Neugebauer

Appellant was engaged at Lincoln, Placer County, in the manufacture of architectural terra cotta and fire brick, terra cotta pipe and roof tile. For about six years prior to May, 1913, Frank Neugebauer was employed as a laborer in the fitting department of appellant’s factory, and in the work of cementing broken terra cotta. Until May, 1913, the corporation used a sand-blast for the purpose of dulling the surface of the terra cotta which came from kilns too bright or lustrous to match other ware ordered for certain buildings. At the time just mentioned the corporation abandoned the use of the sand-hlast and to accomplish said » purpose introduced the use of hydrofluoric acid, and selected to apply the acid, to the surface of the terra cotta said Neugebauer, a Hungarian, who could not read nor write the English language, and who spoke it imperfectly. At this time he was thirty-nine years of age and there is evidence that he was in good health. Hydrofluoric acid is composed of two elements, hydrogen and fluorine, and is next to prussic acid in its dangerous effects upon human life, and it appears that a few deep inhalations of the fumes of the acid forty-eight per cent strong would…