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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
WOMEN'S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
+
Employment of Women in the Manufacture
of Artillery Ammunition
One of a series of reports on women's present and
possible employment in war industries, based on
field surveys by Women's Bureau investigators since
early spring of 1941.
Bulletin
of the
(Issued first in mimeograph.)
Women's Bureau, No.
189-3
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1942
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
Price 5 cents
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1
CONTENTS
Page
Introductory
1
Summary as to women’s possible employment
2
Metal components
3
Fuze assembly
4
Propellant primers
8
Projectile manufacturing 10
Cartridge-case manufacturing 12
Ammunition loading and assembly 14
Manufacture of explosives________________________________________________
hi
16
Employment of Women in the Manufacture of
Artillery Ammunition1
INTRODUCTORY
Ammunition for artillery weapons is all more than one inch in
diameter, with the most usual sizes 37-mm., 75-mm., 105-mm., and
155-mm. in diameter. Artillery weapons include guns for harbor
defense fortifications, antiaircraft mounts, mobile field weapons, and
heavy guns transported on their own wheels or by railroad and
automotive carriers. Other types of ammunition are small-arms am
munition used in rifles, revolvers, and machine guns, trench mortars,
grenades, bombs, and pyrotechnics.
Artillery ammunition is classed as fixed, semifixed, and unfixed
according to method of loading the propellant charge. In the fixed
and semifixed types the propellant charge is carried in a cartridge
case to which the projectile is attached; in the fixed, loose powder is
poured into the case; and in the semifixed, bags of various sizes are
assembled in the case. Unfixed ammunition eliminates the case, and
instead the powder, contained in bags, is loaded separately in the bore
ot the gun.
'
The manufacture of artillery ammunition has been broken down
into many separate component parts and assemblies which lend them
selves to wide distribution among many contractors. Component,
parts for artillery ammunition, such as cases, shell forgings fuzes,
primers, and so forth, are being manufactured by contractors and
subcontractors spread over the entire country. The parts are brought
together for final assembly and loading at Government arsenals or
shell-loading plants. Large new plants for shell and bag loading
are unde,r construction and will soon be in operation in Alabama
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia
Women already are employed in Government arsenais and in parts
manufacture at many operations, specifically as machine operators
assemblers, inspectors, packers, and so on. The new plants will offer
many similar jobs. There will be wide opportunity of further ex
pansion of womens employment in an expanding production both
on new ]obs and as substitutes for male operatives if the need arises
Undoubtedly women can carry on well over half of the operations in
the manufacture of artillery ammunition.
With the specialization of labor which accompanies mass-produc
tion techniques, training periods for almost all the jobs as machine
operators, assemblers, and subinspectors are short, usually not more
than a month. If women, either through training within industry or
through vocational courses, can develop sufficient skill to assist with
1 As of the early months of 1041.
2
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
the setting-up and adjusting of machines, more opportunities of
employment and usefulness will be open to them.
The report which follows and the summary of the principal occu
pations and possibilities of extension of women’s employment are based
chiefly on observations in 1941 of processes and operations at two Gov
ernment arsenals which produce artillery ammunition and component
parts.
Summary of the Principal Operations in the Manufacture of Artillery
Ammunition and Components and the Possibilities of Extended Use of
Women
Sex of operatives
(.M—men, W—
women)
Metal Components Manufacturing:
Toolmaking, adjusting, setting M
up machines, etc.
Machine operations M and W
Proportion
Assembly M and W
Inspection M and W
Fuze Assembly (including detona
tors, fuze primers, boosters, etc.):
Machine operations M and W
AssemblyT M and
Inspection M and
Loading M and
Packing M and
Propellant Primers:
Body and head machine opera
tions.
Assembly of body and head------Loading (explosives operators)—
Head________________ _____
Body
Projectile Manufacturing:
Extension of women's employment
Not suitable.
could be
creased.
Do.
Do.
in
Could be used almost en
tirely.
W
Do.
W
Do.
W
Do.
W
Do.
M and W
M and W
Proportion
creased.
Do.
could
be
W
M
Could be used entirely.
in-
Machine operations
M
Inspection
Painting
Packing
M
M
M
Could be substituted in part
on lighter projectiles.
Could do 37-mm.
Do.
Do.
M
Not suitable.
M
Could be
part.
Cartridge-Case Manufacturing:
Drawing, annealing,
etc.
Machine operations
pickling,
Stamping identification------------- W
M and W
Inspection
Packing-----------------------------------
Projectile Loading:
Melting, pouring, and com
pressing explosives.
Drilling fuze cavity----------------Cleaning threads and miscel
laneous light jobs.
M and VV
substituted
in
Proportiqn could be increased.
No further extension possible.
M
Not suitable.
M
M
Do.
Could be
part.
substituted
in
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
Case Loading and Assembly:
Sex of operatives
(M—men, W—
women)
Inserting primer
M
Weighing and pouring powder__
Crimping case to projectile
Miscellaneous machine opera
tions.
Painting and stenciling
M and W
M
M
Packing
M and W
Inspection
M
M and W
3
Extension of women's employment
Could do 37-mm. and 75mm.
Could be used entirely.
Could do 37-mm.
Could be substituted in part..
Proportion could be in
creased.
No further extension pos
sible.
