Automation in the 1930s

[Boz330]

http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fascinating-1936-footage-of-car-assembly-line-video/

The ability to do this sort of production was a major factor in winning WWII. We often forget that mass production has been around for awhile and the US use to be very good at it.
Wouldn't OSHA have a good day in this factory.

Bob

[Blacksmith]

Good video.

[theperfessor]

Good video but my how things have changed. No safety glasses, very little other PPE, some unsafe press operating procedures, etc. But a lot of fun to watch, plan to bookmark and show to Safety class and Automated Manufacturing class at proper time.

Thanks for posting.

[Echo]

Great video - shows that early mass production was still very labor intensive. Especially liked the union guy working on the frames that would sometime whack the frame with a hammer - sometimes.

[scrapcan]

neat video. I did see the deadman switch for the second press hand in a few sections.

A college professor that I had worked in a semiconductor plant and he said the very last inspection station of the wafers was done by human eye and hand as they are far more accurate in that application than automation.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Wouldn't the factory would have a bad day with osha in it.

Think what osha would have done to WWII production?

BvT

[shooter93]

Good video....A B-17 came off the line every 56 minutes, the Penatgon was built in less then 18 months using 40's building technologies. A man landed on the moon decades ago and this feat as well as the Hoover dam, The Golden Gate bridge and many other things were impossible for their times. And we can't even make a tv here anymore???????? If we're getting out of the mess we're in we have to start building things here again. Made in America needs to once again be the world standard and contrary to popular belief labor costs here are a very small part of the problem.

[Storydude]

It took less time to build the hoover dam in 1930's than it did to make the bypass bridge over the canyon in 2007.

[MT Gianni]

Great video - shows that early mass production was still very labor intensive. Especially liked the union guy working on the frames that would sometime whack the frame with a hammer - sometimes.

It looked to me that he was checking alignment issues, hit it where it needs to be. Probably Union trained to do his job.

I had a friend that worked for International making 4-8 ton trucks in the 70's. He said if the line broke down you could get enough weld materiel on the frame. If the line moved at normal speed you were always short on welds.

[Buckshot]

...........Having been a railroad loonie my entire life I understood why the railroads went from steam to diesel, or pure electric as soon as possible. Understanding the basic differences and probable levels of difficulty in simply maintaining the 2 (steam vs Diesel) is easy to grasp the essentials by comparing a steam locomotive to a diesel locomotive. However I recently purchased a book from Lindsay Publications called "Railroad Shop Practices". This was a book from the late 19 'teens' /early 1920's. The author toured various railroad shops across the United States, both large and small. This REALLY brought the situation to light.

While a mainline steam locomotive could knock off over 25,000 miles a month in service, it required religious and almost constant minor maintanence such as oiling, greasing, and tightening of various and sundry moving parts. But over time it would require replacement of it's connecting rod bearings (plain bearings), axle boxes (plain bearings the driver axles ran in) suspension parts, feedwater and air pump rebuilding, cylinder boring/honing, valve rebuilding, firebox work, boiler flue pipe repair/replacement, and a hundred other things. Some of the photo's were amazing in the amount of work involved in doing something you'd think was simple like replacing a driver axle bearing. Re-tiring a set of locomotive drivers sure ain't the same as swapping out a flat for your spare on the family car :-)

The number of people employed to keep the locomotives, let alone the millions of pieces of rolling stock traveling around the country was truly a fearsome expense. Add to that the facilities required. Not only the real eastate but the buildings and within those buildings the lathes, vertical and horizontal milling machines, planers, shapers, and myriad tooling to get the job done. And when you're working on locomotive stuff, NONE of those machines was small! Consider truing up a 72" driver on a lathe, or boring out a 48" cylinder. Then in that pre-computer age, the army of clerks keeping up with the drifts of paperwork that went along with that maintanence was a substantial part of keeping the wheels turning.

The photo's in that book make you realize that when those guys put in an 8 or 10 hour day, you knew they'd earned their pay, and the working conditions around a steam locomotive when doing a full refurbishment has the look of the aftermath of a large armored military engagment :-) Pretty amazing stuff.

..............Buckshot

[rbertalotto]

This video clearly shows the number one issue with jobs in America. AUTOMATION.....

The productivity of Americas industrial output is at an alltime high, even with 12-18% "Real" unemployment..........

