Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-09-25

,"RoUND-rRiP TICKETS"
But the greatest heat Is In the
shelters where the ore is reduced.
These furnaces are smaller and in one
plant a long row of them Is high up
near the roof. Back of the furnaces
you look down into dark cavernous
shop where a great travelling crane
moves the four-story urns into which
the milk-white iron runs when q fur.
mace is tapped
saw one of these tappings. It
would take Dante to describe It ef-
fectively. Through blue glasses, which
protected me both from blindness and
from having my eyes scorched, saw
first trickle of soft liquid appear on
the runway, then coursing flood that
sent up lovely stars by the millions
lovely stars that lodged
Then down in blue grottos, where
smoke arose on all sides, came .
series Of sizzling splashes.
This was the first operation IN the
casting of 15-inch gun that they call
"Fritz's round-trip tickets" meaning,
of course, from Hades to Hades.
TEA BETWEEN INeoTs.
Kaiser spankers," IL the name
given to the great stamping machines.
We call them trip-hammers In Amer
lea. These devices give the cannon
their first shaping. The larger ones
mash more slowly, but a single blow
Of 1500-ton hammer will hatten the
largest rolled blocks by several feet.
These stampers range down to bat
terry OF devilish rapidity that, with
nd "a 81 h
ion long, slom anti-aircraft guns.
The stacatto choral roar of this ag-
gregation of steel Washers was battle
like.
And In this heat and CRIME and
thunder these men spend eleven
hours daily, not being allowed the
hour for lunch or the fifteen minutes
for tea. They eat while at their work
And they have tea, too-between in
|gots!
HALF ARE WOMEN.
/ Half the employees at these war es.
Establishments are women. A great
many OF them had had factory exper.
fence before the war but never at the
big machines they now operate. 1t is
said that these women are standing
the strain Of long hours, swift work
and the great clatter and clangor,
with remarkable fortitude. The plant
hospitals get few cases of breakdown
among the women. One shift goes on
to cite an example, at a. m. and
quits at p. m. After an hour of
housekeeping at the works the
second shift comes at 8 pm, working
until a. m. One shift has an hour at
a. $h4 nth at
midnight. There also is Is minute
period for tea at p. m. and a. m.
In spite of all, most of them have
womanly interest in pretty things.
saw hundreds of girls stamping ma
chimes, pressing cartridges into shape
who were almost as tidy as American
shopgirls though they did wear long
colorless aprons and oily gloves.
Their hair was well taken care of:
they smiled in comfortable, indie
pendent way. not too brilliantly and
not meekly. I know now where lot
of our American smiles originated.
AFTER THE WAR.
When the Tommies come back
from the trenches they will not sup.
plant all Of these girls. The superin.
tendents have found that the "femi-
nine touch" has meant better work
and less tear on machines. The most
delicate stamping operations will al.
ways be entrusted to women in the
future, l was told.
This munitions region is not to
make the Midland a desert CT empty
shops after the war. I was told that
not a new building was erected. nor
a machine installed, that did not have
a peace-time function anticipated.
Rails are to be turned out by miles,
and bridge and building Orders by the
to accomplish the recon.
Of Europe in the smallest
possible time. However, the domi.
nant idea of the Midland is-"Win the
Wari"