Pictorial Story of the Airship
A “Pusher” of Several Years Ago, With Many of the More Prominent Air-men
Courtesy of The Curtis Aeroplane Co.
Courtesy of The Curtis Aeroplane Co.
Up-to-date Twin Motored Military Type Tractor—200 H. P.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
The First Plane to Cross the Atlantic
The honor of being first to make the journey from America to Europe by airship fell to Lieut.-Commander A. C. Read, who piloted the U. S. seaplane, NC-4, from Newfoundland to Lisbon, Portugal, with a stop at the Azores. The photo shows Lieut.-Commander Read and the seaplane, NC-4, in readiness for their long trip, which began May 16, 1919, and ended May 27th.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
The First Flier to Cross the Ocean Without Stop
In this Vickers-Vimy aeroplane, Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic on June 15, 1919, traversing 1,650 nautical miles in 16 hours 12 minutes.
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Chart of the Transatlantic Fliers
This shows graphically the course of the transatlantic aviators. The U. S. navy seaplane was first to make the flight, leaving Newfoundland May 16, 1919, flying to the Azores in 15 hours, to Lisbon in 131⁄2 hours, and to Plymouth in 13 hours. Hawker, in a Sopwith aeroplane, left Newfoundland May 18th, and covered half the distance to Europe, but was compelled to descend. He was picked up by a steamer. Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown made the first non-stop flight June 15th; and the British dirigible, R-34, made the first round-trip, leaving Scotland on July 2d.
The Wright Brothers and their Famous Aeroplane
The machine is shown in action and resting on the ground. The pictures were taken during the army test flights at Fort Myer, Virginia.
Copyright by Western Newspaper Union.
From Britain to America and Back by Balloon
The great British dirigible, R-34, was the first lighter-than-air vessel to cross the Atlantic. She left East Fortune, Scotland, July 2, 1919, under command of Major Scott, and covered 3,200 miles to Mineola, Long Island, in 4 days 12 hours 12 minutes. The return journey was made in 3 days 3 hours 3 minutes. Note the piles of hydrogen gas bottles needed to replenish the gas supply.
Hide and Seek in the Baltic
A Zeppelin flying over a British submarine in the stormy sea.
A Battle of Four Elements
British monitors shelling the German land batteries near Nieuport. German submarines were actively engaged in trying to torpedo these monitors and the British monoplane was useful for giving the range to the ship and reporting the accuracy of the shots.
Zeppelin Device for Dropping Bombs
An armored car is suspended by three cables from the Zeppelin airship to a distance of several thousand feet below the monster aircraft, which is concealed in the clouds above. (Sphere copr.)
A Belgian Military Observation Balloon
The car of this balloon is equipped with wireless, which is used to send word of the gun positions of the enemy, movements of troops, ranges for the gunners and much other valuable information. A cable holds the balloon captive.
The French Dirigible Airship, “La Patrie”
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
The Dirigible “Russia”
The great dirigible balloon “Russia,” one of the fleet of Russian aircraft engaged in the European War. The photograph shows the hanging car of the “Russia.” The captain’s bridge is in front above the engine room, which is forward on the lower deck. Two propellors are in front. The cabin is just behind the pilot’s seat.
The Story of an Automobile Factory[59]
In visiting the factory where a half million automobiles are made each year, the visitor first comes to the power house.
In the construction of this building 5,200 tons of structural steel were used, the equivalent necessary to build a modern twenty-story skyscraper.
Six engines of a combination gas-steam type, housed in this building, develop 36,000 combined horse-power. They are said to be the first gas-steam engines to be put to practical use. Another engine, using steam only, develops 2,000 horse-power, while several pumping engines increase the total horse-power of the plant to 45,000, probably the largest individual unit of any power-plant in the world, and said to be the only one of its kind in actual operation.
