[HN Gopher] Office Cubicle Manufacturing (1954) [video]
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       Office Cubicle Manufacturing (1954) [video]
        
       Author : 1970-01-01
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2023-05-04 17:37 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | bmurray7jhu wrote:
       | Was this type of promotional films often played in theaters in
       | the 1950s?
        
       | leblancfg wrote:
       | We had cubicles like that at the Canadian Space Agency (back in
       | 2017). Man were they ever nice. Some of the best concentration I
       | ever achieved at work back then - no doubt about that. Coming
       | from someone who is easily distracted, that was especially
       | important.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | The time is missing: https://youtu.be/RNp5QxPyvHM?t=470
        
       | greggsy wrote:
       | Off topic from the OP's submission title, but to me the most
       | interesting segment was on mobile home manufacturing later in the
       | video.
       | 
       | I recently learnt that at the time, the largest building
       | construction companies were in prefabricated housing - in other
       | words, mobile homes.
       | 
       | Stories about factory-built housing as a panacea to the
       | affordability crisis still make it out as if the they are some
       | new concept, but they've been around for a long, long time.
        
         | fowtowmowcow wrote:
         | I think there's a big difference between manufacturing mobile
         | homes and manufacturing homes or multifamily buildings like
         | they to do today.
         | 
         | That is having frames built, wired, and drywalled, is better
         | than building onsite. However mobilehomes are themselves no
         | where near the quality in construction you expect for a
         | permanent structure (that can appreciate in value rather than
         | depreciate).
        
       | peatmoss wrote:
       | Interesting to see mitigation of passing noise be casually
       | mentioned as an obvious requirement. It feels significant that,
       | as we've shifted more of the economy to knowledge work, we've
       | placed less of an emphasis on the physical conditions that allow
       | people to work without disturbance.
       | 
       | Cubicle farms felt cramped and busy, but I look back at films and
       | TV negatively portraying cube life, and think it looks pretty
       | good compared to open plan offices now.
        
       | thecosas wrote:
       | This whole video is interesting, including the intermissions (A
       | message from Industry to You...)
        
       | JoyfulTurkey wrote:
       | I never minded working in a cubicle when I started working
       | professionally in the early 00s. For me, it was around 1000%
       | times better than around 2015 when the place I worked at went to
       | full open office.
       | 
       | Probably the nicest I had was a shared private office with
       | someone on my team. Got privacy and the ability to collaborate at
       | the same time.
        
         | MichaelZuo wrote:
         | There are still plenty of employers that haven't moved to open-
         | plan offices, at least not for engineering staff. They're just
         | usually in 'old-fashioned' industries.
        
       | mergy wrote:
       | Can't help but notice the lack of face masks on the sound
       | proofing and painting parts. I mean, it was a different time but
       | tough to watch folks do that work in this and breathe all that
       | in.
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | In a similar vein, I recall just 15 years ago how helmets were
         | rarely seen when skiing and snowboarding, and now pretty much
         | everyone is wearing them.
        
           | account-5 wrote:
           | I never had to wear a seatbelt in the back of the car when I
           | was growing up, regularly used to travel in the boot. Now
           | kids are in a cacoon.
        
             | maxwell wrote:
             | Car seats as contraception:
             | 
             | https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3665046
             | #...
        
             | fitzroy wrote:
             | As kids, we were usually in the back of a Ford pickup on
             | I-95 bouncing around in a sea empty beer cans. My mom was
             | very safety conscious, however, so we were forbidden from
             | sitting on top of the wheel wells.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | I love the mom with a baby in the front seat at 15 seconds
             | in this video implying that DUI and seat belt laws will
             | lead to communism.
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10vc5jt
             | /...
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | Growing up in the 60s, we never wore seatbelts in the car
             | and it's not like there were even airbags or a zillion
             | other safety features that there are in modern cars.
             | 
             | It's easy to make fun of some of the safety obsession we
             | see in society but the fact is that if you look at some
             | dangerous toys list of years past, a lot of them we
             | wouldn't have today for mostly pretty good reasons.
        
               | maxwell wrote:
               | Was wondering if seat belt laws would be evident in the
               | data, just eyeballing it looks like 1989-92 decreases in
               | motor vehicle fatalities [1] _could_ line up with the
               | rise of state bans starting in 1984 [2].
               | 
               | But seeing a pretty linear decline from 1921 to 2021 and
               | looks like big annual drops in fatalities are more
               | connected to economic conditions than safety features
               | (i.e. only double digit % drops I'm seeing are 1932,
               | 1938, 1942, 1943, 1974, 1982, and 2008).
               | 
               | So the drop in the late 1980s into the early '90s may've
               | had more to do with the early '90s recession.
               | 
               | 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_r
               | ate_in...
               | 
               | 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_laws_in_the_Un
               | ited_S...
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | There are a ton of confounding variables.
               | 
               | All the other safety features. As you say, maybe
               | differences in miles driven because of recessions/fuel
               | price spikes. DUI/DWI becoming less socially acceptable,
               | at least in many segments of society. The overall
               | evolution of attitudes towards risk.
               | 
               | I wouldn't expect the laws themselves to have a huge
               | effect. They mostly trailed public opinion, enforcement
               | was limited, and penalties small if someone really didn't
               | want to wear a seat belt.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | I admit I don't but I also don't do a lot of downhill skiing
           | any more and I'm not being hardcore when I do. (And I do have
           | a hat with ribs of D3O impact-resistant material which seems
           | a reasonable compromise.)
           | 
           | I think there were probably a few dynamics in
           | skiing/snowboarding in addition to an overall trend,
           | especially among the mostly higher income people doing those
           | sports.
           | 
           | When snowboarding became the hot thing, it was a sport where
           | you were more likely to fall backward and hit your head on
           | some ice than was the case with skis.
           | 
           | In addition, if there was an overall safety trend, there was
           | an even more pronounced overall safety trend with children.
           | Activities that were pretty commonplace like "easy" skiing
           | with very young children in some sort of back harness would
           | probably leave people aghast today. And I assume it's hard to
           | tell kids you need to wear a helmet but I don't because I'm
           | the mommy or the daddy.
        
         | ars wrote:
         | And the guy smoking while unloading sugar - or the other guy
         | just casually standing inside the sugar (that still happens
         | today).
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | tpmx wrote:
       | This Youtube account (PeriscopeFilm) is a goldmine. I was
       | recently recommended this film by the mighty algorithm:
       | 
       | "BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FREQUENCY MODULATION 1944 U.S. WAR
       | DEPARTMENT FILM FM RADIO 86794"
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzvxefRDT84
       | 
       | It explains how AM and FM radio works in great detail (30 mins).
       | 
       | Video uploader: https://periscopefilm.com/about-us/
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Film info: https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.0507#ref396
        
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       (page generated 2023-05-05 23:01 UTC)