Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1919-09-11
STONE AND WEBSTER
A. E. F. ORDNANCE BASE
Interesting Facts Regarding
Work of This Company
In France


for lighting and power in this section
are synonymous. They also know
that this company built the million
dollar power plant at Falls Village,
and with thousands of this compa-
MES employees and stockholders
living in this vicinity, many of whom
are subscribers and readers, the
following regarding the work of this
company in France will be of inter
est:
For the great Ordnance Base
created in France the labor was
drafted from the American Expedi-
tionary Forces. Difficulties in this
connection have been thus described
"The job that takes all the patience
one has is training, coaching and di-
recting an ever-changing personnel
A battalion of $50 men arrive today,
rest up tomorrow, and the next day
are thrown onto the job. Tasks are
assigned, tools distributed, work ex-
planned and sometimes even exemph-
fed, and then as fast as possible, day
by day, mistakes are corrected, bet
ter methods developed, leaders de-
veloped and the rank and file taught
what is good work and true. 1t takes
more time to make a good foreman
out of the non-coms than to train
the majority of the men, and when it
comes to officers it requires as long
to initiate bank clark or silk ho-
siery salesman in to the building
game as it does a minister. lin the
last batch / had these three.)'"
1t was early in August, 1917, that
Stone e. Webster were invited to q
conference with Col. King of the
Ordnance department to discuss their
undertaking the layout and detail
design of the proposed Ordnance
Base at Mehun.
To Serve 100000
The plant was laid out to serve an
army of 100000. ..u.
Following is an estimate of re-
quirements of an army of this size.
The gun repair plant should be OF
sufficient capacity to refine, per
month:
511-75-millimeter field guns
140-3 inch anti-aircraft guns
Observation-Disclosures guns
104-9.5-inch howitzers
65-4.7-inch guns
The reloading plant should over
haul and reload $4,000 cartridge
cases daily, the various sizes being as
follows:
80,000-75-millime
75,000-37- millimeter
2,000-3-inch
5,000-4.7-inch
The other plants should have
monthly capacities as follows:
Gun Carriage Repair Plant-12,-
900 broken carriages.
Tractor Repair Shop-700 dam
aged vehicles.
Equipment Shop-15O, 900 sets in
fantry equipment.
Equipment Shop-6,000 sets horse
Small Arms Shops-5O, 1000 rifles.
Small Arms Shops-7,000 ma
chine guns.
Small Arms Shops-2,000 pistols
The plant was separated into
seven groups at different points along
lines of communication from our
ports of debarkation toward the
front.
Steel for the first storehouse was
shipped Oct. 6 and arrived in France
Nov. 1S, go days after date of the
order and less than 80 days after
contract with Stone & Webster was
signed. On Dec. IS, $1,000 tons
had been delivered at seaboard,
interchangeable Unies
1t was realized early that plans
were subject to change after material
was on the ground, and that com
plete buildings or parts Of buildings
were likely to be lost during transit
as a result of torpedo attacks, acct
dents or otherwise, and the plan of
in standard inter-
changeable units was adopted. De-
sign of all storehouses and light shops
required no fabricated members, and
all assembling was by bolts instead
of rivets. The buildings were di-
vided uniformly into 20-foot squ2ae
bays. All rafters, purlins, girts and
braces were interchangeable and by
adopting a scheme of variable
heights for column footings, all
columns are of the same length and
section. This plan permitted redus-
tons or additions to storehouses and
light shops and breaking up large
buildings into smaller ones without
expensive alterations at mill or long
delay in the field.
At Is-sur-Tille was an advance
base near the front lines. IL con-
sisted of one light shop $40 feet wide
and 500 feet long, used partly as n
storehouse and partly as a machin.
shop, and one typical storehouse 2de
feet wide by 500 efet long. This
plant "a" was fully equipped for
minor repairs of every kind
Plant "B" was the main repair
base far behind the lines at Mehun-