Shift change photo

[Mikel]

Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, CT. June 1941.

Shorpy Historical Picture Archive :: Shift Change: 1941 high-resolution photo

Vintage photographs available as fine-art prints or digital stock images

www.shorpy.com

 

[subybaja]

Cool. Back when America made stuff.

 

[montrose818]

Cool. Back when America made stuff.

good old war times!

 

[Filthy McChevy]

June 1941 was before

good old war times!

June 1941 was before Pearl Harbor. I suppose it's possible they were making stuff for the UK.

 

[montrose818]

June 1941 was before


June 1941 was before Pearl Harbor. I suppose it's possible they were making stuff for the UK.

anything pre ww1 and until end of ww2 is war time in my book, with an intermission.

 

[78bronco460]

Inb4 the wizard claims to be in there

 

[subybaja]

Damnit, I just spent half an hour creeping P&W, and after 80 years of remodels I can't figure out where that pic was taken.

Google Earth

earth.google.com

 

[MChat]

Damnit, I just spent half an hour creeping P&W, and after 80 years of remodels I can't figure out where that pic was taken.

The building outline in Red looks to be more modern than the rest; imagine it gone.

This building looks like the one on the right in the picture.

And this building looks like the one on the left.

 

[subybaja]

Yeah, that was about as close as I could get too.

No evidence of the elevation change with stairs, and the buildings in the background of the pic are gone..

80 years, though...I guess it's surprising anything is there.

I actually expected it to be abandoned.

 

[MChat]

Yeah, that was about as close as I could get too.

No evidence of the elevation change with stairs, and the buildings in the background of the pic are gone..

80 years, though...I guess it's surprising anything is there.

I actually expected it to be abandoned.

Here's what I used to identify the buildings... upon a 2nd look, it looks like a part of the building on the left was added later:

Red = Double Column that only goes up to the 2nd "floor" windows.
Yellow = Column where the roof height changes
Green = Stairs going into the building (looks like there's some sort of air handler equipment there now?)
Orange = Original corner of the building, a wide brick "column" with windows/door centered in it.
Blue = Brick column with 3 concrete columns in between it and the Corner "column".
Purple = Stairs, which appear to have been removed.
Grey "X's" = Buildings added later.

 

[Newb007]

Not one lunch bucket in the pic. Meals provided?

 

[Lilyota]

Not one lunch bucket in the pic. Meals provided?

I would take it as "Nothing comes nothing goes."


Really not a crazy idea if you think about it.




Way before food allergies affected anybody I'm sure.

 

[Gtrplyr78]

Bottom left with suspenders - Gary :)

 

[Lilyota]

Likely Screwy is in there somewhere too

 

[[486]]

Not one lunch bucket in the pic. Meals provided?

grandpa always said if it fit in the lunchbox it wasn't stealing
conveniently his lunchbox would fit welding rods in it

also the guy that complained to the owner of the company he worked for from their start "What kinda chickenshit outfit is this becoming, I'm bringing shit back in that I stole 20 years ago just to get the job done!"

 

[billybob_81067]

grandpa always said if it fit in the lunchbox it wasn't stealing
conveniently his lunchbox would fit welding rods in it

also the guy that complained to the owner of the company he worked for from their start "What kinda chickenshit outfit is this becoming, I'm bringing shit back in that I stole 20 years ago just to get the job done!"

I got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime.

 

[2020AT4]

Not one lunch bucket in the pic. Meals provided?

That pic reminds me of where I work, 800 people on day shift alone with 1300 total.

Meals for us are not provided, but they are subsidized as we have a cafeteria vendor.

Foods pretty good.

 

[Mikel]

 

[arse_sidewards]

I can't imagine what it must have been like to work on those cars when they were brand new, hadn't been driven a hundred thousand miles and sat in fields and rebuilt several times over.

 

[Mikel]

West Virginia junkyard, 1942. I bet the average car age at the junkyards I go to is nearly twice of those in this picture.

Dick's Wrecking: 1942

January 1942. "Wrecking yard in Clarksburg, West Virginia." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information.

www.shorpy.com

 

[DMG]

grandpa always said if it fit in the lunchbox it wasn't stealing
conveniently his lunchbox would fit welding rods in it

also the guy that complained to the owner of the company he worked for from their start "What kinda chickenshit outfit is this becoming, I'm bringing shit back in that I stole 20 years ago just to get the job done!"

I knew a guy that used thousand dollar + steel mill heat suits for yard work. Apparently they were also weed whacker proof.

 

[DMG]

I can't imagine what it must have been like to work on those cars when they were brand new, hadn't been driven a hundred thousand miles and sat in fields and rebuilt several times over.

None of those cars drove 100k

 

[arse_sidewards]

None of those cars drove 100k

That generation of vehicles got used a lot longer than 50s and 60s car because people hung onto anything useful as long as it was useful throughout the 1930s and then just as they were getting long in the tooth ww2 happened which basically stopped the supply of new vehicles so a lot of cars and trucks that would have been scrapped wound up staying in service.

