I thought you all might find this interesting — what were the original Rosies recommended to wear to work?  Well, now you know!

Looking to go back to school for welding?  Where better to learn the tricks of the trade than from good ol’ Lincoln Electric?

The Lincoln Electric Welding School Announces Its 2010 Schedule

Cleveland – The Lincoln Electric Welding School, which has instructed more than 120,000 students since its inception in 1917, announces its 2010 schedule.

The Lincoln Electric Welding School is the oldest and one of the most respected arc welding schools in the United States. Classes are taught by the school’s seven full-time instructors who have more than 100 years of combined industry experience. Courses are designed to teach the arc welding skills that employers need. Lincoln-trained students are in high demand by welding fabricators at pay levels that tend to exceed the industry average.

Classes range from a six-week basic course to an advanced 15-week comprehensive course, as well as one-week classes on specific welding processes, certification and customized programs. Students spend 80 percent of their time in the booth learning to weld. Additionally, Lincoln limits class sizes to 15 students per class in order to maximize learning and guarantee one-on-one instruction time.

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All I can say is, it’s about time!

It’s about time somebody put up a statue in honor of the working women of WWII, and it’s high time I find out about it (it’s only been nearly a decade)!

Now, if we could just get some of the other states to follow suit…

Tinker statue commemorates working women

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City)
Apr 3, 2000 by Bill May The Journal Record

When Elizabeth Ward decided to apply for a job at Tinker Air Force Base, it was no precedent-shattering event.

“I just walked in and got my job,” she said. “It was because of women like her, that it was that way.”

The “her” she referred to was Frankie Collier, 73, who went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Plant, now building 3001 at Tinker, the day she turned 18 in August 1944.

As an inspection clerk, Collier didn’t handle the wrenches, tools and rivet guns that gave the name “Rosie the Riveter” to a whole generation of women who took over defense manufacturing jobs to free a equal number of men to fight World War II.

“I worked there until the end of the war, then they just let us go,” she said. “There was nothing done about it, nothing said. They just told us to go home, the war was over.”

In the 55 ensuring years, Collier — like so many of her generation — got married, raised a family and continued with a teaching career.

One thing was missing, though. There was no memorial, no statue, nothing to commemorate the tough work these women tackled during the nation’s dark days.

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How do you wear your hair to work?  Up?  Down?  Short?  Long?

In the 1940’s there were no two ways about it — to look good, and keep safe, there was only one iconic actress to emulate: Veronica Lake.

An introduction to friction stir welding

By Jeff Defalco, Contributing Writer

September 15, 2009

A relatively new joining process, friction stir welding (FSW) produces no fumes; uses no filler material; and can join aluminum alloys, copper, magnesium, zinc, steels, and titanium. FSW sometimes produces a weld that is stronger than the base material.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new joining process that has been used for high production since 1996. Because melting does not occur and joining takes place below the melting temperature of the material, a high-quality weld is created. This characteristic greatly reduces the ill effects of high heat input, including distortion, and eliminates solidification defects. Friction stir welding also is highly efficient, produces no fumes, and uses no filler material, which make this process environmentally friendly.

History

Friction stir welding was invented by The Welding Institute (TWI) in December 1991. TWI filed successfully for patents in Europe, the U.S., Japan, and Australia. TWI then established TWI Group-Sponsored Project 5651,”Development of the New Friction Stir Technique for Welding Aluminum,” in 1992 to further study this technique.

The development project was conducted in three phases. Phase I proved FSW to be a realistic and practical welding technique, while at the same time addressing the welding of 6000 series aluminum alloys. Phase II successfully examined the welding of aerospace and ship aluminum alloys, 2000 and 5000 series, respectively. Process parameter tolerances, metallurgical characteristics, and mechanical properties for these materials were established. Phase III developed pertinent data for further industrialization of FSW.

Since its invention, the process has received world-wide attention, and today FSW is used in research and production in many sectors, including aerospace, automotive, railway, shipbuilding, electronic housings, coolers, heat exchangers, and nuclear waste containers.

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

This expression makes absolutely no sense if you’re in the profession of welding.

#1: If you can’t stand the heat, why the heck are you a welder?

#2: There is no kitchen. What kitchen? If you’re welding in a kitchen, get out of that kitchen. Right now! There are gas mains!

#3: If you can stand the heat, and you’re not in a kitchen, then why would you move? Stay right there!

In fact, let’s add some more heat. Let’s add some… friction.

That’s right, you heard me. Friction, as in friction stir welding. FSW. It’s all the rage in… in…

Just read…

An introduction to friction stir welding

By Jeff Defalco, Contributing Writer
September 15, 2009

A relatively new joining process, friction stir welding (FSW) produces no fumes; uses no filler material; and can join aluminum alloys, copper, magnesium, zinc, steels, and titanium. FSW sometimes produces a weld that is stronger than the base material.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new joining process that has been used for high production since 1996. Because melting does not occur and joining takes place below the melting temperature of the material, a high-quality weld is created. This characteristic greatly reduces the ill effects of high heat input, including distortion, and eliminates solidification defects.

