No, we’re not talking about not insects, nor the Protestants.  These are the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who served during WWII (the first to ever do so) — right alongside the Rosies who helped build the planes in which they flew!

Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, they were the first women to fly U.S. military planes.

About 200 of these women aviators, mostly in their late 80s and early 90s and some in wheelchairs, came to the Capitol to accept the medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.

In thanking them for their service, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said these women pilots went unrecognized for too long.

“Women Air Force Service Pilots, we are all your daughters, you taught us how to fly,” Pelosi said.

In accepting the award, WASP pilot Deanie Parrish said the women had volunteered to fly the planes without expectation that they would ever be thanked. Their mission was to fly noncombat missions to free up male pilots to fly overseas.

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Albert Paley went from designing jewelry to creating sculptures of immense stature, but continued to use the same soft touch, even when creating giants out of steel.

Size, Scale and Detail in Creations of Steel

By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
Published: February 5, 2010

It is easy to be impressed by the Albert Paley retrospective at Grounds for Sculpture, the 35-acre sculpture park and museum on the former site of the New Jersey State Fairgrounds in Hamilton. The size and scale of the metal sculptures in this indoor exhibit are mind-blowing; some pieces are around 15 feet high, while others weigh up to a ton. They are monumental.

Born in Philadelphia in 1944, Mr. Paley initially worked in New York City making art jewelry, but in the late 1960s he moved to Rochester, where he is on the faculty of the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is essentially an abstract artist, assembling dynamic, flamboyant structures using wedges, blocks and ribbons of steel.

The artist’s training as a jewelry designer has served him extremely well, for while the scale of his artwork has exploded, his attention to detail has remained steadfast. He is a perfectionist who seems to take delight in challenging himself in terms of execution and concept. He is also the only heavy metal sculptor I know who can make his material seem fragile and delicate.

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I want to steal the name of her blog.  Seriously.

This is a fantastic look into the workings of a women welder’s mind written by Wendy Welder.  Perhaps she is related to our good friend, Joe Welder??

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2010

How it all started.
Even as a little girl, I had dirt under my fingernails and grease smeared across my face. I grew up in the garage, at the shop, out in the yards with my Dad. Dad worked in tire retread and his hobby was cars, so I saw a lot of cars, a lot of trucks and a lot of men in my childhood.

Weekends were spent at the race track or at car shows. Dad raced a 1972 Nova before I was born, and I think everytime we went to the track he wished it was him out there. It wasn’t long before I wished it was me.

My first car was a Chevy Nova. I drove it everywhere, and I loved it like it was my child. But, it was my first car, and I was just learning how to take care of it and how everything worked. My parents always reminded me to check the oil and I always forgot. When the engine blew, Dad made ME replace it. (Of course he helped) And while I had always been around when he worked on cars, seeing the daylight through the hole in the block where the rod had flown through, and the whole process of the replacement, the sense of accomplishment when the car was up and running again, made me love that car even more and made me want to spend the rest of my life around cars.

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Gordon Brown has lately honoured the women who worked in the steel factories during WWII!  Huzzah for our fellow Rosies from across the sea!

Sheffield’s World War II Women of Steel are thanked

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has paid tribute to hundreds of female workers who toiled in the steel factories of South Yorkshire during World War II.

The workers, known as the Women of Steel, produced metal which was essential for the war effort.

Among them were Ruby Gascoigne, 87, Dorothy Slingsby and Kathleen Roberts, both 88, and Kit Sollitt, 90, who were honoured on a visit to Downing Street.

They travelled from Sheffield on a train named the Women of Steel Express.

The engine was specially renamed in honour of the occasion and was unveiled by the four steel mill veterans before their journey on Wednesday.

The women received a special letter of thanks from veterans minister Kevan Jones and met Sheffield MPs at the House of Commons before visiting 10 Downing Street.

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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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