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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
+
The Employment of and Demand for
Women Workers in the Manufacture of
Instruments—Aircraft, Optical and
Fire-Control, and Surgical
W
A
Y
1
4
and Dental
One of a series of reports on women’s present and possible
employment in war industries, based on field surveys by
(Issued
first in mimeograph.)
►
s?c,0{
S ,^ v,s,0Nt
Women’s Bureau investigators in the fall of 1941.
EwcsOj.
Bulletin
of the
Women’s Bureau, No. 189-4
■4
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1942
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
% 3 C • A)
Price 5 cents-
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A
CONTENTS
Page
Introductory______________________________________
Summary as to women’s possible employment-'
Training_____________________________________________________________
Attitudes with reference to the employment of women________________
Aircraft instruments
6
Optical and fire-control instruments 13
Surgical and dental instruments and equipment 17
in
1
2
4
4
The Employment of and Demand for Women
Workers in the Manufacture of Instruments—
Aircraft, Optical and Fire-Control, and Sur
gical and Dental1
INTRODUCTORY
The making of aircraft, optical and fire-control, surgical and dental
instruments is important in defense production. Manufacturers of
these instruments have expanded their plants and organizations; new
plants have been opened; and contracts and subcontracts have been
awarded to plants whose machinery and organization are of a kind
adaptable to small metal and instrument manufacture.
Aircraft instruments for indicating, measuring, recording, or con
trolling the flight and navigation of an airplane are a vital link in
the aircraft industry even though their manufacture is not so spectacu
lar as that of the engines and planes. The same is true of fire-control
instruments, which are predominantly optical instruments such as
panoramic sights, gunsights, periscopes, telescopes, and binoculars
used for controlling the aiming and firing of guns, torpedoes, and
bombs. Many of the fire-control instruments are of a secret character
built for special naval and military requirements. Surgical and
dental instrument demands have increased to supply the medical units
of the Army, Navy, and Air Corps, and since Germany, formerly the
principal source of surgical instruments, has been cut off the market,
impetus has been given to domestic manufacture to supply the needs of
foreign and home buyers as well as the new demands of the defense
program.
Most instruments are relatively small, light in weight, made up of
many intricate parts and assemblies so that direct labor employed
is a primary factor in production cost. The light work, the many
small parts, and the painstaking requirements of certain operations
make instrument manufacture a field especially adaptable to the em
ployment of women.
Scope of survey.
Eastern States have most of the instrument plants, with a few in
the Midwest but practically none in the South and West. Seventeen
factories in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Minne
sota manufacturing aircraft, fire-control, and surgical and dental
instruments, and related electrical parts, were visited to observe the
work and the possibilities of employing women. The number of fac
tory operatives ranged from approximately 100 to 6,000; the number
of women employed was from 6 to nearly 1,400, with the proportion of
women varying from about 3 percent to almost 50 percent of the total.
1 As of fall months of 1941.
1
2
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
Minimum-wage rates and daily work-hour shifts.
Minimum hourly rates paid to women ranged from 35 to 55 cents,
with 40 cents the most frequently reported, while for men the range
was 40 to 61 cents, with 55 cents the most common.
All but two plants had more than one shift for the workers, with
the numbers employed decreasing materially on the second and third
shifts. At the time of survey, eight plants had two shifts and seven
had three. Women predominantly were employed on the first shift,
and in only three plants were a small proportion of women working
on the second.
SUMMARY
In normal times the manufacture of instruments of the types covered
was on a relatively small scale, and much of the production of aircraft
and fire-control instruments was on a constantly changing and experi
mental basis. For many years, machining and assembly were done
almost entirely by men classed as all-round skilled instrument makers.
But with increased production, jobs have been broken down and women
employed to a considerable extent. The proportion of women and the
jobs on which they are employed, however, differ materially from plant
to plant. In some plants women are working satisfactorily on machine
and assembly operations, while for the same jobs in other plants women
have never been considered. In the sections of this report dealing with
each type of instrument—aircraft, fire-control, and surgical and
dental—the actual work being done by women is discussed. The sum
mary presented here is merely indicative of the kinds of work being
done and the feasibility of extending the employment of women on
the various processes.
Summary of Principal Operations and the Employment Opportunities for
Women in the Manufacture of Instruments—Aircraft, Optical and FireControl, and Surgical and Dental
Sex of
operatives
(M—men,
TF—women)
Extension of
women’s employment
AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENTS
Assembly and Bench Work:
Mechanism subassembly____
Mechanism final assembly----Special assemblies—
Diaphragm------------------Pitot tube-------------------Gyro motors----------------Autosyn electric motors-.
Closing of instruments--------Testing and Inspecting:
Parts inspection___________
Calibrating--------------- --------Electrical tests____________
Cold, vibration, and run tests
Final instrument inspection-
M and W
M and W
Proportion could be
increased.
Do.
M
Could be used entirely.
M
Slight probability of using.
M and W Proportion could be
increased.
M and W
Do.
M and W Could be used entirely.
M and W
M and W
M and W
M and W
M
Proportion could be In
creased if trained or up
graded from instrumentassembly operations.
3
INTRODUCTORY
Sex of
operatives
(M—men,
W—women)
Extension of
women’s employment
OPTICAL AND FIRE-CONTROL INSTRUMENTS
Optical Work:
Blocking-------------------------------------Grinding------------------------------------Polishing------------------------------------Centering
Cementing, engraving, etching and
silvering----------------------------------Cleaning and inspecting
Only a few women are used
on single-spindle blocking
and polishing.
With training, women could
be used or proportion might
M and W
be increased on all opera
M and W .
tions.
