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Wolff (Raphael G.) StudiosHow Textile Mills Are Modernizing (ca. 1948)

How electricity can modernize textile mills. Great shots of cotton mills, processing and textile manufacturing; technical narration laced with industry jargon. In Technicolor.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Wolff (Raphael G.) Studios
Sponsor: General Electric Company
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Electricity; Occupations: Textile workers; Textile industry

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Spuzz - - August 1, 2003
Subject: If looms and warp turn you on, then this is the film for you!
Meandering film, made for fabric makers telling of the many MANY new technoligical advancements made in the Textile industry. Spread out into 4 long chapters, the narrator just glows about tension, warp, looms and the ilk. It feels unfair to downgrade the movie just because I didn't give a hoot about any new advancements, but honestly, if textile machinery isn't your bag, then I would seriously reccomend that OTHER textile film, Greater Goal: Human Dividends from American Industry.

Shotlist

How electricity can modernize textile mills. Great shots of cotton mills, processing and textile manufacturing, with technical narration laced with industry jargon.
VS workers making industrial and commercial fabric
MS older woman going thru fabric in fabric store (critical eye)
Title: Trend 1: MODERNIZATION (hand turning page in front of camera)
Lighting, materials handling, air conditioning, power distribution system
Switching engine from Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co. , Amsterdam, N.Y., pushing a Nickel Plate RR freight car
Trend 1: Modern Mill Conditioning
GS old industrial air conditioning plant
VS cotton processing machines, combs combing yarn
Drawing of cotton fibers
MS women operating spinning mills
Machinery in weave shed
2 women inspecting finished products
Because of AC, ÒThereÕs no millroom fever here and morale is high.Ó
Women working in room on looms
Man inspecting fabric rolling by for defects
Man operating huge loom
Old material handling method: African American men pushing bales of cotton into place, using handtruck
New method: African American worker on forklift lifting bale onto stack
Overhead conveyor carrying lap into pick room
Men working with electrically controlled hoist in dye room
Electrically controlled blending line system
VS electrical distribution apparatus: lines, transformers, etc.
MS man inspecting electrical distribution units in cabinets
MS man operating switch gear on low-voltage system
Man in suit pointing out features of electrical distribution system
Title: Trend 2: POWER AT THE POINT OF USE
VS tools with individual electric motor drives, no central drive belts
VS knitters (knitting machines)
CU yarn winder in operation
Rayon spinning machine powered with individual motors
Operator running rayon yarn spinning machine
Two-for-one twister shown in laboratory of manufacturer
Animation showing individual motor powering double-twist spindle
Engineer measuring tension and twist with tensometer (good)
GOOD MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING SHOTS here
Title: TREND 3: HIGHER CONTROLLED SPEEDS.
VS spinning frames
Animation: adjustable control maintains spinning tension at maximum safe level
Full-fashioned hosiery knitter with electronic ÒbrainÓ regulating its speed changes
Pan down womanÕs skirt (long) to hosiery, showing seams in back (Òvery well constructed Ð the hose, that it)
CU knitting machine knitting nylon stocking (seamfree) in 17 minutes
Woman operating machine, collecting stockings and replacing supply of yarn
Woman operating new ÒwarperÓ drive, handling delicate filament electronically
Man operating slasher drive with amplidyne generators
CU rollers on slasher machine
Woman operator loading bobbins on machine
CU manÕs arms and hands setting up machine
VS Rug-weaving (Axminster loom) in operation, powered by electronic drive
New weaving machines in operation
Title: Trend 4. FINER QUALITY CONTROL.
Vacuum card stripper Ð blade moving by camera
Modern pin-drafter leveling out and reducing fibers
Woman operating machine masking worsted yarns
VS Photoelectric eye inspecting cloth, seeing skew and setting it true (weft-straightening)
Man operating this machine
Stroboscopic lights used in cloth inspection, appearing to make weave stand still
Modern batcher drive
Dye jig, electrically powered Ð tension controlled by electric motor
VS Woman operating spectrophotometer to inspect dye color
CU rotating graph paper on above machine
CU Electronic tensile tester pulling swatch of fabric apart (good)
Women operating this machine
Air orifice thickness testing Ð man running this machine
Title: TREND 5. NEW PROCESSING METHODS
Infrared radiant heating Ð CU two infrared bulbs in front of textile samples
Man in T-shirt moving rolls of fabric for shipment
Pan over blended cotton-rayon fabric things
Woman fondling fabric sample
Animation of blended fabric process
CU womanÕs legs and shoes exiting car (good)
Title: TREND 6. CONTINUOUS PROCESSING.
Animation of line of machines, control switch, and finger pushing switch
Animation of compensating gate tightening and loosening fabric tension
Animation of electric eye sensing fabric tension
Animation of fabric passing thru belts
Red cloth passing thru dyeing rollers
Recap of themes with white super titles as before over images
Zooms (five of them) into old-fashioned fabric patterns (great)