24th October 1814: 19 year-old worker killed by machinery at Carr's gig-mill, Armley

The Saturday 29th October edition of the Leeds Mercury carried a report about an accident at a gig mill at Armley, near Leeds:

On Monday last, a most shocking accident occurred at the gig-mill of Mr. John Carr, at Armley. One of the straps by which motion is communicated to the gig engine having started from its proper situation, a young man of the name of Lee attempted to replace it, but in the effort his arm unfortunately became entangled in the straps and he was drawn among the machinery, and instantly killed; his body was mangled in a manner too horrid for description. He was an unmarried man, about 19 years of age, the only son of his mother, and she is a widow. On her mind this terrible catastrophe has produced a fatal effect, having completely disordered her intellect, and induced a state of absolute distraction. After this statement, it cannot be necessary to caution all those who may be employed about machinery to exercise an habitual care in avoiding all contact with it, and to refrain from attempting to correct any irregularities during the time that it is in motion, and still less can it be necessary to suggest to the proprietors of these and similar manufactories the moral obligation they are under of adopting every means which ingenuity can suggest, to lessen the danger attendant upon them, and thereby to diminish the frequency of these lamentable accidents. As the young man was generally respected in the situation of life in which he was placed, his funeral was attended by an unusual concourse of people, who appeared deeply impressed with feelings suitable to the melancholy occasion.