McNair Paper Number 50, Chapter 11, Notes, August 1996

1. There were shortages across the board: in lead, aluminum, steel, copper, and zinc. This led to numerous improvisations to deal with these shortages. Sheradized or bonderized metal was used to substitute for galvanized coated metal; flashings were manufactured of asphalt coated fabrics to substitute for sheet metal or copper, many plumbing fittings were made of plastic rather than steel or brass. Copper uses were reduced to an absolute minimum. Instead of brass fittings and castings, iron and steel were substituted as "victory-type" plumbing facilities. Structural designs were lightened in residential construction reducing the weight of all metal per dwelling unit from a prewar average of 8,300 pounds to 3,200 pounds by mid-1942 (Wartime Production Achievements and the Reconversion Outlook (Washington, DC: War Production Board, 1945), 90-91).

2. War Production Board, 90-91.

3. Donald M. Nelson, Arsenal of Democracy (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1946), 290, 296, 297, 303, 305. Synthetic rubber production expanded about 100 times during the war from 8,300 tons in 1939 to 800,000 tons in 1944 [Jerome G. Peppers Jr., History of United States Military Logistics 1935-1985 (Huntsville: Logistics Education Foundation Publishing, 1988), 63-65]. 4. War Production Board, 57-62. Aluminum production expanded about 6 times during the war from 327 million pounds in 1939 to 1.8 billion pounds in 1943 (Peppers, 63-65).

5. War Production Board, 53-56. Silver was also a substitute because the government had a stockpile of silver and none of copper (Nelson, 353-358). Steel was a pacing material, obviously. By January 1943 total steel production was up 44 percent from the beginning of the war (Nelson, 44-46, 50).

6. War Production Board, 39-41.