A vast amount of small tools and construction material was required.
Some 21,000 tons of barbed wire, shipped abroad to be used principally in the construction of entanglements in front of American battle positions, were manufactured principally by the United States Steel Products Co., Jones & Laughlin, the Gulf States Steel Co., and the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., although several other firms also supplied barbed wire.
The Engineering Department ordered in the United States, during the fighting, equipment and supplies which cost approximately $754,201,407.
We furnished in all 85,120 steel shelters of various sizes, of which 38,320 were of the individual type which could be carried by one man. The steel used in these individual shelters was about one-eighth of an inch thick.
There may be expected to be great incidental benefit to future American industry from improvements and inventions brought out by American military engineering in 1917 and 1918.
One important work, for instance, which the Engineer Department undertook was that of standardizing the requirements for paints and varnishes. At the outset our Army needs ran into 29 shades of color in 315 different paint and varnish mixtures. Without affecting any of our camouflage projects or other important undertakings, we reduced the number of shades required from 29 to 16 and brought the total number of commodities down from 315 to 99. This reduction in the range of commodities will be of great use to the paint and varnish industry in the future.
At the beginning of the war the mechanical rubber industry had but few standard specifications. The Engineers, after considerable research, developed 30 standard specifications for mechanical rubber goods, which class included such materials as hose, packing, and sleeves. The representatives of the rubber industry verbally stated that the Engineer Department in this short time did more good to the trade than it had been able to accomplish for itself in the previous three or four years of effort. Immediately after hostilities stopped rubber concerns began asking the Engineer Department for its standard specifications.
In the manufacture of hardware and kitchen utensils there was also considerable standardization done, and changes in manufacturing methods were recommended which were put into effect by the producers. All spun goods were eliminated, and the industry confined itself to straight stamping, which meant a reduction in labor. A standard cobalt coating for enamelware was developed by which the industry conserved about 30 tons of nitre per month and made a more durable and satisfactory enamel coating, with the result that to-day the Army is purchasing its vast quantities of enamelware subject to certain tests, whereas, in the past, practically all this material was bought purely upon the manufacturers' statements. The shortage of tin was of considerable importance. Upon the recommendation of an Engineer officer enormous quantities of cafeteria trays were coated with zinc and large amounts of tin thereby conserved. The finished tray was entirely satisfactory and gave essentially the same service as that plated with tin. Horseshoe nails, formerly a variable product, were standardized and tested, and methods were devised by which the Army was enabled to control their quality.
Before the war there was no standard rating for internal-combustion engines, each manufacturer rating his motors according to his own ideas. Our studies of small engines of the type used for driving pumps or operating woodworking and metal-working machines resulted in many improvements, which have been adopted by the manufacturers of internal-combustion engines. Out of these studies came the so-called army rating, a standard which is bound to result in the more careful rating of commercial engines.