693 00:38:36,567 --> 00:38:39,687 the particles coming out of the air, settling on your bread, like a deadly seasoning, 694 00:38:39,687 --> 00:38:42,727 which when they then ate it and ingested it 695 00:38:42,727 --> 00:38:45,527 would get straight into their mouths and into their teeth, 696 00:38:45,527 --> 00:38:47,087 through holes in their teeth. 697 00:38:47,087 --> 00:38:50,207 And it would start to decay the jawbone itself, 698 00:38:50,207 --> 00:38:52,807 and pieces of bone the size of peas 699 00:38:52,807 --> 00:38:56,367 were apparently worked out through the gums, if you can imagine that, 700 00:38:56,367 --> 00:38:58,407 and it caused the most appalling smell, 701 00:38:58,407 --> 00:39:01,767 to the extent that some of the women suffering from it were almost like lepers. 702 00:39:01,767 --> 00:39:06,007 They were disfigured. They had to live on the outskirts of town. 703 00:39:06,007 --> 00:39:09,007 And that's why it's often known as 'phossy jaw'. 704 00:39:09,007 --> 00:39:11,727 That's what the women themselves called it. 705 00:39:11,727 --> 00:39:14,727 The women used to have all their teeth pulled at the first sign of it, 706 00:39:14,727 --> 00:39:16,767 'cause toothache - that's where it would start, with toothache - 707 00:39:16,767 --> 00:39:18,887 seemingly quite innocuous, and swelling of the face. 708 00:39:18,887 --> 00:39:22,887 If they didn't have all their teeth pulled, Bryant & May would make them do it. 709 00:39:22,887 --> 00:39:25,767 One woman who was pregnant didn't want to. 710 00:39:25,767 --> 00:39:28,727 She was concerned about the risk to her baby, the risk of miscarriage. 711 00:39:28,727 --> 00:39:32,647 She refused to do it, and she was actually sacked - dismissed without a penny. 712 00:39:32,647 --> 00:39:34,687 Why did they use that stuff? 713 00:39:34,687 --> 00:39:38,087 Because this Lucifer match was the most popular kind at the time. 714 00:39:38,087 --> 00:39:39,887 It was the best seller. Yeah. 715 00:39:39,887 --> 00:39:41,807 That's what Bryant & May wanted to continue making, 716 00:39:41,807 --> 00:39:43,887 although they could have actually used this here. 717 00:39:43,887 --> 00:39:45,767 This is red phosphorus. 718 00:39:45,767 --> 00:39:47,567 And that's completely safe. 719 00:39:47,567 --> 00:39:49,967 But because the Lucifer, the strike-anywhere match, 720 00:39:49,967 --> 00:39:51,447 was the most popular type - 721 00:39:51,447 --> 00:39:54,447 didn't need a box, didn't need a striking strip, like this did - 722 00:39:54,447 --> 00:39:55,927 that's what they kept making, 723 00:39:55,927 --> 00:39:58,247 and that's what caused the problems for their work force. 724 00:39:58,247 --> 00:40:04,807 What an incredibly vicious process just to create that effect. 725 00:40:04,807 --> 00:40:10,007 But were there any jobs worse than one that made your jaw rot and drop off? 726 00:40:10,007 --> 00:40:12,282 I'll find out in a bit. 727 00:40:14,607 --> 00:40:17,927 I've been looking at the worst jobs in industrial history. 728 00:40:17,927 --> 00:40:20,600 But which job's the very worst? 729 00:40:21,927 --> 00:40:24,207 Bone cleaning was certainly revolting work, 730 00:40:24,207 --> 00:40:26,647 but it was reasonably safe compared to the leggers, 731 00:40:26,647 --> 00:40:31,807 who risked torn ligaments and drowning to keep the canals working. 732 00:40:31,807 --> 00:40:34,207 And building the great bridges of the industrial revolution 733 00:40:34,207 --> 00:40:35,879 required nerves of steel. 734 00:40:38,287 --> 00:40:41,167 Where on Earth could there be anything worse than that? 735 00:40:41,167 --> 00:40:44,967 Well, nowhere. But underneath the earth's a different matter. 736 00:40:44,967 --> 00:40:48,967 In every historical period, there have been worst jobs underground, 737 00:40:48,967 --> 00:40:50,480 down the mines. 738 00:40:51,967 --> 00:40:55,727 Without coal, there would have been no steam and no industry. 