Having arrived at work, there was a whole new set of dangers to contend with. The Victorian workplace was renowned neither for its healthy environment nor for its safety record. This held true if you were working out in the fields just as much as if you were bent over a spinning machine in one of Lancashire's mills or scrubbing floors in a stately home. Open fires and unguarded machinery were common, and the air was filled with smoke, fumes and dusts of various degrees of harmfulness. Horses bolted, sending carts, carriages and machinery flying; poisons were in use everywhere; heavy and debilitating lifting was the norm; and protective hard hats were yet to be introduced into common practice.
- Ruth Goodman, How To Be a Victorian, pp.187-88
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