All people using work equipment or supervising / managing its use should be sufficiently competent to do so safely. Competence may include, in some cases, minimum medical fitness (eg for driving vehicles) and either or both physical and mental aptitude (eg the ability to climb and work at height to operate a tower crane), as well as knowledge and skill. 'Competence' is not defined although, for some work tasks (such as woodworking and operating power presses), there are minimum training requirements which will assist in gaining sufficient competence to undertake tasks safely and without risk to health. Rule, “Trade Unions, the Government and the French Revolution, 1789–1802,” 112–38, esp. 118–22; and Leonard Rosenband, “Comparing Combination Acts: French and English Papermaking in the Age of Revolution,” Journal of Social History, 29, 2 (May 2004), 165–85.

Exploitation of natural resources with little concern for the ecological consequences; a continuation of 19th century practices but at a larger scale.A question must then be asked: what was the relationship between the energetic, even excessive, response of the English state to machine-breaking, and the somewhat minimal reaction to militancy by the labouring classes on the part of innovating entrepreneurs interested in mechanization? I would like to hazard a provisional interpretation of this crucial problem of mentalité, this time of British entrepreneurs. A definitive answer will require much more detailed comparative research. Training and the techniques used can vary and may include (as appropriate to the risk, complexity of the task, equipment and existing competence of staff): Other members of the public may also be at risk, eg when using public rights of way through fields containing cattle and calves. What you need to do...

The rise of the engineering factory followed closely upon a series of breakthroughs in machine-tool technology between 1815 and 1830. From relying heavily on manual dexterity in 1800, textile engineering had by 1840 advanced to a point where machines made machines. Key breakthroughs were to the lathe and planer. Particularly significant was the work of Roberts and Whitworth, who, said William Fairbairn, made ‘new and more perfect tool machinery, which has given not only mathematical precision, but almost a creative power – as one machine creates another’. But process mechanization did not in itself make factories inevitable. Many of the new machine tools could be accommodated in existing workshops. The systems serving machinemakers for 40 or 50 years still presented advantages, optimizing the use of labour, with subcontractors and casual staff working intensively or otherwise, according to demand. Even after 1840, the small workshop sector employed large numbers on jobbing and repair work, or other tasks or products outside machine-making's mainstream.

What you must do

formal in-house training, provided by competent, qualified or experienced staff often coupled with some form of documented competence assessment Adrian Randall, “The Industrial Moral Economy of the Gloucestershire Weavers in the Eighteenth Century,” in Rule, ed., British Trade Unionism, 29–51; Maxine Berg, The Age of Manufactures 1700–1820: Industry, Innovation and Work in Britain, 2nd ed. (London 1994), 185–6; M.J. Daunton, Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700–1850 (Oxford 1995), 486–95; John Rule, “Trade Unions, The Government and the French Revolution, 1789–1802,” in John Rule and Robert Malcolmson, eds., Protest and Survival: the Historical Experience — Essays for E.P. Thompson (London 1993), 112–38. It is illegal to carry children under 13 in the cab of an agricultural vehicle and it is unsafe. Children can and do: It is not possible to detail here what constitutes 'adequate training', as requirements will vary according to:

An engagingly written account of textile engineering in its key northern centres, rich with historical narrative and analysis.All those providing training on the use of any work equipment should be sufficiently skilled and competent. The degree of skill, knowledge and competence to do so will depend on many factors, including the nature of the work equipment and the risks it poses. On this point, see “Foreign Policy as Industrial Policy: the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of 1786,” in Jeff Horn, The Path Not Taken: French Industrial Policy in the Age of Revolution 1750–1830 (forthcoming). Corporate exploitation of labor leading to the creation of strong trade unions as a countervailing force