It fasinates me how everyone survived (with a steady income and no mandated insurance) without OSHA and the EPA and God knows what other government agency.
Third one down - (if you make it bigger) My Dad had a black lunch box like the one on the bench when he worked at Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. in Garfield, NJ.
I've visited small machine shops during the last few years. The small shops have machines that were probably manufactured almost a century before, but still as useful as the day they were put into service in shops run by men long gone.
Machinists can make damn near anything, manufacture parts that were discontinued decades ago and keep history alive with modern tasks.
Unfortunately, there where serious injuries that did occur with open pulley/belt dries like those pictured above. One gentleman had a long beard in the second pic. Caught on a lathe or mill, it would draw you into the work and that would be ugly.
I have been in the 1884 room at Milacron before their demise and in Mazak's museum, it is amazinh the quality of work that these craftsmen could put out with such equipment. They built America.
When I saw the guy with the beard, I was thinking what bayouwolf said. I don't think they'd allow that today.
But - cool stuff. Those shops always amaze me. One power plant distributing power across the whole place by rotating shaft and belt. There's a video going around recently of a wood shop with a steam plant and all the old machines making boxes for sets of books and DVDs and such. Really cool to watch.
Back when I was working for McGraw-Edison doing Industrial Controls stuff, I was in factories like that.
Some of the things I fixed were well over 100 years old, back when electric motors were newfangled things.
Slate back panels, oil filled dashpots for timers, open frame rheostats for voltage adjustment, brass hardware and brass straps connecting all the bits together, and the occasional length of fabric covered solid wire.
Fascinating to see (and work on) equipment that predated even my Dad!
It fasinates me how everyone survived (with a steady income and no mandated insurance) without OSHA and the EPA and God knows what other government agency.
ReplyDeleteThird one down - (if you make it bigger) My Dad had a black lunch box like the one on the bench when he worked at Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. in Garfield, NJ.
ReplyDeleteI've visited small machine shops during the last few years. The small shops have machines that were probably manufactured almost a century before, but still as useful as the day they were put into service in shops run by men long gone.
ReplyDeleteMachinists can make damn near anything, manufacture parts that were discontinued decades ago and keep history alive with modern tasks.
Unfortunately, there where serious injuries that did occur with open pulley/belt dries like those pictured above. One gentleman had a long beard in the second pic. Caught on a lathe or mill, it would draw you into the work and that would be ugly.
ReplyDeleteI have been in the 1884 room at Milacron before their demise and in Mazak's museum, it is amazinh the quality of work that these craftsmen could put out with such equipment. They built America.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the guy with the beard, I was thinking what bayouwolf said. I don't think they'd allow that today.
ReplyDeleteBut - cool stuff. Those shops always amaze me. One power plant distributing power across the whole place by rotating shaft and belt. There's a video going around recently of a wood shop with a steam plant and all the old machines making boxes for sets of books and DVDs and such. Really cool to watch.
Back when I was working for McGraw-Edison doing Industrial Controls stuff, I was in factories like that.
ReplyDeleteSome of the things I fixed were well over 100 years old, back when electric motors were newfangled things.
Slate back panels, oil filled dashpots for timers, open frame rheostats for voltage adjustment, brass hardware and brass straps connecting all the bits together, and the occasional length of fabric covered solid wire.
Fascinating to see (and work on) equipment that predated even my Dad!