A Bound Collection of The Miller and The Corn Trade Journal and Miller's Gazette 1879 to 1882 Plus Additional Manuscript Letters and Reports Relating to Mill Insurance and Fire and Explosion Risks

A bound collection put together by an Agent of the Sun Fire Office, possibly based in Burnley, in 1882. Consisting approximately of: 9 issues or part issues of The Miller from 1879 to 1882, some separate, some from bound sets, 7 issues of The Corn Trade Journal and Miller's Gazette, all of which appear to be from 1879, 5 folding supplements which came with the journals, some in colour, 7 cuttings or ephemeral items, with annotations 2 manuscript documents, or translations of articles regarding fires and explosions in corn mills, an 8-page printed 1882 "Report Respecting Fatal Flour Mill Explosion at Macclesfield", and 8 manuscript letters or copy letters, regarding the possibilities of taking on the risk of insuring flour mills, and how the disasters might be managed or prevented, including copies of letters from Norwich Union to the Sun Fire Office asking them for advice regarding taking on such risks, and a letter from the Secretary of the National Association of British and Irish Millers to the sun Fire Office regarding the differentiation between fires and fires caused by explosions in mills. Bound in contemporary late-Victorian brown half leather, simply lettered and decorated in gilt to the spine, over marbled paper covered boards, with speckling to all edges of the text block and greenish blue endpapers front and rear. The leather is heavily rubbed and beginning to split at the joins, the paper is rubbed, marked and chipped, there is a label for Bullens of Elstree to the spine. The text block is slightly marked and age toned to varying degrees depending upon the quality of paper, the 8-page parliamentary report is quite browned and brittle, and there are small closed tears and chips to other edges. The issues of the journals have passages highlighted regarding both fires, explosions and insurance. With good provenance, from the Sun Fire Office Library, with their ink stamp to the front endpaper, and more recently from the archives of the RSA Insurance Group with their barcode strip to the front pastedown. Devastating explosions in corn and flour mills were fairly common during the period of industrialisation, ventilation was poor, potential sources of ignition plentiful, the dust clouds highly combustible, and casualties among workers were high. This is an interesting late Victorian collection, from the high-tariff period of mill insurance, when the insurers of Britain collaborated to protect themselves against correspondingly huge losses, which the millers complained about bitterly. Showing the insurers gathering evidence and data on developments and disasters in British mills, and also relevant reports from German and American sources. A combination of pressure from insurers and legislation from parliament gradually brought about improvements in safety measures, and decreased the insurance premiums.…