On the Home Front in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, like the rest of the United States, readily transformed its pre-war
manufacturing industry into production centers for bullets, planes, and whatever else was necessary for the war effort. Factories for making airplanes were built, one of which employed 12,000 near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Other companies switched from making one item to making a war-time item- for example, "the Standard Steel Spring Company, in Pennsylvania, stopped stamping out bumpers for the automakers and converted their equipment to the production of armor plate" (National). Pennsylvania also ramped up its coal production, to supply the massive energy needs of the military. In Danchak's home of Schuylkill County, factories began to turn out war supplies (see picture on top right). |
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