Chapter 63: Dash leaves the Price family...

After leaving the Price family, Mrs. Dashwood returned home and discussed Miss Price with her husband.

“John, Miss Price is very beautiful, but I wonder how much money she has. As far as I know, she has an older brother who is a wealthy merchant. Although this business is somewhat vulgar and not very respectable, it has helped him make a fortune quickly. Most importantly, it is said that he has gained the favor of a duke. It would be good if your sister could marry such a man in the future.”

“Oh, really? My dear Fanny, you’ve found out so much! Eleanor should really thank you, sister-in-law. It’s a pity she’s only fifteen and not yet in social circles. We’ll have to wait a while before introducing her to Mr. Price. You’ve found out more than just that, haven’t you? I guess you want to introduce Miss Price to your brother Edward?”

"Judging by her relatives, Miss Price is not bad, but I haven't found out about her wealth. If she doesn't have enough, the marriage won't be a good match. You know my mother has high hopes for Edward, hoping he will be able to enter Parliament in the future."

Mrs. Dashwood spoke with such an air of self-righteousness that she and her mother had every right to choose young girls.

John Dashwood didn't think his wife was wrong at all; he was about the same age as William Price. Having inherited half of his late mother's estate at an adulthood, he was quite wealthy at a young age, naturally able to get married. He did indeed marry Fanny Ferras, a similarly wealthy young woman with a large dowry, not long after.

The couple soon discovered that they shared the same views and opinions in all aspects. This marriage made them of one mind and influenced each other to become more narrow-minded and selfish. If this can be considered a loving couple, then they couldn't be more loving.

Richard, one of the two people the couple mentioned, is no longer in London. He left for India shortly after William's marriage.

As for the other one, if Mrs. Dashwood had known that Miss Price had been spending so much time at the factory tinkering with machines with a bunch of lowly craftsmen, she would never have considered Mary as her brother's fiancée again.

After Richard left London, Mary took over the management of the Butterfly Sewing Machine Company behind the scenes. Originally only responsible for technical research and development, she frequently contacted frontline craftsmen during this period, not only successfully overcoming the difficulties in the production process of foot-operated sewing machines, but also taking this opportunity to optimize the factory's production management.

From the very beginning, Butterfly Sewing Machine Company has placed greater emphasis on workers' rights than other factories.

First, workers in sewing machine factories work far fewer hours than those in other factories, only ten hours a day. This long working hours have even sparked protests from some workers, who want longer hours to earn higher wages and more money to live on.

Secondly, Mary advised Richard not to hire child laborers under the age of sixteen. This was something that factory owners of the time generally didn't care about; child labor was common in all walks of life, and Mary's brothers were among them.

However, as mentioned earlier, if lower-middle-class children typically start working at age eleven, lower-class children will only start working at an even younger age.

It was said that five-year-old children were working in the textile and coal mining industries, and Mary heard in the city that the children responsible for cleaning chimneys were even only two or three years old, so that their small bodies could squeeze into the chimneys. Mary was shocked when she first learned this, and she hoped to start with herself to reduce the use of child labor.

Finally, the factory's working environment was much cleaner than most factories of the time. Mary established a series of hygiene management regulations for the factory, including daily cleaning of the workshop and removal of dirt from the machines. Of course, most importantly, the factory provided public toilets and bathrooms for the workers.

In particular, separate public toilets were provided for female workers. Although the sewing machine manufacturing factory was initially staffed primarily by men, a small number of women joined the workforce, and there were also many women among the sales staff. The establishment of the women's toilets improved the working environment for these female workers to some extent.

But when Mary actually took charge of the company's management, she realized she had been too naive. The factory didn't hire child laborers under sixteen, so children as young as thirteen or fourteen, and even twelve, lied about being sixteen. Richard, another major shareholder, didn't understand why his sister insisted on the sixteen-year-old age limit; he could only assume Mary believed that mechanical manufacturing was physically demanding and didn't require overly thin children.

Therefore, in practice, the staff responsible for recruiting workers often readily let go of children who appear to be underage. They might even be doing it out of kindness. These children are already supporting their families; if Mary and Richard's factory doesn't hire them, they'll be forced to find work in factories with even worse working conditions.

“Mr. Smith, do you mean those sixteen-year-olds you mentioned are apprentices in the factory?” Mary asked.

“That’s right, Miss Price.” Thomas Smith was the watchmaker who had advised Richard to disassemble the machine, and he was now in charge of the factory’s day-to-day management.

