How valves are made .........

[beam me up schottky]

For those that have never seen exactly how valves are made this will be extremely interesting. It is part 1 of the Mullard Blackburn factory, the remaining 5 parts will be seen in related video's. Trust me, you won't be able to stop watching once started ! :-

[big band heaven]

Yep, your right - they are addictive. I just watched them all. It is surprising just how how work went into each one. Can you imagine how much they would cost to make today!

[beam me up schottky]

Yes, I thought that too !! Although the level of automation would have increased dramatically by now, that amount of manual labour would have been unsustainable !

[big band heaven]

Watching those films made me think just how long ago that period seems even though it must of been made in the early 1960s. Sees like a whole different world! As you say just the number of people to make each valve is amazing! With todays wage levels can you imagine how much it would cost to make them with that same level of manpower today. A LOT!!

[beam me up schottky]

Was a very different world, probably better socially than now. Something that occurred to me was the problems that would now exist from health and safety with some of the working practices evident in the film ! What was also interesting was the obvious heavy and ongoing investment in 1960 when transistors were literally on the doorstep ! Would really like to meet someone that worked there to interview them for posterity.

[OldTickTock]

I cannot remember who but a member on VRF did exactly that. They met someone who worked for Mullard and I believe in design/production. He gathered questions from members and then asked this person on behalf of them.

Chris

[Jamie-Skinner]

6200 employees!! WOW!
The saying "You'll kill yourself complying with health and safety" comes to mind

[OldTickTock]

The company I started work for in 1979 had 5,500 employees, when I left it there were about 150, no kidding, everything but the kitchen sink had been outsourced.

[beam me up schottky]

Single mass employers, outside the public sector, seem to be a thing of the past. Up until recently I had a small space in a friends workshop for storage. This was on the site of a drop forging company, amazingly still in business. At one time they employed as many as 3500 workers working a 3 shift system ! Now they have 60 ! Much of the site is like a ghost town, with much evidence of what it had once been, like a medical centre, massive canteen, union offices, stores, fitters workshops etc, all now disused and falling into decay. The most sobering of the disused areas for me is the main engineering shop, a place that was obviously once capable of making or repairing almost anything and very well equipped with lathes, mills, shapers etc, etc. Now it looks like people just walked away and left it, all the machines are rusty and covered in pigeon droppings. Scenes like that for me are very depressing, to see a place that obviously once buzzed with skilled, creative and industrious activity, just abandoned seems wrong.

Places like Mullard were more than just factories, they were small villages ! Although I wasn't around then I have this fantasy to travel back in time to experience life as it was then !

[OldTickTock]

Can I come