Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1917 — Page 3

SHELLMAKING AS SEEN BY NOTED BRITISH AUTHOR

Arnold Bennett Describes Visit to One of Many Projectile Factories in Britain. WOMEN WORKING WITH MEN Bix-lnch and Nine-Inch Death Dealers Are the Product—Present Output Is Monument to Brains and Energy of Country. London. —Here is an article written by Arnold Bennett, with the approval of the ministry of munitions, with the object of inspiring the British public to still greater Exertions in the manufacture of munitionsof war. The article, entitled, “N. P. F.: A Working Example of the New Phenomena,” follows : By ARNOLD BENNETT. You see these letters on the doormat of the office. They standforNatiomfl Projectile Factory. I know not how many N. P. F.’s there are In Britain. Perhaps Mr. Montagu, the minister of munitions, knows. This particular factory Is a very large one. -It has over Ji acres beneath a single roof. A farmer can visualize a ten-acre field, but to the man in the industrial street an acre is a mere tend. Imagine an area of one mile long by a hundred feet broad. That is roughly the area of the factory, though naturally its shape is much hearer a square. Over 5,000 “hands” (the more spiritual Russians would say “souls”) are employed there, and of these very considerably over half are women, of whom a large part are young or youngish and attractive, and husbands in the army. Now, you can observe a N. P. F. in various aspects. There is the human aspect of its picturesque adjuncts. For instance, the canteen (under its own separate roof, with a prodigious veranda for the al fresco), -surpassing town-halls hi size and supplying afl diverse cooking and eating accommodations which young women who know on which side their bread ought —to be buttered require. There are the women’s dressing rooms and lavatories. —I never saw before and do not hope to see again so many white falenge basins with hot and cold, water, rows and rows~Tnicirfows, and "scores. In a r<Av. There is thh iihibiilance station with every device, and a nurse always waiting in the secret expectation of a “major” case and rarely getting anything better than a scratch or a cut. , There are the women in the roof controlling the overhead traveling electric cranes that command every foot of the floor space. Each Ijps a rope to slide down by in an emergency, and for practice sake she Is obliged to slide down that rope at least once a week., There are the other women who drive . the electric carriages on the floor itself—miles of line —sitting in a sort of easy chair and tickling levers. (Sixinch and nine-inch shells are not to be lightly thrown about. The latter, weigh mo re than a man, and it takes either electricity or two men to shift per eent of the shifting). There are still other women in pegtop trousers. These last piquant creatures, start witli two minute points near the ground and very often finish near the top with an elaborate white, lacy corsage or a Honing, glowing scarf. The phenomenon looks queer in a factory. It ought not to look queer. It ought to be far more prevaTenL —I liked Io see a girl checker delicately rolling a nirte-inch shell over with her fashionable glace-kid boat that peeped out beneath the yellow overall. These tilings, happily, will peep out. So will the vase of flowers and the strange personal belongings in the wire cage cupboard of which each machinist, has one near her machine. There are the long queues of women in variegated street attire at the pay desks. VW from 6501-7020” is one of the signs.) There are the war savings desks—astutely placed next to the pay desks. “War Savings Certificates. They are subscribed today in THE section. Are YOU subscribing?” Well, as a rule, die was. . The Manufacturing Aspect. So I might continue with the human picturesque aspect, but I must turn to. the manufacturing aspect; for, after all, this fast‘rumbling maze of wheels and women and men exists for shells. And, like the men, all these women,’ however nice and happy, are consciously engaged in the preparation of the means of and slaughter. Steam is at the bottom of this affair T-a row of boilers and furpaces. "Step inside the power house and, behold, the steam -has been translated into electricity —three units of 750 kilowatts each and three more of 450 kilowatts each. A little further, and much of the power has become hydraulic. You can see the huge hydraulic accumulators rising and falling according as the creation of power here overtakes .or is overtaken by the dissipation of power in the factory. / Having grasped this, you may enter the factory. You there discover an ordinary railway wagon behind 4 row of forges*- The wagon is full of steel Ingots which have made a long journey, They are craned out—they

