NURSERY ARMIES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1927, Page 4

NURSERY ARMIES

MADE FROM MUNITIONS

NEW USE FOE SHRAPNEL

Shrapnel- bullets for the nursery; That is what they are when they begin their new career in a North: London factory, writes V. Edmund Grimley in the ''Graphic.", But look at them in the final stage and it would be impossible to see in the transformation any trace of; their original appearance and deadly purport. Instead, there are: whole regiments and sqnadrons of brightly coloured,toy soldiers representative) not only of every famous unit in the British Army, but of every army in the world.

The sfovy'of this'achievement is "another illustration among those already known of the peaceful uses which have been found.for the grim necessities of war. But here, however, it is not an instance as in others of the war of creating a new industry! For the .firm which now turns bullets into miniature soldiers were already makers. of these and other toys before the dawn of 19144 Shrapnel was not then, however, ■ thS metal in use. The outbreak of the war! forced the manufacture of toys into the background,"'..aha as munitions became the::one prime necessity, the firm turned to the making of shrapnel. When peace was declared thousands of unused tons of,tWs metal were left on the hands (of the Government for disposal. Its-use for the resumption, of tqy-mak-ing,;was jthereupdn adopted, and 'it. soon, proved-its superiority over the former: medium—tin—to the extent of becoming .."a serious; rival to Germany's toy trade even' in her own markets at home!

"..Thousands of these shrapnel bullets' are first of all.melted and the molten,, lead .then placed in narrow longitudinal 1 moulds where it is allowed to cool into silvery i.bars. .'■ These as required, are. once again melted and the liquid m'etail is then ladled by specially trained men workers into hand moulds. So accurately and carefully have these hand moulds been designed, that almost immediately after the molten metal has been poured in and any surplus liquid tilted out with a quick turn of the wrist, each mould can at once be opened revealing a cool, silvery toy soldier waiting to. be extracted. This process moulding is slightly mofe complicated when it comes to making some units of the amy—the cavalrymen, and mach-ine-gunners on motor.-cycles with sidecars, and also light and heavy field artillery. These, according to their requirements, may need two or more separate castings.,

_; The colouring of these metal armies is the next stage in their production. Hundreds of girls are kept busy throughout the year on this particular: kind of work. With three months' training those who are quick can-gener-ally become adepts, and among these some of tho more expert are capable of manipulating more than one brush at the samo time,-each brush being used for a different colour.

Bach girl concentrates on' the complete painting of ono particular armyunit, and whether the uniform of the metal soldier be that of a Coldstream Guardsman px a Gordon Highlander,: every detail of colouring has to be exact to that of the uniform really worn by either of the above. Only as learners' do theso girls work from colour charts. After that they aro able to dispense with these altogether. Many of these metal soldiors are given movable arms. ♦ These are put 'on before, the toys, have been completely painted. : v They are then passed on to a ; girl worker who by means-of a stamping press, "worked by an electric motor dexterously rivets the arm securely into position at'the rate of several hundreds an hour. All that remains to bo done now is for tho toy soldiers, and guns' to, besent to the packing departments. There the toys arc stitched on to cards by a special device worked by hand and then put in boxes ready for distributionto all parts of the world. feature about all thcso toy soldiers is that no matter what regiment- or- country they represent, they are made -.exact to scale and accurate in every degree. A Guardsman, for example, looks a Guardsman every one of, his few inches, while a Japanese soldier is smaller. This attempt to portray varying types of soldiers as they really are is obtained in most casea from.photograph's first. Models aro then mado, and from these, by a special and secret'process, are ultimately produced the .metal hnnd moulds t which, as already 'described, give the castings required. /

Five, tons of shrapnel metal arc used every w/sek in this way. Not all of this quantity, bowevei* goes to the making of toy annie: For in addition to those, there ore.also turned out from tho factory innumerable other playthings, among which are American Indians, cowboys, farm-yard sets, and miniature household utensils, nnd other reminders of. peace-timo pui-suits.

Yet_who. looking fit those delightful children's toys would suspect that tlioy had been made from shrapnel bullets?