Vintage work crew photos

[Captn Roy]

Ya, no Tats. What's up with that? Heehe. High heels, low heels, no heels. Everyone was on deck and working there tails off to get those Jeeps off to where they had to be. They were so vital back then, it literally could mean life or death to some of the fellas in Europe.

[Frank S]

Captn Roy I am not too sure you are seeing what you think you are seeing. here is not a single pair of trousers/ pants in the photo. the one in the right or the center or any other woman there, what you are seeing there is the tail of their work apron not extending all the way below the hem of their dress or skirt.
As far as welding it would appear they are all welding using oxy/gas in which case they would normally only wear goggles instead of helmets there are some who may be wearing head bands to keep their hair up out of the way.
While arc welding was invented by 1800 it was mainly in the form of carbon arc between to carbon electrodes and adding a filler rod to the molten puddle. Coated metal electrodes came along around 1914 in Sweden. But coated stick electrode welding didn't become popular until years later, tig and mig welding wasn't even invented by 1918.
Any bench welding that would have been done in 1918 would have been done using an oxyacetylene torch. Prior to that it may have been oxygen and a coal gas & hydrogen mix.
I taught a welding class in the Army in the early 70's where I demonstrated how to make a coated electrode in the field for an emergency repair of a broken steering tie rod using a coat hanger or other wire like mechanics wire by making a solution of baking soda salt toilet paper and water. by making a slurry then dipping the wire into it several times then laying it on the hot exhaust manifold of a deuce & a half until dry then used jumper cables connected to the 24 volts of the batteries. After welding it I drove it around the motor pool to show that it actually could work.

[Frank S]

that cart in the fore ground looks like a load of liberty engine cylinders and heads, They were probably welding the intake or exhaust flanges on them.

[Captn Roy]

2nd more detailed reply to the reply that Frank S so graciously made references regarding my eyesight or lack thereof. I also received an email regarding this reply and this also fuels the need to further comment on the topic.

First point of interest that should be noted would be the topic of the Thread that I was commenting on. This was "Vintage Work Crew Photos" Seamingly by Jon.

Secondly the photo in the thread added by Jon dated 01/16/2018, bearing the #5 in the top brown border on my screen is in fact the image that I commented on! I hit the Reply with the arrow that veers of to the left and away I went. My comments were only to appear a time later beneath another image that I had NOT made any comment on whatsoever, listed as #19 and again posted by Jon.

I do not know why the comments do not always follow the exact image we comment on but, I had noticed this on other occasions with comments by other folks and thought no big deal as it was in the right thread and usually by the comments to go back a page or so was simple right? Hmm. The photo I had commented on was showing 3 Woman in shop garb doing their thing in 1944. The photo above when my comment appeared also had 3 woman in quite different shop garb but in 1918 doing a stationary type of work in a shop that manufactured some type of parts in Michigan. There are other examples of this type of incident happening and one can be seen on this same thread. There is a comment regarding the wagons lined up at the train that was made and showed up just below another photo about TV service or repair guys. That one was real easy to relate to as it was right close by the original photo so easy to put 2&2 together on that one, right. I thought so & so it goes without saying that there could be more, simple deduction.

Frank S, does not seem to think along the same line by the colorful references he made regarding what I was seeing or thought I was seeing in the photo I commented on. Would not have been to serious if we were talking about left and right Tie Rod Ends. The topic was women and welding. The comments were out of line and condescending to say the least. Only a blind man or a complete idiot would have made those kinds of errors in the clothing or even the gear. For god sake, I talked about helmets and he says I saw goggles and a bandana. Then I'm entitled to a lecture on welding just to top off the insult, like a good swift kick in the rocks Frank finishes with the "in the Navy" thing.

Gee Frank, Thanks for being so considerate. Being scholarly and all I'd of thought that you would have figured the comment placement thing out and then gone over the rest of the great thread Jon put together and there would have been no doubt as to what I was talking about. By your comments one really would think I knew nothing about welding and commented crap on anything. 40 sum odd foot high stainless liquid foodstuffs tanks, Dozens of company re-fits on anything from stainless screws to gas pipe to filter towers to steel silo's to in shop rolling and fitting to making a REAL nice ride for my MIG and one for my ROD WELDER TOO! Heehe. Most fun I had was cutting up the stainless recyclables we brought back after a refit. 38-40 degrees celsius out in the back 40 cutting stainless with a Rod. Ever done that Frank? You did teach your class about cutting rods Hunh. I know it's not much experience compared to yours and yes Frank I do love a good lecture as much as the next guy. Just not when it's meant to humiliate or belittle me.

Oh and I took my deuce and a half home with me after my stint Frank. It's out back, Glad to send ya pic's if ya like.

Respectfully, RR

[Frank S]

Captn Roy If my reply to your post came off as condescending or offensive in any way then I deeply apologize.
Yes replies often land after other replies and not in the intended placement the poster desires. when threads in forums take on a life of their own sometimes numbering in the 100's of ages on some forums I frequent it becomes next to impossible to know which post a member may be referring to unless they use the reply with quote function and even then there is one particular forum where by the time you search through all the "R+Q's" in the reply it is difficult to even locate the posted reply.
Yes cutting Stainless with rods, been there done that perfect way to use up rods that are no longer suitable to make coded welds
Like cutting Aluminum sheet with an oxyacetylene torch by clamping a sacrificial strip of slightly thicker mild steel over it not a pretty as a plasma rig but it gets the job done.
Or 2 men carbon arc gouging welds apart using only 1 machine 1 gouge connected to the stinger the other to the ground. don't try it with a Lincoln pipeliner but a 400 amp Hobart diesel machine will smoke through boxes of 1/4" carbons all day long and never stutter.
Take a length of 1/8 or 1/4" pipe connect it to an air supply preferably the oxygen from your torch and your stinger turn your machine up to Maxine unless using a Hobart 400 amp then better only go just over half way. and lance through the length of a frozen bucket pin spray it with a garden hose then tap it out with a 4 lb shop hammer

[Jon]

Felling a tree. I believe this is the famous "Mark Twain" redwood, but I'm not certain. Late 1800s.

[Frank S]

Can you imagine how many strokes it took with the 2 man saw to fell that tree? that looks like a pair of 12 ft blades welded together.

[mklotz]

Yes, it's the "Mark Twain"...

National Geographic Found

[Jon]

Members of the Women's Royal Air Force sewing fabric aircraft wing coverings. 1918.



More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Royal_Air_Force

[Frank S]

It is hard to imagine the difference in people or that time period with the ones of today `Had in not been for many of our grand mothers or great grand mothers filling in at the factories making things for the planes trucks tanks and general weaponry our grand fathers or great grand fathers could never have done the things they had to do to win the wars