The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1942-07-02
A Two-Mar1 Machine
Shop Contributing
To War Effort

Small manufacturers and machine
shops looking for a chance TO partici-
pate in war work for the Army and
Navy might take a leaf from the
book Of the BARS, father and son, in
Eberly's Mills, near Harrisburg, Pa
Unframed in modern management,
not favored with fat bank accounts
or unlimited credit, and with a mini
mum WPB help, the BARS today are
fast setting a mark that small bust
ness can shoot at.
Joseph H. Bair is a mechanical en-
gineer, a doctor of philosophy, a
psychologist, poet and fiction
writer, an inventor, and a poor man.
His son, Richard H. Bair, is a ma
chinist by trade.
Last fall. Dr.. Bair and his son,
Richard, put their heads together and
decided there was work for Ameri-
cans to do.
Their equipment, in addition to a
streak Of inventiveness and the
"know-how" to make shift with ma
terials at hand, were a 13-inch lathe
a No 0 milling machine, a drill press,
and five-inch power driven back
saw, all small, and all dating from
1912.
In addition, they had for quarters
the roofed-over foundation of their
home. destroyed by fire in 1889.
They already had been working for
a few months on some precision work
for a large safe manufacturer.
By October, through an acquaint-
ance in Harrisburg, young Richard,
27, stumbled on a job turning out re-
pair parts for a prime contractor
doing maintenance work on govern
ment ordnance machinery
The lathe, the milling machine, and
the drill press were useful on this
work, but there still were machine
hours to spare for more production.
So the BARS decided to call on
Richie Lawrie, Jr., then manager Of
the Division of Contract Distribution
in Harrisburg, and now War Produc-
ton Board manager there. Lawrie
told them to list their available tools.
As an afterthought, they listed the
hacksaw.
Almost at once-by messenger, be-
cause they have no telephone-the
BARS heard from Lawrie that large
arms contractor in the district re-
quired some hacksaw work, butting
blooms-big GXG inch nickel steel
bars, weighing 2,1OO pounds each
into billets, or slices weighing 80-odd
pounds, for aerial bombs.
They didn't have the equipment
their hacksaw was too light for the
iob-but they had the know-how and
they had room to install the equip
ment if they could find it. The con-
tractor promised them trial order
Of 500 tons if they could obtain saws.
The next step was to shop for saws.
Richard says he soon found that he'd
probably have to wait months for ma
chimes, So
q went to visit manufacturer
near Philadelphia and he had just
been notified that an order of eight
finch hacksaws-just the right size
which had been on the docks for
shipment to Batavia, Java, was being
returned because Of the war in the
Pacific. The prime contractor gave
me an Ala priority and | froze
right onto them"
SO the saws were installed and the
BARS set about rigging up special
stands to hold the 2,100 pound blooms
while the saws were at work. The
eight new machines operated at low
speed-60 strokes a minute. They took
more than 90 minutes to saw through
the big blooms.
The BARS set to work and by SIM
Pile installation of larger pulleys in
creased this operation to 120 strokes
minute
Then they turned to another ex-
pertinent.
In the big prime contractors plant,
the blooms are loaded by big magnets
on the truck which takes them to the
Bair shop. The BARS find the blooms
have thus themselves become mag
netized. This keeps the steel shavings
from the saws from falling to the
floor and prevents the use of cool
ant or lubricant in the cuts, because
the liquid increases the magnetic
action.
SO the BARS reset all the saws,
right in their own shop, so they draw
instead of pushing-thus pulling the
shavings out of the cut with each
stroke of the blade.
Little by little, father and son are
overcoming every obstacle that pre-
sents itself They've rugged up a
small crane to lift the blooms off the
trucks, using secondhand material
out of junk yards to do the job.
They have wired the plant for 220
volt current and now the BARS laugh
that every time their saws and ma
chimes are operating, they use so
much current all the lights in the
neighborhood go dim.