sciously or unconsciously to figure out what part individual effort contributed to the big result. Fortunately, perhaps, the question of relative accomplishment and of everybody's s

ble agent that made a thousand other things possible. Wire did its work not only up in the smoke and the agony of the western front, not only where the fleets battled agai

diversity to what was already one of the most diversified of products. Everything was special. Every day's new load was a brand new problem in manufacture and in construction as well-something that

AT WILL NE

rebuilding of a wrecked world and the development of a new one. Already the picture, big and thrilling as it was, is growing dim, its detail disappearing in the hurry of industrial production, the solving of new problems, the supplying of demand. They look back ove

BURDEN UPON

, of ores, of food, to keep all kinds of transportation in full swing, to see that elevators kept running so that activity should not cease-these and a thousand other things were all essential to unity of effort and increase of production.

of them far from points of ocean shipment. It was plain when America entered the war that only the most thorough co-ordination and cen

fteenth of May, 1917, this committee had on its shoulders the making of wire necessary to keep the country's work going at full speed and to supply the ne

LONG COMMI

. Here came all the orders for wire rope from the several Government departments and the bureaus in those departments, each with its long array of specifications, all requiring shipment to divers points. Muc

Industry has no story of accomplishment to tell that can be more creditable than this. The Roebling plants, near to the seaboard and equipped f

PRODUCTION F

as seventy-five per cent, and the list of the employed at times ran close to ten thousand men. The numerical increase in men did not equal the growth in output. Here as well as in almost every line of industry the war furnished a revelation of the cap

and Navy. Another thing which aided in meeting a vast demand was the unremitting attention which the company had given to the perfection of aircraft material, from the first successful flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903. At that time study and experiment had

of hurried experimentation and development. It was a demonstration in preparedness, although up to 1914 the

BLISHMENTS THAT CAL

war supply of wire rope. It includes, in the Navy Department, the Bureau of Steam Engineering, Bureau of

ort Service, the Quartermaster General's Office, the Signal Corps, the Aircraft Production Bureau, United States Engineer's Office, General Engineer Depo

ne were a business. In addition to all this the Committee made allocation of orders for the Argentine Naval Commis

to go around it. A few figures out of the total allocations wil

THE BI

d a way of slashing through the earlier and lighter nets. For the new type the rope ranged from an inch and a half to three-quarters of an inch; but it wasn't merely a matter of shipping reels of rope. Almost all of it had to be cut into lengths and attachments made, for these bar

SAILING VESSELS OF ALL TYPES SE

plices, and, while fitting one of them is ordinarily half an hour's work, the Roebling plant, with a force chiefly of men who were utterly unskilled, was turning off ten thousand pairs of traces a day at the peak of pro

he rate of 2,500 tons a month. And all the time the mines and mills and ordnance plants, locomotives, cranes and all other manufactures kept get

F ROPE AND A HALF

s which were required by the Naval Establishment for the North Sea Mine Barrage, which put a prompt and distinguished shackle on the German submarines. The fitting of this rope was a

with a depth of 3,000 instead of 900 feet, was all ready to be laid

16,000 feet more of rope, with fittings to make it of use. Every mine was cancelled without a mishap, and there are now more than eighty million feet of

N WIRE ROPE

or war purposes did not end with wire rope. In May, 1918, the company was employing close to ten thousand men, and in addition to rope making they were busy with the manufacture of immense qua

Europe, where the American Army communications were the admiration of Europeans. This material possessed certain peculiar characteristics,

s of materials, for while copper is used for electrical transmission there is an exterior prote

E STEEL AND

with ten outside wires of tinned steel. This wire had a maximum weight of 75 pounds a mile with a maximum breaking weight of 300 pounds. Oth

SIGNAL CORPS

the finished product for the Signal Corps. This process, which includes both the manufacture of steel

olled into billets, which are cropped to eliminate all segregation. The steel billets are reheated and rolled into rods of about 3/16 inch diameter. The rods are then tempe

d cleaning operations. There is another series of drawing and then the final one through the hardest and toughest dies o

alkaline and acid solutions to remove all trace of the lubricants used in the wire drawing, and t

ity. The bars are heated and rolled into rods of about 3/8 inch diameter. These rods are cleaned in acid baths to remove all scale

e wire drawers in piercing these minute openings. The copper wire then is annealed free from all scale and discolo

d from the strand, and tussah silk wrapped over the whole. To this is applied a compound with 30 per cent rubber, which is later vulcanized. Then come inspections for mechanical injuries and electrical characteristic

gh knowledge of steel and of the materials entering into the manufacture of steel, such as ore, pig iron and fuel, as well as of the properties and tests and manufacture of copper, tin, rubber, cotton,