Could do 37-mm.
Bag Loading:
Bag sewing—
Cutting and trimming_____ M
Power machine operating . _ W
Smokeless powder bag loading—
Weighing and loading______ W
Sewing loaded bag W
Black powder bag loading—
Weighing and loading______M
Sewing loaded bag W
Putteeing propellant charges___ M
Inspection----- -------------------------- M and W
Packing------------------------------------ M and W
Could be used entirely.
Not suitable if hopper must
be filled.
Not suitable.
Proportion could
creased.
Do.
be
in
Explosives Manufacturing:
Smokeless powder____
Black powder________
TNT, amatol, etc____
Black powder pellets _
Tetrvl pellets______
M
M
M
M
M
Not suitable.
Do.
Do.
Could be used entirely.
Do.
METAL COMPONENTS
In the manufacture of artillery ammunition, a considerable number
of metal components are required in addition to the case, projectile,
and explosive mixtures. Fuzes, primers, boosters, and other separate
units must be provided and the structural parts of these are metal.
Detailed and standardized specifications have been established by the
ordnance divisions for most of the metal components used, and this
has made possible the distribution of contracts among great numbers
of manufacturers throughout the States and allows mass-production
techniques to he developed for many separate parts. Fuze parts such
as bodies, cases, adapter rings and plugs, springs, firing pins, caps
lubes, rings, and time units may all be made in separate plants.
Primers and boosters similarly are farmed out. The manufacture of
most metal components for ammunition is a fabricated metal type
of production. The workers are machinists, machine operators, bench
and assembly operatives, and inspectors, and are rarely concerned
with the handling of explosives.
Since the components are to a large extent small and the processes
broken down into many operations, women are employed extensively,
and if expansion continues in the ammunition industry increasing
numbers of women will be used. In almost every machine shop a
small nucleus of tool makers and machinists is required for making
4
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
tools, machining complicated parts, and setting up the automatic pre
cision machines. The majority of the workers, however, are machine
operators, bench workers, and inspectors, and women could constitute
t.wo-thirds to three-fourths of the operatives. Recent labor needs
estimated for three firms making artillery metal components show
more than 60 percent of the force women, and one company states
that as production increases probably 75 to 80 percent will be women.
In 1941, assembly and inspection jobs were the chief occupational
footholds of the women operatives. Women in relatively small pro
portions were operating drill presses (drilling, tapping, reaming, and
countersinking), milling machines, polishing and lapping pivots and
small parts, burring machines, and special small bench machines such
as the Derbyshire lathes and micro-milling machines. Their employ
ment as machine operators could be greatly extended.
FUZE ASSEMBLY
Women are exceedingly important in the labor pattern for the
manufacture of fuzes. Modern ammunition fuzes are intricate struc
tures of a wide variety of designs varying with the shells and targets
concerned. The following definition of a fuze is given in Elements
of Ordnance: “A fuze is a mechanism for igniting or detonating the
bursting charge of a projectile, and perforins this function either
upon impact or at a certain time during flight. When designed to
function on impact it is classed as an impact or percussion fuze, and
when designed to function at some predetermined time after the pro
jectile leaves the gun it is classed as a time fuze. A combination fuze
combines both time and percussion elements.” 2 Depending on the
action which the fuze is to set off, it is classed further as delay, non
delay, superquick, and supersensitive. Time fuzes are used when the
shell is required to explode after the lapse of a predetermined interval
of time, and the timing elements are controlled by the burning of
a powder train, or liquids within the fuze, or by a mechanical timing
mechanism which is similar to that of an alarm clock except that
instead of releasing a vibrating bell it fires a primer.
Mechanical time fuze.
All the parts of a mechanical time fuze are small and the time
units are similar to those of a fine clock or watch. Before the present
defense emergency, mechanical time fuze assembly employed men
almost exclusively, but in a relatively short time the proportions have
been reversed. Three years ago one of the Government arsenals had
98 percent men and 2 percent women in its mechanical time fuze
department, and now it has 96 percent women and 4 percent men.
More fuzes are being produced per employee than ever before. The
employment of women and the great increase in production per
operative has been brought about by a complete change in the break
down of operations and the introduction of large-scale production
techniques. Men were employed more extensively at first after the
operations had been revamped, but women were found to be much
better adapted to handling the small parts and more able to concen
3Lt. Col. Thomas J. Hayes, Elements of Ordnance, p. 579.
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
5
trate continuously on fine work which requires finger dexterity and
patience.
A mechanical time fuze is made up of more than 100 parts. At the
arsenal almost one-half of the parts were made within the plant, the
others being supplied by outside contractors.
Many of the small parts, varying in size from a fraction of an inch
to several inches, are machined on automatic screw machines. The
set-up and adjustment of the machines require skilled mechanics, and
usually the set-up man and an assistant, often an apprentice, tend
two or more machines, feeding raw stock and checking the machining.
Few women are skilled mechanics and unless men are employed ex
clusively for set-up there is not much possibility of employing women.
In very large shops with a set-up crew women might operate the
smaller machines where the raw bar stock is light.
Much of the punch-press work blanking out disks and small plates
in the machine shop is done, and more can be done, by Women.
Where the punch-press work involves the handling of heavy raw
stock and moving hoppers or trucks, the job is too heavy for the
average woman.
