RIVETING FOR VICTORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 July 1918, Page 7

RIVETING FOR VICTORY

BRITISH WORKER SETS UP WORLD’S RECORD. ‘•Riveting for records,” i s now the engrossing war-time, “sport” in the shipyards of Great Britain. Every shipyard' is hoping to carry off the final honour of possessing the champion riveter. Prizes are being offered in the United States for the man who can go “one better” than anybody else, while on this side of the “herring pond” it is proposed to establish a, challenge cup for competition among the shipyards on the' north-east coast. Up to the end of May the best performances were : May 7—Robert Farrant Brom- ' ley , 4,276 May 14—Daniel Doviny. Clyde 4,422 May 16—Chas. Knight, Baltimore .. .. .. 4,875 May 17—Tom Horn, California . . .. .. 5,629 Knight is a negro, a native of Virginia., 26 years old, and married. He has been employed in driving rivets for live years, and declares his intention of breaking his own world’s record in the immediate future. A new world's record has since been established at Vickers’s works, Barrow, by William Moses, who, working with a 28ilb. pneumatic hammer, drove 5984 -Jin. and 5-Sin. rivets into 59 huge firing bedims for 9.2 in. howitzers. The time worked was exactly nine hours, and at the close Mose.se received an ovation from several thousand workmates. He was also personally congratulated by the Mayor (Alderman Alfred Barrow) upon his remarkable endurance, and upon having maintained the proud traditions of the yard. A cheque for .£25 from Sir James McKochnie, chief director of Vickers, was handed to Moses, anti it is expected that his feat will bring him in at least £IOO, several people having offered sums for a, record performance. Moses stated that he was « well satisfied with his performance, considering that he lost ground at the start through the gas furnaces, failing. “But for this,” he said, “I could easily have added another 400 on to my score.” Asked how he felt • after the extraordinary strain of • holding the heavy hammer in his hand for nine hours, he remarked i with a, smile: “I feel all right, and ! could have gone on, if necessary. You’ll find me hero to-morrow put- . ting a. few more victory rivets in for the lads: in France. All I want is a | pint.” Moses completed his task in three three-hour shifts, with an hour’s interval for breakfast and dinner. He started off with the intonlion of beating the record of 4875 made by Charles Knight, of Baltimore, but during the afternoon a message arrived that even better figures had been established by a riveter named Tom Horn, at the Moore Shipbuilding Company s xaid in California, where 5629 rivets had - been placed in nine hours. Moses at tins time was behind Ids points, for his holders-up had not been able to feed him fast enough with _ the red-hot rivets, owing to the failure j of the gasi furnaces, and for quite , ten minutes he sat idle- Thus in the I first hour he was. only able to register rivets instead of more than twice that number. Extra coke fires

were quickly requisitioned, and soon Moses began to show record-break-ing form. It is, perhaps, significant that in the -first half-hour after breakfast and after lunch lie made two JO-minutes records bv scoring 40G and 4.12 respectively. He grimly stuck to his task, stopping only occasionally to refresh' himself with barley water. AVitli BOmin. to go Moses had surpassed the Baltimore figures, and was still going as strong as ever. Excitement ran high, and the workers gathered round in everincreasing numbers. When the Californian record was passed with 20min. in hand, they cheered mightily. lie finished up with a, rare sprint, leading Hern by 265, and coming out with a, splendid average cf (555 rivets the hour, against the previous record for the yard of 450. Moses, who was born in Manchester, is 88, and lives with his family at Askliain-in-Furness. He earns from £lO to .£l2 weekly, and is held up as a. model workman.