Great Britain. Army -- Ordnance facilities; World War, 1914-1918
The bucket checked and tilted at each
mould and the liquid metal poured smoothly into its appointed place
until the bucket was empty. After the rooms where the lathes rumbled
and roared, and the riven steel grated and squealed under the cutting
tools, and the hammers jarred and pounded incessantly, this foundry was
strangely un-noisy; but here, as in all the other rooms, there was the
same sense of bustle, of rush, of speed, of driving the work; and the
spurting jet of hot metal, the glow of the furnace, the dull roar of
the fire, the hoarse blowing of air through a nozzle where the moulds
were being blown clear and clean of dust and sand, the clink and rattle
of tools, the movements of the stripped and sweating workers--all gave
their own sure impression of haste and activity. “Thirty thousand a
day we’re turning out of these,” said the manager, “and we’ll better
that presently.” Now, you bombers of the “Suicide Clubs” might note
this--30,000 grenades a day are being turned out by this one firm, a
firm which only devotes a part of its work to grenades. This is only
one firm out of many I have seen, and very many more, no doubt, I
haven’t seen, and one particular make of the many makes you out Front
know are being made. Does it give you any realisation of the number
of grenades you will be getting presently? I hope so. I hope you will
understand and be sure that never again will you be “bombed out” of a
captured trench because your supplies of grenades ran out. And I hope
Herr Fritz across the way in the front trench also understands and
appreciates the prospect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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