The fuze body, base, disk, and other parts are reamed, drilled, and
tapped, sometimes on multiple drills in jigs and sometimes with sensi
tive drills. Women are doing much of this work and can do it all.
Small lathes, micro-milling machines, gear hobbers, and routing
machines—all diminutive bench varieties—are being operated by
women successfully. Tolerances on some of these are as fine as 2
one-hundredths of a millimeter.
Grinding on automatic grinders, wire-wheel burring, machine
lapping, and polishing are other jobs of women. Grinding surfaces
should be shielded even on small machines. Gloves and goggles as
protection against small flying particles are needed, though the need
may be less than on larger machines.
Subassembly of small parts employs women almost exclusively.
Presses operated by women assemble springs, weights, and counter
weights for fuze movements. All the subassembly work is concerned
with tiny parts; small hand bench tools and arbor presses are used.
The assembly of the movement is divided into progressive steps
similar to those of building up a watch or small clock. Much of
the work is intricate; small tools—tweezers, files, screw drivers, hand
drills, and others—are used and some of the assemblers wear a jew
eler’s loupe (eyeglass) in their work. Some of the operations are the
inserting of wheels and movement parts; screwing, staking, and
peening subassemblies in place; and setting escapements, firing pins,
firing arms, and testing their action. When the movement is assem
bled it is fitted into the fuze case.
Men operatives in the arsenal fuze division are unimportant in
number and in the assembly operations are doing such work as ad
justing tensions, straightening springs, and adjusting escapement
wheels. Some of these jobs require operatives with considerable
fuze-making experience and are held by men who have been employed
for years in this work. Men are employed on high-speed staking
machines, spot drills, and spinning machines. These might be oper
ated by women. Some of the machines are to be replaced by newer
automatic machines and women will be used as operators.
445393°—42------ 2
6
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
Bench jobs such as hand burring, polishing, cleaning parts, and
disassembling fuzes that have been rejected are simpler miscellaneous
jobs that are done by women.
Inspection.
With the fine tolerances prescribed, inspection is constant and tied
up with the operations. Women do most of the inspection in the fuze
department. Besides the more common gage, visual, and scale check
ing, women inspect and adjust hairsprings on strobo-globe machines,
and project fuze parts on comparators or shadowgraphs. Fuze move
ments are given a final test by women on dynamic regulators which
spin the timing mechanism at the projection speed of the gun with
the action recorded on an oscillograph. Electro-limit gages which
require ability to read blueprints all are being operated by men, but
women able to interpret blueprints could do this.
Loading primers for mechanical time fuzes.
The machining and assembly of a mechanical time fuze does not
involve the handling of any ammunition. The firing pin of the fuze
touches off the primer, which is screwed as a separate assembly in
the base of the fuze. The loading and assembly of primers for
mechanical time fuzes is carried on in a separate department in which
only a small proportion of the total workers—less than 2 percent—
are" employed. Most of the work is done by women in the Govern
ment arsenal visited. Women insert the charged primer element,
peen the element in place, tie down the main powder charge which is
contained in a small bag, peen the closing screw after it has been
inserted and tightened, and shellac the closing screw as a final opera
tion. Men insert and tighten the closing screw.
Fuzes other than mechanical time fuzes.
Percussion fuzes and powder-train time fuzes of numerous models
have fewer parts and a less complicated structure than the mechan
ical time fuze. Metal component parts are made and assembled in
a series of simple operations, almost all of the kinds for which women
are especially suitable. In these, fuzes and allied parts such as det
onators and boosters, elements embodying small quantities of explo
sives which are pail of the powder train, are handled. On many jobs
there is an ever-present explosive hazard and only the emotionally
stable should be employed.
As illustrative of the variety of occupations of women on complex
percussion fuzes, a list of the 38 operations performed by women or
men on one of the more complicated “delay-action” types of point det
onating fuze is given here.
Operation
Sea: of operatives
{AT—men, W—
women)
1— Examine fuze head W
2— Insert detonator, detonator cushion, and W
retaining screw.
3— Stake retaining screw in head W
4— Gage primer cover with micrometer W
5—Insert relay cup assembly into plunger W
body.
Explosives operator.
Occupa'ion
Inspect.
Assemble.
Machine operator.
Inspect.
Assemble (ex. op.1).
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
Operation
Sex of operatives
(M—men, W—
women)
6—Insert delay holder assembly into plunger
body.
7—Insert delay element washer into plunger
body.
8—Insert primer assembly into plunger body__
9—Insert primer cover and plug into plunger
body.
10—Screw plug into body W
11—Stake plug in plunger body W
12—Assemble firing pin, spring, and retainer in
plunger body.
13—Assemble components on delay firing assembly fixture.
14—Complete delay plunger assembly W
15—Assemble centrifugal plunger pin lock______
16—Drill hole, insert, and crimp firing pin into
body.
17—Test delay plunger assembly for arming and
nonarming.
18—Test body assembly for arming and nonarming of interrupter.
19—Stamp data on fuze body____ t W
20—Assemble ogive and head assembly to body..
21—Tighten head assembly to body M
22—Stake ogive to head assembly W
23—Complete fuze assembly W
24—Tension bottom closing screw assembly to
body.