Crank Shaft Grinding Department
Some idea of the size of the engines is gained from the fact that the stroke is 72 inches, while the gas cylinders are 42 inches in diameter and the steam cylinders are 36 and 68 inches in diameter.
The Power House Equipment Includes the Largest Direct Current Control Board in the World
In producing the gas and steam for these engines only twenty-two tons of coal per hour are consumed, which speaks well for the efficiency of the engines. In addition to the steam, the daily consumption of producer gas for power purpose only is 28,512,000 cubic feet. Added to this figure for power gas, is another item of gas used in the factory for various purposes, which averages nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet per day, bringing the per diem consumption of gas by the company up to 29,512,000 cubic feet.
The main factory buildings are 900 feet long and 800 feet wide, four stories in height and of fire-proof construction. They are so designed that every part of the interior receives a full share of daylight.
The heating and ventilating of the factory building is accomplished in a modern, scientific manner. In the winter, warm washed air is forced through long ducts in the floor up into the room. In the summer, cool washed air is handled in the same way, thus providing a clean, healthful atmosphere the year around. By this system the air in the factory is completely changed five times per hour.
Overhead Monorail System
At the right as the visitor enters the factory, is seen the tool construction department. Here are employed approximately 1,000 expert tool makers, machinists and die sinkers. These men are engaged in making new machinery (designed in the company shops), tools, jigs, fixtures and other machine shop accessories, and repairing those in use.
Overhead are traveling cranes which have a capacity of forty tons each. These cranes facilitate the work of the tool construction department by carrying cumbersome parts of machinery to and from it for alterations and repairs.
Here the visitor is standing upon the roof of a great tunnel, in which are all the heating, water and steam pipes, and the power cables running from the power house to various parts of the shop. This tunnel is large enough to permit the easy passage of a touring car.
Standing in front of the factory office, the visitor is doubly impressed with the magnitude of the view before him. In one continuous room, containing approximately 700,000 square feet of floor space, there are, in round numbers, 8,000 machines in actual operation, representing an outlay of about $5,000,000. These machines use some 2,500 gallons of lubricating oils and 11,000 gallons of cutting fluids each day. For driving the many machines, about fifty miles of leather belting are used, giving the room the appearance of a dense forest.
The visitor who is familiar with machine shop practice will notice at once the peculiar location and setting of machinery in this shop. The machines of a class, or type, are not all located in a single group or unit. Each department contains all of the necessary machinery to complete every operation on each part or piece it produces. To illustrate, a rough forging or casting is started in a department at one point, and after passing through the machines doing the required operations, it leaves this department in a finished condition, ready to be assembled into the car.
A Corner of the Main Hospital
Such a system necessitates the grouping together of many different kinds of machines, as well as including brazing furnaces, cyanide furnaces and other special units (most generally found in separate buildings). Chutes run from one machine to another, so that a workman can transport a part from his operation to the next one by gravity. The results of this transportation system are remarkable, making a big saving in trucking expense, loss of material and the absence of usual delays.
Piston Machining Department
As the visitor passes down through the machine shop, he particularly notices the sanitary conditions of the plant. There is a department, enrolling about 500 men, whose duties are to keep the floors swept clean, the windows washed, in fact to keep the sanitary conditions surrounding the workmen as nearly perfect as possible. The floors of the entire plant are scrubbed at least once a week, with hot water and a strong solution of alkali, which removes the grease. Another department of about twenty-five men does nothing but paint the walls and ceilings of the factory, keeping everything fresh and clean.
To facilitate the inter-departmental transportation of materials in the factory, there is an overhead monorail system, comprising over 11⁄2 miles of I-beam track. On this system are nine monorail cars, each car having two 2-ton hoists, by means of which great boxes and trays of material can be picked up and carried overhead from point to point in the shop.
Near the pay office is the main first-aid department. Here the chief surgeon has on his staff eight regular doctors and several first-aid nurses. The surgical equipment, which includes an X-ray machine, pulmotor, operating table and electrical appliances, as well as improved surgical instruments, enables the surgeon to cope with any accident.
