But the strain came when the masters tried by arbitration to reduce wages. The award in 1877 went against them; in 1879, however, they were more fortunate, for Lord Hatherton awarded a reduction of 1d. in the shilling.[210] A journeyman potter’s wages may be said to have averaged 30s. a week when in full employ, and what are still remembered as “Lord Hatherton’s pennies” were a great grievance in the Potteries. Probably the Board would have broken down at once had it not been for Owen, and for the hope that arbitration next year would put it all right again. But Sir Thomas Brassey’s award on next year’s arbitration made no change,[211] and the Board broke down. At Martinmas 1881 a strike began. It was an immediate failure, for thirteen years of arbitration had sapped the strength of the Union. For a short time—1885-91—an Arbitration Board was re-established, but it was tolerated rather than supported by either masters or men. In 1891 another award was given against the men, and the Board was painlessly extinguished by a strike of the fighting oven-men. Since then the Union has gradually gained strength, but even now, after a successful strike in 1900 which raised wages by 5 per cent. all round, the potters in all the Unions do not much exceed 20 per cent. of the adult male workers alone. Trades Unions have special difficulties in the Potteries owing to the large number of small masters employing only two or three people in each trade; owing to the prevailing piecework prices which makes the levelling up process difficult; and owing to the number of small Unions into which the working potters are divided. John Lovatt is at present the secretary of the General Union, while Alderman Thomas Edwards for long looked after the special interests of the oven-men. Invention of recent years has busied itself mostly with the firing of the ovens. Mr J. P. Holdcroft, of Hanley, patented in 1898 a new thermoscope which directs with far greater certainty the exact heating of the ovens.[212] New methods of firing these ovens are also on trial. Both “Producer” and “Mond” gas have been tried and offer some hope not only of more regular firing, but also of abolishing the columns of smoke which have blackened the Potteries for 200 years. The “Climax Kiln” is another device of quite recent date for regulating the firing, and saving the piling up and unpiling of saggars of ware. The ware is packed in an iron cage on wheels and pulled in and out of the furnace mechanically, without drawing the fire.