25—Stake bottom closing screw assembly to
body.
26—Gage fuze W
27—Remove booster from box W
28—Assemble booster to fuze W
29—Drill lock screw hole in fuze W
30—Insert lock screw M
31—Stake lock screw and fuze W
32—Gage and inspect assembly W
33—Insert assembly in fiber container M
34—Assemble sealing strip M
35—Secure label to fiber container W
36—Stamp data on end of fiber container______
37—Stencil data on packing box M
38—Pack container in packing box M
w
W
Occupation
Assemble (ex. op.)
Do.
w
w
Do.
Assemble.
W
Do.
Machine operator.
Assemble,
W
Do.
W
M
Do.
Do.
Machine operator.
\V
Inspect.
W
Do.
W
M
W
W
7
Machine operator.
Assemble.
Machine operator.
Do.
Assemble.
Machine operator.
Do.
Inspect.
General labor.
Assemble.
Machine operator.
Assemble.
Machine operator.
Inspect.
Pack.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Operatives who insert relay, delay, and primer elements are classed
as explosives operators. While the other operations do not involve
the direct handling of the explosive elements, the women are handling
loaded parts and safety standards and precautions must be rigorously
maintained.
About four-fifths of the steps in the listed fuze-making operations
are performed by women, and practically all might be except for the
assistance of men in lifting and moving supplies and packed con
tainers.
Booster and detonator assemblies.
The booster is the explosive element in the explosive train between
the detonators of the fuzes and the bursting charges in the projectiles.
Sometimes it is contained in a light metal casing or cup. Women
prepare the booster cups for loading, inserting felt and paper disks.
Tetryl, a high and sensitive explosive, is used in loading the booster
8
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
cups. It has a toxic hazard (dermatitis) and operatives handling it
in Government arsenals are paid an additional rate and given an
extra time allowance for bathing at the end of the workday. Booster
cups in a Governmental arsenal are loaded by men and the final closing
and crimping also is done by men. Women might do this work.
Fuze primers and detonators of various kinds (relay and delay)
are other small subassemblies for the fuzes which are put together
separately. Like the booster cups, there are light jobs placing cups
on trays, separating and inserting tiny disks of paper and metal, and
loading the cups with high explosives. Lead azide, fulminate of mer
cury, and tetryl pellets are the high explosives used. Women weigh,
check-weigh, and inspect charges of lead azide and mercury fulminate
and insert tetryl pellets. Shields of safety glass and barricades of
lead between the operator and the work are used as much as is feasi
ble. Loading and crimping the detonator in loading presses and
ejecting the detonators from the sleeves or jigs used as fixtures in
the loading processes usually are done by men. These are the jobs
on which the explosive hazard is the greatest. There is no physical
strain involved and women might operate these machines. The final
inspection, packing, and labeling are done by women.
All the operations for the making of fuze boosters, detonators, and
primers can be done by women. There is no reason to suppose that
women are less careful and less responsible than men as explosives
handlers. In the handling of tetryl in any form women should have
the same bonus rate (toxic) and bathing facilities as provided for
men.
Training for mechanical time fuze manufacture.
The work has been so subdivided and simplified that the training
period is short. At the Government arsenal, a 30-day period was
deemed sufficient for any single machine operation or assembly job.
There was, however, an apprentice training program for women fuze
makers which covers a year’s period. About 200 women were en
rolled and they transfer from one operation to another until they have
been developed into all-round operatives. From this group super
visors are to be selected, not only for the arsenal but to serve as in
structors and ordnance inspectors in private corporations manufac
turing time fuzes.
PROPELLANT PRIMERS
Propellant primers are another component assembly which is made
by dispersed contractors. They differ somewhat in models and con
struction according to the guns and uses for which they are made.
The primer body is a metal tube which serves as a container for a
black powder charge. The firing mechanism strikes the anvil in the
base of the primer, igniting a highly explosive percussion composi
tion or pellet which starts the firing by ejecting a flame through a
vent hole into the black powder charge contained in the primer; this
in turn ejects flames through flash or vent holes in the wall or through
the mouth of the tube, which set off the larger charge of propellant
powder in the case or bore of the gun which sends the projectile on
its course.
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
9
Primer bodies usually are made on automatic machines which cut
the stock, drill, tap, insert, and crimp a plug in a series of operations,
such machines require skilled adjusters or set-up men, and the feeding
of raw stock is heavy work, so these are not suitable for women.
Flash holes in the wall of primers are cut or drilled in several ways.
High-speed specialized multiple drills for primers perform this op
eration in the manner of automatic machines and require competent
mechanics for set-up. Older, slower machines to which primers are
fed one at a time can be operated by women. On small short primers
flash holes are punched on a crank press and women might do this.
On all the preceding operations in the Government arsenals visited,
men were employed though some might employ women.
The inside of the primer body is machined on reaming and burring
machines with high-speed spindles. After the machining the chips
are blown out with compressed air. The machine has a fixed set-up
and is simple in operation. Women seated, wearing goggles and
gloves as protection against the flying chips, tend” this type of
machine.
Piimer heads, cups, and anvils are small parts and women can be
employed on the drawing, blanking, and machine operations con
cerned in their manufacture.
Loading of primer heads.