Rear Axle Assembly
The factory service office houses a department which is responsible for the well-being of factory employees. Of the 200 men in the division the majority are employed in the capacities of watchmen, to take care of the many entrances and exits of the plant and also to inspect the fire-fighting equipment which is distributed over the entire plant.
This fire-fighting equipment is being continually added to as the plant expands and now embraces more than a mile and a half of large hose, 10,000 feet of smaller hose, and 2,900 feet of hose attached to chemical tanks. There are 1,421 three-gallon chemical extinguishers and fifty-eight 40-gallon chemical tanks, mounted on wheels. Surrounding the plant are twenty-seven water hydrants equipped to handle two and three lines of hose, while inside the plant are eight hose-houses fully equipped. Pyrenes to the number of 175 are distributed about the departments for combatting electrical fires.
A new alarm system, said to be the most modern in the country, is being installed throughout the factory. Back of all other preparation is the sprinkler system, composed of water pipes hung next to the ceiling in all buildings and so designed that there is a sprinkler head every ten feet. Should the temperature in a room, for any reason, reach 160 degrees, the sprinkler heads in the immediate vicinity will open automatically, spraying out water which is piped from two tanks having a combined capacity of 600,000 gallons.
In addition to its other duties the factory service department has charge of the lost and found articles. Since this work was included, almost every sort of personal property, from key-rings to motor-cycles has been found and restored to the rightful owners.
Proceeding from the factory service office, the visitor finds himself in the main crane-way, devoted exclusively to the storage of parts in the rough, or semi-finished condition. This crane-way contains over 67,000 square feet of floor space. Overhead are two 5-ton electric cranes, so arranged that they can unload material from railway cars at one end of the crane-way and deposit it in a position to be picked up by the monorail cars, or placed in bins or barrels for storage. An interesting item in regard to these cranes is that the load can be moved in three directions at one time, this being accomplished by means of the small car hoist. While the crane proper is moving through the crane-way, this car travels across the crane, and at the same time raises or lowers whatever may be suspended from it.
Cylinder Machining Department
Passing by the crane-way one comes to the rear axle unit assembly. The manufacturing policy of the company is to make unit assemblies in different departments and deliver them to the final assembly.
In the unit assembly departments are received the finished parts from the machine shop. These parts are assembled on progressive traveling tracks. By this system each assembler, or operator, performs one operation only, and repeats this operation on every unit passing through the department. As a result, every operator soon becomes a specialist, and specialization is the fundamental principle of the entire organization.
The economic results from this system have been wonderful, as will be shown in some of the departments yet to be described. It saves floor space, and eliminates congestion due to trucking, as large quantities of material are piled along each side of the conveyor, and the unit in process of assembling is moved to the stock, rather than each individual piece of the assembly being distributed at different places.
After the rear axle has been completely assembled, it is immersed in a tank containing enamel, and is hung on a special trolley which runs by gravity along an I-beam track. This trolley carries the axle to an elevator, which lifts it to a conveyor baking oven, located in a section of the roof. The axles are continually moving through this oven, and at the expiration of about forty-five minutes emerge from the far end completely baked. They are automatically dropped onto another elevator which lowers them to the point near where they are used in the final assembly. All material and unit assemblies move in one direction—that is, toward the final assembly.
Motor Assembly
Beyond the rear axle section is the department that makes the magnets for the magneto, and also that in which the transmission is assembled on a conveyor track, ending in an automatic elevator which transports the completed transmission to the motor assembly line.
In the rear of the transmission department is the motor assembly. This assembly begins at the point where the cylinder machine shop ends, so that the movement of the cylinder from the time it arrives in the machine shop until it goes into the finished motor, is continuous. In the machining of the cylinder castings, and the operation of assembling the motor, close inspection of the work is noticeable. By the use of the assembling line, better inspection is possible, than where one or two men assemble the entire motor. In addition to the inspection in the assembly, there are three points of trial, or working or testing, which show up any defects in the motor.
