British steam locomotive building film in 1930's.

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPACAt8aE4U

No safety equipment. No aprons. No asbestos suits. No respirators. No goggles. No gloves, even. No OSHA. Shop probably not unionized as in American locomotive works at the time. That factory looks like a slaughterhouse for humans. An industrial butcher shop. Sweat comes off my forehead just looking at that molten metal. Probably many lung cancer deaths out of those factories.
 
I absolutely love it, people just got on with it back then.

Turning up to work in trousers and a jacket with your cap on, as you say no safety equipment but proper work - judged by eye and trial and error based on complex calculations and diagrams written by hand.

Videos like this are absolute gems; thanks for posting the link.

Cheers,

PLP
 
Kinda does want to make you check all your fingers and toes, but a great video! Thanks Jon!

I would like to see an American locomotive works film from the 1930's and see if the men near the molten steel even have gloves on let alone a hard hat. A locomotive factory, a ship factory, an airplane factory or an automobile factory should not be a butcher shop. I was a truck mechanic in the army. I had to wear safety goggles and a dust mask while driving brake lining rivets out of brake shoes with a hammer and punch. Being practically naked near a big pot of molten steel: no thanks.

Working near molten steel, I would think it prudent to dress like a welder. All that burn-proof gear on.
 
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I've seen this video before.

I love how the workers move around those forges. I would be checking for all my fingers quite often and for both my hands too!

My grandfather used to put on full business attire like that to go to work as a house painter. That's how people dressed back then. Today, it's skivvies and sneakers.
 
It should be fire-proof suits, work gloves, steel-toe boots, safety googles, hearing protectors and respirator. There are toxic gasses in the air. Foundries and steel mills should have advanced fire-suppression systems and ventilation systems. Workers in those hot environments need plenty of water and electrolytes. Imagine trying to air condition a steel mill and iron smelting facilities to keep workers cool.

As daunting and dangerous as molten steel working is mining!
 
It should be fire-proof suits, work gloves, steel-toe boots, safety googles, hearing protectors and respirator. There are toxic gasses in the air. Foundries and steel mills should have advanced fire-suppression systems and ventilation systems. Workers in those hot environments need plenty of water and electrolytes. Imagine trying to air condition a steel mill and iron smelting facilities to keep workers cool.

As daunting and dangerous as molten steel working is mining!

That would be today. We're talking 1930s here with little if any safety in these environs.
 
I googled four of the safety items you listed: steel-toe boots, fireproof suits, safety goggles and hearing protection. Steel-toe boots and fireproof suits were both invented in the 1930s, so they were not widely used by the time of the video you posted. Heck, they may not even have been invented by the time of the video. However, safety goggles were invented in 1909, though this is still the early part of the 20th century, where safety wasn't as important. The first earplugs were patented in 1864, and a version with an adjustable headband first appeared in 1884, but it was intended for sailors and soldiers to protect them from the sounds of gunshots, which is where hearing protection was mainly focused on in the early years, not industrial purposes. Hearing protection was not required by OSHA until 1981.
 
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