. The loading of piimer heads is another woman-emploving occupa
tion. The primer element, including the primer cup. anvil, foiling
disk, and primer composition, are component assemblies which are the
products of commercial explosives producers. In the propellant
primer department of a Government arsenal, one group of women is
operating light staking machines which stake the primer element into
the primer head and another group on similar machines assembles
the faring plug and primer head. Others are hand screwing firing
plugs into the cups and packing the cups into wooden boxes. All the
work on the loading of primer heads is light and suitable for women.
Explosives in small quantities are contained in th'e element but the
possibility of accidental detonation is slight.
Loading of primer bodies.
The loading of primer bodies is a powder-loading plant process
Trimer bodies are given protective coatings of special paint by a
machine dipping process which could be done by women though none
used. Excess paint is removed by hand cleaning with varsol ‘
which can be done by women if gloves are worn or hands coated with
special hand creams which are protective against the drying effect of
substances such as this cleaner. Women are employed to line the
primer tubes with paper and to waterproof the mouth end with
shellac and wax. The primer charge, black powder, is weighed and
poured into the body. The primer head is screwed and crimped to
the body by special machines. These workers are classed as explosives
operators and only men were found working at the loading opera
tions. The work is not heavy and can be done by women if the critenon of employment for explosives workers is not based on sex. If
proper work-clothing standards and all precautions possible are ob
served, the hazard of and for women workers is no greater than for
10
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
men. The packing of primers into shipping or storage containers
and the taping of containers are clone by women.
PROJECTILE MANUFACTURING
A projectile is the missile fired from the gun. Usually it is made
of fox-ged steel. Basic types of projectiles classified according to
“tactical use” are shell, shrapnel, and canister; since shells are the
most important, the terms projectile and shell are often used
interchangeably.
The methods of manufacturing projectiles vary with the size and
type of projectile being made and the equipment and tooling set-up of
the manufacturer. Much new equipment has been perfected for pro
jectile manufacturing in the last few years, and where formerly 32
or 35 separate operations were performed on one projectile only 10
or 12 now are necessary. Machines with “multi-tool” set-ups now
perform many operations formerly done on separate machines, with a
corresponding reduction in numbers employed and an increased need
of set-up men. At the arsenal visited, projectiles of 37-mm., 75-mm.,
90-inm., 155-mm., and 3 inches are produced. On the whole there are
not great numbers employed in the projectile division as compared
with other sections in the arsenal. No women are used on any basic
operations but a few are employed blanking out base covers. Even
in a great emergency women could be employed to only a limited
extent because so much of the wTork is heavy, so many of the machines
require skilled operators, and the working conditions in general are
undesirable.
'
There is widespread use of roller-type conveyors that move the
projectiles from one machine to another, but even so, many of the
machine operations require continual handling of projectiles and
feeding them into machines, which results in accumulated fatigue for
most women. Women could perform some of the operations on the
37-mm. and 75-inm. projectiles, the latter weighing about 11 pounds.
For purposes of analysis the manufacturing sequence for 75-mm.
high-explosive shells has been selected as typical. The general oper
ations on either smaller or larger projectiles would be quite similar
in spite of some variation in sequence and individual machine
operations.3
Sequence of Operations on 75-mm. Shells
1— Shotblast.
2— Center.
3— Cut off, rough turn, and face base.
4— Cold nose (tapering).
5— Finish turn.
6— Drill and tap set-screw hole.
7— Finish both ends and band seat.
8— Notch.
9— Stamp.
10—Knurl band seat (machining oper
ation).
11—
12—
13—
14—
15—
16—
17—
18—
Apply rotating band.
Turn band.
Weld base cover.
Degrease.
Final inspection.
Insert set-screw and grease threads.
Spray painting.
Packing.
3 The general sequence followed is based on production of 3.000 75-mm. shells per 8-hour
day at Frankford Arsenal. (Steel, March 31. 1941, Machining High-Explosive Shell, pp.
54-58.)
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
11
Finish-forged cavity shells are received from outside forge shops
ready for machining operations. First the shells are shotblasted on
an automatic shotblast machine. The base end is then centered on
either a lathe or a drill press to insure concentricity for all succeeding
operations. A new automatic multi-tool lathe has been developed
for cutting off the discard metal at the base, for rough-turning the
head and body, and facing the base. The open end of 75-mm. shells
can be tapered on a crank press without heat treating, but all shells
over 90-mm. must be heated before nosing or tapering. The exterior
surface of the projectile is then finish-turned on a lathe, and the set
screw hole is drilled and tapped on a drill press. Both ends of the
shell and the band seat are finished in a series of boring, reaming, and
facing operations on a multi-spindle machine. The employment of
women on any of the first seven operations is of doubtful feasibility.
In the first place much of the work is heavy, and second the special
ized automatic machines used require frequent attention from set-up
men who have all-round mechanical skills and years of machining
experience.
The eighth operation is notching the nose on a hand-feed indexing
or milling machine with automatic stops. Stamping the base with
the year of manufacture, size and type of shell, and manufacturer’s
initials is done on a press. Knurling (machining operation) the
longitudinal grooves for placing the rotating band is done on a
machine with two knurling rollers. All three operations of notching,
stamping, and knurling are highly repetitive and require little skill
and could be done by women on 37-mm. and 75-mm. shells.
