and times of admission; at the south gate, John Courtney, who stuck to his post till 1930, did not take kindly to latecomers who entered their times in decimals.

Inside the boundary wall was a corps of works police who patrolled the shops according to Pittsburgh practice, seeing that everyone kept diligently at work. This system soon disappeared, the responsibility being taken over by foremen and chargehands. Smoking during working hours was prohibited even in the works yard, but at lunch time it was permitted in the offices and outside the shops.

Women were employed from the outset—witness Bertha Cook and Florence Taylor still on G aisle—but their numbers were comparatively small, and they were limited mostly to insulation, coil winding and assembly work. Dress regulations were not strict, and it was some years before caps were made compulsory. On the other hand there was a rule forbidding any man to walk or talk with a woman in the precincts of the works except on strictly works business, even during lunch hours. Female stenographers and secretaries gained ground slowly: in May 1905 a circular letter prohibited "tea-drinking between meal-times for lady stenographers and lady clerks except when medical certificates warrant it".

The works telephone exchange was a National board with four external lines and thirty-eight extensions. In September 1903 the original operator was joined by Miss M. Brown, who soon became supervisor and is still with the Company; today she is responsible for a staff of thirty, dealing with nearly 1500 extensions and a teleprinter service.

Canteens for men consisted of an eating shed (near the foundry), which was provided with rough tables and tea-brewing kettles. For women in G aisle a large can of hot water was sent up for tea-brewing at midday—of course well off the boil on arrival—and later part of the aisle was partitioned off and provided with plank seats round the walls but no tables; a luxury that did not last was a hot lunch bar run by an outside firm.

For the staff, lunch was provided in a wooden building that had been used as temporary offices while the works was being built. This building was later given to Trafford Park for use as a school; it was moved to its new position—a three-week job—by means of a shunting engine, which alternately pushed and towed it bodily out of the yard. The new staff dining room was on the ground floor of the office building. In 1908, when the Company took over the management from an outside caterer, the tariff shows that for lunch joint or entree with two vegetables ran to 6d, and for tea chops and steaks were 1d, poached eggs on toast 4d, boiled egg 11/2d. But most people still brought their own lunch.

A first-aid room dealt with minor casualties, and injured employees in the early days must have been reluctant to submit themselves to the robust attentions of John Cliffe, ambulance man for twenty-five years. In 1904 his main items of equipment were a baccy knife for splinters, a camel brush for eyes, and a flask of whisky; as a sideline he sold neckties to his victims, and it was a wise patient who made a purchase before treatment.