A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker
Item
Title
A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker
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Identifier
5750.mp4
IWMFILM510-low.mp4
Creator
War Office Cinema Committee
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Abstract
Manual work done by women at a British munitions factory, spring 1917. The young woman leaves her terraced house (section tinted blue) at 5am and takes the train to the factory (tinting ends). In the locker room she and the others change into overalls and boots, and clock on. She works on finishing 8-inch shells, pouring molten explosive in to top the cases up, capping them using a wheel to clear the screw threads, adding the detonator and stencilling them. A trolley takes another batch away. Other women, wearing masks against the fumes, top up heavier shells. The women are given a brief medical examination on site, lasting no more than a few seconds. In one suspect case a blood sample is taken. The women wear shifts to wash, which is compulsory before meals and on leaving the factory. A final close-up of the young woman, pretty without her mask and almost coy, 'working for victory'. According to an article in the Nottingham Evening Post, Saturday 8 February 2003, the factory shown is the National Shell-Filling Factory at Chilwell, Nottingham. It was destroyed in an explosion July 1 1918, with great loss of life. The railway station shown at the beginning is Attenborough station, according to the same source.
Date
July 1917
Date Created
1917-07-01
Temporal Coverage
1917-07-31
Spatial Coverage
Nottingham, England
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Source
DVD copy of original film
Medium
DVD copy of original film
Type
Footage
Contributor
Alisa Miller
Publisher
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive
producer
Unknown
Subject
Allied Forces
Home Front
Munitions
War
Western Front
Women