A rotating band on a projectile is a means of setting the shell into
rotating motion and keeping it in straight lateral flight, the band
being a trifle larger than the bore of the gun. The setting of the ro
tating band is done on a hydraulic press (tire setter)-, the shells and
the bands being fed into the machine by hand one at a time prior to
each pressing operation. The band is then turned on a semiautomatic
lathe, and the operation merely involves loading the machine. On
the 37-mm. and 7o-mm., women could both apply and turn the
rotating band.
Some women are operating punch presses blanking out disks to be
used as base covers on the ends of projectiles. A seam electric welder
is used in welding these covers to the base, the machine being auto
matically set for the welding time needed. Women could do this
welding on shells of 75-mm. or less.
The shells are degreased by washing in a trichloroethylene solution
and this work involves moving and loading heavy racks, which would
be too strenuous for women.
All shells are inspected visually, by gage, and by electro-limit gages
that check six dimensions at one time. This inspection involves
handling several thousand shells in 1 day, which makes inspection by
women too strenuous on all shells but the 37-mm. Women could do
all the inspection on the 37-mm. projectiles; they could also insert
the set-screw and grease the threads on 37-mm. and 75-mm. shells.
The shell cavities on most of the projectiles are hand spray-painted,
while the exteriors are automatically spray-painted under a hood with
the shells moving on a conveyor being loaded and unloaded by an
12
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
operative. If manufacturing were done on a quantity-production
basis sufficient to warrant specialization among the workers in the
spray-painting section, women could be used for painting the 37-mm.
shells, but even this would not involve any great number of employees.
Packing of shells into cartons and cases and sealing the cases
involves manual tasks too heavy for women, except for the 37-mm.
projectiles.
Women could do more of the operations on the 37-mm. shell than
on any other size because of its comparative lightness in weight.
These shells are not forged but are cut and turned from bar stock
on large automatic screw machines which are tended by skilled ma
chine operators who can change the set-ups. Women could not oper
ate this machine, but as already indicated they could operate a number
of the other machines provided there were adjusters and set-up men.
CARTRIDGE-CASE MANUFACTURING
The manufacture of artillery cartridge cases does not involve the
extensive use of mass-production methods found in the making of
small-arms ammunition, and the variety of cases manufactured makes
the production more or less on a job-shop basis.4
Drawing.
Raw stock is purchased in the form of brass disks for all but the
37-mm. cases, which are bought in cup form ready for succeeding
drawing operations. There are four draws on 75-mm. cases, includ
ing the initial cupping, and each draw elongates the case and reduces
the wall thickness. The cups are hand fed into dials and drawn on
large hydraulic presses. The shop superintendent felt that this would
not be a desirable place in which to employ women because the work
ing conditions are not favorable, the shop being hot and very noisy,
the floors wet and slippery from the spattering of coolants and from
the pickling, annealing, and washing operations, and because the con
tinual and rapid feeding of cases into dials would make the work too
strenuous.
Annealing, pickling, and washing.
Annealing, pickling, and washing operations are performed after
each draw, prior to tapering, and after the final mouth trim. The
annealing is a heat-tempering operation to remove the residual
strains in the metal after the various drawing and machining opera
tions. All the work in this connection is too strenuous for women
because it involves moving heavy trucks and racks filled with cases.
The work is very hot also and the floors are wet and slippery.
Trimming.
The open end of the case is trimmed at two different times, once
after the third draw and again after the machining of the head and
primer hole. The first trim is made on an automatic trimming ma
chine, the function of the operator being to feed the cases into a
4 Operations m making lo-mm. cartridge cases follow the general order presented below
based on the production of 3,750 cases in an 8-liour day.
(Army Ordnance January-February 1940, Cartridge Case Manufacture, p. 240.) The operations on either larger or
smaller cases would be somewhat similar.
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
13
magazine which holds the cases being fed gradually into a rotary
cutter. Men are doing all this work but it is a simple repetitive job
which women could do on the lighter cases such as the 37-mm. and
75-mm. On the final trim the cases are cut to exact dimensions on
a two-spindle drill press into which the cases are fed one at a time,
and women could do the final trimming on the 37-mm. and 75-mm.
Heading and indenting the base.
A crescent-shaped thickness of metal is left on the base of the case
during the various drawing operations. After the first trim this base
is flattened on a hydraulic press to form a flange for seating the
round in the gun and for extracting the fired case from the bore, and
on the same machine an indentation for the primer socket is formed.
This is more of a skilled operation than trimming and requires ap
proximately three months to learn. The operators must be able to
read blueprints. Men are now engaged as operators, but with proper
training women could do this work on 37-mm. and 75-mm. cases.
Tapering.
After the heading operation, the upper part of the case is annealed
preparatory to a full-length taper on a dial-feed press. Men are
doing all the tapering, but with extra set-up men and with about a
week’s training women could do the tapering on 37-mm. and 75-mm.
cases. A small group of women are putting a slight bevel on the
mouth end of the cases prior to tapering, by hand hammering the end
of the cases over a die block. At the time of visit they were doing
this on 37-mm. cases.
Machining head and primer hole.
