Workers operating radial drill at Fisher Body Division plant

View of workers operating a radial drill at a Fisher Body plant. Label on back: "For release Sunday, July 26, 1942. From W.S. McLean, Fisher Body Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Michigan. (This picture and caption have been reviewed by the U.S. Navy Department.) Much has been heard in recent months of 'conversion' in the automotive industry, but pictured here is a new phase of adaptation of machinery from one job to another in record time. It is an automotive plant changeover, not from normal work to a war project, but from one armament job to another. The large seven-foot radial drill pictured above, has for the past 18 months, been working on giant diesel engine crankcases for the Navy in a Fisher Body plant. As the picture at the top was taken the drill was completing an operation on the deck of an eight-ton crankcase. Then, when this job was finished, it was consigned to a new task -- boring a naval anti-aircraft gun breech housing. Notice that the clock at the extreme right shows 22 minutes after 1. At 13 minutes to 2 o'clock, just 19 minutes later, this drill was at work on a new job, as shown in the lower picture [not available]. The diesel crankcase has been finished and was ready for shipment; the fixture by which it was held had been removed; a new cutting tool had been inserted into the drill and new specifications had been set; a new fixture had been set into position, the gun housing has been placed into it, and work was proceeding with only 19 minutes delay in a major changeover from one armament task to another." Handwritten on back: "Conversion."