PAGE 6 S3SWS OCTOBER, 1956 KEW BEDFORD WATERFRONT—Old ground is the State Pier, berth for Navy TONS OF STEEL—Steel bars—each cars and slacked in steel storage at New and new piers stand next to each other destroyers and Coast Guard vessels. Be- six inches square and weighing approxi- Bedford Defense Products. This overhead on the New Bedford waterfront. In fore- hind it are the fish wharves. mately a ton—are unloaded from freight crane handles eight bars at a time. Historic New Bedford, Mass., Home Of Defense Products Plant Historic whaling port, fishing capital of the At lantic coast, for years a city of spinning textile machinery and now a center of up-to-the-minute In dustries. That’s New Bedford, Mass., home town for sev eral hundred Firestone employees. Set 60 miles south of Boston and as a gateway to Cape Cod, New Bedford Is a city where the old and the new meet and get along famously together. Taka the Firestone plant for example. From outside, It’s a long, sturdy expanse of red brick and small-paned windows, a familiar type of factory building that is related to modern architecture like a Stanley Steamer Is kin to Cadillac’s El Dorado. But take a look Inside. Here Is a masterpiece of planning by automation- minded engineers. Twelve million dollars worth of In tricate machinery transforms a rough chunk of steel Into a shell that’s more precisely machined than any ever fired at an enemy of America. NEW BEDFORD employees turn out the 155-mm. shell and one of the Army’s newest (details are still hush-hush) ballistic weapons, the projectile for use In a 106-mm. recollless rifle system. The 106-mm. shell is a Firestone development, product of Defense Research Division In Akron. During the Korean War, the Army fired thousands of 155-mm. shells. Ordnance wanted a network of plants equipped to manufacture this ballistic bulwark of the artillery. Firestone bid on and got a contract to manu facture the 78-pound projectiles at New Bedford. Before production there had to be conversion. A plant originally designed for manufacture of cotton cloth was made Into an arsenal for drawing, forging, machining and shaping steel almost as if It were clay in a sculptor’s hands. Contractors tore out floors and walls. Installed giant furnaces, forging presses, batteries of lathes and other machinery, some of which almost think by themselves. FIRESTONE Is not the only place In New Bedford where old and new meet. You find modern stores and office buildings downtown just a few doors from state ly houses capped with “Widows’ Walks,” where sea captains’ wives watched for a familiar sail. From the historic brick courthouse, the ships’ chandlers’ shops or the seaman’s church that Herman Melville described in “Moby Dick,” you can walk to an electronics factory, or the new State Pier. And, while you’re on the waterfront, you won’t miss the sights, sounds and smell of the fishing wharves. Economically, scallops are the most prized catch of the New Bedford fishing fleet, which hauls home the larg est catch of salt water fish of any East Coast port. Only San Pedro and San Diego In California are bigger fish ing centers. Always the sea has been second home to New Bed ford men. Conversation among Firestone employees often turns tD fishing for striped bass or the best way to caulk a boat. In its most famous days, New Bed ford was the world’s greatest whaling port. Today the Whaling Museum illuminates a visitor’s imagination. with visions of history long after all the whale oil lamps of America have been dimmed. At the museum adults and children can board a half-slze model of a whaling ship that is authentic from keel to topsail. THE LAST whaling ship left long ago, but New Bed ford’s deep water port is a busy place. The fleet of 150 offshore fishing boats, Navy destroyers, Coast Guard vessels, tankers and steamers to the offshore islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket constantly pass in and out of the roadstead. The harbor is surrounded by industrial plants, among them the textile com panies—New Bedford has 20 factories in this Industry—- manufacturing shirts, sheets and other products that are known everywhere. Though many textile plants have left New Bedford for the South, those that re mained are among the most efficient in the country, according to leaders in that, industry. IN ALL, New Bedford has approximately 250 indus tries employing 30,000 of the city’s 109,000 people. An active civic foundation Is working to attract new plants to the area. Diversification of industries is the newest trend in New Bedford. Wherever you live you can buy glass curtain fabrics, apparel, electronic parts, nuts, bolts, Venetian blinds, brass rods, golf balls and a host of other New Bedford products. And, if they are needed, shells made by Firestone in this New England city will help to guard the nation. FISHING WHARVES—Fishing draggers bring billions of scallops and deep sea fish to New Bed ford each year. The city ranks first among East Coast fishing ports. BATTERIES OF MACHINES—Mechanical de vices place shells into position on the battery of lathes used to machine each 155-mm. shell to proper dimensions. . I ABOVE—Newly painted shells are inspected before heinS packed for shipment from New Bedford. Paint is applied as electrostatic spray. This produces a coating that is complete and uniform in thickness. LEFT—Steel billets that will become 155-mm. shells are heated white hot in a rotary furnace at the New Bedford plant. An operator uses mechanical arms to remove a healed billet and place it position to be conveyed to forging presses.
