Daily AncestorRiveter
A riveter drove red-hot metal rivets to join steel plates and beams in bridges, ships, boilers and building frames.
Before welding and high-strength bolts took over, steel structures were fastened with rivets: a metal pin pushed through matching holes and its end hammered into a second head. Structural rivets were heated cherry red in a furnace, and a team of four, the warmer, catcher, holder and basher, drove each one.
Riveter is the title of the man who drove the rivet. Rosie the Riveter, of World War II, made the job a symbol of women in war industry.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1920 to 1940 census
Stanley Wrobel, 26, Riveter, Shipyard
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Daily Ancestor. "Riveter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/riveter. Last checked 2026-10-10.