Welding The Big Ring

A little historical manufacturing.

These films collectively bear the title, "Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904.” The Library of Congress generously hosts these films at their site, and offers embed links that come with these adorable little headlines with poorly organized compulsorily displayed metadata.

In their info section the LoC explains that the films “were the first to use mercury vapor lamps (conveniently made by Westinghouse) to illuminate its shots, and they were also the first to use crane shots. Bitzer primarily used stationary cameras and fixed lenses, and he typically shot the films in a single continuous take."

First crane shots! Convenient in-house lighting. The Big Ring. All the videos were taken by Bitzer, G. W. in 1904, and everything is via Library of Congress.

Here's that crane shot:

"A group of men weld one area of a large ring in a fire. They lift the ring, which is hanging horizontally on chains, out of the fire. Four men hammer the hot area on the ring into shape while the remaining men hold the ring. They put the ring into the fire again, take it out, and take it over to a machine which continuously hammers down on that area of the ring. The men then take it away from the machine and hammer it themselves into shape. The ring is presumably a piece of a generator."