RIVET-DRIVING.

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 12, 13 July 1918, Page 4

RIVET-DRIVING.

REMARKABLE INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

OVER SIX THOUSAND DRIVEN IN'

NINE HOURS.

The replacing of ships sunk as the result of enemy action is one of the greatest undertakings that the Allied countries, and more particularly Great Britain and America, have to face. If the task is to be successfully accomplished, the most important factor is speed.' The latest English papers to hand tell of the friendly rivalry that has sprung up between the various shipyards in their attempts to break the rivetting record of Charles Shock, who at Baltimore drove in 2720 rivets in nino hours. With a view trf defeating this figure, the workmen of Messrs. Fraser and Fraser, engineers and boilermakers, of Bromly-by-Bow, approached their management for permission, which was given. The effort was made early in May by a selected squad, the riveter being Robert Fa-rrant, a man of fine physique. Starting at 6.30 a.m., with half an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner, he worked till 5 p.m., with a 281b pneumatic tool in riveting a number of steel tanks. Four "carriers" ran constantly to and fro with white-hot rivets.' They slipped the rivets into the holes, and as fast as they could bring them Farrant drove them home. Repeatedly he shouted for more. The yard set out to do 2850 rivets in nine hours, so as to boat the American figure, but Farrant passed that figure in six hours, and his final total "was 4276 rivets for the nine hours. He hammered in about one rivet every seven and a-half seconds.

Great prominence was accorded to Farrant's feat in the New York papers, and the World, in paying an editorial tribute to Farrant, issued tho following challenge :—"A ship is the sum of many rivets and, much other work, the goal of effort, the first object in all Entente eyes. Therefore let the crack workman of the British yards meditate upon the feat of the New York yard in Camden, New Jersey, in launching a 5548-ton steel ship in 27 days. Here is a sporting proposition— ; and all for the war. Let our British brother match our 648-hour ship while we see about his 4276 rivets in a nine-hour day."

Evidently Warrant's feat aroused other yards to activity, for a fortnight later the Clyde beat London's record, an oxftoldien, named Thomas Devine, at Bsardsmore's Dalmuir Yard, driving in 4422 rivets in the side of a ship in nine hours. This record was lat-ar beaten by two Americans —Charles Knight (of Baltimore), who did 4875 rivets, and Tom Moore (of Oakland, California), who did 5629 rivets, and later still by William Moses (of Barrow.in-Furness), who put 5894 rivet® in in nine hours. However, the record ultimately returned to the Clyde. William Smith achieved the feat of putting in 6783 rivets in nine hours. . Then any attempt afc,she breaking of the rivet record's was stopped, by the union officials. Mr. J. Hill, Beeretaiy of the Boilermakers' and Iron and Steel Ship Builders' Society, in a. circular to all branches, said:—"Riveting has never been a sport, and in thesis times our members have never been more deadly earnest, and "we shall not allow our members to be turned into gladiators to provide sport for the idle rich—a sport which is already having adverse effects and is reducing the: total output, beside? -undermining the good results which we ■have established for tho co-operation and unification of our'efforts in the national cause. We are determined that it must be stamped out." This circular came in for much adverse criticism from men in the industry. One closely connected with the industry in referring to the records established said': "These are, of course, exceptional performances, whose speeds probably could not be maintained. But the fact stands out—and the public can hardly miss realising it—that without over-exerting themselves machine riveters doing this kind of work under similar conditions can turn out three times the amount of work they are at present turning out."