Goldie Simes Spot Welding B-24 Rear Gun Turret Support Shell, Willow Run Bomber Plant, 1944
01
Artifact Overview
Women represented approximately one-third of the workers at Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant, where they did everything from clerical work in the offices to riveting and welding on the assembly line. During World War II, women joined the workforce in record numbers to take on essential jobs traditionally held by men who had joined the armed forces.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Photographic print
Subject Date
February 1944
Place of Creation
Collection Title
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
84.1.1660.P.833.79744
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Gelatin silver process
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 10 in
Width: 8.25 in
Inscriptions
Typed caption adhered on back reads:
Spot welding instead of riveting saves an estimated 100 man hours on every Liberator bomber built at Willow Run. Utilizing spot-welding technique common in manufacture of automobiles, Ford engineers have made proposals resulting in 7,018 rivets being replaced by spot welds in each bomber. In this photograph a young woman (Mrs. Goldie Simes of Willow Court) is shown welding the rear gun turret support shell. In spot welding two pieces of metal are held together under pressure and bonded by heat from an electric current passing through the metals.
Keywords |
|---|