weigh three and one-half hundredweight put into the forges, and when they are white hot they are dropped into a hydraulic machine which both pierces and shapes them and from which they emerge, after a pressure, of 750 tons, in the shape of nine-inch shells. That is the first operation out of more than a score of quite separate operations. Then the rough carcass is ’“centered,” its nose is bored, its cavity is bored, and the scrdw-thread is milled hr the cavity, the beautiful “sink-and-wave” channels are cut in to go, the base plug is fitted (and no mortal power could unscrew that base plug once It is screwed in), the inside is polished and varnished and the varnish dried, the base is “faced.” ■Then comes the copper-band business, which resembles in its finish the jeweler’s craft. The copper band is jammed on by incredible main force, but after it is bh It is treated with the most astounding finesse, and the shell leaves that series of operations gleaming with its cut and carved bangle. You see it next in the painting room, where everything and everybody is of a yellowish-brown color and where there is not such a thing as a brush except the floor sweeper. The paint is sprayed on to the shells as they hang in rows and thus the painting is accomplished with an evenness, a precision, and a’celerity which would fatally shock house-painters, A few yards further, and the shells are dried in gas-heated cupboards and out of these cupboards they are wafted into an ordinary railway wagon and they disappear from the factory forever. They are not yet truly shells. They are only shell-cases. They travel everywhere to be filled. Therefore you do not witness either the beginning of the work (the steelmaking) or the end of it. The metal, as far as you are concerned, springs from one mystery and vanishes away into another. Men Able to Endure More. I have catalogued by no means all the operations, and I have given no hint of the important differences in the two nevertheless similar processes for fiine-inch shells and for six-inch shells. I have offered only a general Indication, and space will not permit more. It should be added that some of the operations are done exclusively by men (such as forging) and some exclusively by women (such as painting) and some elpially by men and women. For example, there are four “bays” of nose and body-boring machines, two hays for each sex. I was told that in the briefer operations demanding close concentration the women rivaled and perhaps excelled the men. whereas In the long, tedious operations (not demanding physical strength) the men easily beat the women, whose attitude was apt to be: “Oh, bother! I’ve had enoiigh of this exasperating dullness Another aspect of the colossal or-

ganlsm is the checking and testing aspect. If you examine this long enough you will become obsessed by it. so that you will arrive at the stage of thinking that the manufacture of shells consists chiefly in checking and testing. Every shell, as soon as it has cooled from the redhot condition, is provided with its biography, which it bears on a card in its cavity. Everywhere on the walls are tabular statements which are continually being added to. At every corner stand girls and men writing down figures in notebooks. Every shell is gauged for all its dimensions TTTs also weighed, for a shell may be right in dimensions ams yet wrong in weight, in which case Evory gauge is periodically tested by experts in the gaugetesting room. And a certain percentage of shells, when they are almost finished, are ..deliberately sawed to pieces again, and samples of their steel turned into bars of a given diameter, and these bars are fractured—or rather pulled in two—by machines of a given power, and the quality ■of the steel thus laid bare for inspection. In the fracturing room on shelves are thousands of fractured bars with their jagged ends exposed, and in them you can see how steel differs. Under the terrific influences of the pulling machines the finest steel behaves rather like stale bread. Finally, in addition to the factory tests and the government tests within the factory, tltere is the government outside test, for which some shells go into the sacred bondroom, where-- no unhallowed person may enter and whence the chosen shells are removed for realistic trials in distant spots. When that is over all has been done that can be done to furnish the artilleryman with an utterly reliable shell-case. Product of Creative Brains. And - lastly there is the esoteric aspect and unless you have eyes to see this aspect you will never get the National Projectile Factory in a true perspective. I rtean the aspect" Of the creative brains, invisible and yet omnipresent in the organism. These men and women are wonderful and praiseworthy and very clever. The machinery which they manipulate is marvelous. But every machine has been slowly evolved and perfected by some brain or brains. Not one process out of hundreds of processes but has sprung from a creative brain. Everything has had to be devised. The electric torch by which women peer into the cavity of the shells is beautifully thought out. So is the overhead trolley railway, handworked, on which the shells pass dangling through the painting room to the railway wagon. The exquisite details can be counted In thousands. Then consider the architectural planning of the factory, a matter of absolutely Infernal complexity; the mere

