Vintage work crew photos

[Ralphxyz]

all of those little tubes and wires you think they found a problem? I love that pleated cone appears to be fabric.

[jdurand]

The nozzle is made of small tubes all welded side by side. Fuel is pumped in around the exit diameter and flows up to the narrow end where it's injected. Cools the nozzle and preheats the fuel in one step. VERY expensive to make.

Now SpaceX is 3D printing engines out of inconel with all the tubes and connections made at the same time.

Now if they could just get their pressure test vehicles to stop imploding .

[Jon]

Construction crew. Oxford, Ohio, 1911.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...w_fullsize.jpg

[jimfols]

Looks like all the trades are represented.

[Jon]

The 'Autopen Signature Machine' being to bulk sign checks for injured Veterans. This is in the War Risk Bureau, which became the Dept of Veterans Affairs. Washington DC, 1919.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...w_fullsize.jpg



Looks like Shorpy enhanced this one quite a bit. Here's the original from the Library of Congress: [Two women using check signing machine which signs checks issued by the War Risk Bureau, Washington, D.C.] . I like the detail enhancement on the machine and the checks, but it makes their faces and skin look smudgy.

[IntheGroove]

Do you think she is actually signing the checks with her signature or running the stylus on a grooved pattern...

[Toolmaker51]

Do you think she is actually signing the checks with her signature or running the stylus on a grooved pattern...

While a stylus and engraved font plate makes sense, I think she is an authorized signature in a district office. Seems improbable 'one' woman could sign 100's of thousands, if not a few million, considering timely book-work, posting, and who knows what else.
The plate displays no obvious machine work other than mounting, and their 'office' is a chainlink cubicle [chainicle?, cageical?], so there were security measures in place.

[IntheGroove]

Only ten at a time. She's probably still signing them...

[Toolmaker51]

Only ten at a time. She's probably still signing them...

Not to mention, regardless how nicely the pantograph was made, there must be mechanical friction to over come. Look at her forefinger; talk about writers cramp or tendonitis!

[mklotz]

Seems rather weird to be hand signing government checks when, even in 1919, the signatures on the currency were printed in the act of printing the bill.