739 00:40:55,727 --> 00:41:01,367 By 1800, Britain was getting through about 15 million tonnes a year. 740 00:41:01,367 --> 00:41:06,127 Getting it out of the ground was a dark and dangerous business. 741 00:41:06,127 --> 00:41:08,647 Any job down a mine would have been pretty horrible, 742 00:41:08,647 --> 00:41:11,767 but if you were a child, it must have been doubly bad, 743 00:41:11,767 --> 00:41:15,287 which is why I'm nominating the child miners known as hurriers 744 00:41:15,287 --> 00:41:17,967 as having the very worst industrial job. 745 00:41:17,967 --> 00:41:20,527 Ceri, I thought miners were all big lads like you. 746 00:41:20,527 --> 00:41:22,087 What were children doing down there? 747 00:41:22,087 --> 00:41:24,327 Um, well, in the past, of course, 748 00:41:24,327 --> 00:41:27,287 the tunnels weren't as large as they are in modern mines, 749 00:41:27,287 --> 00:41:29,807 and it was easier for children to negotiate them, 750 00:41:29,807 --> 00:41:33,647 and also cheaper to employ children than fully grown adults. 751 00:41:33,647 --> 00:41:35,367 So, what did these hurriers do? 752 00:41:35,367 --> 00:41:37,887 Well, the hurriers, or drammers, as we call them in South Wales, 753 00:41:37,887 --> 00:41:40,767 they actually brought the coal from the coalface, 754 00:41:40,767 --> 00:41:43,367 which had been cut by the colliers, back to the main roads. 755 00:41:43,367 --> 00:41:44,887 How old were these kids? 756 00:41:44,887 --> 00:41:46,967 Officially, they started about eight years old, 757 00:41:46,967 --> 00:41:49,207 but there have been cases of 5- and 3-year-olds working underground. 758 00:41:49,207 --> 00:41:51,807 And that's what I've got to do? That's what you've got to do. 759 00:41:51,807 --> 00:41:54,247 I can do what a 5-year-old can do. Of course you can. 760 00:41:54,247 --> 00:41:55,919 Come on. 761 00:41:57,847 --> 00:42:01,327 You'll get an idea of how bad being a hurrier was 762 00:42:01,327 --> 00:42:05,967 when I tell you their eventual replacements were pit ponies. 763 00:42:05,967 --> 00:42:09,527 I can't shed the years to get an idea of the terror of a 6-year-old 764 00:42:09,527 --> 00:42:12,727 going down into the dark for the first time. 765 00:42:12,727 --> 00:42:15,127 But I can at least shed the hard hat for once. 766 00:42:15,127 --> 00:42:18,807 Instead, I get some breeches and a white shirt, 767 00:42:18,807 --> 00:42:21,799 and I've got a feeling it's not gonna stay that way for long. 768 00:42:24,207 --> 00:42:28,527 Hurriers' only light was from candles, which could cause explosions. 769 00:42:28,527 --> 00:42:32,281 They were forced to buy them at marked-up prices from the mine owners. 770 00:42:33,727 --> 00:42:37,247 They had to walk up to a mile to the coalface. 771 00:42:37,247 --> 00:42:39,647 On the way, I accidentally found out 772 00:42:39,647 --> 00:42:41,727 about one of the hurriers' young colleagues. 773 00:42:41,727 --> 00:42:44,647 Are we at the end, Ceri? No, we're not at the end yet, Tony. 774 00:42:44,647 --> 00:42:47,047 Well, what's this thing here, then? This is a ventilation door. 775 00:42:47,047 --> 00:42:48,567 It's a door? It's a door. 776 00:42:48,567 --> 00:42:51,767 I can hardly see it in the dark. Why do you have doors in mines? 777 00:42:51,767 --> 00:42:55,007 Well, mines have to have doors. It directs the ventilation around all the workings. 778 00:42:55,007 --> 00:42:56,687 So does it stay shut all the time? 779 00:42:56,687 --> 00:42:58,447 Yes, except when there's coal's coming out, 780 00:42:58,447 --> 00:43:01,527 and then, obviously, it's got to be opened and then closed behind again. 781 00:43:01,527 --> 00:43:03,607 So who opens and closes it? A young child. 782 00:43:03,607 --> 00:43:06,327 They were called trappers, or door-boys, in South Wales. 783 00:43:06,327 --> 00:43:09,607 Well, I have to say, that sounds just about the easiest job in the whole world. 784 00:43:09,607 --> 00:43:11,327 Yes, of course it is. You sit there. 