Evening star., 1942-04-10
Output
Continued From First Page.)
It would take them to get into pro
duction.

1t would take them to get into pro-
duction.
They Know Now. 6
Now they've found out. Many Of
the plants are months ahead of
schedule. The Government wanted
speed and that's what the Govern
ment is getting.
The machine gun makers offer q
pretty good example of the way
automobile makers have caught on.
When the gun contract was signed,
most of the old automobile making
tools were taken out OF the plant
where the work was to be done. The
Government dug up some old ar
senal equipment which had been
used In the last war.
There was one machine in this
assortment which could complete a
certain process at the rate OF one
gun an hour. Someone in the plant
remembered q machine tool which
had been used for a similar opera,
ton in the auto-making days.
So they rigged this tool up and
now it puts 80 guns through the
same process in an hour. They are
now making machine guns in this
auto plant Is per cent faster than
the same guns were made originally.
~. Short Cuts Elsewhere.
In another reformed auto plant,
they've worked the same magic on
anti-aircraft guns. There was one
process in making these guns which
had taken the European manufac-
turers 400 hours. The auto plant
carries through the same process in
exactly Is minutes-which means
that some Axis bomber has 800
hours and IS minutes less to live.
The short cuts and tricks which the
auto makers have introduced are
being passed on to other factories
elsewhere in the country.
The plane manufacturers, for in
stance, taught the auto makers all
they know about aircraft. The auto
people set up their tools-and now
they're teaching the airplane makers
some new tricks.
=. One of the plants here. which
used to make the engines for -
high priced automobile, signed q
contract to make q certain kind
of airplare engine. The Detroit en-
gineers proposed to make the engines
much the same way they had built
automobiles.
The airplane engine makers said
1t couldn't be done. But walking
down the aisles Of the automobile
plant today, you can see 1t being
done. There are hundreds of these
powerful bomber engines being built
by the men who had been putting
auto engines together the same way
six months ago.
A Versatile Tank Engine.
There is Diesel engine plant here
making Diesel power for tanks.
They were told this couldn't be done,
too. They've built an engine which
can run on fuel oil or high octane
gas-on almost anything, in fact,
except rain water.
The tanks that these engines are
going into aren't the same kind of
tanks that were being built before
the automobile makers got their
hands on them. The Detroit people
are turning out . streamlined Job
now. They are casting the tank
body in one piece-no bolts or
sharp edges-and they've found
way to make the armor plate
tougher than = Ninth street bar
tender.
1t is hard to realize, without see
ing it first hand, has to be done
to convert automobile plants to war
work. One big body-making shop
Is being turned into q tank arsenal.
In one room there are 40 huge
presses which used to stamp out
hundreds of thousands of automo-
bile bodies every year. When the
plant gets going on tanks only two
OF these nonstrous machines will
be of any use In the job. The rest
will stand idle.
Old Tools and Dies of Use.
But most Of the old tools and
dies, which made those sleek auto
mobile bodies in the dear, dead days
beyond recall. will be used in tank
production. True, the company had
to rip its plants to pieces. They
had to tear out machines and rail-
road tracks and docks.
The first of those tanks are creep
ing down the assembly line now
months ahead of schedule. Before
EDUCATIONAL.
cD I