The final operation in the motor assembly line is the block test, where the motor is inspected and tested before being assembled into the chassis. On the block test, the motor is driven by an electric motor for the final O. K. and tryout before being installed in this chassis.
At the end of this testing period, if no defect has developed, the motor is approved, placed upon a special truck and wheeled to the final assembling line.
The motor department just described furnishes an interesting illustration of the economy of the moving assembling system. Before the present system was installed about 1,100 employees were required in this department, working a nine-hour day to build 1,000 motors. Today, as a direct result of the new methods of assembling, and the efficiency gained through the profit-sharing with employees, about 1,000 men are assembling more than 2,000 motors in an eight-hour day.
The assembling of the front axle, dash and radiator are fully as interesting as the unit just described, but space will not permit a detailed explanation of them.
Transmission Cover Department
Perhaps the most interesting department in the whole factory, to the visitor, is the final assembly. In this division, all the assembled units meet the assembly conveyor at the point where they are needed. At the start of the track a front axle unit, a rear axle unit and a frame unit are assembled. This assembly is then started in motion by means of a chain conveyor, and as it moves down the room at a constant speed of eight feet per minute, each man adds one part to the growing chassis or does one operation, which is assigned to him, so that when the chassis reaches the end of the line, it is ready to run on its own power.
In following the final assembly line from the point where the chain conveyor engages the frame and axles, the visitor is impressed with the dispatch with which every movement is executed. The gasoline tank, for example, comes down from the fourth floor on a conveyor outside of the building, and drops through a chute onto a bridge over the assembly line. On this bridge is located a gasoline pump, from which each tank receives one gallon of gasoline before it is installed in the car.
After the gasoline tank is assembled, a number of small units are added, such as the hand brake control lever, gasoline feed pipe, and fender irons, until the point is reached at which the motor is placed in the frame.
Ordinarily the setting of a motor in the frame is a long operation, but in this assembly the motor is elevated by a hoist, and lowered into place while the chassis is moving along the conveyor track. From this point, other small parts are added, and bolts tightened, until the growing chassis reaches the bridge on which the dash unit is deposited by a chute from the second floor, where it is assembled. The dash unit includes the dash, complete steering gear, coil, horn, and all wiring ready to be attached to the motor, so that its installation is rapid.
Further along, such parts as the exhaust pipe, muffler, and side pans for the motor are quickly fastened in place, and the wheels are brought into the assembly.
There will be noticed the vertical chutes, extending through the ceiling. Down through these, from the third floor, come the wheels, with the tires mounted and inflated to the proper pressure. From this point the chassis moves under the bridge upon which are stored the radiators, which have been delivered by a belt conveyor.
At the end of the assembly line, the rear wheels on the finished chassis drop into a set of revolving grooved wheels, sunk into the concrete floor, and driven by an overhead motor. Two ends are accomplished by this operation. First, when the wheels of the car revolve with the grooved wheels, this motion is transmitted to the differential, through the drive shaft to the motor, limbering up all these parts. The second is that while the parts are being limbered up, the switch is turned on and the motor started.
Inspection of Front Axle after Machining
At the end of the line the complete chassis is driven out into the yard under its own power. Guided by practiced hands it moves swiftly out into the yard, turns sharply and enters the final inspection line. A corps of inspectors at this point takes charge of the chassis, and the responsibility for each part is assigned to some one man.
From the final testing line the chassis is driven to the body chutes, which extend into the factory yard from the third floor of the new six-story building, and are so constructed that the chassis may be driven under them. The bodies are let down the chutes on belt conveyors, picked up by small derricks and swung over onto the chassis. The bodies are at this time placed on the chassis merely as a means of a rapid transportation to the freight cars, for in ordinary transportation the bodies are packed in the cars separate from the chassis.
