...

Sec. 562, P.,L. & R.U. S. POSTAGE

Paid

r

L.-M. COllllui11ee --.The Labor-Management Committee at ~Anaconda presented awards to Harry

I

Brown. Joseph Antonich and Michael J.Kelly at their meeting, November 24.These Awards for Production Ideas aregiven to those who submit acceptablesuggestions to the Labor-ManagementCommiHee. An acceptable suggestion isone which will increase production or ,improve safety or workin2 conditions.

T HE top picture shows E. A. Barnard.Harry Brown. Joseph Antonich, MichaelJ. Kelly, and Charles McLean, at the -Labor-Management meeting at which theawards were presented by E. A. Barnard,ACM, chairman, and Charles McLean, •CIO. secretary, for production sugges-tions which had been accepted.

Joseph Antonich, shown receivinghis award in the picture below, suggestedthat the concentrator screens be punchedplate screens instead of wire. His sug-gestion has increased the life of thescreens from eight to forty. days. Thissuggestion increases production by less-ening time lost in changing the screens.

"In the second picture from the bot-tom, Michael J. Kelly is receiving anaward for suggesting the conservationand control of the oil from the HardingeMill bearings. His suggestion keeps theoil from getting on the floor. thus makingthe floor slippery and therefore a safetyhazard. In addition to that. through hissuggestion the oil is recovered and it iskept out of the mill flotation circuits. ~,

A suggestion for a screen to be usedahead of a pump in the zinc plant wasmade by Harry Brown. shown in the bot-tom picture receiving his award. Formerly ..the pump had to be shut down each dayfor cleaning. but with Harry's suggestionof the screen, it is only necessary to shutit down every six months.

In This Issue:FRONT COVER _ _.. _..__1

Uncle Sam tried to take care of Christ-mas Day for the boys and girls in theArmed Forces' by· designating mailingdates for all packages. That was so theboys could have just as good a time aspossible on Chtistmas Day opening theirpresents from home, as the boy on thefront cover is doing. But let's resolvethat next year it won't be necessary.

SUCCESTION AWARDS . .... _... _..... _... 2

On November 24 the Labor-Manage-ment Committee at Anaconda presentedawards to Harry Brown, Joseph Antonichand Michael J. Kelly for suggestions sub-mitted. The suggestions made by thesethree men help increase' production andimproved safety conditions. The Labor-Management Committee wants always toencourage and honor such suggestions.

LOCAL FOUNDRY _ _ _ _. 6

The smallest shop at Great Falls is doingone of the biggest jobs in helping to keepthe wheels turning. Let's pay a visit tothis interesting place and see just howbiz problems become little ones. This isa Shop with a fine record.

WHO'S WHO __._._ __._._. .__ _9

The editors of COPPER COMMANDOmade a trip underground and got somerandom shots. The idea was presentedto make a quiz of these shots. It's up toyou to identify the people, the mine andtJi'e level. The first one to call in-thephone number is 4444 and give us therizht answer will receive a special lunchbucket prepared by ..Platter Chatter".

CAN YOU TOP THIS RECORD? _B'For the past seven years Abraham D.Thomas has not missed a single shift inthe mines at Butte. For the past twenty-five years h'e has not needed-nor has hehad-a single hospital slip. Anyone witha better record than this, come in andtell us. We want to know.

TO TH E LAST ATOM __._.... _.... .... _.. 10

At the Smelter at Anaconda it's impor-tant to know just what makes up everybit of ore which is brought in. Samplesare sent over to the Laboratory from theLaboratory Sample Mill and a thoroughanalysis is' made. These analyses aremighty important for the proper handlingof the ore when it reaches the differentdepartments.

DECEMBER, 24. 1943

CHRISTMAS DINNER: We poor civilians have to put up with a whole lot from foodrationing and not being able to buy what we want. But the chances are that mostof us will be able to get a pretty fair Christmas dinner for ourselves this year. As weeat it, let's give a thought to the million s of men like this one who take what theyget and like it. And let's make sure that next year they're back home again.

