Many serious accidents might be averted if the men were required to wear safety belts secured to stout life lines whenever it is practicable to do so. Under certain conditions, for example during the early stages of construction, the steelworkers can seldom use these safeguards with advantage, because they have to move about freely and almost continuously. There are times, in fact, when life lines might be distinctly dangerous to the men, by impeding their movements in critical situations; but there are other times, beyond all question, when the safety of the steelworkers would be materially increased by the use of life lines.

Life lines and safety belts should be used by men working on steeply-pitched roofs, and by those who are installing, adjusting, and inspecting the machines and other parts of suspended scaffolds. (See also page 99.) Painters should also be provided with these safeguards while at work on the steel columns and other structural members that have been erected, and should be required to use them faithfully. There are numerous other operations, also, which would be made less hazardous by requiring the men to use these safety devices. The safety belt is used quite generally in other countries, and there is no good and sufficient reason why we should not adopt it far more generally in the United States.

Fig. 97. Working Under Dangerous Conditions.

Great care should always be taken to see that the life lines are safely secured to strong, firm supports, and they should be no longer than is necessary in order to permit the work to be done without inconvenience. Otherwise, if a man should fall, the rope would be subjected to a snapping stress of unnecessary severity, and it would be more likely to break than if it were shorter.

Fig. 98. Painting the Steelwork of a "Skyscraper".

(The workman should have worn a safety belt and life line).

Inspect and thoroughly test all life lines and safety belts at frequent intervals, and see that they are in first-class condition in all respects.

69. Storing And Piling Materials In Buildings Under Construction

In congested districts all material should be stored in the building as soon as the building operations will permit. Crushed stone, gravel, sand, bricks, and cement should preferably be stored below the level of the street floor. They may be delivered to the storage place through chutes which may be located at the first or street floor level inside of the building or near the street curb outside of the building. When chutes are employed they should be provided with substantial covers, which should be kept in place when the chutes are not in use, or with guard-rails and toe-boards.

Terra cotta or tile partition and floor blocks must be handled with considerable care, to prevent excessive breakage, and therefore should not be thrown down from an elevation or be delivered through chutes. It is customary to bring these blocks into the building under construction on trucks or wagons, and to pile them on the street floor. They should be carefully piled, to a height not exceeding 6 feet, and the piles should be braced or propped, if necessary, to prevent them from toppling over. Equal care should be exercised in piling bricks, lumber, structural steel, and other material, both inside the building and in the street or elsewhere.

Fig. 99. Poorly-piled Floor Tiles.

(These should be slowed much more carefully, in orderly and regular piles not more than six blocks in height).

Bags of cement should not be piled more than 10 bags high, and unless each end of the pile rests against a wall or other substantial support, the end bags should be cross-piled, for greater security. The bags in the outer tiers should be placed with their mouths toward the center of the pile. When removing bags do not take them all from one part of the pile, but keep the top of the pile as nearly level as possible.

Crushed stone, sand, and gravel exert considerable side pressure when stored in quantity, and care must therefore be taken to see that walls or partitions against which they may be piled are amply strong to sustain the load.