Volume XIV May 1942
NEWS Bulletin of the
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ELECTRICAL INSPECTORS
WAR PRODUCTION
The government has one prime object in all its efforts regulating production taking advantage of every possible means for assuring ultimate victory for this country.
The whole program of the government in restrictions, priorities, allocations, and other forms of regulation is aimed at this one purpose, and every activity in which the individual is engaged must be judged on the basis of its value as a part of this major program.
As Donald M. Nelson, Chairman of the War Production Board, has so aptly said:
"None of us can give up more than the individual who gives up his life in the forefront of battle."
The various government orders that affect the electrical industry, and that are abstracted in the following pages, all have as the one object: the winning of this war!
The personal desires of every one affected must be subjugated to the good of the whole the maintenance of this nation.
CRITICAL MATERIALS
The Bureau of Industrial Conservation of the War Production Board issues from time to time reports on the relative scarcity of certain materials.
This list is subject to change at any time. The following items in which the electrician is interested, is from the list dated March 12, 1942.
In Group I are the materials most vitally needed for war purposes. They are not generally available to civilian use: steel, aluminum, cadmium, chromium, iridium, lead, magnesium, nickel, tin, tungsten, copper, long fiber asbestos, rubber.
In Group II are included essential war materials whose supply is not as critically limited as Group 1: mercury, mica splittings, platinum, reclaimed rubber, shellacs, and zinc.
In Group III are included materials available in some quantities for other than strictly war purposes. These materials are restricted or limited: common asbestos, asphalt, brick and tile, cement, slate, concrete, wall board, plywood, and silver.
PRIORITIES
On April 7, 1942, Donald M. Nelson, chairman of the War Production Board, stated that WPB orders already issued or about to be signed provide for the virtual cessation of consumers' durable goods industries using critical metals in the United States and the conversion of their men, plants, and facilities to an all out war effort.
Some production is still being carried on, but within three months almost all of it will be stopped except for that production necessary for war and essential civilian purposes and replacement parts.
Order L 65
The War Production Board on March 30 ordered manufacturers of electrical appliances to discontinue at once the use of certain critical materials in the manufacture of a long list of electrical appliances commonly found in American homes.
Between March 30 and May 31 these manufacturers, some 200 concerns that normally produced approximately $60,000,000 worth of appliances annually, may produce appliances at a rate of approximately one and a half times their rate of production in 1941, though without the use of critical materials prohibited by the March 30 order.
After May 31 they must halt production of all appliances except to fill orders or contracts bearing preference ratings higher than A 2.
The production of replacement parts is not affected.
The order affects such common household appliances as electric toasters, waffle irons, flat irons, roasters, grills, table stoves, portable heaters, food mixers, juice extractors, percolators, dish washing equipment, dry shavers, hair dryers, permanent wave equipment, hair clippers, cigar and cigarette lighters, and heating units for new electric ranges, water heaters, and radiating heaters.
Rubber
The need for the conservation of rubber was brought home to the American people by the restrictions on automobile tires. The necessity for rubber conservation extends to all uses of rubber, however, and as rubber is the most common form of insulating covering for electrical conductors, the electrical field will be very much affected. |
Rewire the house…or at least the circuits using this stuff. It does look like old doorbell wire.