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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Neat pictures of the Empire State bldg.
- - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 17:20 Edited 08-11-2010 17:43
I hope this isn't too big to attach...the pics are pretty neat.

See below
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 17:42
More............
Parent - By G.S.Crisi (****) Date 08-12-2010 21:24 Edited 08-13-2010 19:19
Comments on the photos.
Nº 1 photo. Do you know the name of the lifting equipment shown on the photo? Guy derrick.
Nº 8 photo: "Move back a little ....". There's no protection between the sling and the sharp edges of the beam. The sling will spoil soon.
Nº 16 photo: "I have no idea .......". He's tightening a clip nut.
Nº 3, 6, 13 and 14 photos: Yes, they're using spanner wrenches. The tool that in America is called a "wrench", in Britain is called "spanner". They're the same thing with two different name.
More examples:
America: anchor bolts. Britain: holding down bolts.
America: rotor. Britain: spindle.
America: checker plate. Britain: chequered plate.
America: stair steps. Britain: stair treads.
America: panel board or instrument panel. Britain: cabinet
etc. etc.

How about in Australia, Shane?
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
Parent - - By waccobird (****) Date 08-11-2010 18:01
John
I don't know where these came from but the one where the caption brings attention to impact wrenches is incorrect. I imagine those Men are Bucking Rivets.
Thanks John
Marshall
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 18:04
I almost mentioned that in my post...but got side-tracked and didn't..... The guy standing close by to the right has the catch can for the red-hot rivet when it arrives...LOL
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 18:06
I also saw where they mention using a spanner wrench, but I doubt seriously that was the wrench in use.
Parent - - By 803056 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 18:47 Edited 08-11-2010 18:56
Back then a lot of the wrenches were made on-site using blacksmithing techniques.

Great photos John. Thanks for posting them.

More, more, we want more.

You can never get enough of those old photos of yesteryear.

Best regards - Al
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 18:49
Looked like in one of the pics they had a regular ole spud wrench, maybe that is what the writer meant to say instead of spanner wrench.
Parent - - By 803056 (*****) Date 08-11-2010 19:09
The old spuds were not the ones we use today. They were crude to say the least. One old erection company I worked with had some old wrenches that were hand forged in the late 1800's sitting in the corner of the tool room. My first set was a set of Williams; they were so long they hung down to my ankles. I could put enough torque on a 7/8 - A307 bolt that you did not need the impact gun to get it tight. Of course they weighted twice as much as a set of new alloy steel spuds with the nice tapered ends. The AB and Bethlehem wrenches with a quick release belt were the ones everyone  wanted.

Best regards - Al
Parent - By Cactusthewelder (*****) Date 08-12-2010 02:12
I still have my AB Hardhat and Quick release belt with the Rope weaved into it
Parent - By CHGuilford (****) Date 08-12-2010 16:12
Hmmm...that gives new meaning to "...full effort with an ordinary spud wrench."
Parent - By waccobird (****) Date 08-11-2010 18:59 Edited 08-11-2010 19:07
Al
We have a couple of these @ 24"X36" in the reception area here at our facility, the couple where the guys are having lunch and napping on the beams.
Here is a bunch of Lewis Wickes Hine's photography.

http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/hinex/empire/
And John in that above mentioned photos the NYPL has that photo (Three workers securing a rivet) ID:79841
Marshall
Parent - By weldwade (***) Date 08-11-2010 21:21
Amazing pics John! I am going to use them in my monthly safety meeting next week. In the last pic, the rope dogged off to the pipe, looks like that is how they kept the crane from swinging... sure glad things have changed!
Parent - - By bruce69 (*) Date 08-14-2010 14:52
For anybody who has never seen movies of how they used to install rivets, it is pretty interesting.  A floor or two down would be a guy heating rivets on a BBQ grill like you have on your deck.  He would then take a pair of tongs and wing them up to the guy catching them like in pic 4.  I would of hated to be working under the guy who was supposed to be catching them.  The worst job I ever had as an Ironworker was on a old railroad bridge where we had to use a 70 lb. "helldog" to knock out thousands of old rivets to replace the iron and put in bolts.  If you have never seen the picture of them on lunch break, look closely at the guy on the right end of the beam.  He is drinking his lunch.  Those guys were crazy.
Parent - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 08-17-2010 02:27
That is a "Rivet Forge" not a BBQ. Difference? The forge has a blower to force air into the fire, and it gets really hot. You can burn or melt steel & iron in one if You don't pay attention to what You are doing.
Parent - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 08-11-2010 23:48
Marshall is right they are bucking rivets....hot ones too.   These pics make me feel like a whoosy when I look at how old some of those fellas appear to be!   Yep I am seriously glad things have changed.   Ingenuity, daring can/will do attitude....today's generation (and mine too) could use a dose of the "moxy" folks had then.   Thanks for the pics...they are entertaining and scary all at the same time!
Parent - By 3.2 Inspector (***) Date 08-13-2010 05:20
Amazing pictures.....
Thanks for posting.

3.2
- - By Pickupman (***) Date 08-11-2010 22:59
Really cool pictures. The one of the trucks shows an early Mack. They had hard rubber tires like a forklift and were chain drive. Thanks for sharing, those guys had some cajones.
Parent - - By mcostello (**) Date 08-12-2010 03:29
Bet I could do something most people could not-------------- if I found myself up that high I could sink fingerprints into the steel that would have to be ground out!
Parent - - By Chris2626 (***) Date 08-12-2010 04:27
Thanks for shareing the pictures, really cool to see how they worked back then
Parent - By Tyler1970 (***) Date 08-12-2010 10:55
those guys are the true definition of a HARD ASS
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-12-2010 11:38
Google "half way to hell club"

There were 19 men in this club who would have otherwise fell to their deaths if it were not for one of the first safety devices that was emplimented on the Golden Gate Bridge project.
Parent - - By ssbn727 (*****) Date 08-14-2010 00:02
How many people in here have had the privilege to work above fifty stories on a commercial construction project??? Oh btw, I'm not talking about working in the shop for such a large project... I'm talking about hanging steel way up yonder where the winds are blowing enough to blow you off wherever you're standing...

