It is interesting that the brazing operation is almost entirely women, while the other departments shown are almost entirely men. Schwinn apparently found that women were quite adept at brazing, as they continued to employ them brazing Paramounts after the war. It's fairly well established women have finer control for manual tasks due to differences in the wrist structure. This evidently has some application to brazing, although a number of male framebuilders seem to have done OK at brazing, despite this disadvantage.
Wars, despite their many tragedies, do tend to be catalysts for social change, and some of these changes are for the better. Not sufficient reason to start wars, but at least some consolation.
Regards,.
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Tam Pham <terminaut@gmail.com> wrote: I've uploaded some photos on to my site of the Schwinn factory operations from 1945. The album can be viewed here:
http://chainedrevolution.com/
Here's a direct link to a large version of the frame building area, which looks to be mostly women:
http://chainedrevolution.com/
Tam Pham Huntington Beach, CA - USA
On 8/14/07, Tam Pham wrote:
>
> On 8/9/07, Tom Sanders wrote:
> >
> > Did they build them in house, or were they built by another
> > manufacturer?
>
>
> I had forgotten that I have a book put out by Schwinn to commemorate their
> 50th anniversary, "50 Years of Schwinn Built Bicycles", which was
> originally published in 1945. In one of the pages with photos of Paramount
> cranks and various other parts, the text says "Arnold, Schwinn, & Company is
> today the only manufacturer of fine, precision-built cycle parts in
> America". With that claim I am inclined to believe that they manufactured
> the cranks themselves.
>
> What's even more interesting is that there are a bunch of photos from
> inside the factory and I was surprised to see that the had their own tube
> milling machinery. I'll get scans of the photos posted later this eve,
> including a noteworthy one showing the framebuilding area full of women
> building (non-Paramount) frames!
>
> Tam Pham
> Huntington Beach, CA - USA