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

placing of the machinery, the interworking of the cranes. A hiatus or an overlapping of one foot over all the expanse of these 11 acres would put a young woman out of her stride and bring wasteful friction and perhaps a stoppage into the organism. And consider also the affair of linking up the shifts, where the women work in three ahlftsy but tho men’tin two! It might well have taken 20 years to perfect the N. P. F. How long did it take? The proposal for the factory was made on July 8, 1915, and sanctioned on August 17. The land on which the factory now stands was then chiefly a dumping ground. Part of It being subject to inundations, part of the construction had to be founded on piles. The ironwork was started on September 25. By March 26, 1916, the power was installed, and much of the machinery had been manufactured in Britain. In > the first week of June 127 shells were made. Within a year of the sanctioning of the proposal 48,549 sheUs had been delivered. The output is now over 10,000 a week, and they are big shells. How was it done? It was done In principle by putting a big armament firm in charge, but this firm supplied .only two men direct, though it gavu foremen ■ a fortnight’s course of training in its own shops. The manager was brought from India. There was no difficulty about female labor, but the skilled male labor had to be invented, created, conjured up out of nothing, for when this N. P. F. was first thought of the country was supposed to have been swept clear of tho commodity, and it practically was.

TO TEACH WOMEN TO SHOOT

Miss June Houghton, a champion female shot, has been engaged to teach New York society women how to handle a rifle and how to shoot. This is part of the general wave of preparedness that is sweeping over the country. pupils are several members of the exTTuslve CoTony club. "

REDS FLOCK TO BE MARRIED

Chippewas in Large Numbers Obeying Justice’s Order That They Must Be Legally Married. Deer River, Minn.—This village was visited by a large delegation of young Chippewa Indians of both sexes from the Bowstring country, who came here to be married by Justice Ed Cahill. The justice a week ago declared he would give them a week in which to get married, subsequent to many arrests made by the sheriff of Itasca county on complaint of the Indian agent at Bena that .young Indian couples are living together without being.legally married. It is not the intention of the department, it is said, to interfere with the marital rights of the older natives, who married years ago under tribal laws, but it is the younger members, and in most cases the well-educated ones, some of whom have college educations, the department officers are watching.

INDIANS BUILD A MODERN CITY

Los Angeles, Cat—Paia, the first modern Indian city in the United States, is celebrating the completion of- a metropolitan sewage system. Paia has been built on the Indian reservation bear Oceanside, and all the city officials, from mayor down, are Indians. The houses are all piped with water and an irrigation system has been Installed for ranchers in the vicinity. Of the 250 residents only three are white men.

Cow on Long Journey.

Portland, Me.—C. G. Bounds of West Baldwin, Me., has an adventurous cow. Having bought the animal he put her out to pasture. She left her new feeding ground, wandered through the woods to the Saco river, swam across the swift currenPand continued on her course rejoicing. The owner finally found her ht South Hiram.

Tell-Tale Signs Mark Benedict

■tone walls do not a prison- make. Nor iron bars a cage: . * Minds Innocent and quiet take That for a heritage. How can you tell whether or not a man’s mhrried? Why It's simple

them with his wife or daughters. We will suppose this to be the case and let it go at that. A single man is not versed in the ways of women and takes-no chances in trying to get up a flirtation with a charming young widow. The married man gives a widow back as many glances as she turhs in his direction. He knows she could not accuse him of flirting. The married man is always looking after babies he sees on the street. Patting them on the head, dangling them on his knees or whistling to them if they are at arm’s length, is his way, The single man steers clear of them. If one was thrust within his arms he

Persons Have “Cold Feet” In a Literal Sense When Afraid, Scientists Find.

