Amazing silent film that shows every step of manufacturing WWI aircraft in a US factory. You realize what amazing craftsmanship went into those machines. Also interesting to see how many women worked in the factory, how clean it was, and how many workers wore ties.
Amazing – thanks for posting that.
It was a different society back then and this shows.
Thanks very much for sharing. I usually am not into videos at all but this one kept me hooked. What I found most striking is the total absence of procedures or marshallers or such when test flying the aircracft – but ok, aviation was still very young. Even more striking the total absence of protective clothing – I saw not a single person wearing gloves, let alone masks even when spraying paint or doping cloth. Even destructive materials testing was done without any kind of protection – unthinkable today. One wonders how any of those poor workers managed to survive – it was indeed a very different society.
Like the wearing of ties, I was also surprised to see many wearing a cap or even a hat while working. Who wears a hat today, even in the street? Let alone at work. And while some jobs, like stitching ribs, were left to women – hm, no comments, I had a go at that job once – there were a few scenes where men and women worked mixed – quite unexpected, to me, in the puritan USA of a century ago. Racial seggregation was at work though, I don’t think I saw a single Afro-American in the whole movie.
Henry Ford was one of the first to hire African Americans as skilled labor in his factories. It was almost revolutionary at the time and started a year or two after this film was made.
