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- In 1909, The International Ladies Garment Workers Union went on strike, demanding for higher pay. Unlike most companies, Harris and Isaac refused to fall into the demand of the protesters, so they hired policeman to beat and arrest the women protesters, and they paid politicians to look the other way.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Jennifer Rosenberg/About.com
- Triangle Shirtwaist factory was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. - Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were Russian immigrants who met in the U.S., and they started out with a small shop. - They named their company The Triangle Waist Factory, and they later expanded into the 9th floor of the Asch Building. - They then grew rapidly, and soon enough, they expanded into the 8th floor, the 9th floor, and the 10th floor. - By 1911, they were one of the largest blouse makers in NYC.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Jennifer Rosenberg/About.com
The fire began on March 25th, 1911, at 4:30 PM, and it started on the eighth floor. The fire started in a scrap bin, and reason why the fire started is unknown, yet theories suggest that either a cigarette butt was thrown into the bin, a spark from a machine, or faulty electrical wiring. The manager on duty attempted to put out the fire, but the hose was not working properly, for the hose was rotted, and its valve was rusted shut.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Jennifer Rosenberg/About.com
The workers inside the factory were unable to escape because of the poor conditions: • There was only one working elevator, and it shut down after it carried its first set of passengers to safety. • The fire escape collapsed due to overweight.- 25 workers died because of this. • The doors to the stairwell were locked, making it impossible to escape.- The door was locked to ensure that workers were not going to leave during working hours, or too escape with stolen goods. • There was no sprinkler system.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Jennifer Rosenberg/About.com
Everything in the room was highly flammable: • Hundreds of pounds of cotton scraps • Tissue paper patterns • Wooden tables • Floors were very oily, which spread the fire further. There was a built up of over 2 months worth of scraps that was very flammable. There was a barrel of oil as well.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Jennifer Rosenberg/About.com, cornell.edu
The fire was department was in a sticky situation because they did not have the tools necessary to help those in need, and to ultimately put the fire out. • The ladder only reached the seventh and sixth floors when the workers were in the 9th and 10th floors. • The hoses were not able to reach the 9th and 10th floors, therefore, they were unable to save the workers from the scorching fire. • The workers jumped onto the fire hoses to escape the fire, which made it very hard to control the fire hoses. The firefighter tried to use a net to catch the jumpers, but the net broke because three workers jumped onto the net at the same time, ripping it.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Jennifer Rosenberg/About.com, cornell.edu The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/ History.com Staff/ History.com
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff -Devastation of the fire - 19 bodies melted against the lock door. - 25 dead huddled in the cloakroom in a position where they are covering their hands over their faces. - Police send 75-100 coffins but only 65 available. - Bodies were sent to Charities Pier, which was located on 26st and the East River. - Six workers remained unidentified to the the severity on their bodies. Recently, in 2011, the bodies were able to be identified. - Around 6:PM, family members come looking for survivors at police station. They had to shut the door because there were so many people. - Many of the dead were unrecognizable. - For 90 years, the Triangle Shitwaiste factory held the title as Nerw York's deadliest workplace disaster.
Uncovering the History of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory/David Von Drehle/ August 2006/Smithsonian.com
As a result of the fire, 146 workers died, 123 women, and 23 men. Most of the workers died from burns, asphyxiation, blunt impact injuries, or a combination of the three. 49 workers had suffocated or burned to death, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft, and 58 died from jumping to the sidewalks.
