Some friends and I had this discussion a couple of weeks ago.   I think this settles it.

 

Edited November 19, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
Added tags

That's a neat video!

 

One of my former students's Dad was a pattern maker for T.B.Woods, when their foundry was still in operation.

Hmmm.  Not a single woman woodworker in the whole film. 

no hardhats, no glasses, no steel toe boots.....

A good friend (and a mentor when I started woodworking) of mine is a retired pattern-maker.  When he was active, he used to show me some of the patterns he made and the castings.  I think one of the last things he did was a helical agitator for a food processing plant.  In the middle, it had a straight beam, then another 180degree helix on the other side.   Rotation in one direction drew the material to the center, reversing drew to the outside.
 

Some of the complications

- It was about 8' in diameter and 12' long

- Two castings were made so that they worked together - without any interference.

- Cast in stainless steel, so like all metal castings shrinkage from hot to cold has to taken into account ("shrink rules")

- It had to have a core mold so that the center was hollow and hot or cold liquids could be put in to heat or cool the stuff being mixed

 

The geometry of that thing blew my mind.

 

----

 

And when I went to high school there were three career paths for most women

- homemaker (took home ec)

- secretary (took shorthand, typing and bookkeeping)

- teacher or nurse (took college prep)

 

My wife did Candy Striping in HS and thus decided to be a teacher, just like her two older sisters.

 

In college, in a lecture class of 100 or so in physics or chemistry, one or two women.

 

So happy that all changed by the time my girls were in school.

 

Edited June 14, 20178 yr by kmealy

31 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

Hmmm.  Not a single woman woodworker in the whole film. 

Not a single active woman woodworker in our community here either, I'd sure like to change that. 

did you see the quality of the materials???

They don't make wood like that, anymore.

Cool video Keith,

Cal

That brought back memories! On my mother's side of the family, one uncle was a pattern maker (ended up at G.M.), one built travel trailers (all wood back then), and one had his own custom wood shop (furniture and such). I was supposed to apprentice in that wood shop, but decided that I preferred the north Ontario bush to the big city of Munich, so that never happened!

John

16 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

They don't make wood like that, anymore.

Well it's not like it grows on trees or something

 

 

My mother and aunt worked for Playskool in the 50-70's My mother only worked their for a few years but my aunt retired from Playskool.

My mother says her bad hearing was due to loud bandsaws. She brought other toys home from Playskool other than Lincoln logs...

 

Edited October 1, 20178 yr by BillyJack

20 minutes ago, BillyJack said:

My mother and aunt worked for Playskool in the 50-70's My mother only worked their for a few years but my aunt retired from Playskool.

My mother says her bad hearing was due to loud bandsaws. She brought other toys home from Playskool other than Lincoln logs...

What a neat story Billy, I have forgotten that there actually was human behind the fabrication of all those wood playschool toys, real elves. Very cool.