IMPROVISATION IN BRITAIN

Chronicle (Levin), 14 March 1947, Page 5

IMPROVISATION IN BRITAIN

AS POWER CUTS PARALYSE INDUSTRY Emergency measures , were brought into operation to keep factories gcing during the power crisis in the British Isles. An example of successful improvisation was the use of Fordson tractors, which also played such a vital part in winning the war- time battle for food. All over the country, factories and workshops which would otherwise have been forced to close down, and so halt the present production drive, were enabled to carry on by the use of these Fordson major tractors. Their pulleys were connected to almost every conceivable industrial job, including overhead shafting, generators, heating plants, presses, power hammers, lathes and drilling machines. ' The Dagenham Ford Factory sent out no fewer than 135 of these tractors and, as a result of this, thousands of men and women were kept at work producing vitally important materials. Typical examples were a forging firm in West Bromwich, which employed a Fordson to run two 1000 lb. hammers and one 600 lb. hammer at full production. By j using two tractors, a Birmingham manufacturer of small component v parts operated 35 machines and kept 100 people employed. An East London firm of engineering machinists ran their' entire snop on two tractors and were thus able to employ the whole of their staff. A small East End foundry, engaged largely on prpr duction .for the house-building drive, worked to full production with one tractor which kept ihe cupola gQing and • was theii shunted to the dressing and fettling department. A large eompany employed in the production of vital plastic material components prbr vided power for their entire plant with eight Fordson tractors, and thus kept oyer 400 employees busy. These are but a few instances of the way Fordson tractors helped to cope with the emergency, reducing unemployment and sustaining much needed production.