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RAW MATERIAL Girls from tF FINISHED PRODUCT Motor

12th June 1942, Page 26
12th June 1942
Page 26
Page 27
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Page 26, 12th June 1942 — RAW MATERIAL Girls from tF FINISHED PRODUCT Motor
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

WOMEN are now being trained in the Army as motor fitters. A six weeks' course is given to . suitable women who care to volunteer for it. They usually come from A.T.S. establishments where driving is taught. Therefore, their technical knowledge prior to starting the course is virtually

limited to running repairs. Most of them, we understand, have never even been holders of driving licences before.

Such is the aptitude of the female sex for quickly acquiring knowledge and directing their manual skill along new channels that they do indeed become useful fitters in this short space of time. Of course, it would be foolish to say that, after training, they were equal to the male who has been at the job for years, and nobody has made any such claim to us, but, with the help of a few fully trained and experienced men, these girls can accomplish a vast amount of work that could not otherwise be done under the present conditions of man power.

Good fitters in the Army are held in considerable esteem, because there is a lot to do and few to do it and fitting is very important. It is also immensely interesting work and there is little doubt that the satisfaction to be derived from the exercise of any kind of special skill an individual may possess is not easily found in other ways. We definitely envied the girls we saw recently undergoing this newly instituted course.

It was started only last April, at what used to be a large garage, but evidence is already to hand of its success. A constant and ample supply of volunteers is now needed to assure the continuance thereof. Between 60 and 100 girls are under instruction at a time. Roughly, they arrive in batches of 15 every week, and each batch moves on from class to class every seven days.

Beyond knowledge of driving and simple maintenance, as stated, and of map reading and the other things a driving school teaches, their educational background is usually elementary. However, a handful out of each hundred, we were informed, are in this respect well above the average.

During the first week they are taught how to use the file, the hacksaw and the hammer and chisel; scrap lug, drilling, tapping and thread cutting; how to anneal copper and how to solder. Relaxation from the intensive acquirement of these arts, proficiency in which normally might well take a year to gain, is afforded by lectures on arithmetic, sketching and dimensioning.

We watched the practical operations enumerated above being performed, and saw specimens of the work completed. Later, we were permitted to inspect some of the dimensioned sketches executed in the exams. that follow the lectures.

Each girl is given a rough square steel plate, cut from a strip of about 2 ins. by I iii. One edge of this has to be chipped as true and straight as possible, whilst the others, and the faces of the plate, have to be filed flat and square. Then one of the filed edges has to be scraped with a flat scraper to a surface plate.

Obviously, a good specimen was chosen for us to test—with square and blue marking. Although it might almost have been done by a toolmaker, actually it was the handiwork of a girl with no previous experience, but we should have been quite proud of it ourselves. Next, holes are drilled in the plate. T. one of them a straight saw cut, which enters it centrally, is made from the nearest edge, and the other one is tapped. Then a stud is made, from plain round bo., and fitted to the tapped hole.

Incidental operations learnt include sharpening chisels, scrapers and drills.

Training in Soldering Annealing and soldering are mainly taught—at this stage—with copper tubing and by the sweating of nipples thereto, work involving petrol and oil pipes being typical applications of the processes in an Army fitter's life.

At the beginning of the second week the group goes to the chassis class. Here they dismantle and assemble springs, wheel bearings, steering gears, brake-shoe mechanisms, etc. We saw three types of, brake in this room, namely, Bendix, Girling and Lockheed. In the case of E last-named they are shown why and how the system is bled. They are also given opportunities to familiarize themselves with vacuumservo apparatus. The art of refacing brake shoes with unprepared friction material is acquired. All this practical instruction is backed by lectures.

The following week the students pass to the engine section. Together with the theory of the four-stroke and two

stroke cycles, the principles of carburation, ignition, lubricatior, etc., are learned. They take-down and erect power units of various sizes, study, from the practical and theoretical angles, cooling and fuel systems, including thermostat, water pumps, filters and carburetters. They are taught ordinary adjustments, notably how to set tappet clearances and how to let-up worn bearings.

In this shop, we observed a number of sectioned auxiliary components, and a sectioned Austin Seven engine in the Torm of a working model, complete with small lamp, in place of spark-gap, that lit up at the top of the compression stroke in approved style.

Electrical equipment is the subject of the fourth week's study. Still more theory is imparted during this part of the course, which includes the drawing of wiring diagrams for various circuits. To ram home the knowledge thus acquired, the instructors let the girls rig up real circuits on special wiring boards.

There are starter motors, dynamos, coils, magnetos and accumulators for them to experiment with, and they are initiated into the mysteries of condensers, contact-breakers, distributors, and so ferth.

We have always said that if you know Ohm's law you can understand anything on a motor-vehicle lighting system, but all its applications are rather a tall order for a week's work.

The students have quite a light time in the fifth week! They grapple in the first three days with transmission systems, including clutches, gearboxes, universal joints-end back axles. Then they devote one whole day to motorcycles and, among other things. become masters of Bowden-type controls and fitting new cables to them. With this accomplished, they enter what is, in effect, a "running shop " and tackle diagnosis.

Here they get a taste of the motor fitter's hardships, for they work on dirty vehicles under conditions akin to those of reality. The group is taught the rudiments of tracing troubles— mechanical and electrical—and we were relieved to learn that this section of the course is allowed to run on into the last week. It extends into only part of the remaining seven days, however. for time is left at the end of the sixth week for three examinations, two of which are oral and one written.

Nearly all the girls pass, because unsuitability for motor fitting is detected earlier in the course and, in such an infrequent case, the girl will be returned to her unit to save waste of time.

That such a degrce of efficiency has been reached in developing this system of training does great credit 'to those responsible for workingit out and

carrying it on. The incredulity that filled us at our arrival at this school was dispelled when we saw the students at their jobs and -the work they had done, notably the tool-maker's test piece and the draughtsman's perspective sketches. Nevertheless, we doubt whether it will be possible to adhere rigidly and continuously to the six weeks' schedule.

Varying Rates of Progress We suggest that, if it be practicable, girls who make slower progress than the others should be allowed to drop back, into the recruits' squad, when necessary, and remain an extra week or two rather than be scraped through as only-just-grade-three fitters. Perhaps some such arrangement already exists.

We presume to write thus off our own bat only because we see the posi tion from an external viewpoint. It may, indeed, be presumptuous in consideration of the little intimate acquaintance we have of the matter, but the impression of the outsider, after all, is not without value and may be difficult to get.

Ultimately, it resolves into just a matter of balancing urgency against risk, and to do this those officially in control are obviously best equipped.

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Organisations: Army
People: Austin Seven

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