WEAK SEAMS: CONTROVERSY OVER WELDING THEORY AND PRACTICE IN AMERICAN SHIPYARDS, 1938-1946
Titel:
WEAK SEAMS: CONTROVERSY OVER WELDING THEORY AND PRACTICE IN AMERICAN SHIPYARDS, 1938-1946
Auteur:
Tassava, Christopher James
Verschenen in:
History and technology
Paginering:
Jaargang 19 (2003) nr. 2 pagina's 87-108
Jaar:
2003-06
Inhoud:
At the height of World War II, America's record-setting shipyards were stunned when several merchant ships literally cracked in half. Worried that endemic manufacturing defects might endanger the entire wartime merchant marine, engineers argued that poor workmanship by shipyard welders had contributed to the accidents, that their own technical expertise should be more highly valued, and that they should be granted greater authority over the shipyard workforces. However, administrators in US Maritime Commission rejected these arguments. Instead, federal officials and shipyard managers assumed that many factors had contributed to the fractures and chose to implement a few modest, practical measures which soon stopped the fracture epidemic: improved worker training, the elimination through redesign of certain structural flaws in the endangered ships' hulls, and especially the installation of reinforcing devices at weak points in the ships. This episode not only draws attention to the way warfare heightens the stakes of technical controversies, but demonstrates the utility and resilience, even and especially at highly-charged moments, of practical knowledge and straightforward craftsmanship.
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