I found enough pictures of the inside of factories that used line shafts and leather belts that another posting on the topic is warranted.
Waltham Watch has links to lots of 1890s photos, most of which include line shaft driven machinery.)
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| 10:55 video @ 4:06 The room in the Rock Island arsenal that manufactured of the Springfield rifle |
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| π₯π²πΊπ²πΊπ―π²πΏ πͺπ΅π²π»: π‘π²π ππ²πΏππ²π & π‘π²π π¬πΌπΏπΈ posted Paterson, New Jersey, circa 1900: Jacquard silk looms! |
A textile mill in New England.
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| Jerry Lipchus, Oct 2021, cropped via Dennis DeBruler |
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| Roger Hubbard posted This is the machine shop in which I first started work at 16! Max Carman If you ever come anywhere near Bradford our industrial museum is really worth a visit, This picture is so similar to the first floor exhibit, plus there are cars, busses, trolleys, houses recreated from the past, and its free, anyone with an engineering past has to love it. Roger HubbardAuthor Max Carman Max.....thanks, shall bear that in mind once this virus wahala has calmed down a bit. MOSI in Manchester has a similar exhibition. Will Hall  Roger Hubbard as a volunteer at Bradford I.M. we’re hopeful we can get steam back soon, too. I have some pictures of the belt driven workshop I can PM to you if you’d like?Dennis DeBruler Will Hall Go ahead and post them, I for one would also like to see them. Andre Podval Is that a fire pit of some sort (at 5 o'clock) Wonder what it was used for... Roger HubbardAuthor Andre Podval Oh Andre.....fire pit....ha ha ha! Sorry....that was the winter heating system....burning coke ha ha ha. When I worked there we were still burning coke. A large lump of iron was lowered into the coke burner at the start of the day. End of shift the red hot lump of iron was lowered into a bucket of cold water to heat the water. The entire workshop workers washed their hands in that bucket....the lads got last dibs! Andre Podval Wow! Very interesting, thank you... some rough times. And guys at work complain about paper towels not being absorbent enough... Conrado Frani Is that cros belt Roger HubbardAuthor Conrado Frani Not sure what you mean by “Cross belt”. Most of the machine tools were driven via overhead line shaft, which at this point in time were powered from two large gas engines, later replace with electric motors. To get a lathe to run in reverse you needed to stop the lathe, remove the belt, install a short extension in the belt, then re install the belt in a figure of eight cross. |
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| Tim Starr posted Although this is another "unknown" photo, it's an interesting look inside a railroad wood shop during the "belt drive" days before electricity. It is probably a planing mill of the Southern Railway. (Louis Nollau photo; University of Kentucky) |
Roger Hubbard posted two photos with the comment:
Moving on from my earlier photograph. At the back of the shop was a foundry which generally cast once a week. In the second photograph is the green sand mould for a ships propeller. A single blade of the prop would be made in wood, in the pattern makers shop & the single blade would be used to make all blades in the sand mould. Once it came out of the foundry into the machine shop, a couple of jobs stick in my memory. 1) Parting off of the spru. This would be done in the large facing lathe in the original photograph. Generally an apprentice was tasked to part of the spruce. I can’t remember exactly which way the lathe ran, but do know the parting tool was upside down. For those of you who have the terrors parting off, imagine a parting tool about 3/8 inch wide with a six inch overhang? Once the spru was off a skilled turner would take over to machine the taper bore, which was also done in this facing lathe. Many shops would machine the tapered bore in a vertical milling machine using a boring head, but we did not have a mill large enough, nor a boring head capable of machining tapers. 2) When a prop comes out of a foundry, some of the pour is run off to cast a test piece. This test piece was also tasked to an apprentice. It had to be machined to exact dimensions, no tolerances given. The frustrating thing was that once completed it was pulled apart to test for tensile strength. Many years later the Engineer in me realized that in all probability exact dimension were not necessary as corrections could have been made in the calculation!
