In the 8-inch finishing building, the final steps of shell loading were completed. Precise scales weighed each filled shell to determine its range, that information was stenciled on the outside, the booster that detonated the charge was placed in a special cavity at the top, and the shell was packed in a box with others for shipment. Each shell left the plant complete except for the fuse, which was added at the battlefront. No clear historic photographs of the building are known, but it had an upside-down L-shape, with the longest part measuring 30 feet by 60 feet. Of the three plants, the 8-inch plant was the furthest from completion by war's end in November 1918, with a total of 8,231 shells loaded, although production had been planned for 4,000 shells per day. Although employee records for the loading plants have not survived, an estimated 50 percent of munitions workers were women, filling jobs usually performed by men in peacetime. More than one million women worked for wages in industries directly related to the war effort. Some munitions work, including shell inspection and packaging, required no special training, while other tasks, such as fitting fine screws and tiny springs into shell components, suited women's smaller hands. The federal government created the Women's Branch of the U.S. Army's Ordnance Department as a watchdog agency for women workers in munitions plants.