THE NIGHT SHIFTS AT SHEFFIELD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17215, 18 January 1918, Page 8

THE NIGHT SHIFTS AT SHEFFIELD.

ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST MUNITION FACTORIES. Bt DorjTU,AS ROBKBTSON (Special Correspondent of tho Empire Press Union). SIIEFFI KLD, November 15, 1917. Red flames are spurting from tho tops of tall chimneys which loom ghostly through tho murkiness. Dull glow of forges, furnaces, and tens of 'thousands of lamps shoot searchlight rays into tho fumes and vapour. Surely a tempting target for tho night-Hying Hun ! But, no, tho dense nail of smoko which forever hangs over this scene of industry makes a screen, a sort of camouflage, enveloping tho entiro -works. Overhead tho' skies reflect no fiery radiance. The brightest beams aro soon stifled in that dark cloud. And, furthermore, uhould tho midnight murderers venture thus far afield, presto! Snuffed is every lamp, darkened every stack and furnace, and, on the in&taiit, this myriad luminosity is swallowed up in Egyptian darkness. Can this indeed be tho gateway of Gehenna ! A largo door has suddenly opened, a blinding light, a scorching heat shoots forth which sends the visitors staggering backwards, hands to their faces. Well might it bo tho Pit of Tophet. Imps armed with long iron rods pranco at tho door of this fiery furnace and drag forth. in triumph a block of white-hot steel somo live by 10 or 15 feet in volume. Tho temperature of the place shoots up 10 degrees. ROLLING ARMOUR-PLATE. Then two Titanic arms of steel drop down from 'iho roof, and, clutching the ingot, haul its sizzling bulk over steel rollers set in a floor of steel, under a monster press. Such is tho rolimg mill winch, squashing and squeezing tho block until flames gush forth from innumerable littlo fissures, moves it backwards and forwards. Toughened tremendously by such a mauling, tho mass of metal is finally rolled fiat into plates of two to 15 inches in thick-ness—armour-plate able to withstand tho heaviest shells. Great warships aro clothed in as much as 6000 tons of this protection. "Look outl" shouts one of tho imps advancing with a bundle of dry bunches, which ho tosses on 'top of tho fiery ingot. " Happen you'll think a bee stung you if a. spark of yon gets down your nock." A crackling, a roar of flames, and clouds of smoko as of a bush fire in the dry season fills the place as tho block is rolled to and fro with this strange bonfire on its back. At each move tho attendant imp 3 ply their long prode, scaling off the loose flakes of iron. "Do wo drink any beer on 'this job?" exclaimed one of these workers, amazedly— no imp at all, but, seen at close qua.rtcr3, a North Countryman. "We do that. I'm just off for a good, one right now." ICEBERGS OF STEEL. Come and see them pouring the molten mixture for theso armour-plates—Canadian nickel and chrome steel —from tho furnaces into the moulds. Men with blue goggles are hurrying about, and one of them presents the visitors with lorgnettes of blue glass. White heat of 1670 degrees centigrade blazes from the crevices of those gasturnace doors. Tho naked, eye- winces at tho glare, but through tho protecting "specs " ono may gaze with impunity. The interior of tho furnaco they have just opened presents an extraordinary appearance. The blue glass turns it white. Like an ice pave in the Polar regions it looks, liko a little grotto hanging with cool stalactites. The "stalactites" aro nothing but drips of white-hot metal. In tho unthinkable heat of this furnace blocks of cold, hard metal melt like butter on a hot stove.

