Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-09-26
MILLION WOMEN
PLACED IN JOBS
AT WAR PLANTS
TO NEED THREE OR FOUR TIMES
THAT MANY BY THIS TINE
NEXT YEAR

! ton men believe they'll need thre
4 or four times that number Of James d
jeans by this time next year.
> How quickly can factory executive
: convert the white-colIar woman to
: war plant job9"
That's another way Of asking, car.
we going to keep up the man-powel
and equipment all along the front b.
using women in millions Of factor
jobs?"
Almost always there IS a favorable
optimistic response to such questions
Production chiefs pack lots Of victory
spirit. They thoroughly count on VIC
tory.
One of the new types of success
stories comes from Angus s. McCon OF
the Dallas plant of North American
Aviation, Incorporated. McColI says
the girls he's trained are the success
! personalities worth talking about
Some others of us would say that
McCo1 deserves the big spotlight. for
! this welding expert and some techni-
cal instructors are training women
! quickly for one of the most difficult
and demanding Of war shop jobs-arc-
welding.
In some other shops, eyebrows go
up when you say there are newly and
rapidly trained women arc-welders in
American aircraft plants.
Many Do Spot Welding
Spot-welders-yes Many women do
spot-welding In half a dozen Califor-
mia aircraft factories, probably in
many other types of war production.
In four or five airplane plants, women
turn out good work in acetylene-gas-
welding.
Arc-welding is the tough baby in
this family. You've seen the process
used in peace-time to merge rails and
bridge parts and to eliminate seams In
storage tanks. In war-making, the me-
thod replaces riveted parts in ship
building and it helps to make Ameri-
can bombing planes the sturdieSt in
the skies.
Women in electric arc-welding, a
wartime first" are possible because
Angus McCon produced a streamlined
shop course in this difficult trade. He
felt you could teach highly intelligent
young women-the usual office-work-
er type-just such parts of the skill
as they'd need in the special type of
welding he wanted them to do All
theories and frills went on. The Nc
Coll course turns out specialists and
puts them behind a welding torch in
side a month-well inside it in num-
erouS cases.
Farmer Was Good
welding is an art" says McColl.
Most men with a good eye and good
hand can be taught this art of merg-
ing two pieces of metal. One of my
best men came right off an Dixie farm. /
Another was learning meat-cutting,
but soon he could lay welder's bead
with the best of them.
But we used to take two to four
months to teach the arc-weIders' trade |
70 men. Those fellows had to be pre- |
pared to handle many metals in a var !
ETY. of Yields. There wasn't that much |
lime for us to train the new welders
needed, and we wanted to give rushed
raining to bunch of intelligent new
;omers who'd learn quick"
IF the course is so good" the boss
laid one noon, maybe you could even
each girls. Sometime you ought to
,ry it."
At the time McCoIl grinned, but
when he talked that same day to Glen
Hunter, in charge of the new welding
course at the Dallas defense school,
he was taking the remark seriously.
81 doubt that a girl has the steadi-
less and the ability to concentrate
hat you need for arc-welding," the
lead welder told the school man. "But
I you'll risk it I win. Thereu be no
more argument about how good the
curse is If it gives the plant a crew
4 girl welders"
The first girl enlisted was 19-year-
Id stenographer. Shed never seen
Yielding torch close up until the day
he class met.
Thirteen days later Betty King took
he standard army test in welding,
aSsed 1t, and went into a full-time
Oh. In the test she'd laid q perfect
cad. Her penetration was Just short
( perfect. Within q few weeks Betty
ad plenty Of company In the women's
apartment. Some of the other women
elders learned the work in II days;
, far nobody has passed Miss Kings
scord.
Glen Hunter teaches eight in
ass. The learners sit in a circle
round the instructor. His school shop
q part of the Dallas public school
rstem.
Under old methods the teacher made
iiustments in the generating mach
e during the first week or two of .
course. Nowadays the student learns :
make the adjustment of the fusing
sat in the first day in the class.
Perhaps he or she turns on so much
sat that you could throw hat
rough the hole that's burned in the
etal," explains Hunter. Maybe the
.xt time so little heat is turned on
at the bead lies on top Of the metal Is
e a rope. BY trial and error, actually
,rking like a welder right from the B
art, the boys and girls pick up the &
pa fast" n
When selecting those who are to
I'm arc-welding, the Dallas men look
: workers who are making good in
lite-collar jobs requiring concentra-
n and accuracy.
So the women,s arc-welding crew n
North American counts among new
.mbers those who have successfully d
Ia Jobs like theater cashier, secre-
-, cnco,rrtaf1f and foOd controller In Is