8-inch Finishing Building

8-inch Finishing Building. Bethlehem Loading Country History Trail. , The final steps of the loading process were completed in the finishing building. Precise scales weighed each filled shell to determine its range. This crucial information was then stenciled on the outside so the gunner would know how far it would travel. The booster, which detonates the charge, was displaced in a special cavity at the top of the shell, and the shell was then packed in a box with others for shipment. As it left the plant, the shell was complete except for the placing of the fuse, an operation performed at the battlefront., There are no clear historic photographs of the 8-inch finishing building, but it had an upside-down L-shape, the longest part measuring 30 feet by 60 feet., Of the three plants, the 8-inch plant was the furthest from completion by war's end in November 1918, with a total of 8,231 shells loaded. Production was planned for 4,000 shells per day., Women Workers in world war one , Although employee records for the loading plants have not survived, it is estimated that 50 percent of munitions workers were women filling jobs typically performed by men in peacetime. Over one million women worked for wages in industries directly related to the war effort. Some munitions work, such as the inspection and packaging of shells, required no special training. Other tasks, like fitting fine screws and tiny springs into shell components, were perfectly suited to a woman's smaller hand. The federal government established the Women's Branch of the US Army's Ordnance Department as a watchdog agency for women workers in munitions plants., [Captions:] , Many world war one posters appealed to women, asking them to buy war bonds, knit socks for the Red Cross, and plant vegetable gardens so more food could be sent overseas. This poster, recruiting women workers, was printed in 1917. (Library of Congress, POS-world war one-US, no 228), This 1918 photograph shows the interior of one of the finishing buildings at Amatol, another world war one munitions factory also in Atlantic County. (Photo from Victor Hammel, Shell Loading Plant At Amatol, NJ, Atlantic Loading Co., 1918)