This 16mm reel from my collection is chuck full of cool footage - from prototyping concept cars at Ford, to the Mustang assembly line, to making Quasar television sets, to CNC machining with a PDP-11, to modular synthesizers, making rotary phones, and much more! Made in Philly in 1974 and transferred in the Lab on my own telecine. Enjoy!
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- Intro Music by Fran Blanche -
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By Fran

13 thoughts on “A career in manufacturing 1974”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars asdfasdf1331 says:

    "A high-paying, secure career." I would not bet on that.

    And from the credits, I thought Thiokol sounded familiar. They were the company that manufactured the O-rings for the solid rocket booster on Challenger.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Nuts n Proud says:

    Fran sorry you got copyright stuff from a 1974 video. Thanks for posting this after letting youtube erase the affected audio.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Benny Klyde says:

    A Career In Manufacturing (2022)… "Move to China"

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Allan Fulton says:

    I remember watching this at school in 1981 I was born in 1974 which is the reason I actually watched the video

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dan Kingsbury says:

    This took me back to the start of my electronics engineering career in the 70's, though we at least had printed circuit boards instead of point-to-point wiring. Fast forward to my last job before retiring, designing test equipment for the Xbox assembly lines in China: similar factory scenes, just substitute snap-together plastic boxes. Thanks, Fran, for the blast from the past.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ted McFadden says:

    Truthfully, I'm impressed at the diversity of the workforce they are showing. Seriously, given the problems we still have with that today, the filmographers must have searched wide and deeply for these differing demographics. I imagine this was easier in 1974 than decades prior, but still. Really cool find, Fran! 👍

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars asm2750 says:

    Nice movie. I kinda wish there were closed captions for the sections without audio.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SuperShecky says:

    Interesting footage. I'm a 55 year old machinist and have never met a female machinist. I've known female welders, but precious few enter the machinist trade. I know they exist, but I think younger women (and men) these days tend to understandably aim higher. It's also an aging trade. I'm considered a youngster in this field. Yet demand seems to remain steady. The lack of young talent is yet another factor that contributes to driving away manufacturing.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Clive Bagley says:

    Nice one again Fran – and it would be totally groovy for me if you filled in some of the Censor gaps with your very own sound!

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars CARL iCON says:

    I would bet that not one of these factories is still in manufacturing today. Matsushita Electric Industrial Company (Panasonic) bought Quasar from Motorola Inc. in 1974, but it was a loophole to allow them to build & sell TVs with imported parts in the US without paying tariffs. The beginning of the end of American-made TVs

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Marcelo Picoli says:

    Awesome color correction job!

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars KatjaPurrs says:

    Genuinely thought that was Emily's Electric Oddities in the thumbnail.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars hmbpnz says:

    Oh that redacted music JUST DRIVES ME INSANE!!! IT RUINS THE WHOLE THING!!!! [shaking fist at sky]

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