In the rear of the main plant are two six-story buildings each 60 feet wide by 845 feet long, built parallel to each other and connected by a crane-way 40 feet wide the full length and height of the buildings.
The boiler house, which furnishes the steam for heating the entire plant, is located in the rear of these buildings. The method of heating is worthy of particular interest, as the air is forced over coils of steam pipes located in pent houses on the roofs, and from this point is driven down into the various rooms through the hollow columns which support the floors. In the summer, cool washed air is forced down through these same columns, maintaining a normal, even temperature, compatible with the state of the weather.
Installing Motor on Final Assembly Line
Various unit assemblies, small machine departments, and store rooms are located here in addition to all the body work.
Practically the entire first floors are used as a receiving department, where all the material consigned to the company is checked and inspected. Railway tracks run the full length of both crane-ways, facilitating the unloading and loading of supplies and parts.
The body department occupies the greatest amount of space, requiring, with the upholstering department, most of the three upper floors. In addition to this work the construction of tops, curtains and radiators is carried on, and a large space is used for the storage of equipment and parts, such as lamps, horns, tires, etc. A part of the second floor is devoted to the storage and the shipping of parts to branches and agents.
Having seen the body placed upon the chassis, the visitor passes along toward the north. In succession are the chutes on which the crates of fenders are sent down from the fourth floor of the main factory building to the shipping platform. Here is also a chain elevator, which raises the wheels out of the freight cars to a runaway on which they travel by gravity to the third floor of the main factory. With this device it is possible for three or four men to unload about 6,000 wheels each day.
Mechanical Starter—End of Final Assembly
One passes the loading docks, where crews of six to eight men each, working as a unit, remove the bodies and wheels from the chassis, and load them into freight cars. So proficient are these loaders that a freight car is loaded in twenty minutes. Approximately 150 loaded freight cars are sent out every day. Besides these factory shipments there are more than 300 loaded freight cars in transit each day from branch factories.
The bodies are shipped separate from the chassis, being stood on end in one-half of the car and protected from dust by coverings.
The chassis are put in the other end of the car, the first one being carried in, minus the wheels, and placed in a diagonal position. Brackets of cast iron, for holding the axle to the floor, are made in the foundry. The front axle rests on the floor, and the rear axle rests against the opposite wall near the top of the car. A block, with a hole which just fits the axle, holds it against the wall.
The Body Chute, where Bodies are Placed on Each Chassis
The next chassis is brought in and placed with its front axle opposite the first one. In this way the chassis alternate until the car is full. The space in the center of the car contains the fenders, and other removable parts of the equipment.
Just beyond the loading docks is the foundry.
The foundry is one of the most interesting divisions of the entire plant, and ranks, perhaps, as one of the most unique in the country, as far as practice and equipment are concerned. As a general rule, foundry practice has not shown the changes in an increase of production that machine departments have, but in this foundry, due to standardization of parts and specialization on the one car, it has been possible to devise and install the unique equipment now used, which brings this department down to the plane of expense and up in the labor-saving efficiency prevailing throughout the entire plant.
Craneway, Showing Loading Platforms
This department works twenty-four hours a day, in three shifts of eight hours each; iron is being melted and poured continuously during the day and first night shifts. An average of over 400 tons of iron is poured daily, and 426 tons of gray iron have been poured in a single day. This tonnage is especially interesting, as it is produced on a floor space of only 36,324 square feet.
