Burner's Torch, 1942-1945. Courtesy of the Maine Maritime Museum.
Burner's Torch, 1942-1945. Courtesy of the Maine Maritime Museum.
This is a "burner" used by welders in the shipbuilding industry to shape metal according to the ship's blueprint specifications.
Many women became welders in Maine during World War II. According to the Portland Evening Press, “Many recent high school graduates, mothers, and grandmothers responded to the call for ‘woman power’ and donned the heavy leather coats and aprons of welders and acetylene burners.”