wikipedia.org
After the American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers, spoke, 20,000 workers from over 500 different factories went on strike, demanding that pay be increased by 20%, workers be given pay for working overtime, and hours were to be shortened to a 52 hour week. Wealthy suffrages such as Anne Morgan, and Alva Belmont saw this as an opportunity to bring this uprising into broader issues involving feminism. Alva, who was the husband of William Vanderbilt arranged huge rallies and fund raising events, and she even spent some of her nights bailing arrested protesters out of jail. After many months into the protests, most of the factories, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory gave into the demand of the protesters.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory/aflcio.org
The product that was created at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was called a shirtwaist, which was a woman's blouse. It was one of the country's first fashion statements that crossed class lines. The booming ready-made clothing industry made the stylish shirtwaist affordable even for working women. Worn with an ankle-length skirt, the shirtwaist was appropriate for any occasion—from work to play—and was more comfortable and practical than fashion that preceded it, like corsets and hoops.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory/aflcio.org
The shirtwaist makers, were as young as age 15, worked seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a half-hour lunch break. The condtiions inside the factory were so extremely unsanitary, that women had to eave the Triangle Shirtwaiste Factory to use the bathroom. This increased paranoi of locking the doors to prevent emplyees from leaving the factory during working hours. The conditions were so bad that the workers had to sometimes use their own threads, needles, fabric, and they even had to use their own sewing machines.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory/aflcio.org
The factory employed 500 workers, with each worker receiving between $7-$12 dollars a week. They worked nine hours a week, plus seven hours on Saturday, which is equivalent to earning $166-$285 a week, or $3.20 to $5.50 an hour.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/ History.com Staff/ History.com
- The foreman and the men tailors tried to take out the fire with 27 buckets of water, but it did little to help. - The 275 girls that were trying to escape the fire all rain toward the door. However, the door went inward instead of outward, making it impossible for all the girls to escape at ease.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
At 6:00 PM, hours after the fire had subsided , relatives, and friends were screaming hysterically, as they rushed to the Mercer Street Police Station. They were all looking for relatives who had not returned home. The bodies were very hard to identify due to the severe burns and disfigured/melted faces, for hundreds of worried relatives and friends arrived at the pier. One women fainted after looking at only third coffin, whihc was her daughter, and as police officer and nurses held her by the arms, trying to confort her, she fainted. The officer revived her, and gave her a two dollar bill as a way to try and comfort the grieving women.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
Many of the workers who were trapped on the 9th floor desperately screamed for Zitto, who worked the levitator to come up and take the next set of passengers. However, only a few could fit in the elevator. The workers could not use the other staircases or the other three elevator because they were all locked. Zitto said that as he was going back down the elevator shaft, he heard bodies hitting the top of the elevator, and he saw blood dripping on him. Police had to pull a total of 25 bodies that fell on top of the elevator. They most likely jumped because of the immense heat and smoke.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
The Asch Building, which was where the company made the blouses was fireproof - As the fireman went up the stairs to extinguish the fire, the steel and concrete structure remanned unchanged. - They had to extinguish it from the inside because the equipment that the firemen had were useless( hose did not reach, ladder did not reach, net broke) - After fire, the firemen used the net to bring the workers down 3 at a time.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff After the trial - Harrison and Bllanck are aquitted - ? If the doors on the west side were locked or not (to prevent theft) - 23 civil suits and each family was paid a sum of $75 dollars - Insurance company pays Isaac and Harris 400 dollars per deceased worker. They made a profit of $60,000.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
The result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, was that the New York legislator created a commission that was headed by Senator Robert F. Wagner, Alfred E. Smith, and Samuel Gompers to investigate the conditions of the sweatshops across the city. This lead to the creation of labor laws that: - protected factory workers in health, disability, and fire prevention. - The division of Fire Prevention was created, which became a part of the Fire Department. - The purpose of this was to get rid of fire hazards in factories, all the doors must open outward, doors are to not be locked during working hours, sprinkler systems must be installed only if a company employs more than 25 people above the ground floors, and fire drills are required for buildings that lack sprinkler systems.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
When the fire occured, a bystander thought he saw Harris trying to save the best material by throwing it out the window. - It sounds like people new that the owner was not a good guy.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff
- The building in New York today - The building is now called the Brown building, and it is part of the NYU campus. - The memorial and services will be held on March 5th, at 9:30 AM, and it will take place all across the city. -Today, students look out of windows where so many leaped to their deaths.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/Paul Rosa/ History Buff Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire/ Caroline Cooper/WNYC