M and W
M
M and W
M and W
Assembly and Bench Work:
Range and height finders, pano
ramic sights, periscopes, plotting
boards, quadrants, sextants, oc
tants, etc.—
made
by
(Subassemblies
women are very minor and
Minor subassemblies M and W
Main assemblies M
Binoculars, telescopes, aircraft
sights, and small gunsights—
Mounting, cleaning, and in
specting optical parts______ M and W
Sighting, Adjusting, Collimating, Cali
brating, etc M
not much possibility of in
creasing proportion.
Proportion could be
increased.
With training, women could
do in part.
SURGICAL AND DENTAL INSTRUMENTS
Assembly and Bench Work:
Forceps, pliers, retractors, etc___
Dental stands and chairs—
Minor subassemblies
Main assemblies
Dental hand pieces and fittings___
Clinical thermometers
l Slight probability of increasM and W [ ing proportion.
M
J
M and W Proportion could be
increased.
M and W Women employed exten
sively.
Special Machining of Dental Burrs and
Broaches MandW Women employed exten
sively.
GENERAL OPERATIONS APPLICABLE TO MOST INSTRUMENTS AND
SMALL METALS PRODUCTION
Heavy-Duty Machines:
Drill presses_______________
Punch presses______________
Milling machines- _______
Metal polishing and grinding.
Turret lathes______________
Engine lathes______________
Hand screw machines______
Automatic screw machines—
Gear cutters_______________
M and W
Proportion could be
increased.
M and W
Do.
M and W
Do.
M
Not suitable for women.
M
\
»j
With e x t e n s i v e training
M
l women could be used on
M
( lighter machines.
OtherM
I wise, probability slight.
4
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
Sex of
operatives
(M—men,
W—women'
Extension of
women’s employment
Secondary or Light Machines:
Bench, watchmakers’ lathes, etc.
(turning, buffing, burnishing,
burring, lapping, etc.) _
Micro-milling
Sensitive drill press
Small automatic screw
M and W
M and W
M and W
M
Hand and Machine Burring....................
M and W
Proportion could be
increased.
Machine-Shop Inspection
M
Slight probability of employ
ment.
Painting:
Spray
M and W
Proportion could be
increased.
Women employed extensively.
Do.
_
Touch-up and brush
Fill-in
..
_
M and W
M and W
Women employed quite generally and they could do
more of light work.
Slight probability without ex
tensive training.
w
Graduating and Engraving
Mand W
Heat Treating, Plating, and Anodizing. M
Inspecting, Cleaning, Wrapping for
Stock and Shipment------------------------ M and W
Proportion could be
increased.
Not suitable.
Proportion could be
increased.
Training.
In Great Britain special training courses have been offered to women
as well as men in the making and fitting of instruments. Instruction
covering both theory and practical application is provided in correct
use of tools, gages, calipers, verniers, micrometers, and in blueprint
reading, soldering, buffing, drill presses, lathes, gear cutters, milling,
precision fitting, and bench assembly. In the United States, in the
defense training program in most of the cities visited, general courses
in machine-shop practice and assembly were open to relatively few
women. Only two plants had courses of study and specific training
programs as formal instruction for employees, and in one plant only
men had been admitted because the training was given primarily as
part of an upgrading plan and the policy was not to consider women
as parties to job progression beyond unskilled repetitive work. In
all other plants, training was on the job. Many of the beginning jobs
in the machine shop, assembly, and inspection sections are closed to
women, as these operations are regarded as the beginning step for
young hoys who progress to more skilled work.
Attitudes with reference to the employment of women.
Three plants that employ women on a variety of operations and
in relatively large proportions have the most open-minded attitude
toward increasing employment possibilities for women. Though
most of the work on instruments is light, and little is beyond the
INTRODUCTORY
5
physical capabilities of women, the prejudice and attitude of many
in managerial positions is hedged against women. In the plants with
a small proportion of women employed there is often an expression
of opinion that men and women cannot be employed on a coworker
basis. Ideas are expressed that mixing men and women in the shop
may disrupt the morale and discipline; men do not like to have
women around, as in some way their work freedom is curbed. In
plants where the proportion of women is large, or where women have
been employed a long time, no mention is made of disciplinarian
problems.
Though most of the plants have never offered any special training
to women for job progression and upgrading, have never tried to
give women training or responsibility for set-up of machines and
have limited their work to unskilled repetitive tasks, the generaliza
tion often is made that women have no mechanical ability, interest,
or aptitude. In a few plants where women are given the responsi
bility, some set up their machines. England has many examples of
women setting up and operating machines and working on all types
of materials.
Even where much of the work is on a quantity basis with specializa
tion in jobs, the all-round skills and flexibility of men are emphasized
as imperative. Flexibility in the working hours and the ability of
men to hold up against long hours and heavy work frequently are
mentioned even when most of the employees work on an 8-hour day
shift and very little of the work requires strength. Along these lines
is an expression of opinion that to employ women on jobs that might
involve any hazards of maiming or disfiguring the worker is an un
desirable policy because injuries to women are regarded with greater
concern by the community and may result in antagonism toward the
management. British experience, however, has shown a decreasing
accident rate on certain machine jobs where women have replaced men.
The problem of providing additional service facilities such as toilet,
wash, and cloak rooms looms with undue significance to some em
ployers even where new buildings and equipment are being provided in
the expansion program and the inclusion of special facilities for women
could be planned. Inquiry has been made recently in the East as to
the cost of providing toilet and washing facilities for 100 women.
One estimate for 5 toilets, 5 lavatories, soap and towel containers, and
so forth, partitions, painting, and installation, was $479, or an average
of about $5 a woman.
The various anti-woman-employing attitudes expressed by manage
ment are premised largely on tradition and fear of innovations in
personnel set-up.
