Because All The Other Fish Fear You

Went to see the Titanic artifact exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center on Sunday, which was really impressive. Was eyeing a pair of binoculars (heh) in the gift shop but balked at the price. 

But probably the most interesting thing I found at the CSC was this:

Item number 8 from the USS Requin, the preserved WWII submarine that resides there. It's a telegraph key for the radio. Open the full size image and closely read the description. 

Not everyone reading this may know about the regulations enforced during WWII that curtailed the production of most civilian goods during the war - no new cars, hardly any new tires for the ones still on the road, rationing of all manner of food to supply soldiers' rations, the list goes on. Instead, these companies were required to start making various types of equipment for the war. Firearms enthusiasts are familiar with decidedly non-firearm manufacturers making small arms, like Singer, which made sewing machines in peacetime, converting to make M1911 pistols; or M1 carbines made by, of all companies, Rock-Ola - who made jukeboxes! Firearms were only a part of what American industry was called on to produce - there were tanks and trucks, various munitions, bayonets and parachutes, all sorts of equipment that the military needed to defeat the Axis. 

So if you are a company whose business is toys - toy trains, in particular, and by law you can't use strategic materials to make toy trains, what do you do? Of course you fall in line and pick up some of the government contract work for war materiel. That's exactly what Lionel did. One of their major products was compass binnacles for Navy vessels - and I've seen one of these, actually, at one of the train collectors' shows in the past. Very interesting pieces of history.