Came across this WWII era film by Union Switch & Signal about their 1911 manufacturing line. Pretty cool, so I thought I'd share. It's silent, but there are written descriptions throughout. Easy to follow. Stick with it until at least 6:24. You won't be sorry.

Thanks..a very interesting film.

A shout out to The Cincinnati Milling Machine Co.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Thank you for sharing.

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Expect the unexpected

Like entered at 6:24

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Dum vivo cano

Back when people cared about their country.

I bet you couldn't find 10 out of a 100 girls now days that would ever think of doing work like that. No gloves either.

That was great. Thanks for posting it.

I grew up a couple miles from US&S. Would love to have one.
Wouldn’t mind a 6:24 either.
You have to give credit to ladies back home for their labors.
FWIW my grandmother worked on the bomb line of U.S. Steel’s Christy Park Works in the war years.

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I think that video was the subject of another posting here a year or two ago.

Those girls worked in some nasty conditions. Lot's of oil in the air and it stinks. I worked in a machine shop briefly making Universal M-1 carbines. I quit because of the oil. I broke out really bad. must have been about '79.

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Dum vivo cano

Thanks for digging that up, I really enjoyed that. I used to drive through Swissvale, past USS&S on my way to PIA in the late 80s. Like the rest of this country's manufacturing capabilities, It was torn down for a shopping plaza.

Gloves around milling machines, drill presses and lathes are a huge NO NO. You hang even a little corner of a glove up on a spinning piece and you'll be luck if you only lose a finger. Know of a machinist who hung the tip of a glove in a drill would up the glove then pulled some of the tendons out of his arm. Ruined it

Likewise long hair. A definite risk of getting scalped. Women machinists and other machine operators usually had to have their hair clipped short or wear a turban-like bandana. Wearing rings (both men and women) can also be a serious safety hazard if working around rotating or reciprocating tools and equipment.

While my grandmother was on the bomb line they were told to push the casings down the line with the palms of their hand and keep their fingers clear. The woman beside her didn’t and caught her fingers. She yanked her hand back, pulled the glove off, and quickly put it back on. My grandmother asked if she was alright, and asked to see her hand. The woman refused. My grandmother told the foreman and they pulled her off the line. She lost the end of multiple fingers.

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How many pistols did US&S make?

Is this the firm that only made 500, and most went to the USAAF?

No expert, but I believe that you’re thinking if the Singer 1911s.
According to Turnbull’s site US&S produced 55,000 1911’s

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Wouldn’t be surprised if the security guard at the loading-dock, was carrying a DSC Victory.

Very cool to see a back in the day film like that. Thanks for sharing!

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I think you're right. I'm having allergy problems today and can't think straight.

Allegedly, Singer made only 500 1911A1s on an "Educational" contract, but apparently the Army decided that Singer's manufacturing capabilities were needed more for other items. It's said that all of them went to the AAF. Same thing happened to US&S - a decision was made that the railroad equipment US&S made was more essential to defense needs than pistols.

A friend of a friend claimed to have a Singer. To the best of my knowledge my friend never actually saw it so it might have been BS.
The friend and his friend both have passed on so I’ll never know.
Sort of like Bigfoot.

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I believe Singer's precision machining skills were put to better use making the Nordan bomb sights. Even back then, if you ask a precision machinist to build a 1911, you end up with something like what Cabot guns is making. Not what they were looking for in '43.

Now I know how the magazine well is machined. All the people in that video have passed on.

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S&WHF 366

From what I have read, the Singer .45s were masterpieces of precision workmanship and finish. But I have seen only pictures of them. I can imagine that during WWII, there was a huge demand for industrial sewing machines - uniforms, tents, tarps, shoes, powder bags, etc.

Back about 10 years ago, I was working on a job at the former Indiana Ordnance Plant across the Ohio River from Louisville. It produced smokeless powder from WWII through the Vietnam War, for everything from .30 caliber up to 16" naval rifles. They had an enormous facility there for making powder bags for artillery. It used over 2000 (mostly women) bag sewers per shift, three shifts per day, when it was in operation. At the time (during WWII) it was the largest air conditioned and humidity controlled building in the country. That building remains in use today, but not for powder bag fabrication.

Not to hijack but the “Steel Valley” had many ties to the military industrial complex. US&S, USS Christy Park Works, USS Homestead Works produced armor plate and such. Does anyone have any info on the Hays Armory just down river from Homestead? Not much on Wiki.

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Do you mean the Hays Army Ammunition Plant?

We just referred to it Armory but yes I believe it’s the same place. Not technically an armory.

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Hays Army Ammunition Plant - Wikipedia

I managed a factory in Braddock, PA for several years and we ate lunch in a shopping plaza where the US&S plant used to be...the thing that struck me about the video, other than, as a former machinist, being very interested in the manufacturing process, is that probably none of the folks we saw in the video are still with us.

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Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

I know nothing about the Hays plant, but there were a large number of defense plants built from the ground up all over the USA during 1940-41 as it was becoming evident that the US was quickly being drawn into the European and Far East conflicts. In fact, the end of the Great Depression was brought about largely because of these immense defense plant construction projects. As a general rule, these defense plants were owned by the U. S. Government and operated by various civilian contractors (and sometimes multiple contractors for different areas of the same plants). There was usually a military contracting presence at each facility in order to oversee production. Many of those same WWII-built defense plants remained viable clear through the Vietnam era, but were not necessarily in operation the entire time - meaning that after use during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam respectively, the plants were placed in standby caretaker status but were not producing anything, or were operating at some reduced level, in order to keep the production equipment and facilities maintained. Many such defense plants were declared surplus in the 1980s and 1990s and the properties were essentially given to state and local government agencies (usually called Local Redevelopment Authorities, or LRAs) for redevelopment of the properties into civilian activities, such as business or industrial parks, public recreational areas, etc.

My neighbor had a US&S .45. It was his Dad's. (Backstory: His pop was a WWII retread in the Korean War. Was assigned to training in San Diego. Someone stole his "good" .45 and left the US&S as a replacement!) The neighbor felt bad about it being stolen and figured his dad was stiffed, till I looked at it and realized what he had and explained the background of the gun to him..
And he ran right up to the LGS (DJ's in Bothell, WA) and got $2,000 or so for it without ever giving me a chance to "bid" on it, or saying "thanks" for the info. It was my first sign he wasn't a great neighbor (and he isn't).