Friction stir welding also is highly efficient, produces no fumes, and uses no filler material, which make this process environmentally friendly.

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When I was growing up in Long Beach, this school didn’t exist yet, and that’s a pity, for me, and for thousands of other girls who didn’t have the option of going HERE:

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Nailing a trade at Rosie the Riveter High

Long Beach charter school seeks to put young women in nontraditional jobs such as welding and carpentry.

By Bob Pool
December 3, 2009

Students are welding the old to the new at Rosie the Riveter High School.

The Long Beach charter school was created in 2007 to help prepare teenage girls for careers as welders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians and other trades.

Today, its 50-member student body includes girls and boys, but its organizers still attempt to break down barriers for women seeking careers in what largely remains a man’s world.

“It’s about trying to change the way society looks at women,” said Lynn Shaw, who helped create Rosie the Riveter High. “We just feel that women should have an equal opportunity.”

Shaw, who lives in Long Beach, teaches electrical technology at Long Beach City College.

She heads the board of directors for Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles, a nonprofit economic development group that sponsors the charter school.

She knows plenty about nontraditional jobs.

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Edith Kent just turned 100 this past year.  Her fondest memories?
Those of being a woman welder in the Plymouth shipyards, where she was the first female to be paid a man’s wage.

Edith Kent, wartime welder and the first woman to receive equal pay, turns 100

Being 4ft 11in paid off for Edith Kent.

Her diminutive stature meant that she could crawl inside torpedo tubes — and helped her to become the first woman in Britain to earn the same wage as her male colleagues while working as a welder during the Second World War.

This week Mrs Kent celebrated her 100th birthday with a tea dance at a hotel with 50 family and friends, including her sister Minna, 105.

Mrs Kent began working at Devonport dockyard in Plymouth in 1941 but was so good that she received wage parity in 1943 — which was unheard of at the time.

Starting on five pounds and six shillings (£5 6s) a week as a skilled female worker, she was soon given a rise to £6 6s. A male manual worker in 1943 would have been on a weekly wage of only £5 8s 6d.

Mrs Kent, who still lives near the dockyard, said she was extremely proud of her signal achievement but she was embarrassed at the time.

She said: “I got the job because my brothers worked at the dockyard and they thought I would be good at it. I was the first woman to work as a welder there. It made me a bit uncomfortable that I was the first woman to earn the same as the men — and in some cases I was earning more than them. All the men I worked with were marvellous and they didn’t seem to mind me earning the same.

“None of them ever dared say it, but I think they knew I was worth as much as them, if not more,” she said. Mrs Kent took time off to have her only child, Jean, in 1942 and then went back to work — leaving the baby with one of her sisters. She worked at the dockyard until 1945 when the male workers returned from war and she left to work as a barmaid.

Mrs Kent’s daughter, Jean, 66, said: “My mother has lived a remarkable life. After I was born she went straight back to work. She was a pioneer of girl power.”

Mrs Kent, who still lives near the dockyard, said she was extremely proud of her signal achievement but she was embarrassed at the time.

She said: “I got the job because my brothers worked at the dockyard and they thought I would be good at it. I was the first woman to work as a welder there.

It made me a bit uncomfortable that I was the first woman to earn the same as the men — and in some cases I was earning more than them. All the men I worked with were marvellous and they didn’t seem to mind me earning the same.

“None of them ever dared say it, but I think they knew I was worth as much as them, if not more,” she said.

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I defy you not to laugh at this video.  Seriously.  This is a short clip about recruiting women to work during WWII from a 1943 propaganda film entitled ”Manpower”.  Some of my favorite quotes were:

“Employers find that women can do many jobs as well as men.  Some jobs, better.”

and

“They discover that factory work is usually no more difficult than housework.”

Take it with a grain of salt, but remember, it just goes to show you how far we have come in the past 60 years!

Robotic welding may be an automated process, but every machine still needs an operator, especially if the “automated” machine needs its parameters to be set.

Robotic pipe welding with a human touch

Keeping the operator involved in the act of automating pipe welding

By Carl Heinrich
September 1, 2009

Automation has emerged as an alternative to manual welding, but these robotic and fixed automation technologies tend to work for specific applications, rather than general pipe fabricating. Automation coupled with the flexibility of a human operator during the welding process, however, represents a new alternative for those companies looking to squeeze more productivity out of the pipe fabricating process.

When it comes to welding pipe, a welder has to be highly skilled and prepared for many variables. No two jobs are exactly alike, even when they are somewhat similar.

The welder has to be skilled enough to perform code-quality, multiple-pass welding and be experienced enough to recognize when the weld joint will require modifications in technique and parameters to achieve success. In some instances, the welder has to be strong enough to work in unusual positions over large and awkward part configurations and be flexible enough to accommodate inconsistent fit-ups and endless varieties of fittings.

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From the Sept. 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics.  Enjoy!