(c) The Shops Acts 1912, 1913 and 1928 only apply to retail shops, including places for the sale of food and drink for con sumption on the premises. It must be noted that any operation coming under the definition quoted above in the Factory and Workshop Act of 1901, will bring the place where it is carried on under the factory and workshop law although it is part of the business of a place that is, in the main, a shop. For instance, the making up of wreaths in a florist's shop was held to bring the girls so employed under the Factory Act, although they also served in the shop (Hoare v. Robert Green Ltd. [1907] 2 K.B. 315).
(d) The principal Merchant Shipping Acts containing provisions for the express protection of seamen are the consolidating Act of 1894, the amending Act of 1906 and the Merchant Shipping (International Conventions) Act 1925.
(e) The Acts concerned with employment on railways are the Railway Regulation Act 1893, the Railway Employment (Pre vention of Accidents) Act 1900, and the Railways Act 1921.
The protective regulations affecting factories, mines, shops, merchant ships and railways can be most conveniently con sidered under four heads, viz., A. Health and Safety; B. Condi tions for admission to work; C Hours of work and holidays; and D. Administration.
General provisions for protecting the health of workers in fac tories and workshops and for the prevention of accidents are con tained in parts I. and IV. of the Act of 1901. By virtue of part I. factories and workshops are required to be kept clean, free from effluvia, well-ventilated, not overcrowded and at a reasonable temperature. The inside walls of all workrooms, passages and stairways in a factory must as a general rule either be painted at least every seven years (and the paint washed every 14 months) or lime-washed every 14 months. Workshops need only be lime washed when required by the local authority. In both factories and workshops overcrowding means, as a rule, the employment of more than one person to every 25o cu.ft. of air space, or 400 cu.ft. during overtime. The prescribed space per person may be in creased by order and has been increased for certain bakehouses and for workshops used at night for sleeping purposes. A reason
able temperature must be maintained in all workrooms and the measures taken to this end must not be such as to interfere with the purity of the air. Sufficient means of ventilation must be provided and maintained. Arrangements must be made to drain the water off wherever a process is carried on which wets the floor. Sufficient and suitable sanitary accommodation must be provided, separate for the two sexes. The standard of what is "sufficient and suitable" is fixed by order. The sections relating to safety in factories provide for the fencing of certain specified parts of machinery, and in general all dangerous parts; they deal with the construction and regular examination of steam boilers, and con tain special provisions to prevent accidents from the traversing carriages of self-acting machines. There are also restrictions on the cleaning of machinery by women and young persons (i.e., under 18). The question of safety in case of fire is referred largely to the local authorities, whose powers under the Public Health Act 1875 were extended to include the making of bye-laws respecting means of escape from factories and workshops. The rules requiring employers to give notice to certain officials of acci dents occurring in their works, so as to enable the circumstances to be investigated, formerly in part I. of the Act of f90 , have been amended by the Notice of Accidents Act 1906, the Police, Factories, etc., Act 1916, and the Workmen's Compensation Act 1923. As the law now stands, any accident occurring in a factory or workshop causing death or disabling a worker from earning his full wages for three days must be notified to the inspectors of fac tories. The home secretary may, by order, require certain kinds of dangerous occurrence to be reported even though no physical injury is caused to any person. An order has been issued under this power requiring notification in all cases of the bursting of any revolving vessel, wheel or grindstone moved by mechanical power, the breaking of rope or chain used for hoisting purposes by mechanical power, and outbreaks of fire affecting any room in which persons are employed, serious enough to necessitate sus pension of work in it for 24 hours. A formal investigation into the circumstances of any accident whatever in a factory or work shop may be directed by the home secretary, and the procedure for such investigations and the powers of the court of investigators are laid down in the Act of 1901 (s. 22). Explosives in factories must also be notified under the Explosives Act 1875.