OCR Text |
Show MAGAZINE SECTION. "THE ow British Manufacturers HEKALD-REPUBLICA- SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 1916. N, - 9 rail En- MAGAZINE SECTION. Set At out to Sw3pry Hindi stud 1 "Hi - v A". v'.'i.vv".-.;.- - Ago Because of Lack of Ammunition and Guns, Output Have Transformed Their Plants Into Munitions Works and a Loyal People Have Volunteered Until Today England Is Fairly Humming With Machines Turning Out Prodigious Quantities of Material for the Use ?ot Only of English, But Other Armies Embraced in the Entente Against the Central Powers. MA Reorganized Practically Industries of the United Kingdom in Order to Supply Her Armies in the Western Front; at the End of Twelve Months the Right Little, Tight Island Is in Possession of Ample Resources of Shot and Shell and the Guns to Shoot Them. f Ml J V W-t t- - -- V v,"- ': v - - . 1 "" --- ' -L--- r: ; - j - - LONDON, 4h Year. Britain, Handicapped a gaged in Varying Lines of An?. 5. When the in France began tlieir great offensive bombardment on June 27 and for flays hurled into the Of cm; an lines such nn avalanche of sdeel and lead as the world had never known before, even the people of Kngland wondered that it should have been posible to assemble so vast a store of munitions. The story of how these supplies were created constitutes one of the most important chapters in the history of British achievement during the war. At the outbreak of hostilities two years ago there were only three im portant government munitions fac tories in the British isles. Today pnmc government controlled, firm, employing more than 'J.OrtO.-00- 0 workers, are turning out virtual all of the tremendous amount of ly war materials which have cone to ri II v-' y -- s ( . jk.l; .hs... t..v w. ?r?l r--;; i-- ? .ZjUm ..'.. L 5frf4 IS Ti v fi- "ft rf - 1 I Dr. Addi-o- 1 View, of the interior of an English factory which once manufactured railroad supplies; now it Top preposterous of course. The I'nited States has luruisurd ami is furnishing many raw materials, which we are anxious f Lrct for the manutac-tur- e of munitions, but so tar as the f shell actual production goes, America has provided is devoted exclusively to turning out munitions of war. At right, an t English girl examining shells us with only equip the r.noo,0t0 British soldiers a very small percentage of those in the field. which we have used." The organization of this great inTurning to the manufacture of munitions in this country, he continued; dustry has been accomplished in a of the war there little more than one year by the min"At the istry of munitions, which was estab- were only three important munitions lished in May, 1915, under the lead- factories in the United Kingdom. In ership of Lloyd ("J eonre. In that time addition there were a number of resource of the coun- large private munitions and armaferyhasavailable At the start reliance been built for the production ment tirms. try was mainlv in these national scale Some idea the of of munitions. placed upon which this organization has factories and experienced tirms, and been carried out may b gathered at that time they were full of orders. from the statement that the largest Mobilized Resources. nine covers the an new of area, plants "In the early stages of the conmiles lone and from three to four flict more attention was paid to field miles wide. A staff of r000 people has been re- pins and their equipment than to quired t stiervise the work. At heavy guns, but as time vent on the the head of this staff and responsible requirements for heavy shells greatenly to the minister of munitions, ly inereied. In dune, ; I .". r n ade ha? been a man whose organizing an inventorv of all the nvailahle mad chinery in the country anil it was ability has been accorded is Dr. He evident that it was entirely inaderecognition. Christopher Addison, internationally known for quate to meet the demands. There his medical research work. For some were, however a great many private years he has devoted his attention to firms which could be brought in to politics, anil besides holding a seat make munitions and it was decided in the house of commons had been to mobilize them for national serparliamentary secretary to the ltoard vice. In order to do this we created of education before entering on his an organization embracing the entire present duties as parliamentary sec- country. The country was divided up retary to the ministry of munitions. into districts in each of which a Every detail of the munitions produc- working board of management wa tion is known to Dr. Addison, and set up. By means of this scheme of during an interview with a represent- local organization thousands of firms ative of the Associated Press he told have been brought in. many of which n? much of the storv of the creation, had never seen a shell body or a of this industry as could be made fuse, or a grenade, or a bomb before, much less made them. Now mu- public at this time. At the out?et he disposed of the nition making in some form or other Center, a militant suffrage parade;! , - " 4 rF . ' 9A rt-- .A-- ri-- ' .:.:? y '.Ts . ; iViW vtf this time the suffragists are mak-- j ing a demonstration of their sup- - J i port of the empire in its struggle j with its Teutonic foes. Below and; to the left, a general view of a .'V-.'