NIGHT AND DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 104, 30 October 1939, Page 9

NIGHT AND DAY

A STREAM OF SHELLS

THE ORDNANCE FACTORIES

WORK SOON LEARNT

(By Air Mail— From "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, October 6,

Every 24 hours of the day, seven days a week, munitions are streaming from plants throughout Britain, Royal Ordnance factories have been increased from four to 28, and 6500 contractors are now working directly for the Ministry of Supply. Works capable of being switched over easily to mak-1 ing shells are being supplied with machinery by the Government; disused and even derelict .factories < are also being converted. It is intended to double and treble the number of firms manufacturing shells. The total is noAV 68. , To achieve this objective the machinery for making munitions is itself being mass produced, and, when Empire correspondents visited a factory making 3.7 in anti-aircraft shells "in the Midlands" this week, they were told that this type of machinery has already been sent to various parts of; the Empire, including Australia. So far, it was stated, none had been sent to New Zealand. The type of plant sent to Australia, it was stated, is capable of producing over 1,000,000 shells a year. By "shell" in this case is meant the steel projectile shot into the air; the factory does not fill the shell with explosives, nor place it in a cartridge case ready for actual firing. The finishing process is the work of another factory. SPEED AND WORKMANSHIP. The -.type of machinery seen in the Midlands and supplied to Australia receives the rough shell .steel in solid oblong lumps of metal. These chunks of steel are then subjected to ,48 different processes and finally become a mass of gleaming shells, beautifully made, hollowed to'take the explosives which will burst them into fragments at heights ranging up to 30,000 feet. Great improvements have been effected in the process of shell-making. While labour has been halved, output is six times faster than in the last war. Nowadays an anti-aircraft shell is made in an average time of half an hour. Much time has been saved by eliminating the process of boring the steel, while the speed of tools for cutting steel, has been increased from an average of 8(1 feet' pe*t minute to 230 feet per minute. In some cases it has risen as high as 600 feet per minute. Shell-makers do not require to be skilled workers. It is estimated that men and women can be. taught the work in eight to ten days. Skilled workers are required, however, for tool-making, and each factory requires its own staff. In Britain, factories previously making tubing, textiles, locomotives, bicycles, motor components, and even those, refining sugar, nave all been converted successfully to shell-making. In one case a small garage has also been adapted and is taking its place in' the output of munitions.

A JOB FOR DEAF MUTES,. Some of .the processes of making anti-aircraft shells are anything but quiet. One in particular, the shot blasting, section, where. fine steel is blown into the shell cases by compressed air, and whirled >round at a pressure of 80 pounds to "the square inch, is particularly trying. It was found that several men began to fall ill as a result of the noise. In this particular Midlands factory they have been saved this ordeal by deaf mutes, who were trained at a deaf, and dumb school. These mutes now carry ,on this trying work without ill effects, for they do not hear the continuous roar•ing; they are paid £3 10 s a week. ,

The shells, when they are finished and ready for packing to be sent to the next factory for filling and fitting into the cartridge cases, are stacked in great mounds. Anyone looking at these masses of chilly, blue-grey steel cannot but regret that it.should be necessary for such fine workmanship and skill to be employed ceaselessly in their production. On the other hand, it is a paradoxically comforting thought that, until Britain is once again victorious, factories throughout the quiet countryside will steadily increase production arid that Britain will, not lack an adequate supply of ammunition. .