Video link - hand forging massive chain & anchor

[mlucek]

Here's a video link to an old movie showing men hand forging massive chain/links used by Navy and commercial ships. The 2nd half shows another gang of men building up a HUGE anchor by hand. Watching the incredible teamwork of men hammering on the anchor assembly. Looks like a sledge hammer ballet - a moving wave of hammers with each man getting out of the way just in time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_LA_R4ifYk

I had NO idea how those anchors were made - thought they were cast in one piece, not built up like that !!

Enjoy

[Your Old Dog]

Thanks a million for the post. I found it fascinating. The shot of all those guys beating the pin into place blew my mind. These were the days when men were men and less emphasis was placed on them getting in touch with their feminin side !! Those guys worked harder in a day then most of us work all week and just barely had enough to cover the bills and some food.

[pcarpenter]

I was waiting for the caption to come up after they set the shackle pin saying "Aw darn it anyhow....we should have attached the chain first". That would happen if I was doing it

Very interesting video. Thanks for posting.

Paul

[Alistair Hosie]

Not trying to be funny but I wonder how many youngsters would resort to a life of such hard work nowadays ? Not many I pressume Alistair

[lane]

And all for 10 cents a day .

[platypus2020]

What really amazed me was all of these guy swinging sledge hammers at the same time, and I didn't see anyone hit another person or another hammer, what appeared to be not a wasted swing.

Jack

[Rustybolt]

Alistair. If that was the only work they could get, they would.

[Frank Ford]

A real treat to see this kind of historical footage - thanks for posting the link!

No eye or ear protection, abusively hard work producing broken down bodies and nasty injuries with no reasonable compensation for workers. Ah, the good old days. . .

Who would resort to such hard work? Well, I suppose it would be those with no alternatives, and they are all over the world, I'm sorry to say. We just lost some more coal miners, and I understand they work pretty hard. Heard a really heartbreaking story on NPR about career latrine cleaners in India, who still work literally by hand, scooping the stuff with no tools.

[J Tiers]

One thing to remember about those old movies..... The action is fast by a certain percentage due to a difference in frame rate. I forget just what the exact difference is, but you can see from everyone's movements that the speed is clearly off. probably at least 20%.

It is still plenty hard work, but at the correct rate it isn't so ridiculously fast as to seem frenetic and super-human.

EDIT
A check by google reference provides the info that old movies were 16 frames per second, which was changed to 24 frames per second later.

At that, the action is about half again too fast, which seems about right. Therefore, what you see in that sledgehammer dance actually happened at only 2/3 that speed. That makes it far more believable.

[kendall]

Always wondered about the apparent speed of those old movies, I'd always attributed it to a 'fault' in the camera design or something similar.
Even though I'd watched a few clips that were speeded up I hadn't connected the effects.

That second chain making video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLIbO...elated&search=

is also well worth the watch, like that little foot operated hammer in it, in that one there is a shot of a drop forge in operation, anyone know what causes all the smoke then?

the labor and time that went into making a chain explains why some of the real oldtimers were protective of their chains though.

again on the video, wonder if playing at the intended speed would cause a few of the old chaplin and keaton movies to lose some of their apeal for the modern eye?
I've a habit downloading silent films from over at archive.org, (www.archive.org/details/movies) and noticed that the rapid movements are part of the 'experience' for some of them.

great section is the Ephemeral section, training,educational, promotional etc, currently downloading one on the construction of the original bay bridge in SF
Bad part is that they seem to be sorted only alphabetically, not by subject.

Ken.