Fascinating Footage 1936 car assembly line

[Bill07073]

There is more automation here than I thought there would be for this early on in the processs.

http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fasci...ly-line-video/

[Maof]

talk about repetition. thanks for posting bill

[canuck]

Yeah, what a well shot film, very thorough. Thanks for the link.

[jtf1972]

It's easy to see how many of those jobs where guys are just moving parts into place were lost.

Think about this... All those machines were controlled by men. There were no computers in 1936.

[animatedmartian]

What got me was the size of all the machines. It seemed almost steam-punk-y. I couldn't imagine how much you'd need to know in order to fix one of those things.

[canuck]

And the danger... The stamping presses + fatigue = an excellent source of injury.

[Mikeg]

Those are 1936 Chevrolets in the chassis assembly and body drop shots [[and probably also the automated underbody frame assembly shown earlier in the film). Most likely, this film was made in Flint, Michigan.

The underbody frame production operators only controlled the cycle-initiation part of the process. Only after all of the operators had completed their task and hit their push button would the next cycle begin and the shuttle advance. Electromechanical relays and limit switches controlled the movement of the mechanical handling shuttles and the automated loaders and resistance weld guns. This type of fixed automation was still used up until the early to mid 1980s, although the electromechanical relay control systems were already being replaced with solid-state programmable controllers.

[gazhekwe]

That was great! We just spent the afternoon interviewing mother-in-law. One segment involved "where did Daddy work?" In 1937 he worked Ford at the Rouge River, Gate 12. He hated it though. The foreman was always standing behind you trying to get you to work faster.

It's interesting, the work looks so automated and choreographed. You would just have to work fast enough to keep up. That, with the music, reminded me of the movie, Metropolis, with its voracious machine.

[artds]

talk about repetition

you're not kidding.

here's Charlie Chaplin's parody of the assembly line and all the repetition the worker's go through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYbsBcPDVQM

[gnome]

I was impressed by the filmmaking. The lighting is perfect and the camera movement was way beyond what most "industrial" films were up to then, or now. The dolly shots and overhead crane shots must have been difficult to pull off in the tight confines of a factory floor - especially with a camera weighing a couple hundred pounds. Also the editorial cutting was pretty slick. The matched dissolves at the back end were obviously planned.

The music works counter to the images and not in a good way. I'd bet this must be from some guy's music-scoring demo reel, either that or something canned.

[Jimaz]

I found this old thread while searching for "steam punk" and thought it deserved to be bumped.

There was an intimate man-machine interface back then that had nothing to do with any computer keyboards or mice. But look at what they did!

I'm starting to wonder what other similar gems are buried in these DetroitYES! archives.