Those aren’t missiles. They’re actually used beverage containers, made of rubber, which these mid-century factory workers are recycling into devices for fighter pilots in World War II.
According to Shorpy, this photograph was taken in February 1942, in Akron, Ohio, in a Firestone Rubber facility. Accompanying the photograph is this information:
Conversion. Beverage containers to aviation oxygen cylinders. After shatterproof oxygen cylinders for high altitude flying have passed all tests in the metal division of a large Eastern rubber factory, hot air is blown through the cylinders to remove all trace of moisture. The cylinders are then sealed and stacked for painting.
It’s easy to forget that recycling is hardly a new idea, even for materials like rubber. In this respect (and many others), what was futuristic in the 1940s remains futuristic now.
via Shorpy