445594°------- 12-
•2
AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENTS
Twenty-five years ago, at the time of the first World War, flying
was relatively in a preinstrument stage, the flyers being guided largely
by direct observations of landmarks, the feel of the wind, the visible
horizon, and the sense of gaining speed and height. Today the instru
ment panel of the modern airplane is covered with a maze of dials to
guide the pilot. Instruments usually are grouped according to their
function. The four principal ones follow:2
1. The primary flight group includes the air-speed, turn-andbank, and rate-of-climb indicators.
2. The secondary flight group includes the altimeter, artificial
horizon, or gyro-horizon, and directional gyro.
3. The engine instruments include oil and fuel pressure gages,
suction gages, tachometers, temperature gages, electrical indi
cating systems, and so forth.
4. Auxiliary instruments comprise those concerned with the
recording of the functioning of auxiliary apparatus, such as land
ing-gear-position indicators, flap-position indicators, outside-airtemperature indicators, and related electrical systems.
Aircraft instruments are all small and light in weight, most of them
weighing less than 2 pounds, and as such tlieir manufacture is chiefly
light work, much of which is adapted to the employment of women. "
Until the present defense program the manufacture of aircraft
instruments had been almost entirely an occupational field for men.
The all-round instrument maker was distinguished in that he could
machine, assemble, and adjust an entire instrument. Aircraft instru
ments are now being made in relatively large quantities and the opera
tions have been broken down in the machining, assembly, and adjusting
processes. Many of the instrument workers who have come into the
industry during the present defense period are young, inexperienced
employees; some are, and more might be, women.
Machining of aircraft instruments.
The regular standard machine shops of the aircraft instrument
plants hire only a very small proportion of women employees. The
women are employed almost exclusively as drill-press operators, except
for a few on small punch presses. Many of the punch presses are of
the kick-press type, the continuous operation of which is strenuous
and not desirable for women. No women are employed on regular
iathes, turret lathes, automatic screw machines, milling machines,
grinders, gear cutters, and other heavy-duty machines. Young men
with no experience or only that secured in defense training classes have
been hired in the past year for much of the primary machining on
a Patton, Orion Edward, Aircraft Instruments, 1941, pp. 171-172.
6
AIRCRAFT
7
milling machines, drill presses, and punch presses, and more of this
work might be done by women. The main machine-shop operations
on aircraft instruments do not afford employment to nearly so many
as the assembly and light machine departments.
Most of the unskilled and repetitive jobs are used as beginning occu
pations for men who are to be trained as machinists in an upgrading
plan. Women have not been considered as potential trainees in a long
time program. In most places, tradition and attitude are against the
employment of women. The oiliness of the work, the hazards of cuts,
are emphasized; and the prevalent idea that women lack interest in
and mechanical aptitude for machine-shop work is most marked.
British industries are reporting the employment of women machineshop workers who set up their own machines to drawings and operate
all types of machines for grinding, turning, boring, milling, threading,
tapping, reaming, and forming on hydraulic presses. In the plants
visited in the United States the most accepted possibilities of increased
employment of women from a management point of view seemed to
be on drill presses and punch presses, the opportunities on the first
being the greater.
Floor inspection in the machine shop was done by men who were
skilled mechanics able to give advice as to set-up and machining.
Hand and machine burring of machined parts was done largely by
men, but a few women were used to a limited extent. Apprentices
often are started on this type of work and it might be a beginning job
for women in machine-shop operations.
Apart from the main machine shop, there are many secondary
or light machining operations frequently related to assembly and
often accompanying progressive steps in the building up of an instru
ment. The machines used on these operations are small sensitive
drills, bench lathes, watchmakers’ lathes, small automatic screw ma
chines, micro-milling machines, burring, burnishing, buffing, and
lapping machines, gear hobbers, and so forth. On these smaller
machines more women are employed and their numbers might be
increased materially. In several plants men and women are oper
ating the same kinds of machines, but often the men are reported as
doing precision work on turning and fitting operations that require
changing set-ups and more diverse skills. Much of the work of
machining, polishing, lapping, and drilling on the lighter machines
is for the small internal mechanism of instruments, such as pinions,
rocking shafts, gears, and fittings. The work is held to fine toler
ance—often in ten-thousandths of an inch—and gages, microscopes,
and micrometers are used in checking the progress and accuracy of
the work.
In a high-grade British instrument factory, women set up and
operate Mikron capstan lathes and Mikron gear hobbing machines,
and check tooth profiles and make necessary adjustments. They
work with micrometers and to tolerances of 2 and 3 ten-thousandths
of an inch.
Aircraft instrument assembly and bench work.
Most of the pressure-actuated instruments consist of a metal or
plastic case, bezel or snap rings, front glass, dial, pointers, and the
internal mechanism, which includes a diaphragm assembly, rocking
8
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
shaft assembly, hand staff assembly, sector assembly, wheel and hair
spring assembly, bearing plate, balance arm, and mechanism frame.
Diaphragms made of paper-thin corrugated metal disks are a part
of all instruments where pressure is the activating element. The con
traction and expansion due to variations in pressure are relayed to
the dial indicator. If the diaphragm is defective, the entire instru
ment must be disassembled or scrapped; so great care is given to its
manufacture and assembly. In three factories where diaphragm
instruments are assembled, the work is carried on in a small separate
department, and the operatives work interchangeably on several jobs.
Blanking and corrugating of the disks are press operations, which
require care in handling the metal so that it is not stretched. Next,
the disks are seasoned in hot baths of oils, soldered, evacuated, and
tested for leaks and sensitivity. Women do soldering, but all other
operations are done by men in the aircraft instrument plants. How
ever, in a plant manufacturing pressure instruments but not for air
craft outlets, women are making the diaphragms in their entirety.
Special apparatus such as the Pitot static tube has been developed
for controlling the intake of the air actuating the diaphragm. The
manufacture of the Pitot tube is done entirely by men and involves
chiefly torch soldering, assembly of small tubing, filing, plating,
and polishing. Much of the work is varied and heavy, and with the
small numbers employed there would be little need or possibility of
women’s employment.
