4276 RIVETS A DAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4931, 26 July 1918, Page 6

4276 RIVETS A DAY.

liKCORD-BEEA K. IXC ■ FKAT IN ENGLISH SI lIP YARD. The I'n i ted States rive! ing record made by C-caries Schcck. v. he at Baltimore drove in 2/20 vivet-s in nine hours, has been easily beaten 111 London. The workmen of Alessrs. Fraser and Fraser, engineers and bo lermakers, -if Bromley-by-Bow. asked their management to give them an opportunity of beating the American record, and the effort was made bv a selected squad. The riveter was Robert- Farrant. a dark, slim, cleanshaven man of mighty muscle, 31 vears of ago, and one of a familv or eighteen, whose father, aged 67, is still a riveter in the same yard. Starting at 5.30 a.m.. with half an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner, he worked til| G p.m., with a 281 b pneumatic tool in riveting a number of steel tanks. Four “carriers” ran constantly to and fro with white-hot rivets from three furnaces a few yards away. They slipped the rivets into the holes, and as fast as they could bring them Farrant drove them home. Repeatedly he shouted for more- There were eight-second roars of lightning hammering as the pjston of the pneumatic tool rattled away at the rate of 1000 blows to the. minute.

Inside the tanks two men, Payton and Baxter, took turns with the “holding-up” tools—blunt metal instruments which are pressed against the white-hot rivets as the riveter hammers them home.

Tlie yard set out to do 2850 rivets in nine hours so as to beat the Amor bail figures, but Fnrrnnt beat that total in six hours. Going on. he hammered in 4276 rivets in the nine hours, an average of 475 an hour, or one rivet about every If seconds. This is claimed to bo easily a world’s record. “A normal day’s work is 1600 to 1200 rivets in 9f hours,” .said an authority. At the finish tbs squad received -an ovation from their follow-workers. Far rant looked as fresh at the finish as. at the start. Members of the Ministry of Munitions and other Government departments were present.