Has anyone seen this silent 1931 film of the Elgin factory? It's full of amazing footage and facts. Also available on DVD. 23 minutes long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys4ChOWYNy8

William

I just watched it, well worth the time.

Give it a look boys.

Highly recommended!

I just love the 10 station pantograph machine for damaskeening the plates and bridges! And did you see that giant master disc ?!?! Here's a link to the "Accidentally Preserved" project which includes several other rare silent shorts:

http://www.accidentallypreserved.com/about.html

William

What a fantastic film.
I worked in Birmingham UK for 50 yrs and saw sights exactly the same but never on such a miniature scale. We had machinery for turning the bearing surfaces of tank turrets where the operator used to stand on the bed of the machine down to automatics for producing tiny parts for hydraulic door closers.
In the early years we still had little workshops hidden away with belt driven machines and overhead shafts. They were dark, oily and dirty places.
Starting and finishing was just the same, with streets full of men and women. An amazing sight.
It brought back such a lot of memories.
Now it's all gone. No more manufacturing and just like Elgin it's all gone to China or India. We still hang on to Jaguar and are just building a new engine factory not far away.
Thank you William for posting a wonderful film which I'm sure brings it back lots of memories for the older people in the forum.

Wonderful piece of history - thanks, William.

If you find one from the Seth factory let me know.

Wow! Makes you look at your Elgin's with a lot more respect, doesn't it?

I forwarded the link to my boss who is going to use it in class next week to show what real productivity was like back at that time.

People seem to think this kind of production was only recently developed. They had no clue....

Regards! Mark

This is a classic in many, many ways. Elgin applied the technology first developed by Massachusetts watch makers such as American Watch Co., Waltham, to build automatic, free-running parts turning, finishing, cutting and grinding machinery which could completely finish to design from flat or wire steel, nickel or brass the intricate tiny parts to the unheard of accuracies required for the final dimensional specifications.

This capability delivered unmatched (to this day!) productivity that eclipses most other world wide manufacturing processes.

The manufacturing machinery is still produced by Browne and Sharpe and Hardinge machine companies, both located in Connecticut. Sadly the machine designs were coined "Swiss Automatic Screw machines" even though the Swiss were 50 years late to copy our designs long after we had already populated USA with many tens of millions of these excellent "Made in USA" timepieces.

Mark, the lesson is even more than a question of productivity. It becomes what happened to the people in our society who in those days understood, designed and built such technology with their hands, their minds, and their imagination as a LITERAL task, rather than giving in to the totally non-productive escapist life of "Virtual" reality. I can assure you that a "CAD" program is sadly lacking to describe some of this equipment!

The Damaskeening machine technology was re-visited about 40 years later, marketed as toys called "Spirograph" drawing machines.

Oh, believe me, David, I know. I'm an old ruling pen/T-square man myself and TOTALLY understand where you're coming from.

Heck, some of our new engineers don't even know what a ruling pen is, let alone a drop-bow compass.

Regards! Mark

I'm not really an

quote:

old ruling pen/T-square man

, but I have to say I completely see the attraction, I personally like all of the older, more traditional equipment to the newer stuff, for example in terms of timing machines I like the old printers that allowed you to visualise the timekeeping of a watch much more than the new digital timers, but I do see the advantage of newer equipment. The main problem for me is finding the training on these old methods, the majority of classes teach the newer, more efficient, and often automated processes, which is letting a lot of the old tricks get forgotten.

Often completely overlooked are the true mechanical geniuses that invented the machines that made these tiny parts.

We all go nuts over a gorgeous, well-running movement, but forget the insane amount of hours perfecting the technology that went into even a single one of those belt-driven production machines.

Does anyone want to try "CAD" to repeat the drawing board to first flight of the P-51 Mustang rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed and, with an engine installed, first flew on 26 October?

Thanks William for the link! I'm just in awe of the machining technology they had back then, and the fact that Waltham had all this going even before Elgin came along.Many people have no clue the amount of work it took to set up design and build all that machinery, it's just amazing, especially way back then before computers.All of us watch nuts of today owe a giant debt of gratitude to all those factory workers that built the best watches ever made, right here in the good old U.S.A.!! The other thing about those days is, you could never get away with all that shafting,belts and pulleys running in the open like that, OSHA would come in and shut the whole place down and not even think twice about it!But then again, people had way more common sense and respect for machines.The loss of the U.S. watchmaking industry to me was a national tragedy.I don't think we even make any quartz watches here,but we should be. Regards, Ted.

Neat film and thread.

Thanks William!

My first question: What happened to all those cool machines? Did they just get junked when the place closed down, or repurposed, or do watchmakers near and far have them squirreled away?
I think I'd like to have a couple(!)

kh

Ken,

I doubt that much if any of the machinery has survived. Even if it had, most of the apparatus you see being used in the film could be better described as systems and were machines working with other machines...sometimes in many layers. They were highly specialized, complicated and sensitive systems using mechanical automation of the highest order and would be of little use to most of us without the knowledge of the people who designed and maintained them. But to acquire and own a small piece or segment of such gear...and to just know what it was actually used for...would be something special.

The fundamentals of making any part of a watch is no mystery to the true watchmaker but making the same parts on a mass production level is a completely different science...and, as the movie shows, it was all done with some very different, bizarre and wonderful equipment. ...operated by highly motivated men and women of course!

William

Got it.
And speaking of motivated workers, in some of the frames, you can see just how fast and smooth some of those operators got at their tasks.
Some were really too fast to follow.

Can anyone identify the model wrist watch the mail pilot is wearing in the film?

Regards! Mark

AVICO? AWCO? I did a bit of a search but turned up nothing.

The winged logo looks very much like today's AOPA symbol. There is also an aircraft parts company in Florida who has a stylized AVICO Logo that abbreviates their name "Aviation International Corp."

I would go for a Pilot's club or association.

Very good. Any idea on the actual model? That dial less logo is interesting, and not one I'm familiar with.

Thanks!

Regard! Mark

William, that was very educational.

Excellent!!!!! Thanks for posting.

That was a really awesome video... extremely fascinating...

one thing I noticed at the very end.. when it was showing the pocket watch prices...

there was frame in the video that said 'priced up to 650.00'

650.00 dollars in 1931 was A LOT of money (about 10,000 in today's money)... any idea what watch that would have been ??

Which ever it was... I bet no doubt it was a beauty for sure...

There's also one for the Illinois Watch Co.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTQT6PwgJTA

This Illinois film looks like it was done during the early 20's...maybe even by the same people who made the Elgin film? Go to 39:50 to see a cool skeletonized 18s movement.

William

Remember the slide rule ?

Patrick,

I've still got one and it still works!

Steve

Elgin Avigo

quote:

Elgin Avigo

Nice work!

I believe that the 650.00 watch would be the 12/14 sz C.H. Hulburd