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How Globes were Made in 1955 London
...complete with gender-divided labor roles
In the mid-1950s, this "famous north London firm of geographers" was cranking out 60,000 globes a year, about 200-something per day. The narrator of this video is almost certainly incorrect about what the globes' cores are made out of; "a solid ball of wood" sounds unlikely, as the thing would weigh a ton and no grain lines are visible. Still, the process is interesting to see, and surprisingly contains a lot of old newspapers and plaster:
I always get a kick out of the anachronistic gender division of labor in these old "making of" videos, and the implied perceptions of each gender's ability. We can see that the precision work of pasting is left to women while the molding and varnishing are done by men.
Enter a caption (optional)I wonder what they think would have happened had the roles been switched; would we have had lumpy globes with skewed continents?
In any case, if that globemaking factory lasted until 1966, I know what was playing on the radio in the plastering room:
Now check out how globes are made in 21st Century America.
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Comments
This is great. The narration is correct about the solid wood core. The wooden ball is just used as a mold to build up the sphere. It's then cut into hemispheres and removed from the mold. "Round a solid ball of wood is built up a hollow shell of stiff paper, which is then coated with plaster."
The speed at which the women apply the panels is just unbelievable; I'd say they definitely did the hard work.
Agreed. The women definitely did the "heavy lifting" on this job.