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VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Bovey Blasters: 1941

August 1941. "Blasting crew in the Danube iron mine. Bovey, Minnesota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

August 1941. "Blasting crew in the Danube iron mine. Bovey, Minnesota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Safety glasses

And I thought they were a gathering of the Robert Woolsey fan club!

Those aren't tobacco cans

They are the tins that held the blasting caps that fired the dynamite. I remember my dad had his shot papers to shoot underground dynamite.

Happy Bunch

A really happy bunch. They get to blow things up!

Safety Specs

I have a very similar pair that belonged to my grandfather. He was a machinist during the run-up to WW2. If memory serves me the lenses are ground from quartz. My grandfather's pair has a deep scratch that was caused by something in a metal lathe shattering and the pieces flying everywhere. Better a scratched lens than a missing eye.

Grouchos

These cowboys look like they know how to joke and take a joke. I wouldn't be surprised if they had all put Groucho mustaches under their safety glasses for this picture.

Or Tape

As a longtime snuff chewer, I would agree that those are most likely smokeless tobacco cans, but there's a good possibility that those are rolls of electrical or friction tape, used to splice wire.

Light 'em up if you got 'em

Oh wait -- maybe that's why they're all using chewing tobacco.

Snoose

Snus or snoose would be the local name for what's in those cans; a very common Scandanavian habit here back in the day.

Snuff cans

or hockey pucks in their shirts. I'm betting on "Red Man".

Requirement

Wanted: Blast crew members. Must wear glasses. All others need not apply.

[The identical safety specs they're wearing are indeed mandatory. - Dave]

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