Most women’s jobs on aircraft instruments are on the mechanism
subassemblies involving use of hand tools such as pliers, soldering
irons, tweezers, files, hand mallets, screw drivers, hand drills, bench
fixtures, and machines such as arbor presses for staking and riveting,
small polishing, lapping, and buffing machines. With these operations
there frequently is accompanying inspection using microscope,
jeweler’s loupe, and gages.
Women in one of the three largest aircraft instrument factories
do practically all the work on the rocking shaft subassembly, hair
springs, sector assembly, balance arm, and other mechanism sub
assemblies, including staking jewels into plates, assembling small
bearings, staking counterweights to dial pointers, soldering small
parts, putting in pivot screws, and so forth. In the other large air
craft instrument plants women are doing a share of these subas
sembly operations but the majority of the subassemblers are men. As
the force expands in all the plants the proportion of women is to
be increased, and an estimate was made that they could do at least
75 percent of the assembly work.
The final assembly of an instrument is akin to watchmaking—in
stalling the subassemblies such as the diaphragm, rocking shaft and
sector; aligning and fitting parts to close tolerances; adjusting
jewels, checking friction, checking end play, and making other neces
sary adjustments. This work is the sphere of the all-round instrument
maker and so far has recruited experienced men or developed them
from subassemblers by an upgrading program.
The final assembly of the mechanism calls for a high degree of
skill and responsibility, a thorough knowledge and understanding of
the use of the instrument being constructed, and a practical knowl
edge of the field in which the instrument is being used. Only two
AIRCRAFT
9
women in the aircraft plants visited were reported as final assemblers
and all-round instrument makers capable of all assembly processes.
Women might constitute a substantial part of the final assemblers if
they had the training, experience, mechanical aptitude, and interest,
and if management were open-minded to the possibilities of employ
ing them.
After the mechanism has been assembled, the installation into
the housing or case follows, and women are employed extensively on
the closing operation. They clean and assemble the dials, pointers,
and front glass, put in the gaskets, bezel or snap rings, install the
end fittings, and attach the name plate.
Instruments with fewer parts and simpler mechanisms, such as the
compass, tend to employ a larger proportion of women in assembly.
One firm with a separate department for manufacturing the magnetic
compass uses almost 50 percent women on this assembly. Women are
on the usual repetitive jobs of subassembly category, soldering, peening, screwing, and adjusting parts and fittings. Final assembly was
carried on almost entirely by men.
Testing and inspecting aircraft instruments.
Inspecting and adjusting are concomitant in much of the assembly
work. Women as well as men do testing along with assembly. < For
instance, in the assembly of a magnetic compass (simpler than gyro
compass) both men and women balance spider cards—the revolving
graduated scale for weight distribution. Women are checking the
magnetization of compass balance bearings on a special projecting
and enlarging device. The final setting and adjusting of the
compass is considered a most skilled job and is done by men.
Cold tests, vibration tests, and compensating bath tests employ only
a few men, who work interchangeably at all operations and most of
whom know how to make the necessary adjustments on a variety of
types of instruments.
Calibration covers testing, adjusting, balancing, and measuring the
performance of instruments according to definite standards. Cal
culations and computations for adjustments may be necessary and the
calibrator of the more intricate instruments needs a working knowl
edge of mathematics and principles of physics involved. In all but
one of the plants visited, the final testing of aircraft instruments was
carried on solely by men; in the one exception a woman was calibrat
ing suction gages, which are among the simpler instruments. She
had been employed in a watch factory and was said to have excep
tional mechanical ability. Many of the men calibrating were re
ported as having years of experience in instrument making or as
holding degrees in mechanical engineering. The opinion was ex
pressed that if there is quantity production of one type of aircraft
instrument, women might be trained in 3 to 6 weeks to do calibrating
of some types of instruments.
Inspection of incoming parts and those in process employs both
men and women, the latter working on the simpler gage and visual
checking. Of course women could do more of the inspection. Men
usually are employed on metal-hardness testing, checking with ver
niers, calipers, blueprints, and where mathematical computations are
involved.
10
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
In a large instrument plant that manufactures navy and com
mercial barometers, automobile altimeters, and compasses similar to
certain of the aircraft instruments, women have been employed ex
tensively for many years. In fact, women assembled aircraft altim
eters in this plant in the war of 1914-18. At the present time
practically all assembly on commercial barometers, hygrometers, and
altimeters for automobiles is done by women. The assembly of many
of these instruments involves installing a diaphragm, hairsprings,
shafts, pinions, dial indicators, and so forth, all similar to operations
on aircraft instruments. Women are calibrating these instruments also,
and one woman with years of experience calibrated navy barometers.
Similarly, in a mass production plant that specializes in the manu
facture of instruments for the panel boards of automobiles, women
are assembling ammeters, oil and pressure gages, speedometers, and
other instruments on a line assembly and testing for end play and
leaks, making final adjustments, and calibrating. Men are serving
as group leaders and set-up men. The tolerances on such instruments
are not so close as on aircraft, but the operations are similar and
there is no reason for assuming that women could not develop the
skill necessary to do similar operations on the more delicately ad
justed aircraft instruments.
Gyroscopic aircraft instrument assembly.
Another group of instruments are those based on the gyroscopic
principle, that is, a spinning wheel mounted and suspended in such
a manner that it is free to rotate about any axis, maintaining a fixed
position irrespective of the oscillations of the plane. The instru
ments important in blind flying and automatic piloting of a plane
are the gyroscopic compass, the directional gyro, the turn-arid-bank
indicator, and the artificial horizon.
Two plants visited are making this type of instrument. In the
plant of the largest manufacturer of gyroscopic instruments women
comprise less than 10 percent, while the other has a considerably
larger proportion. In a British plant, women with high degrees of
skill are reported as operators of lathes and milling and grinding
machines, as assemblers, balancers, and testers of fine gyroscopic in
struments with tolerances and limits as close as 2 ten-thousandths of
an inch.8 In the main plant of this same company in the United
States, women assemblers are classed as unskilled repetitive workers.
