Lucille Mazurek: 1943

Most factories had rules against too much jewelry, but in this case, it may have interfered with her work - she has a ring line on her finger, so I guess she took it off when working. A lot of gold bands back then were softer alloys, like 24-carat, than a lot of bands nowadays, too, so maybe she didn't want it marked up or abused.

No wedding ring. I wonder if they were required to remove them when working or is the photo reversed?

[As we can tell from Lucille's ID badge and the writing on the metal parts, the photo is not reversed. - Dave]

Mrs. Mazurek passed away in Milwaukee in 1991 according to the SSDI.

She certainly was a beautiful woman.

Every woman was lovely and graceful and every man was handsome and dashing.

It appears that Heil and Company started in Milwaukee in 1901 and is still in business.

http://www.heiltrailer.com/history.aspx

[Thanks Jack! If you signed up for a user account and then logged in, your comments would appear right away. - Dave]

Not to be too picky, but the USAF wasn't formed until 1947. That really should read "Air Corps gasoline trailers".

[Not quite. "Air Force" was short for Army Air Forces, the name of the flying service from 1941 to 1947. Before 1941 it was the Army Air Corps. - Dave]

I believe the conduit (tubing & fittings) was used to house the wiring and provide an explosion-proof lamp assembly. The sealed lamp wiring was necessary to prevent any potential internal ignition (such as an electrical spark) from escaping to the outside atmosphere, which for a gasoline trailer could contain explosive gas fumes.

Here is a web page that describes military blackout lamps and includes some photos.

Mike_G

Been doing a little online research and have some basics. A blackout light generally put out a rectangular beam of light smaller than what a regular headlight would. In many of the examples I've seen online there was a sort of shield at the top of the rectangular beam that would keep light from spreading upward, and being visible to aircraft overhead. Some wartime jeeps had blackout lights under the regular headlights, but some models - probably made early on - had a single blackout light mounted on the driver's side fender. Presumably most military vehicles hadt to be similarly retrofitted with blackout lights. I'm just guessing, but the tubes look to be designed to protect the wiring of the retrofitted lights from water or other environmental damage from being exposed, and (probably more important on a gasoline trailer) to eliminate the possibility of sparking.

Must be the second shift. Anyway, my guess to Lonestar's question is that since these are blackout lamps for a gasoline trailer, the copper tubing could be used as an electric wire conduit to reduce the chance of electric sparks-copper used because it is a non-sparking metal when struck.

And to robcat2075 and Jason Martens: Y'all be careful now, that Ms Lucille looks like an Irish lass with that red hair, and you wouldn't want to go and get her mad at you...she looks like she could be a handful.

Vehicles hauling inflammable liquids typically had the wiring sealing inside metallic tubing to prevent a loose connection from arcing and igniting fumes.

Most curious...I'd think that these would be electric lamps, but can't figure why they'd have pipe/tubing fittings on them. Any ideas?

And, Mrs. Mazurek is certainly beautiful.

Ok, what is a blackout lamp? I imagine it is something used during blackouts, but what is it? A light with a red lens?

hmmm... the tight sweater probably didn't hurt her employment opportunities.

I would *love* to know what the lady in the corner is thinking:

"That redheaded vixen and her damn lipstick... God, I hate her..."