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| All About History posted H. J. Heinz Company female employees in proper company uniforms engaged in the production of tin cans the H. J. Heinz Company plant located on the North Side of Pittsburgh in 1908. The H.J. Heinz Company manufactured tin cans from a piece of flat tin. The process included stamping and corrugating the tops and bottoms, forming and seaming the bodies, and spinning on the bottoms of the cans without solder. In a few minutes the finished cans were distributed throughout the Heinz plant to be filled with baked beans, cooked spaghetti, cream soup, or other canned products. |
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| Rich Behrends posted 1918 Pennsylvania College of Technology William F. Rutkowski The Drill Press in the center looks like the 1893 MMM we were using at Schrade Cutlery back in the early 1980's. |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| Rich Behrends posted Vocational training for returned WWI servicemen was established to assist those whose apprenticeships were disrupted by enlistment and was an important part of repatriation assistance. Rehabilitation training was established for the wounded. 1919 |
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| John Abbott posted Mark Schmidt Yup! Indignant old timers would say no! Go sharpen your own |
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| John Abbott posted [This factory was in transition. You can see an electric motor on the right side of the gear train for the gun barrel machine.] |
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| John Abbott posted Robert William Lovell I worked in a plant in Bury, England that still had this type of system, along with a man whose job was to hook up new machinery, bless his heart. Bought a large planetary mixer,(50 gallons)for viscous epoxies. Told him it was coming and gave him the manual. The say it arrived he seemed surprised when it was obvious that it plugged in and didn't use the overhead belt system. |
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| John Abbott posted John Abbott posted again Bob Gaston Factory workers at Jones & Lamson during World War William Harris I hear a lot of jokes from my friends about not being in the military. I just smile and say, without machinist you would have been fighting with your bare hands. ["During the war" explains why there are women workers in a machine shop. I assume it was WWI because line shafts should have been replaced long before WWII.] |
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| All Things Vintage posted Now that is the mother of grinding wheels! Russell Johnson This isn't a grinding wheel. It is a drive sheave or flywheel for the pulley system that powers this foundry. Think steam power boilers, counter-shafts, belts, etc. The man is either balancing this wheel or roughening the surface so a belt won't slip. Russell Johnson Judging from the sparks coming off the wheel, it is cast iron. The man could be using a metal holder with emery and/or corundum inside that was heated to melt together forming something similar to a crude Aluminum Oxide. Ernie McCracken Its a grinding wheel at crewe railway works Jeff Jones Something is wrong...that piece he is grinding would be wayyyy too hot to hold. Fred Tefft Not necessarily. Looks like he's dressing an iron wheel at low rpm. Light pressure on the dresser so it is just hot enough to hold comfortably. The air movement helps to do a little cooling. It even looks like he could be whistling, but he couldn't hear it. Dave Bell And when they exploded... many people maimed or killed .... silicosis was rampant Sal Lumetta Looks like Ireland to me...Maybe the White Star Line tool shop? Craig Gilcrest the wheel is only turning about 120 to 150 rpm . long exposure the guy in the background is a blur Silodrome posted Sharpening tools before they invented OSHA Donald Piszczek shared James Phillips posted Controlling this beast must have taken some nerve. A picture that’s always impressed me. Wonder if the seat arrangement had any braking capability… Rob Smith: These large grinding stones would sometimes fly apart and kill the operator. Setting these up safely was an art back then... Daniel Olmstead: I know too much about grinding wheels. each stone on it's stainless steel plate about 550 pounds with around 90 something bolts that all had to be hand torqued. There was an ingoing side and an outgoing side with a top and bottom stone both sides at 7000 rpm. those stones were about 5 1/2 feet diameter. Only 2 of us in the entire plant were allowed to change them, take off or put on and do the setup. [Now that I'm thinking about it, did anyone even make safety glasses back then?] |
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| John Abbott posted Islington Railway Workshops [Most of the machines are evidently more modern electrically driven machines. But they still have some shaft driven machines along the left wall.] |
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| John Abbot posted |
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| Bob Gaston posted WA Young & Sons [The link is to a public group and well worth following because the comments provide video tours and a history.] |
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| The second of 14 photos posted by Joshua Montgomery |
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| John Abbott posted Woman_operating_boring_machine;_boring_wooden_reels_for_winding_barbed_wire [Note the building's line shaft in the upper-right corner. Not only is there a belt to the machine, the machine itself uses a belt to transfer power to the bit shaft.] |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| Bob Wynn posted Machine shop at the Naval Academy, 1893. |
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| Nick Mohar posted Ford's crank grinding department back in day. Those are model T cranks next to the machines. Jason Newby Picture is inside Highland Park. Model A would be at Rouge. Highland Park still exists, private ownership. The Rouge is still an active Ford plant, think they have tours. The Piqutte Avenue plant is a museum. Randall Thompson also posted Can you imagine the noise and smoke? Just oiling the line shafts would have taken several full time employees. An OSHA inspector would have laid down and died from a heart attack right on the spot. |
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| 1930 factory floor of Lawrence Brothers 1930 is a rather late date for such an extensive line shaft design to still be in operation. |
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| Perry Locke posted WWI manufacturing of shells
John Creasey The women who made shells in WWI were called "the canaries" because the poisons they worked with made their hair change color. No OSHA in those days.