•COPPER COMMANDO is the official newspaper of the Victory Labor-Managemenf

Production Committees of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and its Union

Representatives at Butte, Anaconda, East Helena and Great Falls, Montana. It is

issued every two weeks .•. COPPER COMMANDO is headed by a joint committeefrom Labor and Management; its policies are shaped by both sides and are dictated

by neither ... COPPER COMMANDO was established at the recommendation ofthe War Department with the concurrence of the War Production Board. Its edi-tors are Bob Newcomb and Marg Sammons; its safety editor is John L. Boardman:

its chief photographer is AI Gusdorf; its s'taf'f photographer is Les Bishop ... ItsEditorial Board consists of: Denis McCarthy, CIO; John F. Bird, AFL; Ed Renouard,ACM, from Butte; Dan Byrne, CIO; Joe Marick, AFL; C. A. Lemmon, ACM, fromAnaconda; Jack Clark, CIO; Herb Donaldson, AFL, and E. S. Bardwell, ACM, fromGreat Falls ... COPPER COMMANDO is mailed to the home of every employee of

ACM in the four locations-if you are not receiving your copy advise COPPER COM-MANDO at 112 Hamilton Street, Butte, or, better still, drop in and tell us. This is

. Volume 2. No.9.

.3.

MERRYXMAS!

•In only a few hours it will be Christmas.On fighting. fronts all over the world the,fighting itself may not suspend but thethoughts of all fighting men will be ofhome. This is just a simple little storytelling what Uncle Sam is doing for hisboys and girls in the fighting forces andwhat' we, as. individuals figh~ing on thehome front, can do to i~sure that no~merican boy will "ave to be away from

. home this time next yeat'.

•

IT'S Christmas again and probably thestrangest one in the history of this coun-try. For millions of the young fellows towhom Christmas means a great deal arefar away from home.

Thanks to the help and cooperationof the American people, our fighting boyswill have as pleasant a Christmas as cir-cumstances permit. Most of them can'tbe home, we all know, but becauseChristmas packages were wrapped and

mailed early, Santa Claus will pay a visitto the American boys all over the worldin time for Christmas.

We like that picture at the top' ofthe page because we thought it symbol-ized so nicely the spirit of Christmas inan Army camp; this sort of simple cere-mony will be taking place wherever it ispossible all over the world. The lads, inthe picture below-all Pennsylvania sol-diers in Company 8 of the Tenth Regi-

ment in Camp Lee's Quartermaster Re-placement Center-are probably over-seas now. We 'can only hope that theycan find fhe time and the peace of mindto repeat this singing of carols whereverthey may be.

It isn't snowing in Australia as t~epicture at the top of the opposite pageclearly indicates, but you don't have tohave snow to have Christmas in Austra-lia. This picture shows some of theChristmas presents arriving in time fordistribution to boys in the _So,:,th Pacific.

..

Members of the United States AirForces who spend their working days andnights hammering at Germany like topause to celebrate Christmas too. At thetop of this page the Signal Corps photog-rapher got a picture of several of the boysas they unwrapped their Christmas par-cels a little while ago. In the picture area corporal from St. Louis, another cor-poral from Springfield, Massachusetts;two sergeants and a corporal from St.Paul, a' sergeant from Chicago and a ser-geant from Quincey, Massachusetts,

Yes, so far as it has been possible,the families and friends of our boys over-seas are going to make their Christmashaopy. We all hope that at this time nextyear they wi II be back safe with us,

Many families in this country aregoinf{ to brighten the spirits of soldierssti II in this country by welcoming themto the ir homes. In .the two pictu res at theright we see a typical American familywhich last year entertained two soldierboys from a nearby camp. These boyswere not able to get away for Christmas-both of them Iived too far away tomake the trip possible, so a patriotic andkind family in the community opened upthAi r home and had the boys come in,The head of the fami Iy picked up thebovs at the camp in his car and drovethem to his home where a real Christ-mas party awaited them. Presents werepassed around not only to members of \thp. r'lmily but to the soldiers as well.The fami Iy served a bang-up Christmasdinner with all the t'rimmings and thesoldier boys were mar:le to feel complete-ly at home. They spent a few hours play-in~ games and visiting and then some ofthe younger folks took in a movie andI"ter returned to the home for a lightsuooer in the kitchen before the boyshad to return to camp. This sort ofAmerican hospitality is being demon- I"

strated all over the country this season.Many of the boys whose Christmas would. be dull and dismal are finding haopinessin the homes of hospitable strangers,

As we say, this is America's strang-est Christmas. For many fathers andmothers it will not be a happy one and formany of the boys in service if will not betoo happy either but, like good Ameri-cans. we are going to make the best of it.And we are going to work harder thanever to make sure that these boys returnto us safe for Christmas in 1944.

-

..