Regardless of the safety equipment they use these days, when one does fall, it's no cakewalk either, yet usually one does survive which makes a big difference in comparison

Count me as one who has worked way up in the sky on many occasions, and on more than one jobsite... The highest I've been was regrettably 92 stories up in the late World Trade Center North Tower to add some reinforcement structures to the floor in order to support a bunch of mainframes (computers) that were installed afterwards, and on the observation deck of the South Tower in order to install "Anti-suicide" fence and railing for the observation deck.

Now if anyone just happens to be visiting NYC and are near the 34th street area where the Empire State Building is located, one can see many of these wonderful photos that John posted in this thread in all their glory up by the observation deck... Thanks for posting those pics John!!! ;) ;) ;)

Respectfully,
Henry
Parent - - By waccobird (****) Date 08-14-2010 13:46
Henry
Does Communications towers count? Back in the early 80's I worked for a company in a small town in Texas that built and erected up to 2,000 guyed towers. When complete they had an elevator to assist maintenance but till complete you either rode the rope connected to a tugger winch or climbed. In Pennsylvania we erected a 2,000 foot FM Religious broadcast tower and couldn't see the ground most of the time for the clouds.
Good Luck with your fishing
Marshall
Parent - By ssbn727 (*****) Date 08-14-2010 23:54
Heck yeah they do!!! Marshall :)

I'll make sure to post some pics the next time I catch something. ;) :) :)

Respectfully,
Henry
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-12-2010 11:34
On projects  of that size back then(Empire State Building, Hoover Dam, Golden Gate Bridge...ect), they figured that they would lose one man per million dollars of construction cost. It was just a fact of life, and there were people waiting in line for someone to get killed so they could get their job. People really wanted to work back then, but how about the general population today?...shhhs, you can't give some of these kids/men a job, they are quick to tell you that they can make more sitting at home drawing some sort of support check each month. Believe me, we hear that all of the time during interviews.
Parent - By ctacker (****) Date 08-12-2010 20:02
I hear ya, I wished I would get layed off, I could draw almost $600 a week unemployment, without the gas expense and wear and tear on my body :)
Parent - - By G.S.Crisi (****) Date 08-12-2010 21:31
Let's take into account two things:
1st. The Empire State was built in 1929 - 1930, the years of the Great Depression. People was accepting eagerly any kind of job.
2nd. A million dollars back in 1930 isn't the same than a million dollars nowadays. A million dollars in 1930 was an astronomic fortune, nowadays any middle class American family owns more a million bucks.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
Parent - - By awspartb (***) Date 08-12-2010 21:51
I don't know many Americans with over $1 million dollars in total assets.  Most Americans are deeply in debt.
Maybe it's different in Socialist run Brazil?  Where the streets are paved with gold?

The average US private sector salary is around $60,000 per year.  If you make this or more in the welding trade, you're in the top 10%.
Half the USA population has less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
Parent - - By G.S.Crisi (****) Date 08-13-2010 21:26
I must admit that Americans are not as rich as people who live outside the USA (including me) believes ............
Giovanni S. Crisi
Parent - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 08-14-2010 03:10
Many Americans COULD have a good bit of wealth, but they piss too much away on things that have no lasting value.
- By CHGuilford (****) Date 08-12-2010 16:17
It's also interesting to see how much smog there was then.  That shot with Central Park would likely have been taken on a windy day.
- - By awspartb (***) Date 08-12-2010 20:24
I get sick to my stomach just looking at some of those photos.  I worked with some old timer boilermakers who told me they were still "riding the ball" up into the late 1970's.  I beleive them because these were the same guys who called you a pussy for wearing a respirator.  Most of them died at 55 to 60 years old from asbestos.  These photo are the way our competition works in China and other parts of Asia today.  I was in Thailand 10 years ago and saw a guy welding I-beams.  His welding hood was a 2x4 lens fitted inside a piece of cardboard and his glove was a rag.  How are we in the USA going to compete with that?
Parent - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 08-13-2010 07:03
"How are we in the USA going to compete with that? "

awspartb  I agree with you             however:

what where they (saying+feeling worldwide) when Pearl Harbor happened and the US entered WWII.   We rose to the occasion and became the largest (BY FAR) manufacturing based economy in the world.  Not to get into a long history/political debate, we have rested on the shoulders of our close forefathers quite a bit in the last 50 years or so.   BUT I still firmly believe that as far as COUNTRIES go the people of the US have the wherewithal and the moxy to over come our present day problems....it is simply in our blood and our family trees.   Get off your but and be politically active, keep your nose on YOUR grindstone and it will turn out fine.

My $.02
Tommy
- - By sillyslik (**) Date 08-15-2010 02:05
i have much respect for the accomplishments of my fore fathers, and today i revel in making things with my hands one offs built by my strength and fortitude!now it's a forgotten art! but i spent the last 8yrs. as a duct mechanic making fittings from sheet metal and cutting and forming! yep i drive by buildings 'prison's and motels! and in silent revel i had a hand in the comfort of these people using those buildings!now i am into welding and i carry that with me in this field as well.guess ya call this old school!old or new , weld it for eternity! rite!
Parent - By Sberry (***) Date 08-24-2010 18:25
This is one of my own buildings but I have been on 50+ story jobs.
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Neat pictures of the Empire State bldg.

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