Vintage work crew photos

[Drew1966]

Nice press for the time.

[cmarlow]

Two things I find curious.
The press has almost like a round milling table with T slots and mounted upside down on top to fasten the forming tools too. Would it have been rotatable or fixed?

They lit the scene with lights placed inside the formed turret sitting on the shop floor. It probably made metering for exposure in the picture much more difficult. Did they really want to cast such weird shadows or were they just trying to avoid the lights blowing out the entire scene by using the turret as a giant shade? Note that there is another light hidden behind the column on the right to infill some of the shadows.

(they might have been making great tanks, but making great pictures not so much)

[Ralphxyz]

The guy does have heavy gloves on.

Ralph

[Toolmaker51]

It looks as the bushing blocks are attached, to guide vertical travel. Can't imagine a rotating fixture table, though a large faceplate [cannibalized from a lathe] would expedite the build. Slots converging at center suits large or small tooling.
I think the lighting is to emphasize part contours; lots of general photographers see forms more important than how they were created.
Most all b/w's Jon post are the reverse, expounding the industrial element.

[Jon]

Machine shop workers at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. 1900.

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[gatz]

Are those some kind of switching device?

[bruce.desertrat]

Are those some kind of switching device?

Transformers, I think.You can see a coil in one of them just behind the guys working on the bench. Designed to be oil-filled hence the valve on the bottom of the completed one.

[gatz]

Thanks for the info.

[Ralphxyz]

So is the guy sitting over head the foreman or the crane operator? That is some heavy duty chain falls.

Ralph

[Jon]

Ford Motor Company assembly line.

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