How cars used to be made

[chiph]

In 1936 Chevrolet commissioned a film to be made showing how their cars were made.

Lots of interesting stuff in here -- there was an amazing amount of hand work being done, but there was also the beginnings of automation in the section that made the frames.

While the stamping presses had some safety features (two hands needed on the buttons to start their motion), a modern OSHA inspector would have a coronary with all the unguarded moving parts.

http://www.archive.org/details/MasterHa1936
http://www.archive.org/details/MasterHa1936_2
http://www.archive.org/details/MasterHa1936_3
http://www.archive.org/details/MasterHa1936_4

Chip H.

[robmcg]

In China and India people work in far worse condition still, but we buy the product...

This is annoying for me, the price of toy trains is going up.

I don't know how it affects things like laptops, or hi-tech phones and such. US work conditions in the 1930s were a subject for me doing Sociology at uni in 1970-72, and women were stuck on production lines doing very boring things, the same thing has been exported.
I also did Philosophy and Economics and... look where I am now!

[D_E_Davis]

"a modern OSHA inspector would have a coronary with all the unguarded moving parts."

Noted a fellow running a drillpress while wearing a tie.

[chiph]

In China and India people work in far worse condition still, but we buy the product...

This is annoying for me, the price of toy trains is going up.

I don't know how it affects things like laptops, or hi-tech phones and such. US work conditions in the 1930s were a subject for me doing Sociology at uni in 1970-72, and women were stuck on production lines doing very boring things, the same thing has been exported.
I also did Philosophy and Economics and... look where I am now!

From what I've read, a year or two after the film was made, Chevrolet (and probably all of GM) was unionized via a series of labor strikes.

Chip H.