MUNITIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 204, 30 August 1915, Page 6

MUNITIONS.

COI'LD NEW ZEALAND HELP? AN ENGINEER'S VIEW. " * rACH \NE G FNS COULD 'tt}•: MADE. 'HUT MONEY WOULD BE BETTER. air W. Wilson, 8.E., M.Sc, 1 A.M.1.i0.E., an old student of Oanj terbnry College, whose headquarters are now at Auckland and who is at present in Christehurch, called at the Lyttelton Times office with a. copy of "■Munitions," a highly interesting; publication of the Tait Company 01 ■Melbourne, and Sydney, issued by the Munitions ' Committee of Melbourne. The book contains « detailed, description of the manufacture of shrapnel and high explosive shells. , It is admirable in its detail, and ther;are several hundred illustrations of the various machines at work, aixl while a perusal of the book may cmii- ; plKisise the difficuHies in the n:ny of J establishing; the industry in N<>\v Zon- I 'and, it also shows the scope that j there is f or voliuitoer workers in the | lew .skilled branches of the workshops. > A CALL TO THE WORKSHOPS. j "'\vv tho e))giueori))g. mining, ajid

■ allied industries of Australia preparing t,o do'their part to assist the Empire in its hour of need?''" asks the Munitions Committee in its preface to the hook. "'Canada h,ns surprised the i world in organising -and transforming j large numbers of her ordinary engineering shops into writable arsenals. Shrapnel and high explo- ■ sive shells are being produced I throughout the Dominion in cjiianti- | ties wjiich, under the conditions, I seem almost incredible.. To what extent can Australia follow Canada's 'example? Tt is for the engineers m charge of tl'ie workshops of the Commonwealth to answer this vital question at the earliest possible moment. To1 assist the engineering profession and others willing and able to help, the Voluntary Munitions Committee has resolved to collate and publish all available information relating to the production of munitions, particularly high explosive and shrapnel shells, and the adaptation of the everyday workshop to \mdertnke various phases of the latter work." In a foreword the committee also j quotes the Minister for Defence as \ saying, on July 14, that the British Government was in a position to take from Australia practically unlimited supplies of lSpr high explosive shell bodies. NEW ZEALAND'S PART. Mr Wilson was asked whether NeAV Zealand could undertake something practical in the manufacture of munitions. , He replied that in the absence of special machinery the work would have to be done virtually by hand. In Birmingham he had visited "the B.S.A. works, where everything was reduced to a science, and had found that 140 machines were used to make a rifle, livery single cut in the rifle ban-el was taken by a different machine, and instead of a large- number of skilled workmen they had a lot of automatic machines, largely operated by girls, which turned out an absolutely standardised weapon in the cheapest possible manner. '•'ft is a question whether we could make them by hand at five or ten times the cost," said'Mr Wilson. "We could make machine-guns hero quite well, but they would have to be made by a man with a file and'the ordinary drilling machines, and we might not turn out a complete .and satisfactory machine-gun until the end of the war. Look how the bicycle-.' even, has been specialised, and we still import tlie parts."' \ "Fiom what we know of the Home factories/ Mr Wilson was asked, "do you think that the finding-of the money would lead to a greater production?1"' , "()h,M think so," he replied. "If we supplied money here for machineguns they could get more. I think it would be far more satisfactory th-an exporting from here. Ido notj think we could start turning out machineguns inside nine months or a year even, if we used' our best endeavors.'' LOCAL PRODUCTION OF SHELLS URGED. "But it is o different tiling with ammunition," he continued. "In an ordinary workshop, with men of average intelligence and skill, it is quite possible to turn out shrapnel and high explosives.'' "What machines are most needed?" "Mostly kit lies. Hydraulic pres-sures-are used, but you could turn the shell cases out of solid material. This is done in some countries now, although it is very wasteful." "What about material?" "The composition of the metal is given in this book. Tarn pretty certain that we have all the material for the best kind->of metal in New Ze-vand." The production' and' trial of locally made shells was mentioned, and Mr Wilson expressed the opinion that the alleged damage to the rifling of the guns was due to the diameter of the shell being too large. The British Government inspectors were 3 testing shells to a thousandth part of an inch, and had been scrapping quite a large proportion of the shells made in America, much to the manufacturers' disgust. This fault was a matter of finish. "It would be advisable to import a, few additional articles from America,"' said Mr Wilson, "but the manufacture of shells could start straight off, not in the most convenient form, perhaps, but the deficiencies could be made good pretty quickly. The ordinary machinists could do the work, it would perhaps be a little -while before they could do it efficiently. Probably it wouid not bo a paying game for the workshops managers for a month, but that is often the case when they turn over from one thing to another.*'