A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker
| Title |
A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker
|
|---|---|
| Author |
War Office Cinema Committee
|
| Notes |
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.
|
| Item date |
July 1917
|
| Creation place |
Nottingham, England
|
| Item source | |
| Item medium | |
| Content | |
| Cataloguer |
Alisa Miller
|
| Filename |
IWMFILM510-low.mp4
|
| Copyright |
The Imperial War Museum Film Archive
|
| Digital repository | |
| Collection ID |
IWM 510
|
| Repository name |
Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archive
|
| Repository address line1 |
Imperial War Museum
|
| Repository address line2 |
Lambeth Road
|
| Repository address line3 |
London
|
| Repository address Zip code |
SE1 6HZ
|
| Repository address country |
UK
|
| Repository address URL | |
| Publication editor |
Unknown
|
| Producer |
Unknown
|
| Cameramen |
Unknown
|
Collection
Citation
“A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker,” by War Office Cinema Committee. The Imperial War Museum Film Archive via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed December 5, 2023, http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/5522.
Permitted Use
This item is available for non-commercial educational use under the terms of the Jisc Model Licence. Further details available at: http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/permitteduse
