WORKSHOPS OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1916, Page 6

WORKSHOPS OF WAR.

SHEFFIELD A VAST ARSENAL. CONTINUOUS WORK DAY AND NIGHT. SHEFFIELD TRANSFORMED. (London Times). Sheffield lias thrown its industrial strength into the war more completely and more effectively, in my estimation, than any other of our great manufacturing towns. It has been enabled to do so by the character of its manufactures and it has been disposed to do so by the character of its inhabitants. It has rendered inestimable service hitherto without the stimulus of Ministerial visits or speechifying campaigns. There has been no need of them, and that is the greatest compliment that could be paid to the people of Sheffield. This is a city of workers in metals, and particularly in steel; it is by far the greatest steelworking centre in the world. At the last census it had about 60,000 men and 4,000 women working in iron and steel industries. These industries are very varied, but they may be roughly classified under three heads:-Ml) Heavy products; (2) fine alloy steel; (3) cutlery. The first includes munitions such as guns, projectiles, armorplate, gun shields, marine engines, and other parts of ships. There are five large firms which make munitions of one kind or another in ordinary times, chiefly for naval purposes. But in ordinary times they also produce a great quantity of heavy steel articles for commercial use, such as engines and propellers for the mercantile marine, mining plant, electricity plant, material for railways, tramways, bridges, and building, besides steel ingots. In addition to the five firms just mentioned, several others produce similar steel goods on a large scale and a great many more do sp in a smaller way. The fine steel and the cutlery industries are more peculiar to Sheffield, which may be said to have a monopoly of them. Both are carried on in a very large number of small works as well as in some big ones. There are in Sheffield over 200 steel-making firms in addition to the large works mentioned above, and most of them are engaged in producing fine steel. This industry is of special importance at the present time, because it furnishes the high-speed steel of which the tools are made that are indispensable for the production of munitions. Sheffield provides the tools for those metal-working machines which have been and are in unprecedented demand, not only here, hut in every country. The cutlery trade, which employs about 12,000 men and 3,000 women, is the oldest local industry and needs no explana-tion! Another metal industry, not connected with steel,' is the silver and plate ware; it employs about 10,000 persons, of whom nearly half are women. The foregoing notes indicate the character and scale of the chief industries of Sheffield in peace. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that they are now all devoted to war purposes of one kind or another. This is true even of the silverware trade. Like other industries of its class, it has suffered from the disorganisation of the market caused by the war and has been forced to direct its energies elsewhere. Many of the men employed have gone into the munition works, 'but a large volume of employment has heen found in the trade itself for the production of sword handles, scabbards, badges, forks and spoons, and other articles required for military equipment. The cutlery trade has lent itself readily to a similar change of direction. It produces munitions in the shape of swords and bayonets besides knives of all kinds, scissors, and other cutting tools for the military and naval forces. A third branch of minor equipment provided by Sheffield is hand tool', such as picks, spades, shovels, and files, which are one of the specialities of the place. The tool steel has already been mentioned; the whole of this trade is working at extreme pressure. THE MUNITIONS WORKS. All the foregoing, however, are concerned with subsidiary or indirect classes of war material; the creat work of Sheffield at the present time lies in the production of the principal munitions of war, which has undergone an enormous expansion, and is increasing from day to day. Nothing can be said about output, and it is very difficult to estimate with accuracy the full volume of work either by the number of persons employed or the extent of the workships, hecause of the very large number of small establishments which are producing parts and feeding the large works. But some idea of the scale of operations may be gained from the principal establishments. The works of the five great firms cover hundreds of acres. One of them alone —Hadfield —occupies 100 acres. The' whole area is a gigantic arsenal, in which is carried on continuously dav and night. Operations have been greatly extended since the beginning of the war, particularly for the production of shell, and many new shops have been built on a large scale. I have been over several of these, and roughly measured one recently erected by Thomas Firth and Sons; it covers three acres. These new shops are not yet all in full operation, but are gradually reaching it as the equipment is completed. The process of increasing production goes on. continuously. Sheffield is in some respects well situated for securing the necessary equipment. Presses, which have been a great difficulty in some places, are produced in the town; highspeed tools arc one of its special, trades, as already indicated, and the making of gauges is part of the regular work of the munition shops. But in the supply of lathes and other machines Sheffield is not so favorably placed as some other districts, and has to wait its turn.

The groat munition works specialist! move or less in different directions. Rome are devoted to puns, others to shell, and others to materials for building and equipping 1 ships of war. Between them they produce a great variety as well as an immense quantity of material, and particularly that of a heavy character. The largest guns and the heaviest projectiles are made here. Everybody talks about shells now as though they were all alike and made in the same way; but there are many varieties, according to purpose and size, and they are made in different Sheffield is turning out many kinds, but the large armor piercing projectiles, for which it is famous, are something apart. They require special materials and special appliances, and could not be attempted by emergency factories. Sheffield can boast of the largest makers of these projectiles in the world in the Hadfield works, and they are matched by the great naval guns made in the ordnance shops at Vickers' hard by. T.ABOB, No serious difficulty about labor has been experienced m the Sheffield munitioi): works. There has 1)6611 no shortage, although, the number employed Is ■iar .in jBMfIBS of Jtoejwsmal and a good

many men have enlisted. About 35,000 all told have gone from the towiv. to join the Army or the Navy, but these represent all occupations. -The loss sustained by the armament works from this cause has been made good by influx from other trades, which are suffering from I war. depression, and from other places, whence they have, been attracted by high wages. Nor have the trade unions raised any objection. A very large number of unskilled and semi-skilled workmen are employed with the acquiescence of the skilled, and the general standard of time kept, is very good, considering that the work has been carried on continuously all this time. Much of it is very heavy and I have watched the men sticking to it splendidly. Hitherto very few women have been employed, for which there are two good reasons. One is that they have not been needed, and the other that the work is for the most part too heavy for them. The shellmaking on which they are employed elsewhere is of a lighter character. They can manage the 181b. shell very well, but the next size, which is 4.5, is too heavy to lift about. They are, however, beginning to be employed at Sheffield. I have seen some in one of Messrs, Vickcrs' new shell shops engaged in filling lSlb. shrapnel cases, and I am told' that the same firm are employing a good inany on fuses in another department of their works.

THE UNIVERSITY. TJio headquarters of the Sheffield Munitions Committee is the University, which has peculiarly close relations with the local industries, and has been helping both in organisation and .in practical ways through the engineering school, under the guidance of Professor Pipper. In the month of May the committee made a census of the resources available in the district outside the armament works, both in skilled workmen and in machines, and has since organised them for supplementary work. The engineering school is itself applied in two ways—in training workers and in making gnages and parts. It has alreadv trained and sent into the workshops some 3(10 men and has 400 on the books waiting their turn to attend the classes. Enough has perhaps been said to give some idea of the activity prevailing in Sheffield. The whole place is intensely busy and its energy is concentrated on the war. The industrial influence of the town extends far beyond the locality. Nearly all the armament works in Sheffield are carried on in association with other establishments owned by the same firms elsewhere: Cammell and baird at Birkenhead and other places; Firth's at Coventry; .lohn Brown at Clydebank; Vickers at Barrow and many other places widely distributed over the country. All these shipyards and workshops, in which different kinds of muni-" tions are produced, are linked up with Sheffield; and the aggregate number of men so employed is somewhere about 100,000.