Bus Bodybuilding by Female Labour
Page 31
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Standardized Type of Double-decker Completely Assembled and FinishPainted by Women
CONS1DERABLE interest attached to a recent delivery of a doubledeck bus to the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., which was made by Northern Coachbuilders, Ltd., Claremont Road, Newcastle-uponTyne. In the first place, the body has been built to the standard war-time specification and has been designed so that it can be mounted on any suitable chassis with a minimum of alteration.
It should be pointed out that Northern Coachbuilders, Ltd., specializes in the building of new bodies for fitting to old chassis.
Apart from the design features, the fact that female labour has, in this instance, been extensively employed, lends additional interest to the company's enterprise. Both the M.O.W.T. and the Ministry of Labour nave snown considerable interest in the introduction of female labour in this way into the bodybuilding industry.
The body under consideration is of composite construction and, in conformity with the company's standardized design features, has the front and rear bulkheads, underframe crossmembers, pillars, rear-end vestibule, seats and side framing, so made as to be common to all chassis. So far as the intermediate bays are concerned, any shortening of the length of the body is done by cutting down the rear and quarter lights.
So far as the front bulkhead is concerned, this is made as a unit to fit any vehicle, the bottom cross-bar being shaped to clear the clutch or gearbox of the largest types of machine. The only non-standard parts are the truss plate and the ironwork introduced between the bottom bearer and the chassis outrigger.
The labour problem was tackled in just as thorough a manner as was the evolving of the body design, as the shortage of skilled male labour meant initiating women into the higher branches of the bodybuilding art. In order that this could be successfully achieved it was necessary to ensure that the machining of the parts was dead accurate, so that the ultimate assembly of the components could be undertaken by the lesser-skilled operatives.
Si that the women could learn how to use wood-working tools, they were first started on such minor operations as are involved in the making of boxes, packing cases, and the like.
Skilled b o d ybuilders supervise the work of the wOmen, but, so accurate is the Machining of the various components, that no rnqre supervision is called for than is adopted under normal conditions: At the present time, the whole of the sub-assemblies and the assembly of the main frame are undertaken by female labour and these parts, in the fully framed condition, are handed over to the skilled bodybuilders for mounting on the chassis.
In the case of the body under review, 100 per cent, female labour has been employed in the assembly work and the final painting, an -achievement which, once again, shows the remarkable adaptability of women to work which is quite foreign to their natural bent. Unlike so many highly commendable but, nevertheless, routine operations which women are carrying out, bodybuilding calls for initiative.