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| Bob Gaston posted |
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| John Abbot posted Old-Shop |
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| John Abbott posted Siddheshwar Company Machine Shop |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| John Abbott posted Sean Mullen Sure looks like a South Bend 24" by 12" bed there. |
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| John Abbott posted Hounshell |
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| John Abbott posted Parkinsons_Machine_Shop_1898 |
Tanner Remillard posted three photos with the comment: "Lineshaft display at Western Minnesota Steam Threashers Reunion."
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| John Abbott posted We are doing over time tonight need more Gun Barrels Bill Zaremba A friend of mine use to work at Naval Ordinance in Louisville KY . Said that they had some huge barrel lathes for the Battelships.Michael Gross I always thought they was casted...John Abbott I believe they were cast with a hole and bored...Glen Nye Massive gearbox on that overhead craneJohn Abbott Heck of a Chain and Hook too looks like a old boat anchor |
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| John Abbott posted I need some 1/8" inch Plate cut... Mark Emly That says 7/8" capacity!!!!!! Earl Rempel I saw a machine of that vintage sold at auction in fall. 16 feet x3/16 capacity. The said it weighed 35 ton. They got $35.00 for the machine. [But the moving quote was $15,000.] |
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| John Abbott posted Exhibition4-Lathe-section-of-the-Main-Machine-Shop-at-Sterling-Works-1918 |
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| John Abbott posted Machine Shop |
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| John Abbot posted milling-shop |
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| John Abbott posted I think I'll HoG a cut off this Little Ring... [I have no idea what John means. Note this machine is in transition for being converted to electric drive. You can see the electric motor that needs to be hooked up on the floor at the right. It still has a belt coming down from the line shaft.] |
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| John Abbott posted Joe's over there doing the Big Barrels on the Belt Lathe... [Even at full Facebook resolution the text is hard to read. This is what I saw: "Face plate 120" in diameter and swing over shears 130" by 76'. It is geared for turning taper from 1 in 10 to 1 in 400, and there are four carriages with compound rests. The shaft shown in the lathe weights 63,000 pounds and is 37" diameter at the center and 27'4" long." The word "shears" was a guess. I don't understand what that is.] |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| John Abbott posted Thomas Dean White Jr. Some of those in the picture look like kids working? Before child labor laws? |
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| George R. Stewart III posted Barrel shop at Smith & Wesson. Late 1880's. |
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| George R Stewart III commented on his posting Barrel dept. Around 1910. |
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| George R Stewart III commented on his posting Barrel dept foreman George S. Lilley in front with suit jacket over work apron. |
Some more modern shops that still have some line shaft machines.
