The national geographic magazine 



Q 



To 



man's slogan — "Speed 

 up !" Hence the many 

 riveting contests 

 which were staged in 

 every shipyard in the 

 country until the con- 

 centration of attention 

 on this particular 

 branch of the industry 

 threatened demorali- 

 zation of the coordi- 

 nate branches. But the 

 riveter is still the hero 

 of the hull in the eyes 

 of the people. 



Many have been the 

 astonishing records of 

 rivets driven in 8 or 

 10 hours, and a flood 

 of controversy has re- 

 sulted. Perhaps it is 

 better to avoid dispu- 

 tation b y omitting 

 stellar single-day 

 achiev e m e n t s. A 

 clearer idea of the 

 work actually accom- 

 plished may be gained 

 from the recital of 

 such records as that 

 of one team in a Pa- 

 cific Coast yard which 

 drove an average of 

 697 rivets a day for 26 

 consecutive working 

 days of the month, in 

 every part of the ship. 

 A thousand rivets a 

 day is not unusual for 

 certain parts of the 

 hull, but 400 rivets a 

 day for all gangs is a 

 conservative estimate. 



The riveter is per- 

 mitted to choose whether he shall be paid 

 by the day, at 70 to 80 cents an hour, or 

 by piece-work (from $4 to $6 a hundred, 

 according to the part of the ship in which 

 he is riveting) . If he is engaged in piece- 

 work he takes 44 per cent of the total, 

 the bucker-up gets 33 per cent, and the 

 heater of the rivets gets 23 per cent. 



SCHOOLS FOR RIVETERS 



So great has been the demand for riv- 

 eters that it was impossible to supply 



(Q) Committee on Fubhc Intormation 



REAMERS AT WORK BENEATH THE BOTTOM OF A SHIP 



Their trade is to rectify the inaccuracies and mistakes of others. 

 With the various parts of the ship made in many widely separated 

 sections of the country, under a variety of conditions, the rivet holes 

 of two plates to be joined frequently do not coincide properly. The 

 reamers use their air-driven machine to rout out the holes so that 

 the rivets may be driven home straight. 



them from the structural iron - work 

 trades at the beginning of our intensive 

 shipbuilding program. Schools for riv- 

 eters were established, therefore, and 

 these are still in highly successful oper- 

 ation in many yards. A man of the 

 proper physique (he must be stalwart to 

 stand up against the thrust of the ham- 

 mer, whose lightning blows register 50 

 tons a minute) can usually learn to be a 

 riveter in 10 days or two weeks, devoting 

 from 8 to 10 hours a day to instruction 



