MEN, MACHINES AND MUNITIONS
By V. S. SWAMINATHAN
IN this mechanised war fighting forces depend as never before for their armaments and equipment as well as their maintenance on industry. Weapons have become both more heavy and intricate and because of their increased fire-power they are both worn out more rapidly and call for more rounds of ammunition. Speedy steps must therefore be taken to ensure that supply matches man-power. Before " things " can be made, however, " tools " must be fashioned to make them. Though the Industrial Revolution ushered in the Machine Age, the latter did not arrive until men developed machine-tools to make machines with. Towards the closing years of the eighteenth century Henry Maudslay in London laid the foundations of modern metal-working tools by developing the slide-rest, lead-screw and change gears. That master craftsman had among his pupils and workmen James Nasmyth and Joseph Whitworth, who devised the now universally employed steam-hammer and measuring-gauge. Before the middle of the last century Great Britain had developed the engine-lathe, planer, shaper and boring mills, and had established a world leadership in the machine-tool field which she maintained for very many years.
Machine-tools hold the key to modern production methods and the tool-designer or engineer is industry's strategist, transforming ploughshares into arms and vice versa. A machine is only a system of levers for applying power to the cutting tool plus a system of cams for timing the application of power. Often the tool itself, which may not cost more than a few pounds, is absolutely dwarfed by the machine, frequently worth hundreds of pounds, of which, neverthe- less, it is the central object, and around which the machine is designed and built. The tools comprise punches, dies, jigs, fixtures, timing-relays and limit-switches and all the different kinds of cutting tools. The feature that distin- guishes the automatic from the general purpose machine is self-timing, usually procured through a proper arrangement of cams. Mass-production is essentially the multiple manu- facture of parts to close limits of size, so that they are pre- fitted by design instead of being adjusted by hand labour at the assembly-line.
Modern machine tools when compared with their pre- decessors of as recent a vintage as ten years ago are more powerful, more sturdy, more accurate, more easily controlled and more pleasing in appearance. They incorporate such advances as pre-loaded bearings, V-belt drives, hydraulic control, automatic lubrication, bronze bushings and pneu- matic devices. They are capable of handling harder and tougher materials at high speeds without distress and with extreme accuracy. They are so rigid that they can operate with cemented carbide tools without vibration or chatter at spindle speeds up to 3,000 r.p.m. or more.
At each point in its structure and all along the line the machine-tool section of the British engineering industry today is stronger, more efficient and its capacity greater than in 1914. At the outbreak of the last war Great Britain was largely dependent upon Germany for ferro-tungsten, high- speed tungsten tool steel, a number of scientific and pre- cision instruments and optical glass. Though Germany then produced from domestic sources only one per cent. of the world output of tungsten ore she controlled sixty per cent.
of it and largely monopolised the production of ferro- tungsten. In September, 1915, the British Government assumed control of the Empire output of tungsten ore and apportioned the commodity among home makers of ferro- tungsten. Two years later a number of firms engaged in the production of machine-tools came together and formed the Associated British Tool-Makers, Limited.
Since Great Britain embarked on the rearmament pro- gramme in 1936 till last March the Government spent on machine-tools the sum of £10,500,000, which is entirely exclusive of purchases made by firms engaged in the pro- duction of arms. Plans made before the outbreak of the war included the provision of a good supply of machine-tools and the rapid expansion of output by the British machine- tool manufacturers. In the first four months of the war the Ministry of Supply has spent £13,000,000 for purchasing machine-tools, and £12,000,000 on scientific appliances for registering, recording and controlling industrial operations and for research work.
The extent of change-over of British industry to the production of war-time necessities is already large and is increasing daily. Domestic motor-car manufacturers are now turning out heavier military vehicles as well as aircraft parts ; British gramophone and wireless makers fuses, boxes, gauges and shells ; agricultural engineers gun-mountings, tanks and shells ; knitting-machine makers small arms components and gun-mountings, and makers of kitchen utensils cartridge- cases.
However great Britain's purchases abroad, a large part of her supplies must of necessity be manufactured at home. The Allies are fortunate in two respects. They either possess or have uninterrupted access to dependable supplies of raw materials needed for making machine tools in the first place, i.e., tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum (from the United States), chromium, titanium, nickel and industrial diamonds. Secondly, they are assured of an abundant supply of a wide range of high-production tools from America—the leading producer and exporter of such manufactures in the world.
The sheer magnitude of the current munitions pro- gramme and the speed at which it must be executed necessitates the employment of every firm that can contribute to the supply of equipment. No review of the supply front is complete which does not include the supply of men and women to make up the materials for the use of the fighting forces. The last war demonstrated the adaptability of the British industries and the staying power of the British people. It is related that in 1918 in one firm women were supplying all the labour needed for eighteen-pounder shell, two-thirds of that engaged on heavy shell and cne-third even of the labour expended on six-inch guns. At the present time less than one-half of the machine-tools already installed are work- ing at night, because labour is not available to complete the night shift. If only all the machines could run at night instead of only half of them the immediate effect would be to increase output by one-third without extension of floor- .pace.
The trade unions concerned have generously consented in principle to controlled dilution of labour. Training of un- skilled and semi-skilled labour for machine-tool and munitions manufacture must be taken in hand here and now. For, even with the single-process machine-tool there would ,till remain the task of gauging the work and keeping a watchful eye on both cutting tool and material on which the operation is performed. Fortunately the slow but steady infiltration of mass-production mentality among British workers since the last war has to some extent eased the diffi- culties of armament mass-production. And large reserves of female labour—generally admitted to be better on simple repetition work than male labour—are available for this work. The work of must dilutees is bound to be of a soul- destroying nature. It is therefore the duty of the manage- ment to maintain interest and foster team-spirit among the dilutees. The task facing the domestic industry is nothing less than the mobilisation of as much of the resources of civilian industry as the nation can with safety spare, and the standardisation and mass-production of equipment where- ever circumstances permit it. Early in the last century a nation of shop-keepers defeated Napoleon. Today a nation of fully employed—skilled and semi-skilled—workers would be needed to destroy Hitlerism.
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