The women are on light bench jobs assembling rotor housings,
centering rotors into the gimbal, making minor hand adjustments,
cleaning bearings, lapping shafts, pivots, and bearings, and using
microscopes for inspecting the parts being lapped. All the actual
instrument assembly is done by men and the job of a first-class
assembler is described as follows:
Plans and lays out assembly work from blueprints or samples and devel
ops new ideas for simplifying and improving such work. Has a thorough
knowledge of machine-shop mathematics. Assembles all types of subassem
blies and main assemblies without the use of jigs and fixtures. Skillful
in the use of all types of precision measuring tools and indicating devices.
Skillful in soldering, filing, fitting, scraping, reaming, pinning, lapping,
drilling, turning, milling, and other bench and machine-tool operations re
quired in precision assembly. Able to meet production standards in quan
tity and tolerances.
3 Engineering Bulletin of the Ministry of bailor. August 1941.
AIRCRAFT
11
In a firm manufacturing turn-and-bank indicators women do a
major part of the assembly work, such as mounting the gyro motors
(until recently done only by men), oiling shafts and putting bearings
in the gyro frames, and installing the inclinometer and pointer or
indicator assembly.
Again there is no doubt that, if afforded the same training oppor
tunities as men, women could comprise a much larger proportion
of the workers.
Testing and inspecting gyroscopic instruments.
Gyroscopic instruments, like other aircraft instruments, are
checked in process of assembly, women doing practically all the test
ing on the smaller rotors being assembled into the gimbal ring, in
cluding testing of spring tension, making run tests to ease parts, and
vibration tests to detect the slightest friction in movement. Men do
the assembly and inspection on the larger and more complicated
rotors. Men also balance the rotors on an automatic balancing ma
chine, a job that women might do. Prior to calibrating the direc
tional gyro and artificial horizon women are visually inspecting and
cleaning the cases, dials, dial glasses, and internal mechanism. They
also check the drift and make simple adjustments on directional
gyros, and calibrate and adjust artificial horizons, both these opera
tions requiring approximately 3 to 5 months’ training to attain
proficiency in making adjustments to close tolerances. The final
testing and calibrating is done by men, many of whom have had
training in engineering and are able to make a complete visual and
mechanical inspection using varied testing equipment.
Electrical indicating systems.
Engine-control instruments such as tachometers, manifold pres
sure gages, oil and fuel pressure gages, temperature gages, and elec
trical thermometers, and auxiliary instruments for designating the
position of wing flaps, landing gears, wheels, cowl flaps, frequently
are dependent on electrical transmission for their indications. Many
are tied up with a self-synchronous motor, called an autosyn or
telegon, for remote indication of the instrument reading by electrical
wiring, which eliminates tubing and mechanical connections and
enables multiple indication on one dial.
The autosyn system of remote indicating might be applied to
almost any aircraft instrument. It is a combination of transmitting
and indicating elements that may be widely separated. A trans
mitting motor is mounted near the part, of the plane whose perform
ance is to be recorded, and the second motor is located on the
instrument board controlling the dial indicators or pointers. These
autosyns are small fractional horsepower electric motors, and are
significant in the manufacture of aircraft instruments. As in the
electrical industry, women are employed on much of the work, which
is of a machine-shop and assembly nature. Women are employed
extensively on drill presses and punch presses and might be used on
other machine operations.
Winding of armatures, field coils, and stators; coil taping and
forming; assembling armatures and commutators; soldering and
connecting wires, and other electrical jobs are done in part by women,
and they could do more of the work because of the small size of
12
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
autosyns. In some plants men are doing much of the final assembly
of the autosyn motors but women could share in the work.
Testing of electric indicating systems includes tests for grounds
and shorts, break-down tests, electrical accuracy tests, and time re
sponse and performance tests. All these are tests for which women
might be trained in a short time. At present, most testing jobs of
this kind are held by men.
Miscellaneous jobs on aircraft instruments.
Most of the panel-board instruments have luminous dials and indi
cators to give visibility for night flying. Eadium painting is being
done entirely by women in the five plants manufacturing aircraft
instruments. Work benches have individual glass-shielded hoods
connected with exhausts; rooms are air-conditioned; uniforms are pro
vided and laundered by the firm; periodic physical examinations are
given; hands must be washed before leaving the room and are usually
examined by the forelady for any particles of luminous paint; and
extra clean-up time is allowed at noon and in the evening. The work
is painstaking, fine, requiring finger dexterity, and hazardous if pre
scribed precautions are not respected.
Touch-up painting is quite generally done by women. Stenciling
of dials and fill-in painting are other jobs usually held by women.
Spray painting, on the other hand, is almost always considered men’s
work, though women might do it because of the lightness of the parts.
Graduating and engraving.
Pantographs, special engraving machines, and addressing machines,
for engraving and imprinting metal dials and name plates, are op
erated by both men and women. Women might be used on all such
jobs.
Other miscellaneous jobs.
Heat treating, anodizing, and plating require only a very small pro
portion of the total labor force, and the work is varied, heavy, and
not advisable for women as all-round workers. In the larger "plants
women sometimes wire and rack small parts before and after process
ing but the number of jobs of this kind is insignificant.
Many of the aircraft instrument cases are made of plastics such as
bakelite and all the presses molding these are operated by men.
Women undoubtedly could be trained to operate and control temper
atures on the new automatic molding machine.
Tool-crib attendants are all men. In the large plants women might
be used in keeping records and issuing the lighter tools. Women are
used to a limited extent in packing instruments and parts for stock
and shipment. More undoubtedly could be employed on such work.
Work in the foundry and pattern shops requires skills which would
have little value in the general woman labor market and much of it
is far too heavy.
