MUNITION MAKING IN THE STATES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 191, 14 July 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

MUNITION MAKING IN THE STATES.

A .MIGHTY TRANSFORMATION^

The story of the tremendous development of the mnritions business in the United States, says the New York " Evening Post."' has no equal in American industrial history. How huge factories have l>een built, equipped and put in operation within three months, how machinery for the manufacture of tin cans, typrewrittrs and countless other everyday articles lias been requisitioned for thj making of shells; how methods of making steel and reducing ores have been completely revolutionised, and how, in a word", the money, resources and brains of the country have been mobilised to build up within an incredibly short time a munitions industry equal to the best—these are tilings which the future historians will doubtless put down to the credit of American ingenuity. The development has been so rapid that nothing like a complete and thorough inventory has yet been attempted. But it is possible, with the aid of certain known facts, to more than suggest what has happened. The cost of establishing and equipping the immense plants which are now filling foreign orders in the States is estimated at 30 millions sterling, and has been covered by the price at which the munitions are sold. STEEL MAKING REVOLUTIONISED. One of the greatest revolutions has taken place in the manufacture of steel. Before the war the so-called basic open-hearth process was common in America. This method was alwavs regarded as sufficient for American needs though it could not produce the higher grades of steel obtained by lie acid open-hearth process in vogue in England. With the first rush of foreign orders for munitions arose the necessity of improving the American methods to meet the European standard. As a result, various modifications and improvements were introduced into the basic open-hearth process, and to-day the American shops, with a system long thought to lie inferior, are turning out steel that is the equal of tiie best the British can produce. And along with the improvement in quality h.os gone a tremendous increase in the quantity of steel produced. This in turn lias brought abopt a demand for increased facilities for iforging sttel. The increase in this respect is one of the most significant in the who'e industry. It is estimated that the country's steel forging faciliteis to-dav are 3000 per cent greater than they were before the war. In other words", they are capable of forging 30 times as much steel as they were before the war. FROM TIN CANS TO SHELLCASES. By applying the before-and-after method to other branches of the industry many striking comparisons are obtained. The brass shell cases used m tlve French 7o's furnish a good illustration. Millions of these cases have l>een made in America for the French Government, yet at the outbreak of the war there were not more than three factories in the country that knew how to make them, and their capacity was comparatively small. They cculd only handle sma l ! orders. To*day the United States could take its choice of 2o or more different factories each of which could fill an order for a million of these shell cases without tfic slightest difficulty. Progress made in tins respect is all the more remarkable because of the care and labour required in the manufacture of these cases. They are first of a'lmade of the finest brass—ordinary brass being too weak to withstand the shock when the 75's are fired. means the introduction of new methods of purifying the zinc that is used in the manufacture of brass. Then special machinery had to be constructed with which to make the cases after the right grade of brass had been obtained. The machines are called drawing presses. They take a disc of solid metal and draw it out into a tuba 18 9 inches or more long. Drawing presses *_ that formerly made tin cans were improved, and pressed into th-'s service. EVERY VARIETY OF SHELL PRODUCED. And as with the cases for the French 7-Ts, so with practically all other types and parts of shells. There is no standard size or variety of shell in use in Europe to-day that the United States cannot make. It lis a conservative estimate to say that there are'at least 50 factories now in the country prepared to turn out any kind of 6hell desired, and m any quantity desired. Most of those same places knew absolutely nothing about the art of shellmaking two years ago. The time fuse that it attached to the nose of a shrapnel shell has proved to be one of the chief needs of a nation at war. This fuse is a complete mechanism in itself, and as complicated as the combination to a safe —which in some respects it resembles. There were exactly two establishments in the' United States which could m 'e it when the war broke out. Now there are twenty. The two original concerns were ready to handle small orders of a thousand or two thousand at a time. Ten concerns now in the field can—and do — turn out- as many as twenty thousand time-fuses per day. Shops which for- _ merly made bicycles are now among ■* the leading shrapnel fuse factories of the world.

SMALL ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES.

So with other branches of munition manufacture*. It was formerly possible in the States to turn out from 300 to -100 army rifles per day— r.o more. Xow for every rifle made two or more years ago. there are a hundred being made to-day. The output of small arm-; amniuniton has increased more than thirty-fold, and. is to-day large enough to keep pace with the increased c.f rifles. The manufacture of smokaless powder, which even before the war was on a large scale, has been mu'tiplied fully eight or nine times what it was before. while the newest of high explosives—trinitrotoluol —of which comparatively small quantities were made in America prior to 1914. is now being manufactured in a steadily increasing supply. Probably there '6 five t'mes as much trinitrotoluol being mad. 1 as was produced two years ago.