Part 13

(Signed) GEORGE C. LEES, Secretary and Works Manager.

THE H. E. HARRIS ENGINEERING CO.

Bridgeport, Conn.

We are enclosing herewith three photographs showing work in our vestibule school for women on gauge finishing work. The picture of the six women in a line with the instructor at the end shows the pupils on gauge finishing work, lapping plug, thread gauges, snap gauges, etc. These women have proven themselves very apt, but difficulty is being experienced, due to the fact that the necessary laps requiring highly skilled mechanics are often made defective, on account of the feeling of the skilled tool and gauge makers who do not wish any of the women to do any of this work.

The women show a better spirit and give a much better production, at least three times as much as the men do on the same work. The one photograph showing the six women in a row and the instructor at the far end, shows a group in the school lapping these gauges.

The two photographs of the same woman, Mrs. H——, show her in one photograph lapping a thread gauge which has to be correct within .0002. She is about four times as proficient as any man that we have in the place. The other photograph shows her measuring the same thread gauge between the lapping operation with the three-wire system, which is rather a difficult feat of measurement.

(Signed) HARRY E. HARRIS, President.

OAKLEY MACHINE TOOL COMPANY

Cincinnati, Ohio

Our shop has an average of 75 men on its pay roll, making a Precision Tool Room Grinder. Before the United States joined the forces of Liberty we had felt a shortage of labor and had taken steps to break in untrained men.

Thinking we were not large enough to inaugurate a Vestibule Training Room, as it is generally understood, we inaugurated a system of training men directly in our shop.

We sorted out applicants and put them in our shop, two at a time; if they had never worked in a shop before we started them on simple machines, such as the hack saw, centering machine, etc., in order that they might get used to the noise and methods of the machine shop. They were then advanced to Roughing Lathes, being given simple jobs, such as turning and facing.

By having only two at a time the foreman was able to give them personal supervision, without interfering with his regular work. As they developed they were given more difficult jobs. We found, as a rule, inside of sixty days such men made very fair machine hands.

We also broke men in on drill presses and shapers, using same tactics and had very successful results. To give you an idea as to the class of men from which we have made machine operators, we have working in our shop to-day one bartender, piano tuner, street car conductor, bricklayer, coal miner and an artist—self made. The other unskilled men had had some previous experience on productive labor, either running punching presses, nailing machines, or work requiring a smattering of mechanical ability.

Our experience is that if you take a man over 30 that has become disgusted from a blind alley profession, where there is no hope of advancement, point out the possibilities of the machine tool trade, and give him a living wage to start, even though at first he is not worth it, he develops into a good and loyal man. They are, however, like children, they have to be encouraged every so often by a personal talk or suggestions from the head man.

Of course we have had our failures, but our successes have been in the majority, so we are continuing to break in green help.

(Signed) ALBERT A. THAYER, Treasurer.

LINCOLN MOTOR COMPANY

Detroit, Mich.

Our school is going along nicely and while we are not perfecting machine tool operators to the degree I would like because of the necessity of rushing them through the school to the shop proper, we are accomplishing, I think, that which we set out to do, namely, to take away from the girl the fear of the shop and to give her a fair knowledge of the tool she is to handle. The women undoubtedly have benefited beyond measure by the short time spent in the school room, and have gone into the factory with the confidence that carried them through the first few days and made them efficiently productive in a shorter period of time.

The training room is located in the smaller of our two plants and is equipped with a lathe, milling machine, gear cutter, drill press, profiler, etc., those being the tools upon which it was decided to train operators. In charge of this room was placed an instructor who had had some slight experience in a continuation school and who went to work under the direct supervision of a high grade specialist secured from a well known eastern factory efficiency organization. The instructor was given no special instruction beyond being told what we hoped to accomplish in the way of building up an organization of women of more than ordinary ability and moral character.

The training room up to the present time has been used only in connection with supplying the factory with women workers. Women of the age of twenty-one and upwards have been taken, their references carefully examined, and they have been given from one to three days’ training in this school. Because of the demand of the shop for help it has not always been possible to keep them in a training room for as long a period as would seem desirable, and in some instances they have stayed only one day.

During the training period they have been paid the regular rate for women, thirty cents per hour, which rate maintains after they enter the shop until such time as they are placed upon a piece-work basis.

We believe, however, that through the medium of the training room we shall be able to instruct women workers in machine tool operation so they will go direct from the school room into the shop without fear of what is to be encountered therein, and with a better knowledge of the tool they are operating, and the reason they are operating it, than they could possibly acquire through any other method.

The school is favorably looked upon by all of the employees, and in those cases where it is found that a woman is not working out well upon the work to which the school has assigned her, and is returned to it for further instruction, she has in all cases gone back to it with a cheerfulness and willingness that is both surprising and gratifying.

The writer is of the opinion that the school in this factory has come to stay and that when we build up our organization and get through the strenuous times we are now experiencing, the advantage of the vestibule school instruction will be given men employees as well as women.

(Signed) J. M. EATON, Assistant to President Henry M. Leland.

TRAINING FOR THE TOOL ROOM