The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1892-07-06
GIRLS AT MEMS WORK
YOUNG WOMEN IN PiTTSBURG MAKE
IRON BOLTS AND NUTS.

Neat and Inteiiigent-Their Pay.
There are probably n thousand women
h Pittsburg who work in iron mills
making bolts, nuts, hinges and barbed
wire. II seems almost incredible that
girls should be employed in an occupa-
ton which is associated only with Drawn
and muscle, but such is the case. At
the first sight of the bolt works one can
not believe that anything bright or in
teresting could live inside. At the call
of the $50 n. IA. whistle girls are seen
coming from all directions toward the
factory. They are generally dressed
tidy and well, and with their lunch bas-
kets on their arms are not unlike any
working girl one may see.
The first thing they do after entering
the building is to change their street
dress for one to work in, tie up their
hair, roll up their sleeves, and, putting
on a coffeesack apron. are ready to be-
gin the days labor. At o'clock the
last whistle blows. the wheels groan and
screech as IL they were weary to resume
another days work, but in little while
they begin to move with more rapidity
and the noise amounts to something ter
rife. A sulphur smoke arises, and as it
embraces everything in dim color, II
needs but the dull red burning of the
oil, the horrible noises and the occa-
sional sound of a human voice halloing
o command to stamp the scene on ones
memory as a study from sheol.
The bolts and nuts, as they are called,
are fashioned by the brawny men on the
first floor. In crude state they are
sent to other departments, when the fin
ishing touches are applied by feminine
fingers, ofttimes very delicate ones.
The bolts are dumped into different
bins, according to size and length, and
each girl has one special kind to work
on. The first work on the bolt is TO
point" it-that is, to make round
which cuts the thread on it. The point
ing machine has an immovable socket
at one side and steam revolving knives
facing it.
The operator, who is known as
pointer" places the head of the bolt
in the socket, presses her foot on
pedal, and the sharp steel knives are
forced against the iron. Little bits of
the iron fly, and in an instant she re-
moves her foot and the pointed bolt
falls down a slide into an iron deposit
box on the floor.
While the one hand and foot has been
accomplishing this, the other foot sup
ports the girl, goose style, and the other
hand has got bolt ready to be placed
into the socket the moment 1t is empty
Thus for days, weeks and years the
"pointer" handles one bolt after an
othex for living, being paid by tho
thousand. Expert workers have pointed
10000 bolts in day.
When the bolts are pointed they are
taken to the cutting quarters. These
machines are large, with deep sinks
filed with thick black oil. The bolts
are placed In slides and pushed by the
worker up into sharp steel dies. In an
instant the thread is cut on them. The
work is rather dangerous, and care
must be exercised to keep the operators
fingers from going into the open dies and
having their ends cut off instead of the
iron. The oil in which the girl is COM
pelled to work in order to keep the bolts
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