•

-

GreatFalls.Loeal

.' • 'I_;';. ' ,

Found .., . . . .... ·Y• • , I I' ~ ~

•

The smallest shop at Creat Falls is

still one of the greatest, for it is at

the Local Foundry where unusual

tasks must be performed in a short

space of time. It's interesting to

note that the boys there can think

of no staggering job, because there

has never been one yet that they

haven't been able to lick•

•

-WHEN you pay a visit to the LocalFoundry at Great Falls, the first impres-sion you get is that only a few fellows doa whole lot of things in a short space oftime, for it is here that many of the es-sential pieces of equipment are made andthe boys will insist that no job is tootough for them.

The Great Falls Local Foundry is, aswe have said, the smallest plant on theHill. Yet, if there is a breakdown, theseare the men who do the job. The LocalFoundry is one of the oldest shops at

Great Falls. The fact that it is one ofthe oldest shops is a matter of pleasure toIsadore Sturrock, the foreman, whomeveryone affectionately knows as Isie.Isie himself has been there over thirtyyears.

The Local Foundry has lots of rushjobs, and in its time the shop has madehundreds of copper conductor bars to beused in the Electrolytic Zinc Plant. It has-made many Shriver plates and frames, as'well as pumps of all kinds. Most of thework in the Local Foundry is done for theZinc piant.

Working with Isie are two oid-timers-George Kala-fat has been on thejob nineteen years, while the other old-timer, Andrew Rosebasky (Rosie) hasbeen on the job around fifteen years.

In the fi rst picture on the opposite. page, Isie Sturrock and Tom Allison areshown making a trunnion for Oliver fil-ters. Sand is being rammed around thepattern. This trunion will be used finallyon the end of filters. In the second pic-ture Rosie. Rosebasky, who is a melter, isbusy filing bronze castings. He is talk-ing to Dolph Yelocan, the superintendent.

That's George Kalafat in the thirdpicture pushing the car into the electriccore oven. In the picture at the top ofthe page George and Tom Allison arepasting the core together for the trun-nion which is being made in the picturedirectly opposite.

After it is pasted, it is put into theoven to dry. In the second picture on thispage we see Rosie once more-this timehe is putting a copper ingot into the cru-cible furnace. The copper ingot is melteddown in the furnace before it is pouredinto the molds.

In the last picture, Marg Sammons,co-editor of COPPER COMMANDO, isgetting a practical lesson on how theLocal Foundry operates from Isie. Isiehas explained to Marg just how themold for a rotor is made and how themetal is put in.

There is a fine comradeship at theLocal Foundry. The boys at the LocalFoundry take a tremendous amount ofpride in their shop and are proud of theirrecord of having turned out a va~t amountof work over a good many years.

George and Rosie are great fisher-men; Isie fishes also. Isie.has a son, wefound out, who operates a bicycle shopin Great Falls. A while ago he decidedthat soldier boys stationed there wouldlike to get exercise and so this last sum-mer he had eighteen bicycles for rentaland could have used many more. Isiesays his boy figures that in this way heis doing his part to keep the soldier boysin good physical condition.

This small shop at Great Falls playsan important role in the successful opera-tions at the plant and credit goes to theboys who are never staggered by a job--big or little.

..

CHRISTMAS!

T HERE :.viii be reams' and reams ofChristmas editorials written ·this year.We have an idea that everything that we'could say has already been said, and hasprobably been said better.

But there's one thing about Christ-mas we know: A lot of the men in S",tte,in Anaconda, in Great Falls and at EastHelena have sons in this war. Many ofthose sons will spend Christmas far fromhome. They will be taken care of iust aswell as conditions permit and, thanks tothe presents their families and friends

. have sent along, they will have a goodtime.

But let's resolve, since the day for. rp.<:"olutionsisn't too far away, that they

will spend next Christmas back home.

HF.LPNEEDErON Christmas day the drive for Christ-mas Seals to aid in the fi~ht against tu-berculosis will come to an end.

We do not need to ~emind you thatthe Christmas Seal Drive· represents oneway in which the County Associationscan carryon their courageous fight:-I1.1_n5tthat terrible enemy of man-tu-berculosis. Every penny of money re-ceived goes toward the work itself. The.greater the contrihl,tion. the more goodwork the associations will be able to do.

A\WARDSTHREE men at the Anaconda ReductionWorks r:cently were cited for sugges-tions helpful to the war program-youmay see pictures of these three awardwinners on page 2 of this .issue.