-- bee-innin- g 1 munitions plant. Right, a factory in full blast, meeting the needs of j the British armies. England, it her! mav be added, is supplying f porJ allies with no inconsiderable ( jtion of their war material. l 1 - A 'i "c, fiV v - t 1 : s 1V mumiiiiiiii to every conlias extended siderable town indeed to large numbers of villages. "An earnest desire to help, an adaptibility and eagerness to learn, have brought into munition making the most remarkable assortment imaginable of shops and factories. In one era alone shell bodies or the com- well-nig- innmm) i poiients (it :; IU a'f onlv bv engineering boards, but in ioi! confectionery works, by a ;nu-manufacturers by an infants' food maker, by a candle maker, by a flour miller, by a tobacco merchant, by an advertising agent, in several breweries, by some job masters, by a glazier, by syphon manufacturers, and so on. -- n- - ; j : K K !'r ; - t? .1 .' rn 1 ; . i ; A U. 1 and good shells have been the ministry by experienced muniturned out by machines and methods tions firms. which would ho horrifying to the "dust as the output of shells, shell bodies, etc. had to be augmented, so apostles of orthodoxy. all this amounts to in the we had similarly to provide explo"Wind aggregate you can. form some con- sives and filling factories. As a reception of when I tell you that a sult of this, apart from the enormous calculation made three weeks ago extensions of existing factories, nineshowed that there were being turned teen special explosive works have out weekly bv firms who a vear ago been provided. This has practically had not engaged in munitions work doubled the whole previous output of sixteen times as many heavy shells the country. Similarly there had to as were being produced a year ago by be built fourteen filling factories, all the national plants and private each of which has been provided armament firms put together. Of since last August. Altogether there course, the big armament firms have are now ninety national factories been greatly extended since then and which have been equipped with ma- that figure does not apply to the Shells h, ft fti4s i i I , -- 4 wide-sprea- r--. hands of experienced firms, but new factories under the direction of these firms have been made for 'single purpose' work. "Regarding our present capacity for gun production as compared with the capacity in June, 1914, before the war, we are now making in the case of the lightest guns, over ten times what we were then; in the case of medium weight guns, over twenty times and in the ease of heavy guns, more than fifty times. Industry. "The production of trench warfare supplies has meant the creation of an industry of which there was practically no experience in this country. Now grenades are being made in back yards and in all sorts of small shops as, well as in the big factories, and hundreds of thousands are being produced weekly. In the early days of the war the trench mortar was a weapon which had received little attention and undergone little development and there was a mere handful of these weapons in existence. They are now being produced in immensely improved types in hundreds where they were previously in units. And the output of their heavy ammunition has had to keep pace. The output of bombs where it previously was reckoned in hundreds has now reached a total of scores of thousands weekly. The production of trench warfare munitions in a most miscellaneous collection of workships has, of course, necessitated the provision of many assembly and inspection plants. "One of the earliest steps the ministry of munitions had to take was to acquire control of every machine tool maker in the United Kingdom and also to bring in the manufacturers of machine tools. Every machine tool made during the last twelve months has been disposed of as directed by the ministry of munitions. The tools have been sent where they were most needed for the making of munitions. "One of our most anxious problems has been the supply and the distribution of skilled labor. There was not enough skilled labor to go round. This fact was recognized by the trades unions rjid the government has received their hearty assistance throughout in the distribution of "skilled labor and in the dilution of skilled labor with unskilled. The introduction of unskilled labor into the Re-creat- "and it is n. jaw'' ,L,, statement which has been made in America to the etteet that if it were not for the munitions turnished by the I'nited States (treat Britain would have to quit the war. ''I have heard that statement made." said rJtzt r- ; present output. "Numbers of manufacturers who have hitherto been engaged in pro ducing quite different goods have sacrificed their business and good will in order to take up the manu facture of munitions. They have done it for the asking and ungrudg ingly. Many of them will find themselves at the end of the Avar with a great part of their good will jeopardized or lost. Single Purpose Factories. Coincidently with this program of bringing in private firms it became evident that even with their help the output would still bp insufficient, so the minister of munitions proceeded to provide a large number of "single purpose" factories, that is, plants where the work could be Skilled engineers dispecialized. vided the work up into a number of repetition operations such as could be done with a few weeks' training by women or unskilled labor. There are nanow in the country fifty-thre- e tional shell factories of this kind, all of which have either been built or reconstructed by the government. Of are under the manthese, thirty-eigagement of the boards previously re ferred to. Others are managed for ht chinery and in most cases built during the last twelve months. "We can now produce in less than a month as many of the lighter shells as could have been turned out In in the whole year of 1914-1915. less than a fortnight we can make more heavy shells than we could have We can done in the year 1914-191-5. now turn out in a week far more shells, filled and complete, than were used in the whole battle of Loos, which extended over a fortnight, and they had been saving ammunition for that battle for a month. We could have a battle of Loos every week now and it wouldn't touch the shell reserve stock. "The manufacture of guns, which did not lend itself to the process of subdivision like ammunition, has had to be concentrated largely in the .... V.ys.SArmp-Kt- .vS '-i- jn . . v ed S vU, ,,r ; 4 |