Instructional factories and training courses: the inception and implementation of training courses for un-skilled and semi-skilled munitions workers during the great war

The Great War shell scandal of 1915 was as much to do with a lack of skilled workers as it was to do with the early inability of the Munitions Industry to manufacture the war materials required by the war. The number of skilled workers had never been large and volunteering for the Army on a large scale had drastically reduced that pool. Attempts to avoid ‘dilution’, or the use of un-skilled and semi-skilled workers, particularly women, in the munitions industry in the early months of the Great War failed. The Volunteer Scheme was an initial disaster for the newly created Ministry of Munitions. Recalling skilled men from the Army failed in equal measure. The only way for the Ministry to plug the skills gap, was to bring in semi and un-skilled workers. In 1916/17 Technical Institutes like Loughborough and Aston began to run short training courses for workers

Manufacturing and the Great War

In manufacturing and army terms, Britain was not able or geared up to deal with the Great War. It was able to cope with a small, short war on the continent as part of a larger coalition but not the global crisis that came about. Britain s research and development before the Great War had been in the Royal Navy. The army had been neglected. At the outbreak of the war it had been planned for the navy to carry the burden of the conflict but this proved to be an erroneous course of action. Very early in the war it became obvious that the armaments industry was unable to provide the munitions to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion. The government had to set up the Ministry of Munitions in order to co-ordinate the manufacturing ramp up , mobilise and train the nation for total war in order to meet the requirements of the armed forces to fight the war and solve the crisis. After leaks to the press and political manoeuvring, the Ministry of Munitions was set up to take away the responsibility of the War Office to manufacture, procure and supply munitions. It was a masterstroke. The workforce was increased by the introduction of semi-skilled labour and many of them being women they brought with them the need for welfare reform in the factories. Those reforms had a positive effect upon the male workforce and productivity in general. Semi-skilled workers were trained by educational establishments throughout the land and many modern universities, like Loughborough owe their very existence to the Great War. Loos was fought and lost on War Office contracts, Arras was amply supplied by Ministry initiatives and the 100 Days campaign of 1918 was made possible by massive, British manufacturing output. In essence, British manufacturing won the Great War. The war was a crisis solved by manufacturing. The thesis focuses mainly upon the primary source document that is the Official History of the Ministry of Munitions, war diaries and publications written at the end of in in the years after the Great War

Lessons for modern manufacturing and supply from the Great War

The primary source research is going to be based upon the examination of war diaries and personal papers with reference to three specimen battles, or perhaps rather campaigns, during the Great War. Loos, in September 1915, Arras in April – May 1917 and The 100 Days between August and November 1918. The engagements are to be looked at with reference to manufacturing output and supply. Quite simply how did the availability and delivery of supplies affect the outcome of these battles in their at-tempt to solve the crisis of the war? Was anything learned and implemented by manufacturing and sup-ply after each battle?. The Great War has a huge amount to tell us, it contains many lessons for the future. How the British nation managed to go from an inability to manufacture all of its military requirements in 1914 to manufacturing and supplying so much later in the war that the material losses of March/April 1918 were absorbed and recouped and how the mobile war of August to November 1918, the 100 Days, was maintained and supplied is worth examining

The welfare supervisor: lessons for the modern day from improvements of conditions for female munitions workers during the Great War

As part of research into Lessons for Modern Manufacturing and Supply from the Great War the role of the workforce is being examined. This research is based upon an examination of changes in the work place for the workforce brought about by the role of the Welfare Supervisor. The creation of the factory Welfare Supervisor was probably the most important innovation of all. Without her in the workplace to oversee and enforce innovations brought in for women none of the improvements could have succeeded. Unlike so many other initiatives in production her role was only recommended and some factories initially made excuses for not taking on a Welfare Supervisor. Data from 1918/19 shows that this was short sighted, the whole workforce benefitted from the improvements made for women. Where Welfare Supervisors were set on productivity increased and the workforce were happier, healthier and munitions production increased and remained plentiful