The head and primer hole are machined on a multi-spindle machine
after tapering. The primer hole is bored, counterbored, and reamed,
and the head is turned and faced to required dimensions. There is
another type of machine that not only finishes the base but also does
the final mouth trimming, and the primer hole has to he drilled prior
to going into this machine. These machine operations are the most
skilled in cartridge-case manufacturing and they require workers
who have sufficient skill to adjust the machines frequently. Women
can hardly be expected to acquire such skill and experience in an
emergency program.
Stamping.
Women are operating dial-feed presses stamping a series of coded
letters and numbers on the head of the cartridge cases for identifica
tion purposes. Women are doing all the stamping, which is a
relatively simple operation.
Inserting screw eyes.
A small group of women are putting screw eyes in the bottom of
75-mm. cases for tying in powder bags. Some are threading the holes
with hand tools and others are screwing in eyes. This is an operation
performed only on semifixed ammunition.
Inspection.
Throughout the various stages of manufacture the machine oper
ators spotcheck their own work visually and with micrometers, and
periodic laboratory tests are made of the grain structure of the cases
14
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
In tlie final visual, gage, and machine inspection both men and women
are employed. Women are using gages and operating gaging ma
chines which check nine dimensions simultaneously. Men are doing
the same types of inspection but on the larger cases. The largest
cases women ever handle are the 5.38-caliber, which weigh 12.3
pounds.
Packing.
Both men and women are packing cartridge cases into cardboard
boxes, the men generally doing the heavier tasks. After packing, the
cases are shipped to shell-loading or ammunition-loading plants to be
filled with propellant powder and joined with the projectile.
AMMUNITION LOADING AND ASSEMBLY
The projectiles, cartridge cases, primers, and other component parts
are sent from their respective manufacturers to some ammunitionor shell-loading plant where the assemblies are completed, the pro
jectiles are filled with explosive charges, and the cases are filled with
propellant powder and joined with the projectile to make a complete
round of ammunition except for the fuze. The fuze usually is not
screwed into the nose of the projectile until the. ammunition is to be
fired. Five new ammunition (shell) loading plants were under
construction in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Tennessee in 1941.
Projectile loading.
Projectiles are loaded with a main explosive charge which may be
a high explosive, low explosive, or chemical agent. Low explosive
charges (black powder) are used in some service shells, practice
shells, and shrapnel. Some of the principal high explosives used are
trinitrotoluene (TNT), amatol, ammonium picrate, and tridite.
When the shells are received at the loading plant they are un
packed, the nose plug is removed, and the shells are cleaned to remove
grease and dirt. Women could do the unpacking, cleaning, and
removing of the nose plugs on shells lighter than 75-mm.
TNT and tridite are loaded by melting the explosive and pouring
it into the shell cavity; ammonium picrate is loaded in increments
and then compressed by a hydraulic press; amatol is either meltloaded or compressed depending on the proportion of TNT and
ammonium nitrate. A fuze cavity is drilled into the explosive charge
after the shell is loaded and only men are employed for this, as they
are for the loading operations. The men working in shell loading
are used interchangeably on a variety of operations and women could
not very well be employed in any of this work. The actual loading
of the shell requires an extended period of training; the work is
dangerous and there are a number of manual tasks involved.
After the fuze cavity has been drilled, the grains of powder accu
mulated on threads of the projectile must be cleaned off and women
could do this on the lighter shells. Men are doing all the cleaning of
threads at the arsenal. The opportunities for employment of women
in shell loading are very limited because of the weight of loaded
projectiles, all but the 37-mm. weighing considerably more than 10
pounds.
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
15
Case loading and assembly.
After the shells are loaded with the main bursting charge they are
sent to an assembly line for fitting into a case filled with propellant
powder. The loading and assembly involves principally the inserting
of the propellant primer, weighing and pouring propellant powder
into cases, fitting and crimping the projectile into the case, inspect
ing, painting, stenciling of shells, cartons, and containers, and pack
ing. All these operations are quite simple, taking only a week or
two to learn, and the extended use of women in this work is chiefly
contingent on the amount of lifting and moving of heavy parts that
might be involved.
Men are doing all the assembling of propellant primers into car
tridge cases but women could do this on 37-mm. and 75-mm. cases.
Prior to the loading of smokeless powder it must be carefully weighed
and check-weighed. Women are doing this for 37-mm. and 75-mm.
cases, and they could just as well do the weighing of powder for all
other sizes. Women are also pouring the powder into 37-nnn. and
75-mm. cases and they could fill the larger ones if arrangements were
made so that they would not have to do heavy lifting.
The assembly of different-sized projectiles involves various drilling,
screwing, staking, and crimping operations now being done by men,
but which could be done by women if the parts to be worked on were
not too heavy. Men are crimping the cases to projectiles, a task
which women could do on 37-mm. ammunition, but on the larger
assemblies the strain of continuously handling missiles weighing 30
pounds and more is too great for women.
Women are brush painting 37-mm. projectiles and are packing
37-mm. rounds into tubes. The extent to which women could be used
to paint and stencil larger projectiles, cartons, containers, and so
forth depends more or less on the use of movemen or mechanical
handling equipment for lifting and moving the heavier materials.
Men are paraffin-clipping some of the 37-mm. ammunition as well as
the tubes into which the 37-mm. are packed, and women could do
this. All the visual and gage inspection of completed rounds is
being done by men, and women could do this on 37-mm. Women can
pack the 37-mm. but the packing of all larger ammunition involves
too much heavy lifting.