Continuous Core-Oven
All this iron is poured on overhead power-driven mold carriers, which travel about twelve feet per minute. These mold carriers have suspended from them pendulum-like arms, on the lower end of which is a shelf. The molders who make the molds for the castings are stationed alongside of these conveyors; the molding sand with which they fill the flasks is stored overhead in a hopper, the gate of which discharges directly onto the molding machine. There are two molders for each part, one making the “drag,” or lower part of the mold, the other making the “cope,” or the upper half. When these two halves of the mold are finished they are put together, or “closed” on the shelf of the conveyor, which carries the finished mold to the man who pours the molten metal. The molten metal is brought to this man’s station by means of large ladles, suspended on a trolley on an I-beam track, running from the cupola through the entire length of the foundry. This does away with the necessity of carrying the ladle of iron a long distance, thus saving much time and lessening the liability to accidents.
Quenching Steel Forgings in Heat-Treatment Operation
While the mold is being poured it is in constant motion, and continues so from the pouring station to the end of the conveyor, where the casting is shaken out of the sand. The casting is thrown to one side to cool, the flasks are hung upon hooks on the arm of the conveyor, to be returned to the molder, and the sand drops through a grating in the floor onto a belt conveyor; on this conveyor it is dropped on an elevator, raised overhead and “cut,” or mixed with new sand, and passed on to another conveyor, which deposits it in the hoppers above referred to, ready for the molder’s use. In all this journey the sand is never shoveled.
In casting cylinders, on account of their size and the care needed in setting the cores, a different style conveyor is used. The molder, instead of putting the mold on a pendulum conveyor, places it upon a track, where it is moved by means of a chain. During this travel the various cores are set, and the molds closed, moving to the point where the men with large ladles pour the mold. From this point it is transferred to another track. As it travels down this track, the casting is given an opportunity to “set,” or cool. At the end of this line it is shaken out over a grating, and the sand handled in the same manner as on the smaller conveyors.
Straightening Crank Shafts on Steam Hammers
As soon as the castings have cooled sufficiently they are put into great horizontal cylinders, called tumblers. Small metal stars are placed in these tumblers with the castings, and when the tumbler is full it is started revolving. This shakes all the sand from the castings and they come out clean and bright. This process continues for some time, depending on the size of the castings. Near the tumblers are the grinding wheels, upon which are ground off the rough edges and the castings put into shape for the machine shop. They are sorted, inspected and counted before removing from the foundry.
Another interesting feature is the handling of sand in the core room. The sand is handled entirely in a gallery built above the room, equipped with storage bins and sand mixers. Over each core-maker’s bench is a hopper, connected with the floor of the gallery. When the sand is mixed it is dropped through holes in the floor into the hoppers, which deposit the sand on the bench convenient for the core-maker.
This core room contains perhaps the only endless chain core oven in this country in which are two endless chain conveyors. These have hanging upon them large sets of shelves, upon which the cores are placed for baking. It is impossible to over-bake or under-bake a core, as the rate of travel of the conveyor is fixed at a speed which leaves the core in the oven the correct length of time.
All the aluminum parts as well as a large proportion of the brass, are also cast in this foundry.
The process of heat-treating steel forgings before they are machined is one of the most scientific and accurate features in the manufacture of this car. Vanadium steel is used throughout the construction of the car. It has been found from long and deep experimental work by engineers, that the structural condition of steel may be changed by the application of heat, and with certain conditions ascertained, by bringing a piece of steel to a certain temperature, and then setting the molecular condition in the steel by sudden cooling, or quenching, that the steel of a crank shaft can be made to stand impact, that the steel of a front axle can be made a most efficient agent to withstand vibration. Practically every forging in the car is made of a special steel, for which a special formula of heat-treating has been worked out, in accordance with the work, or strain, the part must stand in the finished car.
It is by the use of this high-grade, scientifically heat-treated vanadium steel that it is possible for the company to manufacture a light-weight car, which has the ability to stand up under severe usage, and to sell at the low price at which it is sold today.