In his eyes, Miss Price may have had the remarkable talent to invent the sewing machine, but she also had the untimely compassion typical of young ladies, a compassion that could not truly help these underprivileged families.

He explained, “Don’t worry, miss, I will arrange for them to learn how to manufacture parts from skilled workers, and at the same time be responsible for cleaning the machinery. This will be very useful for their future.”

“Mr. Smith, are you worried that I will order the dismissal of these children? Don’t worry, I understand you’re worried, but are those skilled workers really willing to teach these children properly?”

Unlike the apprenticeship system in traditional industries, in the mechanized production workshops, there is no personal dependence between skilled workers and apprentices. They are competitors. In order to avoid being eliminated by the factory owner, skilled workers do not want the factory to recruit too many apprentices.

Thomas Smith knew the reality better than Mary; some skilled workers would even beat or verbally abuse these apprentices, or order them around cleaning the workshop and tidying up the machines.

To standardize worker training, Mary decided to develop a new training program, offering rewards to skilled workers who successfully trained qualified workers for the factory. She also established a small school, or training center, within the factory, hiring teachers to instruct in mechanical processes, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other subjects. All apprentices were required to attend the school for at least one hour daily.

Besides the issue of child labor, Mary discovered that although she improved the factory's poor hygiene conditions, workers of this era still faced appalling working environments where their lives were disregarded.

By constantly interviewing frontline workers, Mary compiled simple and easy-to-understand safety operating procedures based on their accounts, highlighting potential hazards in production. She also announced a new policy at the factory: in addition to technological improvements, workers who offered feasible suggestions for process optimization and safe production would also receive monetary rewards.

Before the workers made their first suggestion, Mary had nothing to do but wait for the factory to produce the first treadle sewing machine. She then came up with a major invention to improve worker safety.

At this time, workers often wore wool caps, which originated from hunting hats worn by hunters in the 14th century.

From its inception, this hat was designed to protect the hunter's head with its flat, round top, while the short, flat brim allowed hunters to easily look up and observe their prey. This shape also happened to meet the needs of workers in the busy and chaotic machine production process, so in the 19th century, the flat cap gradually became one of the symbols of the working class.

However, Mary, coming from the future, felt that this type of hat didn't provide enough protection for her head; she was more familiar with the colorful safety helmets of the 21st century. Hat making was her forte, so Mary decided to try making a safety helmet herself.

Since thermoplastic materials for later generations had not yet been invented, Mary chose durable canvas and leather from among a variety of fabrics.

First, she used high-temperature steam to shape the canvas into the semi-circular shape commonly seen in later hats. Then, she sewed a cross-shaped protective band with a leather lining in the center onto the inside using strips of fabric, leaving some space between the hat shell and the lining to distribute the instantaneous impact. Finally, she glued a leather brim to the brim, sewed a chin strap inside the hat for reinforcement, and applied a layer of glue to the shell to make the hat more rigid and durable.

Since these were hats intended for ordinary workers, she had to do her best to create a product as close as possible to the safety helmets of later generations within a limited budget. After the hats were finished, Mary approached John to prepare for applying for a patent for the safety helmet.

“Mary, you’ve been working on this hat all these days? What’s the point?” John looked at the ugly hat in Mary’s hand with a strange expression; it looked like a pot on her head.

Mary handed the hat to her brother: "I've had someone try it on. Wearing it on your head can greatly reduce the damage from being hit by heavy objects."

John had his servant put on the hat and tested it with a small stone. The servant said that he could not feel any pain while wearing the hat.

His eyes lit up: "Mary, have you ever thought that there is another place that needs these hats even more than our factory? That is the mine."

William, who was standing nearby, also keenly thought that since the hat had such excellent shock absorption, perhaps soldiers' helmets could be made in a similar shape.

These ideas were temporarily irrelevant to Mary. She bought a house in the suburbs and then had Thomas Smith hire some seamstresses to start producing safety helmets. It wasn't that she didn't want to hire professional hat makers, but rather that these people were paid more than ordinary seamstresses, and male workers were also less conducive to her management.

After the new factory was established, William and John thought it was purely for producing safety helmets, unaware that Mary planned to expand and strengthen the factory.

They insisted that Mary always be accompanied by two male servants when she went out. Remembering the danger she had encountered, Mary was always very careful and tried to have Kate relay her orders.