Master Hands - Chevrolet Manufacturing (1936)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN finds it fascinating as a window into 1930s factory work, often contrasting its hand labor with modern assembly ergonomics.
What it is
A 1936 Chevrolet promotional drama, 'Master Hands', showing car manufacturing from foundry to finished vehicle in Flint, Michigan. It is a National Film Registry selection and a record of early mass production.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2015 to 2019.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec ptaipale · 2015-03 · on “Why do Americans not drive diesels?”
Whatever you think of GM today, I find this half-hour movie from Chevrolet-making in 1936 absolutely fascinating: [this video] This was slightly before the great strikes in Flint, Michigan, and those working conditions are obviously both hazardous and extremely inconvenient. But it shows what an amazing enterprise a large car factory was already then, and the world has come far since those days.
Cites Animats · 2017-05 · on “Tesla factory employees describe grueling work conditions”
That's why workers need a union. If there's an assembly line station that's too hard, that's a union grievance. There's a way to work out a solution, with the worker being in a strong position. Happens all the time in a union plant. Expecting someone to lift tires overhead for mounting on a production line is way out of date. Here's how it's done in a Ford plant. First, they show the old way, where they had a platform at just the right height to roll the wheel into position. The worker then pushes it onto the lugs and hub. Then, they show the fully robotized operation.[1] Here's an older, manual system, but with a counterbalanced lifting aid to do the heavy part.[2] Simple setups like that a
Cites dugditches · 2019-10 · on “The GM strike is really about the switch to electric cars”
>Working in an auto plant is hard, backbreaking work that will leave you physically broken by retirement Maybe 80 years ago. These fellas workin the forges and lifting those blocks certainly went home more sore than someone operating a pneumatic driver all day. [this video] There is so many ergonomic and Health/Safety stuff now. Maybe it's hyperbole, but I wouldn't call auto assembly factory work 'backbreaking' by any stretch.