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0t---vintage UK machine art

JHOLLAND1

Titanium
Joined
Oct 8, 2005
Location
western washington state
new search capability of UK museums
 

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machine tools to Russia----1941

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The very last picture, by E. F. Skinner, shows Cammell Laird's steelworks in Sheffield in WW1. The left hand half of the painting was used as the cover illustration on the 1986 edition of L. T. C. Rolt's 'Tools for the Job'.
 
Pic 4 must be "the great crane" from Woolwich Arsenal? or maybe there was another? I'm not sure how many wandering artists they would have allowed in, the more "imaginitive" paintings could have been from plates in The Engineer perhaps?
 
Pic 4 must be "the great crane" from Woolwich Arsenal? or maybe there was another? I'm not sure how many wandering artists they would have allowed in, the more "imaginitive" paintings could have been from plates in The Engineer perhaps?

I think it is ...looks like the original is in the Welcome Collection Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London: a radial overhead crane for carrying heavy artillery pieces in different sectors of the factory. Lithograph by G. Clausen, 1917. | Wellcome Collection


FWIW I was born within 1.5 miles of the Woolwich Arsenal
 
I'm surprised at painting No2. " Never Stand Under A Suspended Load " was the rule in my working life. Especially one rigged like that. Also what were three guys doing under it ?

Regards Tyrone

In nations where land is much more expensive than here in the States it is normal to not "waste" space on aisles, so machines are rigged by crane swinging them over the other machines. The operators put their hard hats on when a machine is passing overhead! I protested that the hard hat would not even contain the mess of a falling machine, but I was informed that the hard hat was to protect them from bolts or wrenches which might have been left on the machine and rain down. I have also seen machines rigged through a hole cut in the roof, by crane or by helicopter, when the bay was not high enough for one machine to pass over the others.
 
Now or then, you'd have to be stupid to walk along under that. I think it's the impression of an artist more interested in glorifying the proletariat than in any understanding of actual work. You don't guide that load by pushing up from underneath.
 
Now or then, you'd have to be stupid to walk along under that. I think it's the impression of an artist more interested in glorifying the proletariat than in any understanding of actual work. You don't guide that load by pushing up from underneath.


The picture is much more of a "heroes of Soviet labor" picture than something from the West. I can see it being done in a Soviet factory, no problem.

Keep the load oriented, maybe a bit of swing damping.... And there are plenty more where those men came from, so if the rigging, which looks highly questionable, slips or fails, the worst problem is the loss of productivity due to the load being damaged.
 
In nations where land is much more expensive than here in the States it is normal to not "waste" space on aisles, so machines are rigged by crane swinging them over the other machines. The operators put their hard hats on when a machine is passing overhead! I protested that the hard hat would not even contain the mess of a falling machine, but I was informed that the hard hat was to protect them from bolts or wrenches which might have been left on the machine and rain down. I have also seen machines rigged through a hole cut in the roof, by crane or by helicopter, when the bay was not high enough for one machine to pass over the others.

I used to be the " stand in " overhead crane driver at one place I worked at. Obviously travelling work down the shop meant you had to pass over the heads of guys working down below. The crane was equipped with a "Klaxon " which I sounded as I passed down the shop. You would normally choose a route that avoided the most men and the ones you couldn't avoid would then get out of the way.
To manipulate the load in mid air you would normally attach a tag line. Nobody would stand under a load if they could possibly avoid it. I did once see a load just like the one in the painting fall and it was instant. Nobody could have got out of the way. Luckily nobody was hurt.

Part of my full time job involved taking care of the cranes and the work involved checking for loose nuts and bolts on a regular basis, certainly weekly. I had only one case of a guy being struck by a falling nut and that was in a long time. The guy was hit on the back of his hand as he was marching down the shop by a 5/8" nut.
Nobody wore hard hats.

Regards Tyrone.
 
#5 - the gang-drilling operation - looked at first to me to be the weekly trip to the laundramat. Were those engine blocks (that's what they are, aren't they?) moved around manually?

-Marty-
 
#5 - the gang-drilling operation - looked at first to me to be the weekly trip to the laundramat. Were those engine blocks (that's what they are, aren't they?) moved around manually?

-Marty-
I worked at a place that had one of those. A workmate of mine took the head apart and then couldn't put it back together again. There was dozens of gears in there and some got lost eventually. The machine ended up getting scrapped.

Regards Tyrone.
 
Rolls-Royce Merlin cylinder blocks. Built under licence at Ford's purpose-built factory in Manchester.

I wondered who made the multi-spindle drilling machines seen in painting #5, post #1.

I looked up some technical articles which covered the manufacture of aero engines during WW2.

One article covered building the Packard-Merlin in Detroit.

There was a photo of a Baush Machine Tool Co. multi-spindle drill, and it looks exactly like the one in the painting.

Natco Co. is also mentioned as another maker of multi-spindle drills used by Packard.

Baush multi spindle machine Packard-Merlin production 01.jpg Multi-Spindle drilling machines on Aero-Engine Work by A S Finlayson.JPG



 
I wondered who made the multi-spindle drilling machines seen in painting #5, post #1.

I looked up some technical articles which covered the manufacture of aero engines during WW2.

One article covered building the Packard-Merlin in Detroit.

There was a photo of a Baush Machine Tool Co. multi-spindle drill, and it looks exactly like the one in the painting.

Natco Co. is also mentioned as another maker of multi-spindle drills used by Packard.

View attachment 296328 View attachment 296329




I think you're right there. The one I referred to was similar in style but not identical. The maker was " Frederic Pollard ".

Regards Tyrone.
 
Yachts of 100 metric tons+ are commonly manhandled by ropes by a few guys, even when suspended on cranes.
These would tend to be in the big yachts or superyachts category, 20m+ in length.

People may walk or work under them, sometimes, like when painting the last stripes where the previous lift slings were.
Unusual, but happens.

Lift slings == elevator == helicopter.
All depend on good engineering in good order to work.

At my local steel merchant, Ferros Bosch, their 5 ton / 20 ton carriage lift continuously and casually lifts major loads sometimes (very rare) over people like clients and workers.
They try very hard to avoid lifting over people, and just one guy operates the lift at a time.
Cannot really avoid it with large long bits, and 30+ people perhaps in the (big) hall at the same time with 3 saws etc.

I never felt uncomfortable, and have passed under loads dozens of times.
No-one ever lingers under loads.
 
The painting "making Electrical Machinery"has five glaring things there for the safety man to write up.Three of them are workers under a load,there is no spreader on the load and the crane hook isnt moused.Not to worry the painting was probably made by an artist that had never even been in that place and was handed a bunch of photos to work from.Abstract art...
 
I'm surprised at painting No2. " Never Stand Under A Suspended Load " was the rule in my working life. Especially one rigged like that. Also what were three guys doing under it ?

Regards Tyrone

Hey Tyrone that 2nd pic is a common thing in Asian shops, the men are not under the work as much the men ARE the work.

We call it making MANcakes
 








 
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