PLAN No. 930. VEHICLE MANUFACTURING
Buggies, wagons, and auto and truck bodies are built in special shops. These have separate departments for wheel making, body making, and other processes, and often buy their stock partly finished.
PLAN No. 931. OTHER MANUFACTURING
Musical instruments, such as pianos, organs, phonographs, and violins, are built in special factories, but the same processes are used here that are employed in the other woodworking occupations.
Toys, games, gymnasium equipment, special wood products are made to a large extent by machine operations. The men employed are mostly machine hands, and women and boys do much of the assembling and finishing.
Box, crate, barrel, and basket making are low-grade woodworking occupations. Much of the work done is rough and unfinished, and is turned out in large quantities. Women and boys are employed and machines are used as much as possible.
Demand for Labor Increasing and Steady
The field of the factory woodworker is growing. Much of the woodwork formerly performed on the job is now done in whole or in part in the factory. Growth of population and higher standards of living have increased the demands made upon woodworking factories for all sorts of furniture and equipment. The greater cost of metal furniture limits its use somewhat. Woodworking is less seasonal than many other lines of employment, and a disabled man may choose one of the woodworking trades in the assurance that he will be permanently employed at all seasons of the year.
Safety and Hygiene
Safety devices have reduced greatly the accident risk. Except for dust and fumes, now largely eliminated by means of exhaust fans, the working conditions are good. Fumes of paints, varnishes, and of their solvents are of course detrimental to health, if no precautions are taken to remove the fumes or to provide for adequate ventilation, and even under favorable conditions, it is only fair to say that a person who is inclined to tuberculosis should avoid the finishing trade.