Steel Guitar Devised From Spare Parts

Engineer Sergeant John S. Giffen of Carlisle, Pa., made use of his engineer training by salvaging machine-gun parts to build himself a steel guitar.

Recently, Giffen inserted machine-gun mounts on each truck in his battalion. When the last truck was finished, he found he had several parts left over. Somewhat musically inclined, he assembled several of the frames together, and covered the top with shatter-proof windshield from a downed German plane. The bridge and turning screws were carved from scrap lumber and string were purchased in a music store.

“I played some fair tunes on it,” remarked the Sergeant, “but it had one drawback. It was too large and cumbersome for a combat engineer to carry.” He soon parted with his musical guitar but he was ten dollars richer.