[
    {
        "id": 213992,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1997",
        "page_number": 61,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "27\n\nlife bore evil influences. One could visit a soothsayer or some such person. He could advise whether one should perform rituals or what one should do to dissipate any evil influences. Once on the job of scaffolding, early in the morning especially, it is important that no inauspicious words are spoken. If something inappropriate is said it could be that it will actually come about. In addition, in the old days scaffolders wore a special belt which was believed to keep evil away and ensure safety. This belt was worn all day except when eating or going to the toilet. At night, it was hung by the bed in a special position where it can offer protection.\" Today, a scaffolder's 'belt' normally consists of a length of the same nylon that he uses to tie the scaffolding members together. A bundle of these nylon 'thongs' are tucked into his 'belt' and he pulls them out, one at a time, while he works aloft. His knife and his snips he will carry in his pocket.\n\nAlthough bamboo appears to be rather flimsy, and structural analysis has never really been a practical proposition, the advantage is that, as a material, it bends before it breaks. Few accidents have been recorded which are the direct result of faulty bamboo or insecure scaffolding.\" The Hong Kong Government Labour Department groups all accidents, which are classified as 'falling from heights', together. It does not have a separate category concerning bamboo scaffolding.\n\nVisitors to Hong Kong often take an interest in scaffolding and a Mr Malcolm Goodieson, from Mildura, Australia, raised, among other points, the following:\n\n\"Are sufficiently high safety standards enforced with regard to scaffolding?\n\nIs there a need to impose further control measures in the interests of public safety\"\n\nMr Goodieson continued:\n\n\"I have never before visited a place which had bamboo scaffolding. Nor have I been to a place where so many workmen behaved more like daredevil acrobats than construction workers.\n\nMore recently, an \"Occupational Safety and Health Council', complete with an education and Information Centre, has been set up. As mentioned before, however, little has been written about bamboo",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213996,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1997",
        "page_number": 65,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "31\n\nCertainly, for heavy duty scaffolding laid out on a grid pattern, say when constructing a flyover and for other civil engineering work, metal scaffolding has advantages. Metal has already taken over in some cases from timber in areas such as hoardings around building sites and for site offices, when containers are sometimes utilised. Also, on large projects managed by the Government Housing Department, precast concrete units are used together with gondolas. This does away with much scaffolding.\n\nAlthough the change from bamboo scaffolding to metal has been much slower than many people expected over the past 40 years, especially with a limited number of trainee scaffolders entering the trade, the changing to metal can be expected to continue. Nevertheless, one can expect bamboo scaffolding, with its many advantages, to be in use for many years to come.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nThe author is grateful to Mr Albert Tong Yat Chu, Mr Cho Hon Chiu and scaffolding instructor Master Chor Keung, all of the Construction Industry Training Authority, for the information and photographs they supplied. The author is also grateful to Mr Jimmy C. M. Yuen, of the Occupational Safety and Health Council and to Mr S. L. Lam, Senior Architect of the Architectural Services Department, for their assistance.\n\nREFERENCES\n\n  \n    1.\n    TC Lai, Hasem Role. Philip Mao, Hings Chinese (Hong Kong, 1971), pp 13 and 14\n  \n  \n    2.\n    Shrona Anbe, Fhustle ontd Bamboo, the Life and Times of St. James Stewart Lockhart, Oxford University Press (1989), p. 58\n  \n  \n    3.\n    Alfred Russel Wallace, FRS (1823-1913) British naturalist, widely travelled, had many publications to his credit. See Chambers Biographical dictionary (Revised edition 1961)\n  \n  \n    4.\n    Ho So, The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding, Ho So Kee Construction and Scaffolding Co (Hong Kong, circa 1974), p 3\n  \n  \n    5.\n    Naomi Yin-yin Szeto, 'Bamboo Scaffolding”, of Hearts and Hands Hong Kong's Traditional Trades and Crafts, ed Joseph Ting, Urban Council Museum of History (Hong Kong, 1995), P 219\n  \n  \n    6.\n    Ho, loc cit\n  \n  \n    7.\n    Anthony Walker and Stephen M. Rowlinson, The Building of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Construction Association, Hong Kong University Press (1990), p 121-131",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    }
]