War Production Board takes thest2lnd that any idea which makes work inthe. war industries safer or faster con-tributes to the war effort. So each one oft .......se men has made a contribution notonly in terms of tl?e hours worked but interms of a helpful suggestion to win the.war. The Labor-Mana«ement Committeeat Anaconda is proud of these threeaward winners and proud to report theirsuggestions to War Production Board.

Congrat"lations, fellows! Every manwho makes an acceptable suggestionthese days is doing his extra bit to finishthe scrap.

•8 •

People (;' Places•

THE other day when E. A. Barnardstopped. in the office, he was plentyproud. Almost at once he told us of thefine work done by R. J. Daniels, AFL, andJohn Donovan, CIO, of the Bond andWar Fund Drive Committee of the Labor-Management Committee at Anaconda inconnection with the recent' drive for theWar Fund. According to Barney's report,a total of $14,161.00 had been subscribedby 2,897 employees or an average of 90per cent. There were 19 departmentswith lOOper cent of the employees sub-scribing 100 per cent. We go along withBarney in being mighty proud of the workdone by R. J. Daniels and John Donovanand of all those who contributed to thisworthy cause.

*IN THE OFFICE

MAJOR C. R. Payne, Public Relations Of-ficer for the United States Marine Corpschecked with u~ during his visit in Buttea couple of weeks ago. Major Payne isresponsible for the stories and pictures offormer Butte boys now in service in theMarines. We were glad to have the file ofletters from friends and families of theboys to show Major Payne just how muchthese stories are appreciated.

Charles H. Draper, InformationalRepresentative for the War ManpowerCommission, United States EmploymentService and John r;I. O'Connell, Field Su-pervisor for WMC, USES, both of Helena,came in to get acquainted last week ~hilein Butte. We're always glad to have thesecallers for they keep us posted and helpus out plenty when we get stuck withoutthe answer to some problem or other.

*CAN YOU TOP THIS RECORD?

Abraham D. Thomas, shown in the pic-ture below, was born in' Cornwall, Eng-land. That makes him a sure enoughCousin Jack. A_tthirteen years of age hestarted to work in the tin mines in Eng-land and continued to gain mining ex-perience in the tin mines until in Decem-ber, 1889, when he was twenty years ofage and as he says made up his mind tocome to America. Landing in Montreal,he went to Cobalt, Ontario, but onlystayed two weeks and moved on to Pains-dale. Michigan. After six months in thecopper range, he moved on- to Hancock,Michigan, for another ten. months andthen to Kellogg, Idaho, for another tenmonths and then came the move toButte. Butte has continued to hold himand he's been a steady worker in themines since his arrival thirty years ago.

Now here's the record to be topped.For the past seven years Abraham has notmissed a single shift. For the pasttwenty-five years, he has not needed-nor has he had-a single hospital slip.If anyone has a better record than thisone, COPPER COMMANDO would liketo know about it, so please stop in theoffice and tell us about your own record.

Abraham has two sons, Don, sev-enteen years of age, and Lloyd, twenty-five. Lloyd is in the Radar Division andis on a communication boat. He's beenin the Armed Forces for sixteen monthsand has been out of this country for thepast ten. Although he enlisted in theAi r Corps, he soon transferred to theNavy. He had his training at the RadioMechanics School in Chicago and theCelestial Navigators School at Tomah,Wisconsin. It's up to the boys in theRadar Division to direct all landings ofthe amphibian fleets. Fact is, they arethe key men on the boat for all landingsof equipment, supplies and men. Lloyd'sparticipation in the Battle of Sicily willmake a fine story when the war is endedand the censors are out of a job. Abra-ham just got an inkling of it by readingbetween the lines left by the censor in aletter written ~y Lloyd shortly after itoccurred.

In addition to his record of notmissing a shift for seven years, Abrahambuys a war bond a month. He likes hiswork teaching students the mining gamefor each new man trained for the jobmeans more copper for the boys on theFiring Line 'and as he says: "Since myson, Lloyd, is doing his part, I should do. "mine.

-

DECEMBER 24. 1943

THE editors of COPPER COMMANDOmake it a point to get around to the work~ing places and see what's going on. Theother day one of the members of ourEditorial Board suggested that a quizmight be interesting to our readers, sowhen the editors went underground afew days ago, they decided to get pie-tures of several of the fellows and thenlet readers guess the location and thefolks in the picture.