The heat-treating department contains about seventy-five large furnaces, which consume from 5,000 to 6,000 gallons of fuel oil per day. It is into these furnaces that the various forgings are placed for heat-treating. In each one is introduced a pyrometer, connected electrically with a switchboard located in a separate building. This switchboard is very similar to those used in telephone exchanges. The operator takes the temperature reading of every furnace on his board about every minute. The furnace foreman is notified by the operator as to the temperature by means of small colored electric lights, located above the furnace. The lighting of all the colors at the same time is the signal to pull the heat or, in other words, extinguish the fires and empty the furnace. After the required heat has been reached, the forgings are allowed to either cool in the air, be covered with pulverized mica, or quenched in a special solution, as the case may require.
Pyrometers by which the Temperature of the Furnaces is Regulated
In this department are also located many grinding wheels and tumbling barrels, similar to those used in the foundry, so that the various forgings may be put in first-class condition before they are laid down in the machine shop.
This Belt Carries the Finished Parts and Scraps from the Punch Presses
The operations in the manufacture of the crank case, or engine pan, of the motor is of interest for several reasons, and the visitor has the opportunity of viewing these processes.
The crank case in itself is interesting because it is made from drawn sheet steel, instead of cast aluminum, as was once thought necessary.
Taking Industrial Motion Pictures
Operator suspended from traveling crane.
The presses on which these crank cases are drawn are especially worthy of note, for they weigh about fifty tons each, and exert a downward pressure of about 900 tons. It is necessary that this drawing be made in four operations; the first and second are particularly interesting, on account of their depths, which are 51⁄2 and 93⁄16 inches, respectively. After each drawing operation it has been found necessary that the case be annealed, to restore the strained or calloused surface produced at certain points by contact with the dies, to a soft, ductile condition, to conform to the balance of the case, or, in other words, to produce a homogeneous condition of the surface.
This annealing is accomplished by a furnace through which the cases are moved by a chain conveyor onto an elevator which raises them up through the roof, and down again, depositing them near the press which is to perform the next drawing operation. While moving on this elevator the cases are cooled so that they can be handled as soon as they are lowered.
After the drawing operations have been completed, the case is trimmed; the side arms, front end supports, radius rod support, are riveted and brazed to it, making a case as strong and solid, and yet as light, as it is possible to make.
Assembling Industrial Motion Picture Films
Near these crank case presses are located several hundred punch and drawing presses of various sizes. These presses blank out and draw from sheet steel of special analysis, a large number of parts (which in ordinary practice are made from castings or forgings), carrying the same strength, but also very much lighter in weight.
The interesting feature of this department is the arrangement of the presses, which enables all finished parts, as well as the scrap steel, to be deposited upon a traveling belt conveyor, at the end of which are stationed men who sort the various parts, and place them in proper receptacles. By this arrangement it is possible to place the presses closer together than could be done if it were necessary to leave aisles large enough for trucking the material to and from the presses, effecting a great saving in floor space.
A Thousand Assembled Chassis
At last accounts the production was 2,768 cars in a single day.
The pictures with which this story is illustrated were all made by the photographic department of the company, and are but a few of the thousands on file, portraying details of every operation in the manufacture of a car. The department is completely equipped to take and produce motion picture films of the highest quality.
The growth of this department, in its own peculiar field, has kept pace with the growth of the company as an industrial factor. But a few years ago, this department was an incident only. The quarters were small, the staff was composed of two men, and the entire work was confined to making photographs of the cars and parts for advertising literature.
A modern studio is now maintained on the fourth floor of the factory—the staff of skilled operators numbering twenty.
The moving picture portion of the company’s work is, in volume, the largest conducted by any industrial concern. As a matter of interest, it is estimated that the operations of this department in the “movie” field are equal in magnitude to the efforts of many of the better known film-producing studios which specialize in such work. And, large as the scope of operations already is, it is still growing, in response to an increasing demand for pictures of the factory as well as of events of general interest.
The expression “The tune that the old cow died of” has been used to express the giving of advice instead of material help, because of an old song which told of a man who had nothing to feed his cow upon and so played her this tune: “Consider, good cow, consider. This isn’t the time for grass to grow.”