OT- Another old photo. What is being made here?

[rangerider7]

[RIHMFIRE]

1873 winchesters

[pwl44m]

That first tray looks like it has Pistolo frames stacked in it. But the Guys at the tables lok like They have Silver Dollars stacked in front of Them. I don't know.
Does RR know ?

[J Miller]

Mrs J Miller says she's seen the pic before and thinks they are making watches.
However the articles on the right in the trays don't look like watches to me, so I really don't know.

Joe

[Marc]

That sure looks like a revolver frame in front of the second fellow on the left!

[Hobie]

Didn't this photo get into the Gun Digest as being of the S&W plant?

[Washita]

That sure looks like a revolver frame in front of the second fellow on the left!

It sure looks like it. I had to raise the zoom level to 150% to see it, though. Good call!

[rangerider7]

Atta boy Hobie. S&W plant.

[airedaleman]

Another great one, RR7! Isn't it amazing that those fellows managed to produce hundreds of thousands of fine firearms without plastic, stampings, investment castings, CNC machinery, and a lot of management theory. Also, I wonder how many of those workers were paid piece work? Even in the 70's, when I worked for American Optical Corporation in Southbridge, Mass (at the time the largest manufacturer of eyeglases in the world - 5,000 people worked at the AO complex then) most of the lens grinding machinery was still belt run, and most of the production people and assemblers were paid piece work.

[cshold]

Wow! interesting place to hang coats.

[Batman1939]

Another thing about this photo is that it surely is before the days of OSHA. All those moving belts and other "exposed" pieces of equipment would not pass muster for workplace safety. Times have really changed!

[FWiedner]

IMO, being in the presence of 'danger' such as moving parts assists less gifted beings develop what used to known as common sense.

E.g., "Don't put your hand in there..."

[Blaine]

Compared to sweat shop factories of the same time period, it looks like a clean, civilized place to work.

[stretch]

Note also the layout of the benches for all of the handwork. They're right
next to the windows - they didn't use artificial lighting back then. The layout of
the old Waltham Watch factory in Waltham, Mass. was similar. Must be five or
six stories and several city blocks long - laid out along the Charles River just
like the picture here.

-Stretch

[Rusty]

They ain't makin nothin they're all on break!

[bsaride]

Not to highjack the thread but a similar item found on epay last year,
looks like a 3rd strike K frame forging to me.

[KirkD]

What kind of S&W frame has a big round hole between the grip and the cylinder frame? A Colt 1878 has, but on the left side of the gun, unless the negative has been reversed.

[rangerider7]

Kirk all I know is that S&W was written in pen on the back. It could be Colt.

[Cimarron]

I don't have a clue to the make of the revolvers that they are making. Looks like a nice line of horizontal milling machines all being run by an overhead line shaft. Everything powered by a Corless steam engine in the basement of the factory, possibly. The fellow half way down on the left side is wearing a straw "boater" hat. Would that make it sometime after the turn of the century, possibly even up to the '20's? Note the derby sitting on the cabnet of drawers in the lower left and the mens coats hung in the rafters. This is a very cool picture.

[J Miller]

rr7,
If you could blow the cropped pic up a bit more and keep it clear you could maybe read the casting text on the vise. That would show weather or not the negative had been reversed.

Joe

[rangerider7]

I tried but I can't get it clear enough.

[KirkD]

[quote="J Miller"]rr7,
If you could blow the cropped pic up a bit more and keep it clear you could maybe read the casting text on the vise. That would show weather or not the negative had been reversed.[quote]
Upon further observation, I do not think the photo is reversed. Several of the men have a hand on something. I'm assuming the hand they are most likely to have on something would be their right hand, and according to the photo, it is their right hands that are on something. So I'm left scratching my head as to what pistol had a nice circular hole at that location.