When we accuse a man- of being afraid to do something, we frequently say he has “cold feet,” pat Yew realize the actual physiological" connection which exists between fear and the temperature of the feet. There is, however, a very definite and good reason why the expression “cold feet” came to be connected with the emotion of fear. Worry and fear are very closely allied in their general meaning and their effect on human beings. Fear is an exaggerated form of worrying. . —Of all the physical Ills which we needlessly and unconsciously bring upon ourselves the most are doubtless caused by worry. Hurrying through our dally tasks and at breathless speed is bad enough, but to worry about future ills is-far worse. It is well enough to look ipto the future and provide to our best ability against misfortunes, but when this foresight amounts to seeing only the phantoms in our path, it is nothing short of slow suicide. Worry and fear have a very detrimental action upon certain glands of internal secretion which control our health and poise. Physicians are fast accumulating important data to measure and Inpuce the healthy action of these glands, among which the thyroid is one of the most important. But it seems impossible to hope for any remedy that will repair all the burin worry can do these glands. —— The heart action-becomes irregular '"arid intermittent when you worry; all the symptoms of heart disease appear; the respiration is repressed; the entire digestive tract becomes paralyzed for a time, and the circulation of blood to the extremities diminishes. The hands and feet become actually cold to the touch. To tell a man that he has “cold feet” amounts to telling him that he lacks courage to take a certain step which he thinks he would like or ought to take. In consideration of the subject he undergoes a nervous strain known as worry and this actually causes a physical coldness of the extremities.

Gardening Essential Factor In School Work, Is Claim.

School gardening, not as an exercise ' or a diversion, but as a fundamental factor of ftcomplete, rounded education, is urged by Van Evrla Kilpatrick of New York, president of the School Garden Association of America. The child who does not come into direct contact with growing plants and animals is deprived of his natural heritage, Mr. Kilpatrick, a pioneer in school garden work in America, declares. It took a long time to get physical training and industrial branches, inzeluffing domestic science and art for the girls, incorporated into the curriculum of the public schools, Mr. Kilpatrick points out The teaching of agriculture, which should carry with it-an appreciation of the great outdoors and its wholesome influences, he says, is just as essential and in time will be so recognized. . “The purpose 6f our organization is to carry that message to the people,” Mr. Kilpatrick said. “It is a little unfortunate many look upon school gardening as a pleasing diversion. It is that, but vastly more. It is an essential factor in a complete education and should be supported in the public schools as such.”

Quick Thinker.

“Here, you! What do you mean by telling that red-nosed bachelor friend of yours that marriage is all a lottery T‘ “I was just about to assure him, m’dear, thaC I won a prize.”

By LAURA JEAN LIBBEY.

gh. JLuat watch him for telltale signs. The single man is usually polite to the ladies, but not overofficious. The married man is overzealous in his es-. forts to make himself agreeable to the feminine sex. The single man is not of ten. If ever, staring after young girls. The married man seldom lets one pass hi m unobserved. Of course he may be just comparing

would be nettled until someone relieved bim of the burden he field soawkwurdly.„ '’'Theiliari'tedmffTtdoes uotstammer dr grow confused in the presence of women. On the contrary, he enjoys confusing the gentler sex. A married man cannot accept an invitation to an affair offhand. He knows very well that ills wife will have something to say about that. A single man’s hours are his own outside of business. There is no one to dictate what he may or may not do. He can make an engagement on the spur of the moment for anything that suits’lds fancy. The married man shows his responsibilities on his face. The single man’s face shows absence of them. The married man shows plainly that he has no heart to lose. The single man’s attitude toward women shows that he Is looking about for the right one. The married man has no real interest in any woman outside of his own family or circle of close friends. The single man has interest wherever there are likeable young ladies who appeal to him. A nftirried man Is always ready to go to his dinner at the tap of the hotel gong. If a single man is conversing with a single young lady he forgets dinner, everything in the pleasure of her charming presence. t There are upward of a thousand ways, never failing signs, by which you can tell' whether a man’s married or single But if you have mastered the few hints given you here you have learned quite enough to help you determine whether the fascinating stranger you have recently met is married or s’ngle. (Copyright, 1917.)

Wise and Otherwise.

For that tired feeling take a street par. Grown people tire of their own toys just as children do. Being a lucky animal, the camel never has to hump itself. When a busy man has leisure he always does some other kind of work. Some people spend a lot of time in explaining things they know nothing about. - - By careful observation you will notice that wealth brings happiness —as often as poverty. Perhaps the reason a woman’s work is never done is because she employs a domestic to do It. Political orators talk and talk, but the bright-faced girl on the silver dollar isn’t saying a word.

The First Matches.

It was less than a century ago that one John Walker, an apothecary of Stockton-on-Tees. England, found the release of the smoker from the tinderbox or the live coal in the grate. It is said that an accidental spilling of a solution that took fire gave him the hint, and not long afterwards. In 1827, he placed on the market his boxes of matches —lucifers —containing 50 each, at one shilling. They lighted on sandpaper.