At the turn of the century it took 100 farmers to feed 100 people, Nearly 1/2 of the us workforce was engaged in agriculture. Now one farmer on a modern farm, heavily mechanized, can feed 100,000 people. An acre of land used to produce 5 bussles or corn. Now it will produce 55 with chemicals, fertilizers, etc.

That auto factory might have employed 10 thousand employees and produce a car every 15 minutes. Now a factory with a handful of employees and a few hundred robots can output a car a minute. And no sick time, vacation time, OSHA complaints from the robots.

At the turn of the century, Sears and Robuck employeed thousands of folks just to do accounts receivable and billings. Now a high scholl kid with a lap-top and Quickens could handle the task.

Telephone operators..............
Consumer electronic repair men............
Robots in hospital operating rooms.............

and the list goes on and on...........As has been written in many science fiction novels over the years..........the need for a huge manual work force is quickly coming to an end

And now they are talking about extending the retirement age to 70 or beyond..........GREAT! Where is everyone going to find work!

[Boz330]

Buckshot you talked about the lathe to turn those 72" drive wheels. I was an apprentice at the RK LeBlond Machine tool Co. in the mid 60s and we built a missile lathe, for NASA IIRC, to turn the nose cones. This thing took up the whole back of the factory. The operator rode on the carriage and the thing was built and then torn apart and put on rail cars for shipment. It was a colossal machine.

Bob

[cbrick]

I had a friend that worked for International making 4-8 ton trucks in the 70's. He said if the line broke down you could get enough weld materiel on the frame. If the line moved at normal speed you were always short on welds.

Very true! I worked in a Chrysler plant in the 60's as a welder on the body line and when the line moved with no delays every car was short welds. Only when something happened to slow the line did all the welds get made on the car in front of you.

Rick

[9.3X62AL]

We gotta ask ourselves......what is gained and what gets lost when we start replacing skilled craftsmen/women with robots and automation.

I can think of few more succinct examples than Smith & Wesson or Colt revolvers. Both makers managed to produce SUPERBLY CRAFTED products using varying combinations of precision tools and skilled labor. This persisted well into the 1960s.

But, NO--someone had better ideas about how to produce more widgets at less cost--automation, and get rid of those nasty union workers that "cost so much". The result is the demise of Colt, for practical purposes--the crush-fit barrels in S&W revolvers--and now the MIM parts and electro-rifled barrels to further adulterate S&W quality. Oh, yeah--we're just modern and wonderful as all hell now. NOT.

[shooter93]

One of the other problems with skilled labor Al is finding it or training them. We have gone through a long period where it's taught that LABOR is a bad word. Kids who go to into vo-tech fields are thought of as lesser students. No one wants to learn the trades, do any physical labor but rather be a "professional" I sat on out state advisory board for the construction trades for years and to say their lack of help was overwhelming is to say the least. I've been in this business for a very long time....my current crew has no one under 50 and one great worker who is 70. If we don't wake up.....we're doomed.

[blackthorn]

Well---I will likely get flamed for this but here goes anyway! Up here in BC the BC Federation of Labour as well as most of the industrial Unions tried to tell the big (mostly multi-national) companies that if they didn't start instituting apprenticeship programs, in a few years they would be VERY short of tradespeople! Were we right? You betcha! But at the time those companies were only interested in maximizing profits, most of which left the country without doing much good for the local economies (long term). If the big companies now have a problem they brought it on themselves! Unfortunately the rest of us will pay the price, either having to buy shoddy product at inflated prices or buy stuff that was made offshore in places that still have well trained tradespeople. RANT OFF!!

[Boz330]

Well---I will likely get flamed for this but here goes anyway! Up here in BC the BC Federation of Labour as well as most of the industrial Unions tried to tell the big (mostly multi-national) companies that if they didn't start instituting apprenticeship programs, in a few years they would be VERY short of tradespeople! Were we right? You betcha! But at the time those companies were only interested in maximizing profits, most of which left the country without doing much good for the local economies (long term). If the big companies now have a problem they brought it on themselves! Unfortunately the rest of us will pay the price, either having to buy shoddy product at inflated prices or buy stuff that was made offshore in places that still have well trained tradespeople. RANT OFF!!

Not sure what it is like in Canada but here in the US I'm sure you can find blame to go around to everyone.
You know while those robots don't get sick or take vacations or need healthcare or retirements they also don't buy stuff either.

Bob