Harold Turpin designed the punched, folded and fabricated sear too. But after the war, when the Government were giving out (somewhat paltry) awards for inventors, he submitted a claim for this and other inventions. But, alas, he was employed as a draughtsman at Enfield and they argued that that was in fact his job! So his (dual) invention of the Sten Gun went unrewarded. He claimed that the sear was done entirely at home, using cardboard templates and in his own time. He also submitted the same account regarding the fabricated one-piece magazine catch. They relented and awarded him the grand sun of £1500.
I was absolutely horrified by the total and blatant disregard for any form of health and safety Vince and others. It makes me wonder how we ever won the war or how we produced 2.5 million Sten guns. I shudder at the very thought of it. Sleepless nights too
That’s the way it was before trade unions, like Mexico, South and Central America are today. The owners view workers as expendable and have no regard for their safety. Things like eye or hearing protection cost money and they don’t want to spend it.
We see “undocumented” workers a lot here in Texas. Safety glasses and ear plugs are totally foreign to them. They get used to them after a while. It’s part of the better life they came here looking for.
The way they mass produced arms in that era is just staggering think the USA was producing one Sherman tank every 30 minutes off the production line[COLOR="black"]
Makes me laugh to think about how quickly the good ol' USA could "ramp up" production today. Trying to convert all the McDonald's, Walmart's, Lowe's, etc. over to war production...