Dozing Off on the Job Leads to Permanent Damage
On January 18, 1914, fifteen years old Frank Wiegel of Brooklyn, New York was finishing the eighteenth hour of work. He worked this long shift at the Henry Bosch Paper Company manufacturing, producers of wallpaper sample books. At 1:55 am, he had nodded off or fallen asleep. He knocked against a control pedal for a nearby machine. His hand was mangled in the machine.
After a lawsuit that lasted two years, he was awarded $5,000 for each of the two fingers he lost in the accident, a total of $10,000. Fatigue was (and still is) a serious danger for workers, especially the young, who were relied upon to add income to their family coffers. It meant no income during the recovery period. Or no income ever if the child is permanently impaired or killed from a workplace injury. But it was a risk families had to take.
