America's Munitions 1917-1918

by Benedict Crowell; United States. War Department

Up to November 11, 1918, we produced over 1,000 balloons of all kinds, 642 of these being of the final Caquot type which we adopted. This production included many propaganda balloons for carrying printed matter over the lines into the enemy's country. We supplied several target balloons for gun practice on our aviation fields. We developed new types of parachutes and built acres of canvas hangars for balloons. We produced 1,221,582 feet of steel mooring cable. These are only the major items in the balloon enterprise, and do not include hundreds of others of less importance.

The balloon production was one of the most important and successful of all our war projects. Although we had a limited knowledge of the subject in the beginning, our balloons stood the hard test of actual service and could bear comparison in every way with the best balloons of Europe, where the art of balloon building had been in existence for many years. Once our production actually started, we never had any shortage of balloons for our own Army; and soon we would have been in a position to produce the observation balloons for all of the armies fighting Germany, if called upon to do so.

Balloon production figures.
BALLOONS AND PARACHUTES.

Firm.	Observation balloons produced to—		Supply balloons produced to—		Miscellaneous balloons produced to—		Parachutes produced to—
	Nov.11, 1918.	Mar.1, 1919.	Nov.11, 1918.	Mar.1, 1919.	Nov.11, 1918.	Mar.1, 1919.	Nov.11, 1918.	Mar.1, 1919.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.,Akron, Ohio	458	565	39	39	[30]3	[30]3	20	20
					[31]5	[31]7
					[32]53	[32]53
B. F. Goodrich Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio	169	279	10	10	[30]3	[30]3	15	15
					{[31]1	[31]1
Connecticut Aircraft Corporation, New Haven, Conn.	22	37	72	72	[31]1	[31]3
United States Rubber Co., East Cambridge, Mass.	23	37
Knabenshue Manufacturing Co., East Northport, Long Island	3	25	1	1	[31]1	[31]1
French-American Balloon Co., St. Louis, Mo.	1	1			[31]2	[31]2
Scott-Omaha Tent & Awning Co., Omaha, Nebr.					[32]161	[32]161	53	228
New York Tent & Awning Co., New York							63
Follemer-Clogg & Co., Lancaster, Pa.							104	131
Bickford Bros., Rochester, N. Y.							1	1
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio			7	7
Columbia Mills (Inc.), Wilkes-Barre,Pa.					[32]1	[32]1
Total manufactured	676	944	129	129	[30]6	[30]6	256	458
					[31]10	[31]14
					[32]215	[32]215
Total shipped to ports	481		6				4
Total shipped to camps, etc.		463		123		[30]6		418
						[31]14
						[32]215

[30] Target.

[31] Spherical.

[32] Propaganda.

WINDLASSES.
Firm.	Produced to—
	Nov. 11, 1918.	Mar. 1, 1919.
McKeen Motor Car Co., Omaha, Nebr.	23	35
Chris D. Schramm & Son, Philadelphia, Pa.	20	20
Jas. Cunningham & Sons Co., Rochester, N. Y	5	35
N. C. L. Engineering Corporation, Providence, R. I.	1	37
Deloies Hoisting Co., New York	1	1
Total manufactured	50	128
Total shipped to camps and depots		124
Total shipped to ports
CABLE.
	Feet.	Feet.
John A. Roeblings Sons Co., Trenton, N. J.	476,700	860,700
American Steel & Wire Co., Worcester, Mass.	744,882
Total manufactured	1,221,582	860,700
Total shipped to ports	486,000
Total shipped to camps and depots		1,119,582
HYDROGEN GAS.
	Cubic feet.	Cubic feet.
Oxygen Gas Co., Kansas City, Mo.	2,715,845	3,568,600
Southern Oxygen Co., South Washington, Va.	945,412	1,608,778
International Oxygen Co., New York	2,166,668	2,166,668
Walker Refining Co., Austin, Tex.	496,000	595,783
Tarrifville Oxygen & Chemical Co., Tarrifville, Con.	1,072,590	1,072,590
Louisiana Oxygen Co., New Orleans	477,500	904,576
Kentucky Oxygen Co., Louisville, Ky.	276,779	540,752
Burdett Oxygen Co., Chicago	9,532,559	11,347,999
Total produced	17,683,353	21,805,746
Total shipped overseas	7,349,578
Total shipped to camps		14,456,168
HYDROGEN CYLINDERS.
National Tube Co., McKeesport, Pa.	35,800	43,300
Harrisburg Pipe & Pipe Bending Co., Harrisburg, Pa.	38,425	65,500
Tindel-Morris Co., North Eddystone, Pa.	15,000	15,000
Total manufactured	80,225	123,800
Total to ports	30,000
Total to camps and warehouses		95,800

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