746 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS should be established in every large centre of population where one did not already exist, but, unfortunately, this was not fully implemented since development was left to voluntary organizations without support from government funds. By 1914 it was estimated that there were from 2,600 to 3,000 blind persons already in workshops in the United Kingdom, but there were a further 3,000 employable blind persons, some already trained in the traditional trades, who were without work. As a result, it was recommended that assistance should be given from public funds and work- shop accommodation expanded still further. By 1939 there were more than 60 workshops in Great Britain with about 4,500 blind workers, still prac- tising, however, the old traditional trades. WORKSHOPS OF THE BLIND TODAY At the present time about 3,650 blind workers, including 700 women, are employed in 67 workshops throughout Great Britain. The majority are still run by voluntary organizations who often provide other services, such as welfare centres, homes or schools. They vary in size from 300 blind workers to tiny workshops employing half a dozen blind people, most having between 20 and 100 blind workers. The premises occupied by the workshops are varied, some enjoy modern purpose built buildings, others are in old premises which were originally intended for other uses. Many are short of space for any new developments, and, when judged by modern standards, some must be considered as unsuitable for housing economic production. Most are engaged in more than one trade, usually of the tradi- tional variety and the workshop •vith no more than 20 or 30 blind workers has usually still three or four departments engaged in quite different work. This is the traditional arrangement designed to ensure that as far as possible blind persons who had training in any of the usual handcrafts, could find employment in their own locality. THE NORTHAMPTON EXPERIMENT The Northampton Blind Employment factory was started in 1898 practising the traditional trades of mat making, basket making, brush making and knitting. It employed 25 to 30 persons on average and, because of the inefficiency of this type of production, costs were continuing to rise year by year. Some ten years ago it was, therefore, decided that a revolu- tionary approach would have to be adopted, firstly in order to stem these

EC()NOMIC EMPLOYMENT OF THE BLIND 747 rising costs, and, secondly, to provide more suitable modern employment for the blind workers. It •vas realised that since no major capital had been expended during the history of this workshop, the cost involved in a modern approach was going to be considerable. A twelve months' preliminary survey for suitable trades was made and it became apparent that the essential requisites should be: 1. simplicity of operations to be performed by the blind worker 2. high production level for each worker employed 3. rapid expendability of the product. After further careful thought it was decided that a start should be made in the manufacture of toilet soap, this production to be expanded into the sphere of toiletries at a later date. Looking at the three essential requisites in retrospect, in the case of the first it is now possible to employ blind persons who, under the traditional trades, were unable to reach a minimum qualifying standard, and this has been achieved by breaking down the methods of production into their simplest form, using sophisticated machinery to perform the more complex operations. With regard to (2) it will suffice to illustrate this particular point by saying that turnover per worker in the traditional trades was something like oe500/head/annum, whereas today, in the new trades it is running at the rate of approx. oe10,000/head/annum. Concerning (3), it was found with traditional trades that in order to break down the natural sales resistance of the public to blind-made products, it was necessary to manufacture a very high quality article to prove that the standards were indeed as high as any others on the market. This, in turn, boomeranged by the products lasting so long in use that, although one had a large number of customers, their individual reqnire- ments were few. Therefore, in introducing the many new products in the range over the past seven years, it has been necessary to bear in mind primarily the fact that the product expendability must be very rapid, whilst still retaining high quality. A simple example of this last point is that whereas 30 tablets of toilet soap costing 1/- per tablet would last an average family of four persons six months, a coir mat for a dwelling house costing the same could last 20 years!