War of the (Manufacturing) Machines, 1916

[rug]

Reported in Scientific American, this Week in World War I: December 23, 1916



Artillery shell bodies are trimmed to the right length in a factory in the U.S. Credit: Scientific American Supplement, December 23, 1916

By Dan Schlenoff on December 23, 2016

The Germans called the Great War “Materialschlachte”—a battle of materials. The armed struggle between industrially advanced European powers pitted their military forces and also their economic and industrial capacity against one another. The combatant countries took years trying to fully harness production capacity to build up supplies for the kind of warfare that evolved from 1914. The issue of Scientific American from 100 years ago today looks at the problem that the U.S.A. faced in mass-manufacturing an ever-greater quantity of artillery shells desperately needed on the battlefields of Europe:

“In the early days of the great war the American public was dazzled and astounded by the public reports of the contracts for enormous quantities of munitions, at unheard-of prices, that were being placed with our manufacturers by the European allies, and it was regarded as quite natural and fitting that European countries, in their condition of unpreparedness and dire necessity, should turn to America, with its reputation for mechanical ingenuity and ability, and its great factories, for assistance. American manufacturing organization and ability was to be pitted against that of Germany, and the result was contemplated with complacency. American energy and efficiency was to show its superiority over the supposedly stereotyped routing of continental shops; but the actual results have been a humiliating surprise, in many instances, both to the public and to many an optimistic contractor.

Between 1914 and 1918 every country involved in the war as a participant or a supplier dramatically increased shell production. In Germany, shell production of all calibers increased from 343,000 a month in 1914 to 11,000,000 a month in 1918 (according to Salavrakos, below). In Britain in 1915, the “shell scandal” erupted after it became clear that the high rate of artillery fire on the battlefield could not be sustained by the limited production of shells back home. From 1914 to 1918, Germany and Austria-Hungary produced up to 680 million shells and the industries of the Allies France, Britain, Russia (to October 1917), Italy, the U.S. and Canada, produced up to 790 million shells (the statistics vary greatly). The U.S. produced between 30 million and 50 million of these shells.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anecdotes-from-the-archive/war-of-the-manufacturing-machines-1916/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciam%2Ftechnology+

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Interesting...but sad, too.

Did not realize the magazine was that old.

[MineralMan]

2. It has been published since the late 19th century.

The oldest issues are fascinating to read, actually. When I was a kid, the local library in our small town was used as a storage place for bound magazines by the county library system. There were bound volumes of Scientific American dating back to the 1890s stored at the library and available on the shelves.

I spent many a hot summer day in that library, which was the only public building that had air conditioning in my town. I read through many old volumes of Scientific American and National Geographic, which they also had, dating back to the 19th century. What a resource for a small town kid!