Evening star., 1942-04-05
A Kiss for Hirohito,'
Murmur u. 5. Girls as
They Load Shells
Arsenal Workers Show
Deft Speed in Charging
Messengers Of Death
BY STEPHEN ]. McDONOUGH.
Wide World News.

Wide World News
AN EASTERN SEABOARD AR
SENAL, April 4.-Several thousand
nimble-fingered girls are helping
win the war by turning out the
fine parts of anti-aircraft shells,
cartridges and machine gun bullets
for the Ordnance Department of the
Army.
Their motto is Here's a kiss for
Hirohito'-and they mean the mo-
ment's shell or cartridge. Many of
them say frankly that they don't
like their jobs. In the next breath
they add: But the boys in Bataan
and Australia don't like theirs either
Well give them the stuff as fast as
they can use it."
And they are doing it. Girls who
don't need jobs are pitching in not
for the money involved but because
of some stronger urge. Mothers are
leaving their babies to be cared for
by a neighbor or putting them in
day nurseries. None of them likes
to sit from until II pm. or from
IL pm until 7 in the morning feed
ing cartridge cases, primers and
high explosive powder into auto
matte machines to make finished
shell.
Women Outpace Machines.
At times they have to be told to
slow down because they are out
running the machines. The opera
tionS are so precise-they measure
the clearances on the fit of a
bullet into the cartridge case to
1-10,000th of an inch-that the
inspectors must warn the girls
to ease up for fear they may ruin
a thousand cartridges. Still they
think the machines are too slow,
although they are turning out hun
dreds of thousands of rounds of
ammunition every "a hours.
For example, the mechanism of
of a fuse, used in an anti-aircraft
shell, is built like a fine watch. 1t
contains more than 100 different
parts and in this arsenal workers
are turning them out with clock
work regularity on mass produc-
ton basis.
Every girl knows that every shell
must be timed to within 2-100ths Of
a second when it is thrown thou
sands of feet into the air against
an enemy airplane. So they don't
make mistakes.
What's the work like? Take a
paper match, find the smallest bit of
cigarette ash and try to place it on
the exact center of the match head
That's precision in the way they do
1t at this arsenal.
Check to the Millionth Inch.
But that, to the laboratory work
ers who check the gauges used in the
manufacture Of machines and tools,
Is crude manipulation. They check
10 millionthS of an inch and could
20 farther if the Army would give
them time. To date there has not
been a report of single failure of
an anti-aircraft fuse or a single
round of rife, machine gun or
enti-tank shell. That is the type Of
precision preparedness we are get
ting today.
The general who commands this
ordnance arsenal is obviously proud
that in his group of women technic-
ians he has 10 girls with bachelor of
science degrees and two doctors of
philosophy. These experts work in
the gauge-testing laboratories and in
the optical shops. Their standards
are so high that for the prisms and
lenses of fire-control instruments,
telescopes and gun sights they cut
and polish glass percisely to zero
tolerance" which means that light
rays passing through a 9O-degree
angle do not vary by more than one
millionth of an inch.
These girls are practical. Stacks
and sweaters are their uniforms and
they don't worry about nail polish,
lipstick or rouge because it wouldn't
last long in a machine shop. There
are few long f1ngernailS because they
get in the way when you are making
hair springs or tiny gears for a high
explosive shell fuse. But these girls
are still aware of the need of the
feminine touch. One wearing a
bright red sweater and pair of blue
slacks was feeding a 1,000-pound
press turning out shell cases, but
she still found time between rounds
to re-arrange her bobby pins and
tuck her hair up.
Feminine Touch Necessary.
That feminine touch is one Of the
most necessary things, literally, in
the manufacture of cartridges and
shells. The officers in the arsenal
found that the hands of most OF the
men they put to work on fine tooling
Jobs were about as sensitive as
horses hoof The girls, however,
seem to have micrometer fingers and
many of them can tell by picking up
a piece of metal whether it is the
exact size.
In the huge shops of this arsenal
the girls swing it, Loud speakers
frequently give out with the newest
dance tunes. The general swears
that he has often heard them sing
ing to the music two blocks away.
Incidentally, music has been known
to step up production by as much as