Defective Tools Cause Injuries: Turn 'em in!
Safety poster showing a wrench, adjustable wrench, pipe wrench, screwdriver, hammer and chisel with black arrows pointing at chipped, cracked and mushroomed edges, headed 'Defective Tools Cause Injuries' with 'Turn 'em in!' below. The technique is faint: a mild fear-appeal in the implied injury, with the arrows doing the instructing.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Navy, Navy Department Safety Poster (artist Thorndike)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, Health
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Navy, Navy Department Safety Poster (artist Thorndike). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-629 (NAID 514107).
Text on the object
DEFECTIVE TOOLS CAUSE INJURIES Turn 'em in! [signature:] Thorndike N 677 NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER [imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944 -O- 599126
