The World's Largest Electrical Workshop

''The World's Largest Electrical Workshop'' (1938), is a 30-minute, black and white, sound documentary film produced by Tri-State Pictures for General Electric. The film examines GE's research and manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada, highlights key GE inventors, and shows GE workers manufacturing a variety of products, including radios, refrigerators, televisions, and turbines.

The film's entry in the 1946 ''Educational Film Guide'' describes the movie as providing "An intimate glimpse into America's largest electrical workshop, where General Electric scientists, engineers, and craftsmen contribute to the art of better living and to the protection of democracy in the forward march of electricity."

Background

An article in ''Business Screen'' indicates that "The World's Largest Electrical Workshop" was included in a 50-city 1939 GE appliance dealer/distributor program called "Get Over Into Clover." The program included the movie and a professional stage show. Two full crews were hired to put on the program – one in the east and one in the west. Each crew had its own special Pullman car, baggage car, professional actors, stage sets, stage crew, and projection equipment.

On January 27, 1939, the movie and stage show were presented to an audience of national trade and consumer magazine editors. A newspaper article on the event called it "The most effective medium ever employed by a manufacturer to carry a sincere, inspirational story to appliance dealers and distributors. Dramatic critics, newspaper writers, and veteran appliance merchandise men concurred in that opinion at each showing."

"The World's Largest Electrical Workshop" was one of three GE-sponsored films on the benefits of electricity produced by Tri-State Motion Pictures and coordinated by Fuller & Smith & Ross, an advertising agency. The other two films were "From Now On" (1937), a five-reel movie showing how a newly married couple can build an electrified home on a limited budget, and "Bill Howard R.F.D. " (1937). This "six-reel" motion picture shows how the advantages of electricity can benefit farmers.

A search of Newspapers.com indicates "The World's Largest Electrical Workshop" was still being shown into the 1950s, twelve years after the film was made.

Synopsis

Alois Havrilla, the film's narrator, opens the movie saying:
"The march is on the steady march of a new peacetime army, in the quest for a better way of living. Men, money, knowledge, research machines, visions carefully, painstakingly perfecting, which contribute to man's mastery of his destiny."

As a huge electrical storm wages outside, the film peers through a window to see a grandfather explaining electricity to his granddaughter.

In the section that follows, the film discusses the contributions of famous GE scientists including:

* Dr. Willis Whitney, an American chemist and founder of the GE research laboratory says "discovery and inventions are first starting point from which we sort for new knowledge."
* Dr. Irving Langmuir whose research in chemistry won a Nobel prize
* Dr. Ernst Alexanderson, a pioneer in radio development. He also created the amplidyne, a direct current amplifier used during the Second World War for controlling anti-aircraft guns
* Dr. William D. Coolidge and his contributions to X-ray machines. He was the director of the General Electric Research Laboratory and a vice president of the corporation. He was also famous for the development of "ductile tungsten", which is important for the incandescent light bulb
* Dr. Saul Dushman's research interests in quantum mechanics, electromotive force, atomic structure, electron emission, unimolecular force, and high vacuum. Dushman also authored several science textbooks

At mark 6:40 film footage of twenty-one General Electric factories in the U.S. and Canada are shown.

At mark 7:30 a foundry is shown where electrical equipment is made. At mark 10:00 parts of a turbine are shown being beaten into shape. At mark 10:50, an asbestos-clad worker is exposed to high heat. At mark 11:34, the film looks at the largest machine shop in the world, 5 stories high and almost half a mile long. At mark 13:30, a generator rotor is fit together with microscopic accuracy. At mark 14:10 General Electric's newest coal-fired turbine power plant is shown. At mark 15:20, the film shows high-tension insulators being produced. At mark 15:50 a craftsman is shown making electrical insulators. At mark 17:40 copper wires are shown being wound onto a single spool. At mark 19:49, skilled women are shown making insulating coils.

The remainder of the film shows the production of consumer appliances including electric cookers (22:45), gas cookers (24:00), refrigerator compressors, cabinets and doors (24:58), and television parts (29:10)

Credits

* Ray Culley, Director
* Robert Sable, Photography
* Alois Havrilla, Narrator
* Studio: Tri-State Pictures

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World's Largest Electrical Workshop, The
1938 films
American black-and-white films
1938 short films
1938 documentary films
American short documentary films
1930s American films
American educational films