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| John Abbott posted [This shop is in transition from line-shaft to electric power. You can see the big electric motor on top of the two "modern" mills in the foreground. But you can also see line-shaft drives in the background.] |
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| John Abbott posted [This is probably a museum that made an old belt-driven tool operational. The electric motor itself is a bit of a museum piece!] |
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| Bob Gaston posted [Look at the forest of belts in the background.] |
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| Chris Kohlert posted 1925 [1925 is rather late to still have so many belt powered machines. I see the lathe in front does have an electric motor on top.] |
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| Bob Gaston posted Norton Crankshaft Grinder [That is a rather modern looking tool to still be powered by a leather belt.] David Smalley I used to work on a crankshaft grinder. It was one of the biggest challenges of my life. And one of my proudest accomplishments.Lou Tucci I hate using them |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| John Abbott posted Nail-Factory-The-wire-is-fed-into-machines |
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| John Abbott posted [Note the child labor and all of the gears by the aisle ready to grab someones clothing.] |
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| Ray Robertson posted Machine shop class in 1899. The children are being taught metal fabrication. They look like WF & J Barnes lathes. What do you think? |
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| John Abbott posted Watch your Head on the Belts Robert Phillips There actually less accidents back then than now in this I-Phone/X-box generation!!!!!!Mark V Thompson Is that two rows of shapers ? Shapers as the main production tool ! All shops I've been in, the odd, lonely shaper is a roughing, or trueing tool, back out of the way, or in the tool room. I was always told that the shaper was King at one time.John Abbott Not many cutter making shops or manufacturers ...you had to make your own Tool Bits For Cutting from a tool bit blank ... then you should ...NEVER ...loan your tool bit to someone else because that was YOURs ...would tell them ...you want ONE ...Go ...Make IT ...Sterling N. Schmidt Still true. I have made the mistake of loaning a few of my hand ground tools out....Followed by repossession and "make your own *** tool!Dick Campbell Lathe, shaper, and mill.....that was a machine shop at one time!! And if you've ever been around old shaper machinists you'd be amazed at what you can do with a shaper!!Randall Thompson The shaper was great when cutting tools were carbon steel, and cutting rates were very slow. High Speed Steels made milling machines more efficient, and carbide sealed the death warrant. |
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| John Abbott posted Typical Belt Driven Punch Presses Thomas Bauza No Guards = No FingersDick Campbell Imagine the noise!James Miller Many of these had clutched dogs; electric motors added with air/mechanical linkages to the framework in the 1920s and 30s (I have punched out 450 4 inch U-bolts per hour for exhaust hangers) using a pressure foot release) after roll threading 150,000 of them. 1/4-24 and 5/16-18; Niagara and Cincinnatis were very common. [Imagine setting on a steel stool all day.] |
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| Ian Wilson posted Raleigh Cycle works Nottingham 1914 [Putting shields between the belts+gears and the punch-press workers was progressive for 1914. But having a boy working (right foreground) is regressive.] |
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| John Abbott posted [These are a lot of rather big machines running off of line shafts.] |
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| Bob Apalsch posted |
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| John Abbott posted Laura Hill Not one dang safety cover! Ronald Dennis Mossolle Imagine if one of those belts snap instant death or lots of pain i believe those were leather. Tom Troszak In my experience they usually just fall down when they break, but if one did catch you it will leave a bruise. If you ever felt one on your fanny, you know it's not *usually* fatal, but I suppose a getting your neck between the belt and a pulley might be. Colin Hancock Very ornate legs on the grinding wheel stand. Much better than today's square box jobs! Ray Franklin The most dangerous job in the shop with line shafts was shifting the belts to another pulley. Tom Troszak I would swear that's the Edison's Menlo Park Machine Shop at the Henry Ford Museum. I worked there as a volunteer in 1979, helping with the recreation of the Lighting of the Lamp on the 100th anniversary. On the evening of the big day I got to help fire the boiler and start up one of the dynamos. The entire compound was actually lit by replica carbon filament bulbs, which were wired to the actual dynamos wich were run from the line shaft. I actually got to see all of that actual equipment in action. I went on to work on a lot of other stuff there over the next few years. Tom Troszak Russ Kiler, The shop is powered by Babcock and Wilcox Sinuous header boiler #1 (the actual #1) and a stationary horizontal engine. I don't remember exactly, but right off the top of my head I'm going to guess it was about 50 hp. Tom Troszak The boiler that is in that shop was the very first one manufactured from this design: https://www.google.com/patents/US1085241 Tom Troszak So, the worst leather belt accident I ever had was when I was working near a fast moving, small diameter pully, and the floppy pinky of my leather glove caught between the belt and the pully going down, whipped around the bottom of the pully and then threw my own hand up into my face so hard it bloodied my nose, and about knocked me over backwards. So that's why I don''t wear gloves around pullies any more. Ever. |
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| Jason Sobczynski commented on the above posting It is menlo park. |
