Vintage work crew photos

[mklotz]

At least 6 line shafts and who knows how many belts, really can't tell. Layout of floor appears some operators tend two lathes, notice the carriage handwheels. Seems like they are very close together, that seems odd

Is it possible that those machines in the foreground are rifling machines and not boring lathes? They don't look like lathes to me.

[Toolmaker51]

Is it possible that those machines in the foreground are rifling machines and not boring lathes? They don't look like lathes to me.

I think, judging by the larger overhead sheaves on the right, those are rifling or chambering. There'd be at least four operations; 1] turn, 2] drill-ream-crown, 3] rifling, 4] chamber.
Unsure if gun-drills [single straight flute, hole-riding body, pressurized cutting oil] had been developed yet. Of course the drill needs to be pushed. Good quality reaming is pulled, eliminating flex as an extended drill does. Those 'benches' could be similar.
I don't see sine-bar or spiral guided rifling machines in view. By 1912, Pratt & Whitney might have been producing riflers, made zillions over the years.

And rifling is another art, many techniques practiced by as many manufacturers.
In mass production, Colt could produce unbelievably fine barrels. A little more modern is Lothar Walther. In custom work, Harry Pope represents epitome in target barrels. And other fun discussions! People continue with handmade cut rifling heads, and custom shops sell broaching buttons on Ebay....

[owen moore]

I believe those machines are drilling and reaming. I don't think any rifling is going on in the picture, as rifling machines took up more space and could not have been located that close to one another. Interestingly enough, Colt performed a lot of their rifling vertically. I believe Mr. Root of Colt invented that procedure. (IE- the Colt Root).

[PJs]

The machine at the far right may be a riffling machine as it goes off screen and has different controls as well as the belt on the opposite end. The others or boring and reaming ops, imho. Perhaps the guy on the far left is doing the crown work.

Love this picture and the workers seem happy and content...I would be despite any Osha Hazzard we might impose today. Those guys seem smart enough to stay out of the way of belts and such...had to be.

[Jon]

Collecting scrap metal for the WWII war effort.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...w_fullsize.jpg

[Frank S]

Collecting scrap metal for the WWII war effort.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...w_fullsize.jpg

Us kids used to sit and listen to one of my uncles he was too young for service but he had many more interesting stories than my dad or other uncles who had gone off to war since none of them would talk much about what they did.
This 1 uncle though had many tales of how he worked in a gas station and would have to patch together peoples cars or trucks with what ever he could find then he and the other kids would scour the fields and dumps for any scrap of not only metal but glass as well to donate at the collection places sometimes the guy running the collection site would pay them something for the things they brought in.
Not everyone took part in the war effort as I am told but if you saw a kid wearing a boy scout uniform you could bet their every waking moment when otherwise not engaged in their regular boyhood chores they would be going door to door at times in hopes of collecting things for the war effort

[ranald]

Team spirit & all wearing shoes/boots. Sometimes it takes a terrible incident to unite folk like those young ones.

[Toolmaker51]

Collecting scrap metal for the WWII war effort.

As a veteran I'm certainly no dove; nor warmonger. But I can tell you this. I have all kinds of veteran family members and others old enough to relay accurate accounts of this period in time.
During our War Between the States, General W.T. Sherman perfected campaign making civilians of the Confederacy not care to support the effort because it impacted them directly. He put this to work, "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." Everything; ransacked farms, railways, loss of possessions, material goods, funds or revenue with potential to bolster the South.
General Sherman was not entirely ruthless, such is the case with better part of Louisiana. And who became the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, later known as Louisiana State University?

In WWII, American war effort was a 'Community Project'; not so much negative propaganda about the Axis, but lots of Mom and apple pie. And likely the greatest advertising campaign of all time.
The group of boys pictured [even if staged] felt every bit instrumental as their Rosie Riveter mothers.

No one can account how much any of these materials actually made it into aircraft or tanks. It didn't need too. Collections made home front engaged by contributing too; not altogether different than cheering your team on. Rationing too; you did without so those afield better managed to conduct the mission.
Ranald mentions they all have boots/ shoes; well fed, clean, haircuts too. Not the case in every Allied country, too be sure. We could only do so much...
Be so interesting, approximating what percentage of full manufacturing been achieved. Certainly very high, I'm betting it wasn't 100%.

[Moby Duck]

I once read that this was largely a propaganda exercise to foster the idea that those on the home front were contributing to the war effort. Apparently in the UK, very little of it was actually used, and there are supposed to be mountains of it, buried for recovery in case they ever really need it. In London in the early 1960’s there were still many buildings and churches with the remnants of cut off steel fences that hadn’t been repaired. Being so vast, and having such good mineral resources etc, it is hard to imagine the USA ever being in a position where melting down someone’s donated aluminium cooking pot would make much of a difference.

[mklotz]

I once read that this was largely a propaganda exercise to foster the idea that those on the home front were contributing to the war effort. Apparently in the UK, very little of it was actually used, and there are supposed to be mountains of it, buried for recovery in case they ever really need it. In London in the early 1960’s there were still many buildings and churches with the remnants of cut off steel fences that hadn’t been repaired. Being so vast, and having such good mineral resources etc, it is hard to imagine the USA ever being in a position where melting down someone’s donated aluminium cooking pot would make much of a difference.

I've read that too and had the same thought. There came a point in the war where we were building a Victory ship and dozens of war planes along with untold other armaments every day. That's easily thousands of tons of metals required on a daily basis. A couple of pounds of pots and pans and rusty fences would be the proverbial drop in the bucket.

Remember that at the start of the war there was a strong, and outspoken isolationist spirit in the USA. Pearl Harbor silenced those folks but didn't necessarily change their outlook, particularly so relative to the war in Europe. No doubt Roosevelt remembered how sneaky he had to be with the Lend-Lease program to aid the UK and that prompted him to decide that involving the populace in the effort was essential.

Washington may well have felt that convincing people to participate in the war effort was an essential element in sustaining a fight that was going to go on for a very long time. It's long been true that "The first casualty of war is truth." so a little (admittedly white) lie about collecting metal was not going to upset the government.