THURSDAY, 1 JA N UARY 2026 design was used subsequently. This ‘blew out’ the time it took to design and perfect the equipment to build truly interchangeable rifles at Lithgow. The Enfield Inch was never used after that and was abolished in 1924. Lithgow SAF Machine Shop, Boring & Rifle Barrels Section in 1914. From the SAF Museum Archives. Time in making a rifle As was typical at the time, machines did not have individual electric motors, but were powered by flat leather belts run from overhead pulleys on lineshafts. Under the British Enfield manufacturing methods, between 48 and 72 man-hours per rifle were required, with virtually all of the time requiring skilled tradesmen. Such men were widely available in Britain – but not so in Australia. With the more mechanised Pratt & Whitney production practices, 23.5 man-hours per rifle were needed to build an SMLE 303 rifle, of which only 10 minutes required a skilled tradesman (for barrel straightening). However, it should be noted that the practices used by Pratt & Whitney required skilled labour in terms of toolmakers and millwrights for making tools, jigs, gauges and undertaking machinery modifications. The Drawing Office also required skills. In fact, the Lithgow Factory had to supply a lot of its own production equipment beyond that supplied with the original contract. Much of the production equipment was managed by the Factory but supplied and installed by local and UK contractors, such as the major power plant – this being in 1910 to 1912. At the time and subsequently, the machinery-based production methods of the US proved their value. The initial annual volume of 15,000 rifles and bayonets was soon increased in 1913 to 20,000. This was further increased to 35,000 in 1914. The working week increased from 48 hours per week to 68 hours. Initially, this move was on a one shift basis – people were asked to work extended hours from September 2014 to July 2015. It soon became apparent that this was harming worker health and it was in July 2015 that a two-shift production process was introduced. Employee numbers soared from 120 in 1912 to 1300 in 1918. At the end of WW1 and after, rifle production was ongoing but at a significantly reduced rate of 3000 per year. One-off defence requirements were in play such as producing spare parts and converting rifle barrels for the new Mk VII ammunition. In the lead up to WW1 and during most of the WW1 period, the SMLE used Mark VI ammunition. As the war progressed, so did ammunition technology and in 1917, the new ammunition – Mark VII – with aerodynamically superior projectiles gave the rifle bullets a 24% higher muzzle velocity than the Mk VI version. And so, there were many rifles which needed to be updated to take the Mk VII ammunition. Production volume during 1914-1918 was 133,600 rifles. To overcome the problem, Pratt & Whitney designed and manufactured a perfectly toleranced version of the SMLE 303 rifle and used it to develop a whole new set of drawings, tolerances and specifications. The batch of compromise-design rifles which P&W along with Clarkson 1 developed in 1911, after knowing of the sloppy British specifications, were taken to the UK for inspection and approval. The P&W rifles had been modified to allow interchangeability of parts, and following approval, the P&W design was used subsequently. This ‘blew out’ the time it took to design and perfect the equipment to build truly interchangeable rifles at Lithgow. The Enfield Inch was never used after that and was abolished in 1924. Time in making a rifle As was typical at the time, machines did not have individual electric motors, but were powered by flat leather belts run from overhead pulleys on lineshafts. Under the British Enfield manufacturing methods, Maggie Marriott's nom de guerre Page 36 of 41 Maggie Marriott
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online