Category:
Industry, Factories and Manufacturing

Symphony of Factory Sirens

I'm sure Khrushchev would have approved of this music, even if he didn't like it. I made it about two minutes in before I bailed.

Info from 120 Years of Electronic Music:

The Russian avant-garde composer and theorist, Arseny Mikhailovich Avraamov is probably best known for his "Simfoniya Gudkov" or "Symphony of Sirens" (November 7, 1922, Baku, USSR – an epic production which involved a score that coordinated navy ship sirens and whistles, bus and car horns, factory sirens, cannons, the foghorns of the entire Soviet flotilla of the Caspian Sea, artillery guns, machine guns, seaplanes, a specially designed "whistle main," and renderings of Internationale and Marseillaise by a mass band and choir.)


More info from Sirens by Michael Bull:

Arseny Avraamov... in 1922 performed his 'Symphony of Factory Sirens' in Baku in order to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. The symphony, not recorded, used a wide variety of sirens together with a renditioning of the International and Marseillaise sung by choirs and the public. Avramov rejected any distinction between performers and listeners, expecting everybody to play a part either singing or in making other industrial noises. . .

Avraamov himself pursued a self-conscious course of social and economic liberation, which he perceived embodied all Russians since the October Revolution, in this ideology sirens were seen as an ideal replacement for church bells in the Russia of the 1920s as church bells were seen as bourgeois as against the industrial and proletarian sound of sirens.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 24, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1920s

Coconuts:  Production, Processing, Products

Every now and then, WU strives to find a video or book or practice so boring that it merges into true weirdness. I think 311 pages on the humble coconut might qualify. Learn about the ten different cuts of coconut meat, and so much more!










Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 24, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Boredom, Food, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, Books

Treasure Chest

It occurs to me that these Jam Handy PSA's, with just a little inflection, could become episodes of TWILIGHT ZONE.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 07, 2023 - Comments (4)
Category: Domestic, Food, PSA’s, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1950s

Steel Mill Archery

My mother's family lived in the Pittsburgh area, and a lot of them (including my great-grandfather) worked in the steel mills. But I hadn't known that the mills employed archers to ignite the gas coming out of the tall bleeder stacks.

Shenandoah Evening Herald - Dec 29, 1975

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 27, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Jobs and Occupations, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1970s

Mystery Illustration 105

What are these women making?

Answer is here.

Or after the jump.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 21, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, Nineteenth Century

USA-Issued “Explosives and Blasting Procedure Manual”

Despite a Federal history of discouraging DIY explosives handbooks, the OFFICE of SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION and ENFORCEMENT is happy to host their own explosives guidebook online.

Read it here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 11, 2021 - Comments (6)
Category: Explosives, Government, Hobbies and DIY, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing

The Glamorous Women of the Spruance Rayon Plant

From DuPont's Better Living magazine (Sep/Oct 1949):

they are six of the 800 women employees at Spruance rayon plant.

These Virginia beauties have been photographed in a distinctive style, developed by leading U.S. lensmen to create an aura of glamour about their subjects. Such pictures have helped establish American women as the world's most glamorous...

They bespeak the beauty of Virginia women and qualify the Du Pont girls to rank with Hollywood's and Park Avenue's best as representatives of U.S. glamour.

I'm intrigued by their job titles. What in the world is a "slashing creel operator" or a "throwing operator"?

Some info about the Spruance Rayon Plant: Richmond Times-Dispatch

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 12, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1940s

The Newbury Coat

1811: Sir John Throckmorton bet one thousand guineas that a woolen coat could be made in its entirety, starting with the shearing of the sheep, between sunrise and sunset. He believed that the wool could be "A Sheep's Coat at Sunrise, A Man's Coat at Sunset." The experiment took place on June 25, 1811, in the town of Newbury, England, and Throckmorton won his bet.

The 'Newbury Coat' maintained the record for the fastest coat ever made until Sep 21, 1991, when an identical coat was made, in the same manner, but an hour faster.

More details: Berkshire History

Liverpool Mercury - July 26, 1811



Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 24, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Fashion, World Records, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, Nineteenth Century

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Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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