OPTICAL AND FIRE-CONTROL INSTRUMENTS
Every heavy gun must be accompanied by auxiliary equipment for
controlling its fire, properly aiming the gun and setting the shell fuze.
«re ^0n^r°^ ^ns^rumen^s predetermine the accuracy and check on the
effectiveness of gunfire and aircraft bombing. Fire-control and op
tical instruments include range and height finders for determining the
distance between the gun and the target, periscopes for observing and
directing the firing of torpedoes from submarines, gunsights, panoramie telescopes, prism binoculars, aiming circles, azimuth instru
ments, elevation quadrants, sextants, bubble octants, clinometers,
plotting boards, drift sights and drift meters for aircraft, fuze setters,
and so forth.
Optical-glass manufacturing.
Ihe largest manufacturer of optical glass for fire-control instru
ments was visited. Mixing, melting, and the early steps in the manu
facture of glass are heavy work and unsuitable for women, but women
are used extensively in cleaning and inspecting glass. After the glass
is cooled, the melting pot is broken away with a sledge hammer and the
glass is inspected in large pieces by men cutting away all obviously
defective parts. It is then subjected to close inspection by both men
and women for striae, strain, bubbles. Men weigh, mold, and press
optical glass. Molding and pressing are skilled tasks, the work is hot
and strenuous, and there is slight probability that women might
qualify or be acceptable to the management. The burring of rough
edges and the indexing of optical glass—the latter more or less a lab
oratory job—are suitable work for women, but none are employed.
All the women are on light, unskilled work, cleaning, weighing, in
specting, and packing into trays, with a larger proportion of women
working on ophthalmic glass rather than optical.
Lens grinding and polishing.
Optical lenses and prisms probably are the most important and basic
components in optical instruments, and lens grinding and polishing
are fundamental jobs. Six of the plants visited are grinding and
polishing their own optical elements. Blocking, grinding, and polish
ing of various degrees or stages, silvering, etching, centering, edge
grinding, cementing, and correcting are operations in processing of
lenses and prisms. In times of normal production, the precision op
tical worker is expected to be able, if necessary, to carry out all these
operations, but during emergency periods when the expansion in pro
duction of optical instruments demands many times the usual output,
specialization in jobs has become a necessity and inexperienced workers
are being trained.
Very few women have been known to do blocking, grinding, and
polishing of optical elements, and there is considerable diversity of
13
14
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
opinion as to women’s ability to do this work because of the tradi
tional skill attached to the trade. A few were found doing single
spindle blocking and polishing. When grinding and polishing re
quires handling of heavy cast-iron blockers, the work is too heavy
for women, but with specialization in the manufacture of a variety
of optics, women undoubtedly could be trained to do the lighter
grinding, using small blockers and single spindles.
Sometimes the initial grinding of roughing and smoothing is by
hand, but considerable finger and hand pressure must be exercised
and the abrasives and rouge are hard on the hands. The grinder
and polisher must acquire a feel for the proper rotary motion and
suction of the blockers, or spindles. Some of the grinding and pol
ishing was reported as requiring not more than 6 months to a year
to attain skill, depending on the type of work and the precision
required.
_
In the process of polishing, the lens must be checked with a test
gage to determine the exactness of the work, and on some of the firecontrol optics the tolerances are so fine that only men with many
years of experience are considered able to carry on the work. But not
all the polishing is of such precision. In an instrument factory in
Scotland, women do optical grinding and polishing to extremely fine
tolerances.
Women’s work on optics at the present time is largely centering,
silvering, etching, cleaning, and inspecting. Women do a great deal
of cleaning, which is work of most careful and painstaking nature,
removing microscopic specks with small vacuums and cleaning sol
vents and visually inspecting lenses and prisms with the aid of magni
fying glasses. In centering, considerable skill is required in mount
ing the lens for edge grinding so that the exact optical center is
obtained. Once the lens is mounted and the center secured, the ma
chine grinding of the edges is an automatic process. Centering is
being taught to girls in 3 months or less. A trainee works with an
experienced operator.
Women often are employed with men on interchangeable jobs in
the etching of glass. The glass is first given a wax coating, and then
a pantograph engraving machine cuts the surface of the wax and
hydrofluoric acid etches the lines on the lens or prism. Women are
doing all this work, though the usual comment was that the most
precise work requires men. Silvering, shellacking, and painting of
optical elements are among the simpler operations and all are done
by women as well as men. The number of women could be extended
in a time of emergency.
Compound lenses are constructed by cementing—applying hot bal
sam with a brush—lenses of different qualities. Light pressure to
exclude the bubbles of air between the lenses is applied and the opera
tion requires the utmost delicacy of touch. For this reason women
have been considered desirable and acceptable for the job and are
used almost entirely.
Since women in the larger plants have proved proficient in cen
tering, cementing, engraving, etching, silvering, and inspecting, a
definite feasibility seems to be that if women’s occupational oppor
tunities were extended to blocking, grinding, and polishing they
could meet the demands of such work. The traditions of the indus
OPTICAL AND FIRE-CONTROL
15
try in the grinding and polishing of precision optics are hedged
with attitudes that such occupations are almost monastically male,
but if optical elements become increasingly a bottleneck in the pro
duction of fire-control instruments, more inexperienced workers must
be trained and a good share of the work might be done by women.
Basic requirements are patience and skill to work to precise toler
ances in terms of wave lengths, and many industries have accepted
as a truism the fact that women excel on work that requires great
attention to detail.
Assembly of optical and fire-control instruments.
The larger fire-control instruments are very intricate and are still
made on a custom-shop basis. Range and height finders weighing
5 tons or more, having more than a thousand mechanical parts, 150
or more optical elements with numerous multiple prisms, may take
more than a year to build. Since only a few men with long opticalwork histories are considered sufficiently skilled to assemble such an
instrument, women could not be expected to augment this group.