Iowa State University Faculty Council, 1954–1988: A History

On February 14, 1954, the General Faculty of Iowa State University approved by voice vote the following motion: That the General Faculty of Iowa State College establish a Faculty Council in accord with the provisions set forth in a statement entitled \u27Basic Document.\u27 With this action the Faculty Council began its thirty-four year existence

The Turtle Head Immobilization System (THIS): A Tool for Faster and Safer Handling and Processing of Aggressive Turtle Species

The turtle head immobilization tool (THIS) is an efficient and cost effective tool to aid in the processing of large, aggressive turtles such as the Eastern Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). THIS aids in the reduction of aggressive behaviors by calming the animal during processing and minimizing injuries to the turtle and handlers. This simple tool also streamlines the processing itself, by allowing researchers to focus on measurements and markings, instead of having to maintain the constant vigilance often needed to work safely around these animals

The Turtle Head Immobilization System (THIS): A Tool for Faster and Safer Handling and Processing of Aggressive Turtle Species

The turtle head immobilization tool (THIS) is an efficient and cost effective tool to aid in the processing of large, aggressive turtles such as the Eastern Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). THIS aids in the reduction of aggressive behaviors by calming the animal during processing and minimizing injuries to the turtle and handlers. This simple tool also streamlines the processing itself, by allowing researchers to focus on measurements and markings, instead of having to maintain the constant vigilance often needed to work safely around these animals

The Turtle Head Immobilization System (THIS): A Tool for Faster and Safer Handling and Processing of Aggressive Turtle Species

The turtle head immobilization tool (THIS) is an efficient and cost effective tool to aid in the processing of large, aggressive turtles such as the Eastern Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). THIS aids in the reduction of aggressive behaviors by calming the animal during processing and minimizing injuries to the turtle and handlers. This simple tool also streamlines the processing itself, by allowing researchers to focus on measurements and markings, instead of having to maintain the constant vigilance often needed to work safely around these animals

Estuarine boundary layer mixing processes : insights from dye experiments

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 37 (2007): 1859-1877, doi:10.1175/jpo3088.1.A series of dye releases in the Hudson River estuary elucidated diapycnal mixing rates and temporal variability over tidal and fortnightly time scales. Dye was injected in the bottom boundary layer for each of four releases during different phases of the tide and of the spring–neap cycle. Diapycnal mixing occurs primarily through entrainment that is driven by shear production in the bottom boundary layer. On flood the dye extended vertically through the bottom mixed layer, and its concentration decreased abruptly near the base of the pycnocline, usually at a height corresponding to a velocity maximum. Boundary layer growth is consistent with a one-dimensional, stress-driven entrainment model. A model was developed for the vertical structure of the vertical eddy viscosity in the flood tide boundary layer that is proportional to u2*/N∞, where u* and N∞ are the bottom friction velocity and buoyancy frequency above the boundary layer. The model also predicts that the buoyancy flux averaged over the bottom boundary layer is equal to 0.06N∞u2* or, based on the structure of the boundary layer equal to 0.1NBLu2*, where NBL is the buoyancy frequency across the flood-tide boundary layer. Estimates of shear production and buoyancy flux indicate that the flux Richardson number in the flood-tide boundary layer is 0.1–0.18, consistent with the model indicating that the flux Richardson number is between 0.1 and 0.14. During ebb, the boundary layer was more stratified, and its vertical extent was not as sharply delineated as in the flood. During neap tide the rate of mixing during ebb was significantly weaker than on flood, owing to reduced bottom stress and stabilization by stratification. As tidal amplitude increased ebb mixing increased and more closely resembled the boundary layer entrainment process observed during the flood. Tidal straining modestly increased the entrainment rate during the flood, and it restratified the boundary layer and inhibited mixing during the ebb.The work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant OCE00-95972 (W. Geyer, J. Lerczak), OCE00-99310 (R. Houghton), and OCE00-95913 (R. Chant, E. Hunter)