Bag loading.
Bag loading is for unfixed and semifixed ammunition. In fixed
ammunition the shell and propellant are joined in one assembly for
the 37-mm., 75-mm., and 105-mm. artillery ammunition, and some
times for larger ammunition. For guns and cannons of larger bore,
the propellant charge usually is packed in bags and loaded separately.
Bag loading is one of the ordnance divisions that are accepted
employment fields for women.
New commercial army ordnance plants for bag loading are under
construction in Virginia, Indiana, and Alabama and will soon be in
operation. One of the Government arsenals carries on experimental
work, sets standards, and does production loading of powder bags.
All the new plants will employ women extensively; at least one-third
of their operatives are to be women.
16
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
The cutting, trimming, and sewing of powder bags is needletrades manufacturing. Cloth for the bags is laid by machine spread
ers, and a few cutters—in the Government arsenal, men—cut the ma
terial into the various sizes and shapes required, depending on the
powder with which they are to be filled and the type of gun m which
they are to be loaded. After cutting, the bags are sent to the print
shop to have the designation identifying the charge imprinted.
Women operators seam the bags on power sewing machines, leaving
an opening for the powder loading. The sewing room is entirely apart
from the loading and has no special hazards.
Two types of powder are handled'in the loading of bags, smokeless
and black, the latter being the more hazardous.
The loading units for smokeless powder in the Government arsenal
visited are composed of groups of five women working in small
enclosed rooms or compartments. While smokeless powder is not
especially hazardous, safety precautions allow a maximum of 30
pounds of powder and 6 persons as occupants of the loading room.
The first operation is the tending of a volumetric weighing machine
that measures out a specified quantity of powder; the second is check
ing the weight of the powder, adding a few grains; the third is an
additional rechecking of weight; the fourth is pouring the powder
into the bag; and the fifth is closing the bag on a sewing machine
equipped with a bronze needle and other safety provisions, to reduce
the static from moving parts, and placing the bag in a transfer chute.
The women on the loading line rotate on the five operations.
Black powder is used in smaller proportions as an igniter, along
with the smokeless powder; it is loaded in separate bags. Since
black powder is more explosive than smokeless, the loading is done
in small cell-like rooms in which are permitted only two operatives
and 7 pounds of powder at any one time. Men are employed for
loading black powder—weighing and pouring the powder into the
bags. They not only load the bag but attend to the filling of the
supply hopper; the latter is considered too heavy for women. A
woman in an adjoining room takes the loaded bag from the transfer
chute, stitches the opening on a sewing machine, and passes the bag on
to the packing room through transfer chutes. Fewer women are
employed loading black powder than smokeless, and since it is more
hazardous the operators work in single compartments.
After the bags have been inspected, specified combinations of
smokeless and black powder bags are tied together into charges.
Some of the assembled bags are putteed on a machine which wraps
the bags with strips of cloth into a solid cylindrical core. Putteeing
the bags is a machine operation, but as the assembled bags average
more than 25 pounds and the operators handle about 1,000 bags in
an 8-hour shift the work is too heavy for women. The covering and
packing of the putteed bags is done by men and again is too heavy
for women.
MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVES
Practically all the jobs in the manufacture of explosives such as
smokeless powder, black powder, TNT, and so forth entail heavy
work tending large machines and moving and lifting heavy supplies;
WOMEN IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION
17
most operatives stand all day; and on many jobs there is an explosive
or fire hazard. Women are not employed on these processes and it
does not seem that there are many suitable or desirable jobs. Women
might do some of the lighter jobs such as making explosive pellets.
Black powder pellet and tetryl pellet manufacturing.
Pellet making in a Government arsenal is done on machines similar
to those used in drug factories for making medicine tablets. Only
men are reported as employed in making black powder pellets, four
presses being operated by each man. The operator loads the press
with powder and adjusts and takes away the pellets when the ma
chine is idle, not being allowed in the room while the press operates.
There are lever controls outside heavy armor-plate walls and the
machine operation is watched through a small window of heavy glass.
Black powder is quite dangerous and treacherous and care must be
taken in handling it to avoid explosion. However, from the stand
point of lightness of tasks involved in pellet making, women could
do the work.
Tetryl is a standard booster explosive and the most powerful of
the military high explosives, being very sensitive to shock. Small
barrel-churns are used for blending graphite with tetryl. This is
a very dusty job, necessitating the wearing of a respirator; the yel
low tetryl discolors the skin, hair, and clothing and there is a dermati
tis hazard in some cases. The pellets are formed in much the same
way as black powder pellets except that one operator tends fewer
machines.
The density of the pellets is checked on a mercury displacement
scale, which is a light weighing job that women might do. All the
work of tetryl pellet making is light enough for women but there are
the disadvantages of discoloration and the hazard of dermatitis.
Shop foremen at an arsenal were of the opinion that women were
more susceptible than men to dermatitis.
Loading tetryl pellets.
Several men are filling bakelite tubes with tetryl pellets. Men
screw the tops down and two women clean and paint the tubes. Since
they handle tetryl directly men are classed as toxic workers, receiving
a higher rate, milk, and bathing-time allowance.
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@FedFRASER