As we watch on the other side of the furnace, an attendant prizes away a stopper of clay. With a burst of light and showers of brilliant white sparks, which oddly enough do not burn, out rushes a molten torrent, to pour, a fiery Niagara, into tho firebrick lined 40-ton ladle which awaits its reception. An awesomo sight it is to seo the hardened steel reduced to liquid, bubbling and tossing right below one liko a kettlo of jam. And as with tho homely jam pot a scum of dross rises to its top. NIGHT LIKE DAY. It is midnight, but it might well be high noon. For trie clamour ot machinery rises everywhere from this mighty plant, which never slumbers. Trains pulf too and fro among tho scores of buildings (many of them new) which cluster thickly on an area of ono hundred and twenty acres. Wo have just entered another big workshop. Up among the smoko clouds in the lofty roof slime whito incandescent lamps. Down at the side of every worker glows a shaded electric bulb. Hundreds of girls are here, girls in buff-coloured overalls and caps to match, toiling at lathes. They aro malting shell noses and fuses. Men are scattered aoout superintending or engaged on heavier tasks. Daylight and a return visit to this factory of tho machinery of death onry serves to further reveal its vastness. The day shift is now on, and the 7000 workers of the preceding night asleep in bed, having toiled • from 6 in the evening until 6 ajn., with somo two hours off for rest and food. Hard work, but the girls, especially, look healthy and rosy. All aro earning such money as they never dreamed of before. Numbers of men got £4 a week. Mere lads draw remarkablo wages, and girls get two and three times more than they could 'havo obtained in tho piping times of peace. Ono and all go about their tasks with an alacrity and cheerfulness which no mere thoughts of gain could confer. Havo not all got loved ones in the AUSTRALIAN'S BIG In all this host of workers so variously employed there aro but few colonials —no Canadians at all, or New Zealanders, no visible South Africans, and but few Australians. An Australian it was who hold a record hero for high wages. Ho drew £24 a week. This sturdy son of tho Southern Cross worked on screw breeches for 6-inch guns, handling these 6f>pound baubles alone, and so quickly and skilfully that ho was cheap at tho price. But he got rich and quit. "Yes, there's good money hero," quoth another Australian, pausing at his lathe to talk to tho writer, " but (frowning at the overcast skies outs-ido) I want to get back into tho snnshino down under.

Girls, girls, everywhere girls. "Wo see them at lathes, at the levers of ton triphammers, maldng shell cases, filling shells with shrapnel bullets mixed with melted resin poured from kettles. Girls are often even employed in tho boxes of tho mammoth electric cranes deftly manipilating the switches and levers. Think of girls thus moving tons of metal, perchance giant cannon ! Is there indeed anything women cannot do? ELECTRIC ARC THAT BLIND& "Don't attempt to look in tliat furaaco door without first putting on these glasses," warns our guide, pointing to an olectrio furnace. "That arc flame is literally blinding. It will put one's eyes out of business. Exposure to it will render ono sightless for 46 hours, causing intense pain, with granulations whioh feel like grains of sand under tho eyeiids." Wo accept his advice awl peer at the dazzling white fire, in which steel trimmings and various scrap sizzle- instantly and trickle down into a receptacle, purified moro thoroughly by this flame alono than is possible by gas. or coal furnaces. RED-HOT CANNONS. On through interminable shops, where motor parts are stamped out of hot iblooks, where railway carriage- wheels are wrought, on through armour-pinto shops, into tho cannon department wo walk. Hero guns of all shapes and si/x-s lie- in tbo rough— howitzers, field guns, mortars, and,immense naval cannon —in crudo ingots of solid metal, some to bo trimmed, bored out on lathes for delicate inner ca-singa, and others hollowed ajid worked up for outer coverings. Tho chief sight of the works is the tempering room for these monsters. Picture, a structure whose glass roof, towering 120 ft abovo tho earthen floor, is hid from view in tho smoko which swirls about its iron rafters. Up in this dimness is a crano of great lifting rapacity. Imagino a species of ohimnoy stack 60ft high standing within this building—an iron, fire-brick lined chimney whoso side swings out on hinges, and from a cravice down tho wholo length red flames issue forth, and black, sooty smoke. Suddenly tho sides swing open, levered by men on engirdling firo escapes, revealing a 60ft cannon inside, suspended by a chain, and glowing cherry red. Roasted in this gas-blast furnace, whose acrid fumes ticklo tho lungs, tho mighty gun is presently lowered into a 60ft subterranean tank of oil immediately below thfl blazing stack. Thus are guns tempered to withstand tho shooks of war. DKLICATE AS WATCTTWORK. In tlio finishing shop wo presently boo men working on tho delicate mechanism of tho brooches of those- guns, measuring to the one-thousandth part of an inch, polishing, adjusting with a watchmaker's care tho all-important fitting of theso mighty engines of destruction. The rifling of tho lxiro shines like silver in that monster barrel, through which a boy, giving the finishing touches as ho goes, is drawn by a ropo. Ero lonig, ton shells will bo whirling through.

this 1 yum is! io<l passngo way on their 10irrilo flight into German forts and German ships. Such aro somo of fcho scones at Messrs Vieknrs'a works in Sheffield, shown by courtesy of tho management to a partv of corrcspondi-nte from tho overseas dominions. And verily tho sight of this industria.l army is an inspiration, llo.ro every clrtng of tho liammers is striking a blow ngainst despotism. Hero IVritish brawn an<l skill _n,ro bat-lHntr ag-ainst Krupp-Kaisorism. And just as British bayonets sond Prussia's vaunted Guards, Wilbolm's piekod troops, backward, oven so thosn mnn ami women of Britain's factories aro fighting and boating thosn hordes in Devil's workshops at Essen.