Vintage automobile factories

Those were some neat photos.
For some reason I still find myself surprised with the degree of technology that was used back when these photos were taken. Not sure why. It's almost like I can't believe they were so "advanced" then.
I have an idea in my mind that even up into the 50's it must have been like those clips we see of the original FORD Model T assembly line.
Clearly that isn't the case.

 

I was astonished to see how advanced aircraft engine technology was, during the Second World War, while visiting a museum. And I don't mean just German

 

Yeah, here in the U.S., if Texaco hadn't developed the octane-rich high-lead aviation gasoline the USAAF used in the strategic bombers, their bombers would've been slower, and definitely below 20,000 feet. The losses would've been a magnitude worse, and might not have been effective enough to slow down enemy industry.

 

Also, it's interesting to watch the stamping mills, how everything is precision clockwork, how the workers know when (and definitely when NOT) to step up to the mill to do their task. Even watching the panel welders, how they become fairly practiced to where the welds are made, good consistency in that.

 

A shop teacher of ours was telling us how a fellow production worker of his went under one of those machines, attempting to free it up. The results were poured down the sewer, afterwards. I'd hate to be the undertaker who ended up having to put that puzzle back together again. Back then, if you didn't know what you were doing, around those machines, the person taking over your job likely will.
Servicing production robots are also deadly, if measures aren't taken to keep them still. Have you ever witnessed how quick those things can move heavy weights? Any serviceman showing up for work after having partied all night and maybe had two hours of sleep total could end up being a candidate for that year's Darwin Award

 

Playboy cars being hand-built in the company's first factory at 988 Ellicott St., circa 1948. Lou Horwitz was the president of the company which built 97 cars in Buffalo from 1947 through 1949



Lou Horwitz, president of Playboy Motor Car Corp., proudly shows off the 1947 Playboy at the Hotel Statler in February of 1947. This was the premier showing of the new car built in Buffalo. The car featured a rear engine and was a soft-top convertible.

 

I like how nicely dressed the gent in the foreground is. Another thing that has gone to the wayside.

 

Note how many more nicely dressed gents stand at the right side of the line making sure the nicely dressed gents building the cars don't get out of line. I wonder how much they costed the company for doing nothing more than watch work with their hands stuck in their pockets. No wonder the Brit auto industry collapsed