785 00:43:11,327 --> 00:43:12,807 Right. 786 00:43:12,807 --> 00:43:14,527 Hold my rope. You hold your rope. 787 00:43:14,527 --> 00:43:16,727 Yep. You hear a noise. You open the door. 788 00:43:16,727 --> 00:43:18,207 Well, it's a doddle! 789 00:43:18,207 --> 00:43:21,165 Now, then. Do it in the dark. Yeah. 790 00:43:22,447 --> 00:43:24,367 With rats scurrying around. 791 00:43:24,367 --> 00:43:27,207 (Tony laughs) It is totally different. 792 00:43:27,207 --> 00:43:31,007 As soon as the lights go out, you feel the cold. You feel so isolated. 793 00:43:31,007 --> 00:43:33,087 You can turn the light back on now, Ceri. 794 00:43:33,087 --> 00:43:35,927 It's weird the difference it makes, isn't it? 795 00:43:35,927 --> 00:43:40,607 Lmagine a little child being stuck sitting down there. How many hours a day? 796 00:43:40,607 --> 00:43:42,927 Up to 12 hours. (Exhales) 797 00:43:42,927 --> 00:43:44,887 And presumably they'd be the first person in? 798 00:43:44,887 --> 00:43:46,687 They'd be in first thing in the morning, 799 00:43:46,687 --> 00:43:48,967 and then have to stay there until the last collier left. 800 00:43:48,967 --> 00:43:51,087 There's a nice story which comes from 801 00:43:51,087 --> 00:43:53,647 the Royal Commission's report on children in mines, 802 00:43:53,647 --> 00:43:56,287 and the commissioners were actually visiting a colliery 803 00:43:56,287 --> 00:44:00,247 and they came across a young trapper called Mary Davis 804 00:44:00,247 --> 00:44:02,087 in the Merthyr Tydfil area, 805 00:44:02,087 --> 00:44:04,967 and she was actually sleeping by the air door. 806 00:44:04,967 --> 00:44:06,567 When they woke her up, 807 00:44:06,567 --> 00:44:09,367 she said that the rats had run off with her bread and cheese, 808 00:44:09,367 --> 00:44:12,167 and she was so upset, being in the dark on her own, 809 00:44:12,167 --> 00:44:16,007 she closed her eyes and went to sleep to forget about it all. 810 00:44:16,007 --> 00:44:20,523 But darkness, rats and long hours were just the start for the hurrier. 811 00:44:21,567 --> 00:44:26,167 They had to drag tubs of coal from the coalface to the lift shaft. 812 00:44:26,167 --> 00:44:30,607 They wore leather belts and were attached by chains to the tubs, 813 00:44:30,607 --> 00:44:33,167 which were often just sleds that slid over the rocky floor. 814 00:44:33,167 --> 00:44:36,247 And this is where the hurriers would have worked? 815 00:44:36,247 --> 00:44:39,207 Yes, this is one of the mine tunnels, and this is a coal cart. 816 00:44:39,207 --> 00:44:41,527 These little kids had to drag these things along? 817 00:44:41,527 --> 00:44:43,567 Yeah, they pulled weights of up to half a tonne. 818 00:44:43,567 --> 00:44:49,607 But apart from the weight, it's the dust. Their clothes must have got filthy. 819 00:44:49,607 --> 00:44:51,127 And they got ripped and everything else. 820 00:44:51,127 --> 00:44:53,527 So they had a solution for that in the north of England. 821 00:44:53,527 --> 00:44:55,207 Which was? Not to wear any clothes. 822 00:44:55,207 --> 00:44:57,367 You're kidding. I'm not kidding. 823 00:44:57,367 --> 00:44:59,767 The women usually kept their clothes on from the waist down. 824 00:44:59,767 --> 00:45:01,927 Yeah. But the men would work stark-naked. 825 00:45:01,927 --> 00:45:03,727 Am I allowed to keep my trousers on? 826 00:45:03,727 --> 00:45:05,327 Of course you are. Bless you. 827 00:45:05,327 --> 00:45:09,567 So, what do we know about these children and the work that they did? 828 00:45:09,567 --> 00:45:12,487 Well, one of the best descriptions we've got is of Edward Edwards, 829 00:45:12,487 --> 00:45:14,847 aged seven years old, of Briton Ferry. 830 00:45:14,847 --> 00:45:16,927 He described his day's work. 831 00:45:16,927 --> 00:45:21,927 He dragged one of these back and forth, 60 yards at a time, 832 00:45:21,927 --> 00:45:23,807 from the coalface to the main roads. 