MAKING STEEL HELMETS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAKING STEEL HELMETS.

The steel helmets adopted by the French and British weigh from lflb to ljlb. each. The materials employed i'i the consist of plates of steel for the* convex helmet and for the visor and neck-piece, leather and cloth for the lining, and aluminium to make the waving "plakuettes" which form the springs between the lining and the interior surface of the steel. The rolled steol plate has to be supple enough to lie worked cold, as heating would lessen its resisting qualities. A special steel obtained from very pure castings, free from phosphorus or sulphur, has there-1 foro to be used. The outer lining .'a made of sheepskin, whilst for the inner oM cloth is utilised. The helmets are coated with a dull grey similar to that of the .75 gun, which is difficult to distinguish at n very short distance. The spraying process used has the advantage of being very rapid and of giving no inequality .if surface, besides drying almost immediately. The interior of the helmet is pointed by the same process. JFo add to the permanence of the paint the helmets are then suspended on bars in a gas-ove.i, where they are thoroughly! dried.

The lining consists of a cloth cap, to which is fixed a segment of black glazed (glace) leather cut in a particular form. Each skin provides at least five linings, so that for 3,000,000 helmets 600,000 sheepskins have been used. The lining projects a trifle below the he!mot, so that the metal in no place comes into contact with the man's head. When finished the helmets are packed in wooden cases and sent off to the different corps, where they are distributed.