Posted by oldtanker on December 02, 2019 at 18:57:03 from (66.228.255.203):
In Reply to: Rosie the riviter posted by Grandpa love on November 30, 2019 at 18:27:16:
Boy lots of bad info here.
To start with it took months to convert factories over to war production. Yes some production was for lend lease but even that was enough to pull the US economy out of the great depression. The Depression ended in the US in 1942.
So there were tons of workers and idle factories just sitting there ready to be put to work or used.
Total war production only used about 45% of the total US capacity. That far different from England that used 100% of their capacity as did Germany and Japan. About the only 2 things that were not produced during the war for civilians were cars and aircraft. But all through the war you could buy new furniture, appliances and such.
Yes "war tractors" did exist. As described at first they were all magneto ignition and hand start. The materials needed for generators and starters plus batteries were needed for the war effort. Steel wheels too. Most of us are familiar with gas rationing stories from WWII. They had plenty of gas and oil. The TX/OK/LA fields were producing like mad. What we didn't have was rubber. The Vichy French allowed the Japanese to occupy French Indochina. Vietnam and such. That's where we got most of out rubber. After that our only source was India and it had to be shipped around South Africa. So they rationed gas to conserve rubber forcing people to use mass transit and trains. They of course told the people that the gas was needed for the war effort.
As far as MH wanting to build combines to harvest with? Yes they tried but they failed. The war production board turned that request down. That's why so many threshing machines are up in northern areas, The summer of 45 the custom threshing crews started down south and worked north. They were getting close to the end of the season when Japan surrendered. The finished harvest and abandoned the threshing machines rather than ship them home knowing that for the next season they could have combines. The value of scrap died the day the Japanese tossed in the towel so there was nothing to be gained trying to sell them. Scrap man didn't want them. Manpower for the threshing crews wasn't a problem either. Most farmers were exempt from the draft as was anyone working in a war essential job. Cops, firefighter, farmers were considered essential. Now there were exceptions. Say you were farming with 2 sons. One could be drafted. Same with some factory jobs. Or engineers. Train crews too. Plus for what it's worth? Actual combines were around in the late 1800's. And no, a combine was not a MH idea. The self propelled part was but not the combine itself.
Kinda like the scrap metal drives they had where people were donating pots ans and anything else. Most of that stuff went to the dump. Very little was used. We had huge iron ore mines and didn't need it. That was designed to make the average citizen, the ones who were to young, female, too old or crippled up to feel like they were doing there part. Basically it was a scam. There some good info on the Brits doing the same thing. Except in England there were a lot of fancy wrought iron fences that were scrapped. When the war ended they had piles of this stuff. Not wanting to let the people know they were lied too they loaded it on barges and this stuff was dumped into the ocean.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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