Where were these pictures takenand who are the people in them-youdon't have to identify the editors, buttell us who the other men are, what themine is and what is the level. For the firstperson who properly identifies the pee-pie. the mine and the level, "PlatterChatter" will fix a special lunch bucket.Those in the picture, of course, are noteligible.

DECEMBER, 24, 1943

. . '(r ,,'•

.9.

To the Last AtolDIt's the laboratory which tells "what's in it" to th'e many departmentson the Hill in Anaconda. There they determine almost to the last atomjust what makes up the ore or the finished anode. There's no guesswork there, they must be right several points past the decimal point.

• 10 • •

/

IN the last issue, you saw samples ofore being brought into the Sample Lab-oratory Mill where they are weighed,dried, ground, screened or mixed andbagged and were ready to be sent to thelaboratory for analysis. Here at the lab-oratory a routine anaylsis is made forcopper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, sulphur,silica, iron, lime, manganese, phosphorus,arsenic, antimony, cadmium. vanadiumand bismuth. Four men run determina-tions for copper each day and they ana-lyze from one hundred eighty to twohundred fifty samples daily. The reasonfor these careful analyses is so that a re-port can be made' to the various operat-ing departments so that they will knowhow to handle the ore when it reachesthe different departments. A large partof the laboratorv work is actually controlwork. -

Several of the samoles are combinedinto weekly samoles and more are com-bined for the entire month. These havenearly ~omplete analyses and account forover ninety per cent of "whats-in-em." ....

That's the laboratory building in thelower picture. It has many small labora-tories in it and usually two men worktogether. Since the war, the four girlsshown above in the big lab have takenover for the boys who have joined theArmed Forces. The men say they aredoing a fine job, too. These patriotic

DECEMBER 24, 1943

gals are Janice Wadsworth, Patricia War-ren (her husband is captain of a bomb-ing squadron in England, so she wants tomake sure that the copper is kept rollingfor supplies for him). Margaret AnnRyan and Catharine Gerhardt.

Silver and gold determinations aremade by the fire assayers and are re-ported in ounces per ton, so you can seehow little there is. Silver is usually re-ported to one or two decimal places andgold to three places, but gold, if presentin small.amounts. must, be reported to•four places as .0003 ounces per ton. Inorder to arrive at, such a figure, it may benecessary to make twenty fusions of oneassay ton each and combine the results.They get the sample from the samplemill showing what mine it came fromand weight an assay ton. The sample ofore is mixed with a suitable charge andput in the furnace shown in the upperpicture for fifty minutes or so or untilthey get good slag. This mixture is putinto a cup like Harold Higgins has in thepicture. In the bottom of the cup is alead button--cone shaped about 3t4-inchin diameter. The gold and silver goesright into the lead when it is put in thefurnace. The lead button containing the?old and silver is removed and put in abone-ash cupel (it looks like a miniaturebird bath>. The cupel absorbs the lead.The gold and silver are on top of thecupel (like where water would be in abird bath) when it is removed from thefurnace in forty or fifty minutes. Bal-ances for weighing gold are exceedinglysensitive. They must be placed on sup-ports set in solid earth independent ofthe building, so that there may be novibration. Static electricity is eliminatedby proper wiring and the balance islighted and kept at a constant tempera-ture by a lamp inside. Ed Swanson and

I

Harold Higgins are weighing gold on thebalances in the middle picture.

For most analyses, however, thesamples are first weighed and transferredto beakers or flasks. Then the sample isdissolved by the addition of one or moreacids. depending on just what the sampleis being analyzed for. The next step isthe removal of the imourities and finallythe isolation of the element that is to bedetermined.

After the chernist has finished theanalysis, he brings it into the office ofthe lab shown in the bottom picture.That's Ray Stanaway. George Vanisko, [r.,Ronald Schneider, Charles H. Cutchell,chief chemist, Charles ILogaie ) Lager-gren. and Edward Marsh in the picture.Ed Marsh makes a report of it. Loggiechecks the ditto with the original.George runs off copies on the ditto andthe cooies go to the various departmentsthroughout the plant.

The laboratory in this way plays itsown part in starting the vital war mate-rials on their way to the Fighting Fronts.

DECEMBER, 24, 1943I • II•

,. . .

A GI.rr HE'LL APPREC'IATE:'

...

•

THEsoon·erthe boys on the fighting fronts get the materials they need, thesooner they'll be home again. Mont~na's vital metals are going every dayinto the bag that will give this soldier a M,erryChristmas •

• 12 • ,DECEMBER 24, 1943