Some “Pomes."

Thirty-seven thousand verses have been submitted by the Japanese people, in the annual poetic competition under Imperial auspices. This year the subject is “The Distant Snow-Clad Mountain.” At the final examination six poems will be selected and" read before the emperor and empress.

Really Thrilling.

A lot of people crow about how exceedingly interesting real life is, hut the fact is real life isn’t half as thrillingas reel life. —Atchison Globe.

Mother’s Cook Book

Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty, but beauty cannot supply the'absence of good nature.—Addison. Egg Novelties for Breakfast. Of the hundreds of ways of serving eggs, we are apt to use but few unless we have a card index or cook book with space saved for egg jjfslies to which we may turn for new things occasionally. Japanese Rice. Spread a layer of hot boiled rice on a buttered platter, season well with butter, lemon juice and finely minced parsley. Poach half a dozen eggs, or enough for the family, arrange in the rice and serve garnished with parsley. Eggs Baked in Tomato-Sauce. Strain a pint of tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and a little onion juice, then cook until smooth. Pour on a buttered baking dish and carefully break into the sauce enough eggs for the family. Bake in the oven until the eggs are set, ' ' Asparagus Omelet ~ Break four eggs in a bowl and beat udtil tight and foamy. Add four tabled spoonfuls of cream, a dash of pepper

TOGETHER

Together we’ll laugh at the dawn of the sun; ,z g ;Together we’ll smile till tha evenlujt is done, - 4 Together together, tfie . <0.4 the weather Are evermore fair when w< two are together. I ’ ’ Well sing at the clouds and well cheer at the rain. And thunder must roar in a rollick - * •Ing fftmln . __ As together we tramp through the .1, wild wood and beat her. For the whole world rejoices when we are together. The sad wind upleaps th a frolicsome "glee; And from woefuiwiitows —a bright melody Sounds through our revel when light as a feather - Our heart’s fare the highways of beauty together. Together, together, we’ll laugh in the And smile till our evening of gladness is done. Together, together, the days and the SSS-- --weather Will always be merry when we are together.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

FAVORITE OF FILMDOM

Agnes Glynne.

Young movie actress who has won wide favor among followers of the screen drama.

Ladder Which Can’t Slip.

A ladder which can be used with equal facility on a sidehill or in the home has been Invented. It hag two additional legs or props, one at each side. This prevents the ladder from slipping, and Increases its strength. When the ladder is on a level surface both extra legs are used, but when it Is used on a hill or on uneven ground only the leg on the downhill side is necessary as the prop.

Live on Houseboats.

The numerous canals of Holland are populated by about 50,000 people, to whom the houseboat represents home all the year around, and with the exception of the winter season, when'the canals are frozen, they are constantly on the move. The stem of the vessel is fltted up for the boatman ahd his family, while the space in front is used for carrying freight -.

Why Lay It on Dad?

The Detroit Free Press defines a pessimist as “a son of the man who didn’t believe there was any uuch thing as electricity.”

and salt to taste. Have a hot, smooth omelet pan with a tablespoonful of butter, letting it grease well both sides and the bottom. When it is hissing hot. pour id the egg mixture. As it cooks prick it with a fork In several places to allow the uncooked portion to run under. Lift with the fork until the whole is creamy- Have ready a few spoonfuls of well-buttered and seasoned asparagus tips, a few drops of lemon juice and a teaspoonful of parsley, finely chopped. Spread over the top of -the omelet, fold and serve on a: hot platter. Egg Fondu. Allow two fresh eggs for each person to he served and a third as much grated Swiss cheese as eggs, with butter of half the weight of the eheese. Put the butter and grated cheese into a saucepan and set over the fire. As they begin to melt, break the eggs over the mixture and stir briskly until well scrambled and mixed with the cheese. Season well with salt and pepper and serve very hot. Eggs en Casserole. The small brown casseroles or shirring dishes may be used, or a large dish which will hold enough for the meal. If the small ones are used butter each one with a good coating of butter,'’and drop in one or two eggs. Dust each with salt and pepper, and cover with cream, set In the oven to" cook until just firm. Set each on a plate for serving. ~ ... if i a i f t ~ ft ■ - ...