On other fire-control and optical instruments, such as panoramic
sights, periscopes, plotting boards, quadrants, sextants, and octants,
the work is not on a quantity production basis even in an emergency,
operatives with versatility in skills are necessary, and women are
used only on a few minor subassemblies.
Binoculars are the only fire-control instruments on which women
are employed extensively. Women are cleaning, inspecting, mount
ing, and setting optical parts such as lenses, Porro prisms, and reticles
into the case or housing, and staking and making minor adjustments
of the position of the parts. Similar work is being done by women
on telescopes, aircraft sights, and small gunsights.
Sighting, adjusting for parallax, checking definition and focal
length, collimating, calibrating, and other final testing is done by
men on all optical instruments, including the simpler binoculars and
telescopes. Men often have progressed to these jobs from machining
and assembly and have a general knowledge of the optical and
mechanical systems, and their applications for fire-control purposes,
which is a background possessed by few women. On some of the ini
struments such as binoculars and small telescopes, made in large
quantities, women should be afforded the opportunity to be upgraded
from assembly operations to some of the testing work.
After all the adjustments and tests have been made on binoculars,
women are doing the work of their final closing, disassembling eye
pieces and objective lens, cleaning with vacuum lines, fine brushes,
cleaning solvents, replacing the cleaned parts, greasing threads,
waterproofing screws, seams, and so forth.
Machining of optical and fire-control instruments.
In addition to the optical work there is a great deal of machining
and assembling of metal parts. A large proportion of the men in the
machine shops are skilled mechanics able to set up all basic machines,
follow intricate blueprints, and work to very fine tolerances. As in the
aircraft-instrument machine shops, women are most frequently em
ployed as operators of drill presses and occasionally on milling ma
chines, light punch presses, and bench-lathe applications such as burr
16
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
ing, lapping, and diamond turning for finishing surfaces. The pro
portion of women employed in the machining of instruments is small,
and machine set-ups are all made by men except in two instances where
women milling-machine operators make their own set-ups. All other
machines are operated by men. The present possibilities of extending
women’s employment seem slight, except for a larger proportion of
the drilling, milling, bench-lathe, and punch-press operations and
some of the work on smaller hand screw machines and special applica
tions of automatic lathes where long runs are common.
Miscellaneous jobs.
Painting, plating, heat treating, graduating, and engraving of metal
parts, and other miscellaneous jobs, are similar to those on aircraft
instruments that have been noted in that section of the report.
SURGICAL AND DENTAL INSTRUMENTS AND
EQUIPMENT
The elimination of German competition and the defense orders for
surgical and dental instruments have given this industry a defense
boom. Prior to the war of 1914—18 about 85 percent of all surgical
instruments used in the United States were manufactured in Europe,
and- though the industry got a footing in this country during the
1917-21 period, the United States markets were recaptured by Germany
for a decade or more. In the last few years the industry has ex
perienced another war and a great domestic demand, and it is grad
ually building up to meeting 100 percent of the domestic needs. In
addition, exports to Europe, Canada, Latin America, and Asia are
increasing each year. Since the industry has come into prominence
within the last few years, few skilled, experienced instrument makers
are available, and the industry has had to take young men and train
them as instrument makers. The Women’s Bureau was interested in
discovering to what extent and on what occupations women might be
trained for work on surgical and dental instruments and equipment.
In terms of total number of wage earners, the surgical and dental
industries are small. The industry centers in New York, Pennsyl
vania, and Ohio, with marked concentration in the first and second.
Almost three-fourths of the workers in dental equipment and dental
supplies in the country are reported in New York and Pennsylvania,
and the largest surgical-instrument manufactures are in New York
State.
Five firms in New York State making surgical instruments, dental
equipment and instruments, and clinical thermometers were visited.
In 2 plants employing 661, of whom 20 were women, only surgical
instruments and supplies were made. In the 2 dental equipment
and dental goods plants, and one thermometer factory, employing
3,147 workers (759 of them women), there was considerable diversifi
cation of products and not all would fall in the field of surgical and
dental instruments.
Surgical instruments.
In the 2 firms manufacturing surgical instruments, such as hemo
static and other forceps, retractors, surgical scissors, knives, saws,
scalpels, syringes, and so forth, the women are employed on only a few
jobs, cleaning, inspecting, and wrapping the articles for stock and
shipment. Altogether there were only 20 women reported in the 2
firms, or about 3 percent of the productive workers.
Surgical instruments are made of tool and stainless steels, which
present special problems of processing. Forging, annealing, stripping
stainless steel, plating tungsten steel, and heat treating are relatively
insignificant in the numbers employed, and due to the heaviness and
ihe conditions of work are not considered jobs to be advised for
17
18
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
women. After the forgings have been trimmed, milling surfaces and
cutting serrations are the most common machining operations, aside
from grinding and polishing. Most of the men set up their own
machines and must be able to perform a variety of progressive opera
tions on several types of instruments. A few women might be em
ployed on these operations.
Rough grinding, polishing, and buffing comprise a major part of
the work, with a series of operations using successively finer abrasives
until the final polishing—known as coloring—is done on rag wheels.
In general, these operations are decidedly heavy and dirty. On the
coarser carborundum wheels, there are flying particles in spite of
exhausts, odors of hot metal, and on all grinding and polishing a
firm grasp and hand pressure must be exerted on the instrument
against the wheel. Generally the work would hardly seem desirable to
many women, for in addition to the strain there is a constant spatter
ing of buffing paste, rouge, fine dust covering hands, face, and clothing.
The one job that seems feasible for women is the final color buffing to
give a high polish to the metal, but this too is usually a strenuous job
and does not employ any appreciable number.
