Model engineers in WW1

A few years ago I was given some M.E.s from,I think 1937. In one was mentioned a scheme, operated I believe under the stewardship of the magazine, whereby those with home workshops could contribute to the WW1 war effort, by making munitions parts at home. There were area inspectors, who had master gauges for checking presumably home made gauges to which the parts made had to conform. Does anyone know any more about this? Was it effective? What sort of quantities were made? It would be nice to know if there was any official recognition of the work done.

Regards Maurice

A lot of small parts making was farmed out to mall local workshops, I doubt any special difference between model makers and any other jobbing shop was noted at the time.

Neil

WW2, making parts for Sten Guns, but not allowed to make enough bits to make a whole gun. Lapping bearing journals for RR Merlins.

Ian S C

Interesting that LBSC who, as far as I am aware, had no training as a machinist was put in charge of a machine shop full of young ladies making aero engine parts during WW1.

Rod

I remember having heard that chain was usually made in the back yards of individuals, lots of individuals in the Midlands. Today most people don't work at home as law, by-laws, insurance, health and safety, noise abatement and so on make it impossible. Indeed it's a wonder they allow us to engineer at home at all.

However if you move into an empty cattle shed somewhere and you manage to jump through all the hoops you might be able to earn a crust engineering wise. There again you'll perhaps find it cheaper and more profitable to subcontract the job to China.

I worked at a very small business back in the eighties (5 people) and we landed a contract with the M.O.D to make parts for guided missile launchers (Falklands war) and another for storage crates to hold spent uranium rods for the Nuclear industry!

If elf and safety get their way I think the next war will be fought with pillows by us Brits.

Jesse

Edited By Jesse Hancock 1 on 22/02/2015 15:47:05

The was an article in a magazine a while back about a padlock manufacturng business that was based in a row of terraced houses, I cannot remember if they had decided to move as the space was getting too cramped, or future generations had decided the business was no longer profitable.

They had been in business since around WW1, I think in Birmingham or the Black Country.

When I read the article about the WW1 war effort, it gave the impression that, far from being work farmed out to small commercial workshops, it was a case of amateurs working for nothing in their own time, in order to help the country. I just wondered if their efforts were effective, and if they were appreciated.

Maurice

> Today most people don't work at home

Never been more since records began at 13.9% of the workforce, of whom 23.5% were 'skilled trades'.

Neil

(Homeworker - and I can tell you I do longer hours now than I ever did anywhere else!)

Open your eyes Neil. People have to take on home work to meet their bills. Watch Question Time sometime and you'll see what I mean.

I wont bother giving you my full resume but suffice it to say one of the jobs I had back a-ways there were 30 people in the office when I started and one when I left. We were still trying to cover all the work that was there from Preston to Plymouth. Needless to say they folded shortly after. So yes the figures may reflect what Cameron wants you to believe but it ain't roses you are smelling mate.

Perhaps I should have made it clear I was talking industry not filling envelopes and cold call phoning jobs. The skills you are reading about are plumbers, electricians, hair dressers and HGV drivers most likely. Most of the rest of the jobs have migrated to China and India. You get a certificate now for window cleaning. The stuff left here is small time like the guy who needed a brainstorming session to solve his storage problem.

Just take a look at the car industry or what's left of it. Count the British assembled cars on the road but remember they only assemble them here now most of the rest is imported.

Don't(mabe you should)worry, it might not be too many years before China etc., will be sending the jobs to the west to get cheaper rates, from a bunch of European peasants.

Ian S C

I believe model engineers were used in WW2 also to make components for the war effort. Seems I read a comment in one of the old books by Sparey, Duplex or one of their contemporaries about how the WD inspectors were amazed that work coiuld be produced at home on a small lathe to tolerances of tenths of a thou.

When my old man bought our ancient Drummond M type lathe in the UK in 1950 or so, the secondhand shop salesman told him the lathe had been used to make aircraft parts in the war. I always imagined it in some vast factory, running from an overhead shaft, turning out Spitfire aileron pivot pins or some such. But perhaps more likely it was used by a model engineer at home to produce components for aircraft?

That's a good point Ian and on similar lines to some of my thinking. Apparently the Japanese have moved a lot of production to China as it's cheaper there. The point being that here in Blighty in the sixties we referred to Japanese products as Jap Crap. Not any more though.

After the war the allies had to put both the Japanese and the German economies back on their feet otherwise they would have been an enormous burden on the West. There's nothing like starving to death to sharpen the mind as they say. The Japanese turned the technology they had learned from the Western countries back on those countries. Indeed the four fast battle ships they had at the start of the WW 2 were made here in Britain! Had Hitler waited until his advisers said that they were ready for war, I for one don't think we would have stood a chance.

Imho German engineering has always put ours to shame with all their technologies years ahead of ours. They led in most sciences as well, except in radar perhaps. The difference seems to me to be the education system but I'm far from sure on this not having been to school in Germany. However an old boss of mine once said 90% B/S and 10% chromium plating and you have something which people will buy. Looking at handbags etc I can see the logic in that.

You might think Britain is the land of eccentrics or mad scientists like Barnes Wallis. What seems to prevail is public school education and the old school tie syndrome after all what little boy hasn't skimmed stones over a pond. It's having the backing to pursue an idea that matters, we don't take risks here. (We being investors)