On the assembly floor

Place Oceania: Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, Maribyrnong
Accession Number ART23063
Collection type Art
Measurement sheet: 39 x 30.6 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description lithographic crayon on paper
Maker Curtis, R Emerson
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne
Date made 1940
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

Drawn on the assembly floor of the Commonwealth Ordnance Workshop, showing high precision drilling machines and racks of newly turned anti-aircraft gun barrels. The artist was given a tour by the General Manager ' a pale but amicable man in his sixties' through a series of bays where all the machining was done and the parts of anti aircraft guns were assembled '...we walked up and down the efficient shops, the manager stopping here and there to explain proudly some special machine. I watched the greased movements of beautiful lathes, planes, drills, grinders and borers - some of which were of enormous size, larger than the mounted guns they make.' Six drawings from this series were syndicated by Curtis to Australian newspapers including this one which was reproduced in the Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 20 September 1940.