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This photo shows one of the many
intermediate stages of helmet production which exposed each helmet to
a series of heat treatments in large industrial ovens.
Because the steel shell became weaker as a
result of the press form molding process, the helmet had to be heated
at various intervals to strengthen the steel and to make it harder.
On the left side of this photo can be seen a stack of M35 helmets
without any paint or primer whatsoever. These helmets are waiting to
be heat treated by the men working this oven.
On the shelf in the middle of the photo
can be seen a number of helmets that have already been heat treated
and which are cooling after having recently come from the oven.
One can see that many helmets were stacked into piles with some taller
than others. It appears as though no specific requirement was
established with regards to stacking protocol.
The helmets at the right side of the photo
have already been given a surface coat of paint. This is
evidenced by the fact that they are darker and glisten more due to the
wet paint. Helmets were not painted in this particular oven
room, but rather in a room adjacent to the ovens. It is entirely
possible that this stack of helmets is from a different oven located
near by (outside the image range of the photograph). Photographs
showing women laborers painting helmets using pneumatic spray guns
indicate that this was the standard method of painting helmets in the
factory.
Most helmets had their paint surfaces
baked to achieve a faster drying time and to produce a more durable
paint surface. The painting process was done with mechanical,
hand operated pneumatic spray guns as noted earlier. No
automatic equipment existed at this time and all of the work needed to
be accomplished by skilled or unskilled laborers. This resulted
in somewhat slow of a process that could also produce errors if not
supervised closely. |
