Impression sketch
of Woman welder at
work on pieces of metal, at a school opened at Notting Hill Gate - by Jamie. From an original image that
can be seen at : http://www.diomedia.com/stock-photo-women-welders-at-work-ww1-image18082900.html
[Accessed: 7 February 2016]
A small difference of two years,
Found women taking on jobs such
As oxy-acetylene welding workers.
While the industry itself was
new,
September 1915 would see first
School to teach women the craft.
The National Union of Women's
Suffrage Societies, Active
Service
Branch had formed a programme -
With their setting out of
practical war
Efforts, one union member, a Miss
Woodward, was an expert welder.
Recognised for her distinctive
art
In building metalwork forms, such
As crosses, croziers in her
studio.
The Johnson Street London
school
Had seen seventeen girls in
overalls,
Leather aprons and hair under
caps.
Such ideas for
a woman's scheme
As oxy-acetylene workers had,
In the early days, been kept
secret -
The trial then ended with women
Taking to benches - the industry
told
Their output was a rebuke to men.
With the first five women
graduated
From school they set
to factory work
Near London, ran by the
government -
In such workshops was a demand
For workers to build flange
sockets,
And joints for aircraft
construction.
With their initial hours news
spread
Of women at the welders benches,
Telling men of their excellent
work.
As their first dinner intervals
ended
The men presented these women
With welcome of marked approval -
No great numbers of men had
before
Conflicts entered the industry,
yet
Post war, women workers were
likely.
Welding processes involved
calcium
Carbide, taken mainly from
Sweden,
To be used in low-pressure
system.
Regulated by a generator water
Inflow combined with carbide,
while
Heat produced purity of acetylene
-
Compulsory dark goggles halted
Any direct glare from the flame's
Point, giving an aquamarine glow.
At the right hands of experienced
Ladies, gas blowpipes were turned
And a flame lit from a wax taper.
Glowing blue to white-yellow
flames
In a jet twelve inches long, to
apply
A stick of soft iron to shower
sparks -
From a welding stick fell a
molten
Metal to combine two metals with
A rapid burst of crackling
particles.
Any intensity of heat all by
careful
Control of a woman’s hand,
glowed
Red - slowly growing to a white
heat.
Textbooks had stated intelligence
And central conscientiousness,
Were needs of autogenous welding
-
French authors of craft were
central
To women’s reading at the studio
-
Quickly outgrown by female
pupils.
A permanent claim for women’s
Employment of this nature, would
Extend beyond war for dexterity -
All proof of these skilled women
Welders, came by rate of pay per
Hour in rewards, between 7d to
9d.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Women
As Welders - Useful Acetylene Work. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 7 February 1916.
P.7. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12138804/Daily-Telegraph-February-7-1916.html
[Accessed: 7 February 2016].
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Women
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