833 00:45:23,807 --> 00:45:27,367 As he said, sometimes he pushed it, sometimes he pulled it, 834 00:45:27,367 --> 00:45:31,087 sometimes it fell on him and broke a bone here and there. 835 00:45:31,087 --> 00:45:33,647 Not a very pleasant occupation at all. 836 00:45:33,647 --> 00:45:36,647 I'll tell you what, it isn't half parky in here! 837 00:45:36,647 --> 00:45:39,767 You're not gonna beat me up if I don't do it fast enough, are you? 838 00:45:39,767 --> 00:45:41,287 No, not at all. Right. 839 00:45:41,287 --> 00:45:44,687 I'll have to get down on my hands and knees, won't I, 'cause it's so low here. 840 00:45:44,687 --> 00:45:46,167 Right. 841 00:45:46,167 --> 00:45:49,847 Gorblimey! I can hardly... move the thing at all. 842 00:45:49,847 --> 00:45:53,607 Lord knows how... a 4- or 5-year-old did it. 843 00:45:53,607 --> 00:45:57,122 And that tunnel's about the size of the tunnel they would have been working in. 844 00:46:00,567 --> 00:46:02,527 Ceri, I think there's a gradient here, isn't there? 845 00:46:02,527 --> 00:46:06,127 Yes. The tunnels actually followed the coal seams themselves. 846 00:46:06,127 --> 00:46:10,439 I don't know how these kids managed to get these things uphill. 847 00:46:11,847 --> 00:46:14,887 Well, in some places, of course, some modern collieries, 848 00:46:14,887 --> 00:46:18,327 they actually had rails down and little wheels on the cart, 849 00:46:18,327 --> 00:46:20,007 and it made it a little bit easier. 850 00:46:20,007 --> 00:46:23,487 But on the other hand, the cart could run away with wheels on 851 00:46:23,487 --> 00:46:25,167 and run over the children. 852 00:46:25,167 --> 00:46:31,727 I think I'd rather take the risk of being crushed and have the things on... rails. 853 00:46:31,727 --> 00:46:33,887 You pay your money and you take your choice. 854 00:46:33,887 --> 00:46:36,327 I tell you what, every time you try and yank forward, 855 00:46:36,327 --> 00:46:38,807 it really digs into your knees. 856 00:46:38,807 --> 00:46:40,887 (Shouts) How long would they have been doing... 857 00:46:40,887 --> 00:46:41,887 Oh... 858 00:46:41,887 --> 00:46:44,487 How long would they have been doing this for at a time, Ceri? 859 00:46:44,487 --> 00:46:46,527 Well, up to 12 hours a day. 860 00:46:46,527 --> 00:46:49,167 Back and for', back and for'. 861 00:46:49,167 --> 00:46:51,397 Full ones out, empty ones back in. 862 00:46:52,447 --> 00:46:57,687 The other thing, of course, is that every time you move forward, 863 00:46:57,687 --> 00:46:59,887 you're kicking up the dust. 864 00:46:59,887 --> 00:47:04,247 And then, as soon as you've finished the forward motion bit, 865 00:47:04,247 --> 00:47:07,847 you breathe in like mad in order to gulp some more air, 866 00:47:07,847 --> 00:47:09,803 and the dust goes straight down your throat again. 867 00:47:14,447 --> 00:47:16,447 (Sighs) 868 00:47:16,447 --> 00:47:18,647 The rubble laid down after the mine closed 869 00:47:18,647 --> 00:47:20,847 makes pulling the tub even harder, 870 00:47:20,847 --> 00:47:24,237 but, then, I am a few years older than the average hurrier. 871 00:47:28,047 --> 00:47:30,887 That is a horrible job. It's really disgusting. 872 00:47:30,887 --> 00:47:33,487 It's all the dust coming up, choking you. 873 00:47:33,487 --> 00:47:36,927 I've got blood on my knee from somewhere, 874 00:47:36,927 --> 00:47:40,807 and I've got a cut on my hand there. 875 00:47:40,807 --> 00:47:42,567 But without all those little children 876 00:47:42,567 --> 00:47:47,207 pulling these trucks miles and miles through those dark passageways, 877 00:47:47,207 --> 00:47:51,723 the captains of industry would have been literally powerless. 878 00:47:53,087 --> 00:47:57,365 But next time, even more worst jobs. 879 00:47:58,487 --> 00:48:03,607 I'm going to sea to find out why telling fibs could get you a job swabbing the toilets. 880 00:48:03,607 --> 00:48:08,607 How Britain's very first navy survived on minimal rations. 881 00:48:08,607 --> 00:48:12,361 And why maritime heroes didn't like getting their toes wet.