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| John Abbott posted HORWICH-WORKS-MACHINE-SHOPS-1919 John Abbott Nice and Bright in That Building ... I don't even see a machine Light ? |
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| John Abbott posted HORWICH-WORKS-MACHINE-SHOPS-1919 |
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| John Abbott posted Robert Phillips That is a lot of belting licking around your ears:):):):) |
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| John Abbott posted The comments debate if this is trade school or child labor. John Abbott posted again [The comments on this posting conclude an apprentice program.] |
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| John Abbott posted |
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interior-1900-detroit-automoble-company-factory-machine-shop-line-shafting-set-up
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| John Abbott posted Jim Volvo Karlsen David Richards 1920's machine shop [This is the first shot I have seen that emphasizes the shafts instead of the machines.] |
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| John Abbott posted Factory Workers punching buttons |
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| John Abbott posted Jerry Fleischman Looks like they are using a suction device to pull the fumes from the polishing wheels, possibly polishing precious metals. |
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| John Abbott posted Brush Machine Shop |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| John Abbott posted Hunslet Engine Company Machine Shop Bill Porter Yeeek!, belts, and pulleys all over the place!, shop maintainer must have had to do his job at a dead run! |
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| John Abbott posted Matthew LeFande According to the Internets, this is the Birmingham Small Arms factory, Small Heath, Birmingham, February 1917. |
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| John Abbott posted Veloce Works Factory 1920's machine shop Ross Haygarth Hall Green, Birmingham. The factory closed its doors in 1971, still owned by the Goodman Family who started it in 1905. I know Ivan Rhodes who owns a precision engineering business in Derbyshire, he owns the Worlds finest collection of Ex Works KTT racers & the one off twin cylinder Supercharged ''Roarer''. |
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| John Abbott posted Robert Livingston Great bikes! |
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| John Abbott posted |
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| John Abbott posted Machine Shop 1917 [Almost two decades into the 20th century, but I don't see a single electric motor.] |
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| John Abbott posted electric company factory machine shop 1900s |
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| John Abbott posted machine shop in the Argyll car factory Glasgow c1899-c1930 |
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| John Abbott posted Early turning department |
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| John Abbott posted Aug Blanchat No chairs or stools to be found.Jon Landi I like the filers benchJohn Abbott Yes not many air tools going ??Aug Blanchat I think they used brushes and brooms in this era |
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| John Abbott posted Maintenance... Point Out to me... Which Belt is Squeaking again ? Mike Feddock the flat one over thereMike Feddock "walks in squirting belt dressing everywhere" Christopher J Williams "Its not a belt, sir. It's that bearing up by the spoked wheel"... John Damon you guys are so full of it LOL Just hit the shipper lever and then slide from forward to reverse you want to hear a belt scream. |
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| Nina Oliphant posted Francis Otterbein http://vintagerailroads.com/construction5.htmJeff Bransky I like the overhead driveshaft with long pulley belts that ran all the machines before the era when each machine had its own electric motor. The shaft could be driven by water power, steam power, or a large electric motor depending on location and what year it was.
Steve Smull After I got out of the Army in 70, I worked in a Machine shop that had the over head pulleys and belts. Learnt a lot there.
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| John Abbott posted Kristopher Hnyda How come nobody bitched about all the cows that died to make all those belts lolEd Hope Actually, the belts were from buffalo hides. |
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| John Abbott posted Can factory workers stamping out end discs 1909 |
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| John Abbott posted Cotton Mill |
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| Lehigh Valley History posted Bethlehem Steel Co. armaments shop in Redington, PA, during WWI. Robert Kiesewetter Awesome picture of the lathe bay all belt powered from the ceiling.would be nice to see more pictures of milling machines and planers.Andy Brandley The only thing left of this building is the foundation. |
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| Lowell National Historical Park posted |
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| Bob Gaston posted Ore processing at Killhope (Elsie esq.) by Elsie esq. (flickr) [The rods attached to offsets on the shafts would go up and down to pulverize the ore.] |
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| Bog Gaston posted Inside the wheelwright factory where timber is mass produced to make the wheels Sovereign Hill Museum in Ballarat, Australia |
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| Bob Gaston posted " Weaving shed, Queen Street Mill A typical shed. There would be 800-1200 Lancashire looms in a typical shed, each taking about 0.5 horsepower of steam engine power and producing an incredible din. The mill girls communicated by lip reading a skill called mee-mawing (somebody will correct the spelling)." Author: Chris Allen |
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| Jim Sawyer posted [Note the line shaft in the upper-right corner.] |
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| John Hanson posted |
Stace Drumm posted two photos with the comment: "Found this out on the web, had to share."
