Documentary Film: Swedish Cycle Factory, 1927
02-05-21, 10:04 PM
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Documentary Film: Swedish Cycle Factory, 1927
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This film shows bicycle manufacture at the Nymans Verkstader factory of Uppsala Sweden in 1927.
Forgings, castings, grinding, polishing, cutting operations, brazing, painting, assembly, testing and shipment.
Nymans is of historical import as they were the antecedant of the Crescent, Monark and MCB entities. Their main bicycle marque was that of Hermes (there were also unrelated Hermes marques in the UK and in Italy).
Introductory text in english;
https://www.filmarkivet.se/english/
Film itself:
https://www.filmarkivet.se/movies/ak...tader-uppsala/
As someone watching this work from nearly a century later the most striking thing is that everyone in the plant is operating with no personal protective equipment such as gloves, eye shields, face shields, stiff aprons, etc. Their only "protection" is a thin fabric apron.
This page gives some Nymans history -
Nymans cyklar
Text is in Swedish so if you have Chrome on your device you can ask it to translate...
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This film shows bicycle manufacture at the Nymans Verkstader factory of Uppsala Sweden in 1927.
Forgings, castings, grinding, polishing, cutting operations, brazing, painting, assembly, testing and shipment.
Nymans is of historical import as they were the antecedant of the Crescent, Monark and MCB entities. Their main bicycle marque was that of Hermes (there were also unrelated Hermes marques in the UK and in Italy).
Introductory text in english;
https://www.filmarkivet.se/english/
Film itself:
https://www.filmarkivet.se/movies/ak...tader-uppsala/
As someone watching this work from nearly a century later the most striking thing is that everyone in the plant is operating with no personal protective equipment such as gloves, eye shields, face shields, stiff aprons, etc. Their only "protection" is a thin fabric apron.
This page gives some Nymans history -
Nymans cyklar
Text is in Swedish so if you have Chrome on your device you can ask it to translate...
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02-06-21, 08:50 AM
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-----As someone watching this work from nearly a century later the most striking thing is that everyone in the plant is operating with no personal protective equipment such as gloves, eye shields, face shields, stiff aprons, etc. Their only "protection" is a thin fabric apron.-
02-06-21, 09:31 AM
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juvela Brilliant - thank you for finding and sharing this film. It would have been good to see more of the details of some of the operations but overall amazing.
Couple of observations: first its clear everyone was very self-conscious about the film being made. We could have a fun drinking game where you had to sip every time an "inspector" made his way into the shot for no apparent reason (near the end there are dozens of bikes ready to be shipped and the inspector comes over, takes one, bounces it a bit and pronounces his job done for the day, after looking directly at the camera).
Second, lots of evidence of very young/child workers....I know its the 20s!
Third: mens bikes seemed to be devoid of chainguards (perhaps a chain ring protector); and the vogue was for front fenders to be only half fenders.
Fourth: after all that work making beautiful bikes (the wheel painting and pinstriping was cool), for shipment they wrap in craft paper and dump the bikes onto an open truck....
Finally, near the end you finally see some drop bar bikes. Guess they were only popular with the scorchers.....
So much to see in that film - thanks again!
Couple of observations: first its clear everyone was very self-conscious about the film being made. We could have a fun drinking game where you had to sip every time an "inspector" made his way into the shot for no apparent reason (near the end there are dozens of bikes ready to be shipped and the inspector comes over, takes one, bounces it a bit and pronounces his job done for the day, after looking directly at the camera).
Second, lots of evidence of very young/child workers....I know its the 20s!
Third: mens bikes seemed to be devoid of chainguards (perhaps a chain ring protector); and the vogue was for front fenders to be only half fenders.
Fourth: after all that work making beautiful bikes (the wheel painting and pinstriping was cool), for shipment they wrap in craft paper and dump the bikes onto an open truck....
Finally, near the end you finally see some drop bar bikes. Guess they were only popular with the scorchers.....
So much to see in that film - thanks again!
02-06-21, 09:41 AM
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there is one scene where a workman appears to be doing nothing as he watches three frames on a work bench
they sit upright with their bottom bracket shells between two bricks
then he seems to check that one is "done" and removes it
wondering if this might represent hearth brazing of the joints at the bottom bracket shell
perhaps there is a furnace going beneath the "work bench"...
perhaps a framebuilder reader could comment...
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there is one scene where a workman appears to be doing nothing as he watches three frames on a work bench
they sit upright with their bottom bracket shells between two bricks
then he seems to check that one is "done" and removes it
wondering if this might represent hearth brazing of the joints at the bottom bracket shell
perhaps there is a furnace going beneath the "work bench"...
perhaps a framebuilder reader could comment...
-----
02-06-21, 11:36 AM
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Smärgling should only be done with consenting adults.
Just sayin.
Just sayin.
02-06-21, 12:12 PM
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yes indeed, the prevalence of "work related" permanent injury must have been great in factories of this sort...
there was a long period when equipment on the "shop floor" of a factory was driven by belts which were in turn driven by rotating overhead shafts up near the ceiling...
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02-06-21, 01:53 PM
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A couple of rough translations ...
The shot of the smiling worker wiping his hands is
And the lunch race
So cool to see the lathe with indexing turret. Stunning to watch the following scenes of what I assume to be multi spindle machines running. Maybe they're machining the rings? You can see one spindle run then the next one swings in.
The shot of the smiling worker wiping his hands is
hur världsmästaren på cyckel tränar how the world champion in cycling trains
middagsrast dinner break
02-07-21, 11:51 AM
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there is one scene where a workman appears to be doing nothing as he watches three frames on a work bench
they sit upright with their bottom bracket shells between two bricks
then he seems to check that one is "done" and removes it
wondering if this might represent hearth brazing of the joints at the bottom bracket shell
perhaps there is a furnace going beneath the "work bench"...
perhaps a framebuilder reader could comment...
-----
there is one scene where a workman appears to be doing nothing as he watches three frames on a work bench
they sit upright with their bottom bracket shells between two bricks
then he seems to check that one is "done" and removes it
wondering if this might represent hearth brazing of the joints at the bottom bracket shell
perhaps there is a furnace going beneath the "work bench"...
perhaps a framebuilder reader could comment...
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