MUNITION MIRACLES.
LANCASHIRE IN HARNESS.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
The age of miracles is not past. In the manufacture of munitions Lancashire is achieving what was deemed to be impossible. This, perhaps, is in accordance with tradition. The world is familiar with the glorious deeds of the Lancashire “Pals,” but, so far, secrecy has shrouded the spirt that has converted industries connected with textiles into munition works. Now it is possible to lift the veil, the Ministry of Munitions having permitted representatives of the Allied and British Press to visit a number of factories within the north-west area. Rules of censorship have still to be observed, but an impression may be conveyed of the amazing transformation that has been effected in Lancashire and adjoining counties. A national emergency has been an inspiration to employers as well as to workpeople, and Lancashire is demonstrating that the British manufacturer, aided by labour unfettered and well paid, is unsurpassed for imagination, ingenuity, and enterprise. The demonstration is associated with great sacrifice; but how much greater would have been the sacrifice if Mr. Lloyd George had been uuable to stimulate latent forces in Lancashire by his appeal for shells!
Included within the north-west area are the vast armament institutions of Vickers Ltd., Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co. Ltd., and Cammell, Laird, and Co. Ltd., whose resources, due largely to private enterprise in pre-war days, are now of vital importance to the nation. But the miracle in the production of munitions is associated with the creation of new sources of supplies. Manufacturers and engineers in and around Manchester conceived ideas which certain experts considered visionary. But a Lancashire idea is not easily extinguished. Mr. Lloyd George appealed for an immediate output of shells. The manufacturers pleaded for freedom of action; in other words, to be allowed to tap their resources according to their own plans.
RESULTS OF CO-OPERATION.
Left largely to themselves manufacturers have cooperated with splendid results. Rival firms have allowed competitors to study their methods, and the co-ordination of effort and the free exchange of ideas have-introduced an entirely now spirit in manufacturing circles. National shell or projectile factories have been organised and equipped within the area. The lathes and machinery with which these factories have been equipped have been largely obtained free of charge from repair shops of cotton mills and weaving sheds, and in the majority of cases the premises in which the factories are established have been lent free of rent by Corporation departments. It is possible to see shells produced in the same building that provides accommodation for tramway cars, and lathes sixty and seventy years old are being used in an old mill for shell production with excellent results. Lancashire has harnessed itself for war in a manner that produces amazement and admiration. The success that has been achieved is attributed to a policy of decentralisation. Control from Whitehall is not always popular. Practice in the North is sometimes misunderstood in the South. Fortunately, the Ministry of Munitions is represented by a department in Manchester that has sought to understand local methods and to bridge the gulf that might have separated Whitehall from the Lancashire area and surrounding districts, and the assistance rendered by this local office is readily acknowledged by manufacturers. Consequently, the value of decentralisation is an oftrepeated theme in discussions of industrial policy.
An American visitor, after inspecting workshops in the north-west area, confessed that the hustle which he had regarded as the monopoly of the United States must be a product of Lancashire. The confession was not surprising. But apart from the enterprise that the manufacturers have displayed, and the speed with which war work is being executed, it is impossible not to be impressed by the inventive power which is finding expression in new processes and enabling the unskilled worker, with the aid of new machines, to achieve results that were formerly only within the scope of the skilled mechanic. Tests are severe and examination is strict, and the results reflect the highest credit upon men and women alike. As in other parts of the country, women and girls are playing a great part in munition work. Dilution has meant not only the introduction of female labour, but new methods of manufacture, the up-grading of semi-skilled and unskilled male labour, and in the north-west area, besides assisting in a huge increased output, dilution has been the means of supplying 10,000 highly-skilled men to other parts of the country.
Since the day that firms responded to Mr. Lloyd George’s appeal for shells the operations of engineering shops have responded, and now include the production of many other instruments of warfare. It is instructive to observe the way in which engineering firms of small and medium size have adjusted their departments for the production of war materials. For instance, a firm which previous to the war were manufacturers of pulp and papermaking machines and machinery for textile goods for many parts of the world are now providing shells, shell-turning lathes, shipyard machinery, gears for anti-aircraft guns, and machines for making potato-flour and other materials. In the same locality may be found a firm which formerly confined its efforts to the manufacture of highclass machines for the manufacture of paper, now achieving great success in the production of the heavy type of machine tools, as well as large castings for the Admiralty. There is a remarkable variety in the output of munitions, indicating a capacity on the part of a firm, as well as of their staff, never before dreamt of. For example, a company which at the beginning of the war were makers of large engines undertook the manufacture of spherical submarine mines. Later they produced shells of different types, and at the same time devoted attention to the important work of making a new type of recuperator, which is producing a vast improvement in a certain type of field guns. The Ministry of Munitions came to the conclusion that they would be better employed on the manufacture of recuperators than on shells, which they were then producing, and the firm that was formerly engaged on large motive-power unite is now performing a national service in contributing to the improvement of guns, and at the same time turning out large quantities of other munitions. Many examples of this character could be quoted. The war is revealing the real engineering and manufacturing capacity of the country.