Based on the number of those cars that needed every single wear item replaced and already had a non-matching engine despite an odometer reading 5k back when they were dragged out of the fields for the first time in the 50s and 60s I think it's safe to say a fair number of them managed to roll over once.

 

[Mikel]

That generation of vehicles got used a lot longer than 50s and 60s car because people hung onto anything useful as long as it was useful throughout the 1930s and then just as they were getting long in the tooth ww2 happened which basically stopped the supply of new vehicles so a lot of cars and trucks that would have been scrapped wound up staying in service.

Based on the number of those cars that needed every single wear item replaced and already had a non-matching engine despite an odometer reading 5k back when they were dragged out of the fields for the first time in the 50s and 60s I think it's safe to say a fair number of them managed to roll over once.

Looking at the picture I posted, most of the cars in the photo are around 10 years old. And in an economically depressed area like the WV of that time, you would think that people would hang onto cars longer. It would support the idea that relatively new cars are beyond economic repair.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Looking at the picture I posted, most of the cars in the photo are around 10 years old. And in an economically depressed area like the WV of that time, you would think that people would hang onto cars longer. It would support the idea that relatively new cars are beyond economic repair.

That's not how the junkyard business works.

If the junkyard has lots of a particular era of cars in it it means that those cars are still on the road and need parts but old enough that when people crash them or they need serious work they are worth little enough that people cut their losses and junk it.

You can see this by going to any junkyard. The rows are the same exact cars you'd see in the driveways in a low rent part of whatever town the junkyard is in.

If the junkyard has a few cars of a particular age off in the corner it means that car is too old to be in common usage or too new to be readily available to junkyards (i.e. people are still fixing them when they break or crash).

 

[DMG]

That generation of vehicles got used a lot longer than 50s and 60s car because people hung onto anything useful as long as it was useful throughout the 1930s and then just as they were getting long in the tooth ww2 happened which basically stopped the supply of new vehicles so a lot of cars and trucks that would have been scrapped wound up staying in service.

Based on the number of those cars that needed every single wear item replaced and already had a non-matching engine despite an odometer reading 5k back when they were dragged out of the fields for the first time in the 50s and 60s I think it's safe to say a fair number of them managed to roll over once.

While that is a great theory, I have first hand info from people like my grandfather that were in the car repair business pre and postwar. Cars of that era were getting rebuilt at 10k miles. If you took care of them. 100k was almost inconceivable. There wouldn’t be enough left to fix at 100k.

People didn’t drive as much back then because the world was built around walking and riding horses. Then during WW2, people drove much less because of fuel rationing.

 

[DMG]

That's not how the junkyard business works.

If the junkyard has lots of a particular era of cars in it it means that those cars are still on the road and need parts but old enough that when people crash them or they need serious work they are worth little enough that people cut their losses and junk it.

You can see this by going to any junkyard. The rows are the same exact cars you'd see in the driveways in a low rent part of whatever town the junkyard is in.

If the junkyard has a few cars of a particular age off in the corner it means that car is too old to be in common usage or too new to be readily available to junkyards (i.e. people are still fixing them when they break or crash).

Just an aside, there was a junkyard near me that had started in the 30s and moved across several acres without crushing a car that had 1 useable part on it. You could walk from Model As into 90s cars in a few minutes. Eventually they crushed it all when scrap was high and sold the land.

 

[Mikel]

While that is a great theory, I have first hand info from people like my grandfather that were in the car repair business pre and postwar. Cars of that era were getting rebuilt at 10k miles. If you took care of them. 100k was almost inconceivable. There wouldn’t be enough left to fix at 100k.

People didn’t drive as much back then because the world was built around walking and riding horses. Then during WW2, people drove much less because of fuel rationing.

My Dad (Spain in the 50s) used to say that by 30-40K miles, you could count on pulling the engine for a complete overhaul, not counting the many times those engines would be opened for minor adjustments and repairs. It was part of car ownership in those days.

Were there outliers that lasted may more miles? Sure, but it wasn't a normal experience. There were also outliers on the other side, engines that lasted 3000 miles before they blew up

 

[DMG]

They used to pour new bearings in the car and do valve jobs all the time.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Just an aside, there was a junkyard near me that had started in the 30s and moved across several acres without crushing a car that had 1 useable part on it. You could walk from Model As into 90s cars in a few minutes. Eventually they crushed it all when scrap was high and sold the land.

We both know that's not the norm.

My Dad (Spain in the 50s) used to say that by 30-40K miles, you could count on pulling the engine for a complete overhaul, not counting the many times those engines would be opened for minor adjustments and repairs. It was part of car ownership in those days.

Were there outliers that lasted may more miles? Sure, but it wasn't a normal experience. There were also outliers on the other side, engines that lasted 3000 miles before they blew up

I'm not alleging that anything went 100k on the original engine in those days, just that a lot of the vehicles themselves probable went 100k, using a few engines and maybe a transmission along the way. 100k then is like 300k now. Not gonna happen without at least a few major expenses but not rare to see either.