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| David Daruszka shared |
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| Mike Raia posted 5x7 glass plate negative of CRI&P machine shop area with tool crib, Silvis IL--no date. Phil Weibler collection, Lake States collection Mike Raia shared |
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| Gino Gervais posted Woww...!! Macca McLean: I often took pieces to an engineers large workshop in Rutherglen, Glasgow, Scotland where every piece of equipment was belt driven. There were main belts that I would estimate were 12 inches wide with other belts running from junctions, gearboxes or transfer cases. We aren't talking small machines here, they were huge cast iron cased behemoths capable of manufacturing enormous components for the then busy shipbuilding industry. It was truly amazing. The other amazing aspect was that the tradesmen all wore coats and ties, Yes, they were dirty and soiled from daily wear but they wore them with dignity and self respect. I miss those proud days. John Morris: This shop happens to be one of Thomas Edison's Machine Shops, the image we are seeing here resides in West Orange New Jersey. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Edison_NHP_NJ2.jpg |
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| Tim Sharr posted A steel planing machine (Putnam Machine Company) in use at the Denver Tramway in 1910, Denver CO. |
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This link is a treasure chest of old machine shop photos. I especially like this one because the levers are red so you can clearly see that sometimes the clutch that controls a machine is up near the ceiling.
An early (silent) video of the machine shop of the Westclox factory. You can see that they are still using line shafts to power the equipment next to the wall. It appears the factory is in a transition period between belts and electric motors.
A shop in the factory that has a "forest" of belts.
A steam powered machine shop.
The reconstruction of Edison's shop.
W. A. Young and Sons Foundry and Machine Shop
Fully functional machine shop
This link is a treasure chest of old machine shop photos. I especially like this one because the levers are red so you can clearly see that sometimes the clutch that controls a machine is up near the ceiling.
An early (silent) video of the machine shop of the Westclox factory. You can see that they are still using line shafts to power the equipment next to the wall. It appears the factory is in a transition period between belts and electric motors.
A shop in the factory that has a "forest" of belts.
A steam powered machine shop.
The reconstruction of Edison's shop.
W. A. Young and Sons Foundry and Machine Shop
Fully functional machine shop
The comment by Russell Johnson, ref the grinding wheel is incorrect. It is a grinding wheel. Wheels up to 8ft in diameter were use in edge tool works for tool grinding. The seat arrangement, bolted to the floor with heavy chains was a common arrangement. Grinders often died young from silicosis (until modern carborundum wheels became common) or the occasional burst wheel... See the Getty image at https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/workman-sits-on-a-wooden-block-called-a-horse-holding-a-gunbarrel-to-picture-id615321056?s=612x612 for the same kind of grinder's horse bolted to the ground... or http://www.klingenthal.fr/images/aiguiseurs_aiguiserie_nr_5.jpg for the size of grinding wheels at the Klingenthal edge tool & weapons (armes blanches) works in Alsace... or https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fa/27/61/fa276175ed9259323c59c7049565fd3d--belt.jpg for a grinding wheel in the quarry where it was made...
ReplyDeleteSee also http://www.simt.co.uk/system/uploads/image_content/image/189/desktop_low_res__MG_0289.JPG or http://www.simt.co.uk/system/uploads/image_content/image/66/desktop_high_res__MG_0225.JPG or https://www.hpacde.org.uk/picturesheffield/jpgh_sheffield/s02467.jpg for more images of grinder's horses (these are of grinding hulls of Sheffield used to grind edge tools and cutlery) - wheels were used until they were too small to cut at the spindle speed from the water wheel... They they were often broken in half and used to cap walls...
ReplyDeleteFinally "Title: Grinding metal at Crewe railway works, 1913 Place: Crewe, Cheshire, England"
ReplyDeleteSee: http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/photo?group=Euston&objid=1997-7409_LMS_2939 (National Railway Museum, UK)