The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-23

atoms that are entirely suitable for
women, and in a few minutes more
we are in the midst of them.
There is new shop worked en-
tirely by women, having been built
for them since the beginning of the
war. The vast place covers an area
which is apparently as great as that
of Trafalgar Square. Two thousand
women are here, and there is room
for 5000 in all.
Innumerab1e lathes, generally of
small size, cover the cemental floor,
with pulleys and wheels spinning in
the air above them. 1t is a dense
forest of machinery, pulsing and
whirring and tossing as from some
unseen storm.
Sight Scarcely Relievable.
There is at first something so in
congruous in the spectacle of women
working masses of powerful machin-
cry Cor, indeed, any machinery more
formidable than a sewing machine)
that for a moment, as you stand at
the entrance the sight is scarcely be-
| lievable.
But you go in and move around,
| and otter a while the astonishing fact
seems perfectly natural.
Although most of the machines in
this shop are small, some are large,
and few alarming.
Here is a slip of a girl working one
of the latter kind, a huge thing that
has two large wheels like mill-wheels
revolving at either side Of her, and
though she looks like a child in the
| jaws of some great black monster she
! does not seem to be thel east afraid.
ic rir1 to
feeding a round disc with bits of
| metal that look like discolored farth-
ings, and as her own particular Cali
! ban eats them up it utters from it's
interior hoarse grunt that hits you
| like a blow on the brani, yet she does
| not seem to hear.
But most of the work done by the
women looks simple enough, and
seems perfectly natural to their sex,
! although it has always hitherto been
done by men,
One woman is turning base plates
! for shells on a turret lathe. Another
| is cutting copper bands for shells
from tubes. Another is pressing the
| copper bands into their places. Yet
| another is riveting brass plugs on to
high explosive shell bodies.
Some are drilling the holes through
the six-inch shells. Others are rough
turning the shell surfaces; and yet
others are gauging and parting off
the bodies Of huge eight-inch high
explosives.
Many are making shell fuses, a task
| in which women have become amaz-
ingly proficient, and many more are
at work at the ms lection board,
where, being trained to the use of one
gauge only, they haved eveloped eff
fciency to which men have never at
| tanned.
| Work Day and Night
| All the women wear the same uni
| form, a khaki-colored overall girdled
at the waist, and cap Of the shape
| Of a bathing cap.
| This is in the interest of safety, lest
! should be caught in the pulleys and
| should be caught n the pulleys and
| belts of the machinery; but 1t has the
further and not altogether negligible
advantage, in the eyes Of the male
| creature, of being extremely becom-
| ing.
Their hard work does not seem to
| be doing much harm to their health,
| for their eyes are bright, their cheeks
are fresh, and there is hardly any
evidence of fatigue among them.
The clamorous and deafening noise
of the machinery, it's jar and whirr
| and clink, which makes your temples
throb, sings (after their first days in
the factory like music in their ears,
and they would miss it if it stopped.
They work day and night, in two
shifts of IL hours each, with a break
of an hour for dinner and half an
hour for tea.
Their pay, which is usually by the
piece, is generally large, the mini
mum being, I think, a pound a week,
and the maximum five or seven
pounds.
Entering the Danger Zone.
But you realize that the lure of
money is not the sole or yet the chief
magnet that draws women to work
for the. war when you leave this i'm
mense workshop for the sinister-look-
T ing sheds in which the finished shells
are filed.
Everybody knows that shell is
not merely lump Of dead metal, but
a living reservoir of compounds,
which have been brought up from the
bowels Of the earth and transformed
into terrible explosives.
DOuy hhO"S, tOO, IIldt II10
shell has to be loaded with it's dead
ly charge.
Therefore there ought not to be any
question Of exciting public alarm
(there is no reasonable cause for IT'D
| or any other fear of betraying secret
to the enemy Git is no secret) if-as
I'evidence of the moral and physical
courage of the daughters of Britain
and as an example of the bravest
single thing woman does for the war
risking her life at home even as man
risks his life in the field describe
the scene of what is known as the
danger zone at Woolwich.
This section of the arsenal is at
some distance from the factories, and
we drive to it in a motor-car. The
day has closed in by now, the dark
ness has fallen, and the moon is ris-
ing.
We travel over a kind of marsh to
a promontory that seems to have the
river running about it. The long
stretch of dark road is jealousy
guarded.
At one moment the car stops and
the face of a guard appears at the
window. He asks for any matches,
about with us. After we have empti-
ed our pockets of such articles our
car is permitted to proceed.
There is another long stretch Of
dark road (between woodan shads