Almost one-half of the employees are on miscellaneous operations
of a bench-work nature such as hand filing, fitting, adjusting, solder
ing, or brazing, and like machining this work is not essentially repeti
tive and the employee must be versatile, using all sorts of tools and
light machines. Bench lathes are used in burring and adjusting and
most of the drilling is combined with assembly. Burring and filing
are not light jobs, as the steels used are hard and considerable pressure
must be applied to the file. Fitting, setting, and assembly requires
an estimated minimum of a year’s experience to get close adjustments
and proper play. Most of the inspection is coupled with the process
ing. Some of the final assembly jobs are riveting and screwing parts
together, inserting springs, breaking-in joints, and oiling. Visual
inspection and testing the grip of instruments are done by both men
and women.
Though the heaviness of the work, the hardness of the metal, and
the variety of the operations were stressed by management as a bar
to the employment of women, there are some light jobs that women
might do in machining, fitting, soldering, and handling the lighter
instruments, if the emergency program demands increased employ
ment of women. In spite of this, the manufacture of surgical in
struments would never afford any marked opportunity for employ
ment of women, as even now, when foreign competition has been
drastically curtailed, the industry is limited in size.
Thermometers.
In one firm manufacturing clinical thermometers women are now
employed on all the major processes. Women are gaging diameter
of tubes, cutting tubes to prescribed lengths, blowing and gaging
end bulbs, trimming and sealing the ends, pointing, graduating and
engraving, fill-in painting, inspecting, and packing. Pointing is
marking the thermometer to indicate prescribed temperature points
in a controlled bath. Graduating and engraving of scales, serial
numbers, company name are done by both men and women on single
and gang pantographs. Waxing preparatory to engraving and all
SURGICAL AND DENTAL
19
the fill-in painting of scales are done by women. Women are used
almost entirely, so there is little if any opportunity for further
extension.
Sphygmomanometers also are largely a product of women’s work.
Women do all the assembly, the cutting and sewing of the sleeve, the
pointing of the dial, machining and calibrating operations on the
instrument mechanism—work similar to that on aircraft instruments.
Dental instruments and equipment.
Two-thirds of the wage earners in the dental manufacturing in
dustry are in New York and Pennsylvania, and two of the largest
firms in the country were visited. Products of the two firms include
dental instruments such as burrs, broaches, drills, hand pieces and
tools for hand pieces, abrasive points, forceps, pliers, explorers,
chisels and cutting instruments; equipment such as chairs, stands with
accessory fittings, sterilizers, dental gas apparatus, X-ray equipment,
dental lights, and so forth; and consumable materials and supplies
such as dental gold, alloys for amalgams and fillings, cement, teeth,
orthodontic appliances, waxes, and so on; and in addition nondental
products such as aircraft compasses, small electric motors, coils, and
accessory parts for aircraft, flexible shafting, and special custom
work on small plastic and metal parts.
The manufacture of consumable materials and supplies is more
allied to the laboratory processing and the packaging of a pharma
ceutical plant than to a metal plant making instruments. Women
are used as packers, labelers, and sorters, and the skills and training
required are quite different from those of a metal plant. The mixing
and processing is done by a small number of men and involves lift
ing raw materials and tending a number of machines.
Machining of instruments and equipment.
In the standard heavy-duty-machine shop, all machines except a
few drill presses are operated by men. Women might do more of
the drilling, and also part of the work on punch presses, hand screw
machines, and milling.
Dental instruments of the forcep, plier, and chisel type have the
same sequence of machining operations as surgical instruments such
as retractors, hemostats, and so forth. Grinding, polishing, and
buffing, the predominant machine operations, and the miscellaneous
bench work for fitting and adjusting are like the operations on sur
gical instruments, and the same findings hold for the employment
of women.
Women do all kinds of light machining on hand pieces, burrs,
broaches, and fittings, which are quantity production goods. They
are turning, drilling, reaming, milling, lapping, and burring. Men
are doing some of the same operations, but though quantity and
quality of workmanship on certain processes were reported as about
the same for the two sexes, the men are said to be all-round operators
with experience and skills that allow them to be shifted to any
operation.
Dental burrs and broaches are made in about 150 styles, and are
almost entirely manufactured by women, who are straightening,
cutting, and inscribing the trade-mark on wire used as raw stock.
20
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INSTRUMENTS
Semiautomatic and special automatic machines are used for forming
the end of the burr. On some operations girls are tending a battery
of machines loading and checking the precision of the operations
with a microscope. Broaches are ground and tapered on fine car
borundum wheels and barbs are cut on a special bench machine.
The operations are checked under a microscope.
On hand pieces and small accessories women are doing small sub
assembly, using bench tools and appliances. Practically all jobs of
this nature could be done by women. Inspection of hand pieces and
parts, visual and gage, is done by women.
Assembly of the chairs and dental stands is almost entirely done by
men. A small number of women do some minor testing, subassembly
of fitting wires and tubes, and touch-up painting. In the gradual
assembly of chairs and stands, the entire framework and installation
of fittings frequently is carried on by one man, the work being inter
mittently light and heavy. Men do final inspection, testing, and
manipulation of the chairs and stands. If the volume of this type
of production were greater, women might fit into the assembly work,
but at present all-round experienced men are preferred.
Minor jobs in the numbers of women employed include inspecting
burrs and broaches on comparators, wrapping and packing for stock
and shipment. Women also wrap some of the smaller parts for
chairs and stands. Another minor job held by women is the tending
of braiding machines, making cords to be used as pulley drives on
some dental equipment. Small electric motors are made in both
the dental-equipment plants, and women are employed on their usual
jobs of coil winding, building up small commutators, cutting, pre
paring, assembling, soldering wire and terminals, and so forth. The
final electrical assemblies are made by men.
No women are employed in heat treating, plating, painting (except
minor touch-up painting), foundry, tool making and tool room, or
operating plastic molding machines, and the job possibilities for
women in these divisions are slight.
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@FedFRASER