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

Miller Time: 1942

September 1942. "Detroit, Michigan. Milling machine operator at the Allison Motors plant." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size.

September 1942. "Detroit, Michigan. Milling machine operator at the Allison Motors plant." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Kearney & Trecker

That's definitely a Kearney & Trecker horizontal. I've spent many hours running them. The other photo that was posted in the comments may be a Brown & Sharpe but it's not the same as the machine she is operating. The geometry of the overarm arbor support is different.

Also see the difference in the front apron mounted feed lever and oil port. There is a hex head plug for oiling, left of center in the original post. The other photo posted has a spring loaded swinging metal cover on the oil port right of center.

Safety First

Many of the pictures on Shorpy of machine operators without eye protection make me grit my teeth. I spent my working life in the machine tool industry and safety glasses/goggles were at the top of the list. Even wearing glasses I was milling cast iron two different occasions and got cast iron "dust" embedded in my eyeball. Under magnification, these "dust" particles looked like tiny needles. I wonder how many people suffered eye injuries during those days?

Collectible

Her employee badge, boldly proclaiming her to be TEMPORARY, is a pure Cadillac collectible. That would be a really fine thing to pick up at a garage sale. Beats yet another union pinback badge.

What beautiful eyes

And the woman's eyes are very nice, too.

Left Arm, Please

I noticed her smallpox vaccination scar on her left arm. I have one in the same place: it's nearly faded away by now—like so many of my generation (and certainly of hers). Some girls then were given the vaccination on their thighs, "where it wouldn't show." It's a different world now, and smallpox is just a dim memory.

It’s a pareidolia moment

Can’t help but look at the machine and see a face that seems to be saying ‘Wow! A woman!’

Kearney & Trecker?

We had a very similar horizontal mill at the old GE plant where I worked. It did have the 'finish is approved by the War Production Board' brass badge on it. Not sure but I think the machine was made by Kearney & Trecker* of Milwaukee.

*Upon finding another photo of the same machine, I have come to the conclusion that it is a Brown & Sharpe Model 2.

Title?

I don't know what to title this. Originally I thought "Top Ten". The problem is you keep coming up with a headline that shoves a Top Ten headline out of the Top Ten. And they don't deserve to be shoved out.

The Top Ten probably contains close to a thousand headlines.

If all that makes sense!

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