Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1911 — AUTO BUILDING SHOWN BY MOVING PICTURES. [ARTICLE]

AUTO BUILDING SHOWN BY MOVING PICTURES.

The Studebaker Co. Gives Demonstration at The Princess of How Their Cars are Made. A practical demonstration of the building of automobiles was given /at the Princess theatre by the Studebaker Corporation this afternoon. 10,000 feet of pictures, said to be the largest commercial film ever made, gave eivws of the various operations incidental to the manufacture of motor cars from the raw pig iron to the finished car. The demonstration was in charge of the Rensselaer Auto Sales Co. The experience is exactly the same as though you visited the factories. As one man aptly, remarked, ' You can almost smell’ the gasoline.'* About one hour and forty-five minutes te required to exhibit these pictures. If you actually walked through the eight immense plants of the Studebaker Corporation, stopping long enough in front of each machine to witness one complete operation, it would take four months to make the tour of inspection. Watching this wonderful set of pictures—all life size—you realize for the first time, what a $7,000,000 investment in machinery, means. A large number of automatic machines are utilized with the result that the automobiles are assembled (without touch of hammer, reamer or file. Perhaps the most marvelous piece of machinery in the entire factory is a magazine automatic which, without attention from a human being, feeds itself, performs eight distinct and sep arate operations, and discharges the finished part. This machine was invented by Miss Kate Gleason. Verily, the women of the present day are invading all fields. One film shows a battery of ten automatic machines, each performing seven different operations, all controlled by one lone workman. In other words, this man, with the aid of automatic machinery, performs the exact amount of work that would require seventy men under less modern methods. It is almost impos sible to give an adequate idea of the realistic panorama that the films pre sent to the eye. At the outset, one

sees hundreds of thousands of tons of pig iron being wheeled into the receiving bins and then is presented the chemists at work. Next' is seen the heat tests and then the foundry and drop forging departments in full operation. Then conies the machine shop, and. the automatic tool room, and finally the complete car looms up, a monument to modern engineering and production science. These pictures are of great educational value, and* are also intensely interesting. This method of demonstrating the working and the immensity of the Studebaker Corporation plants, is tiie clever and uniqup idea of General Manager Walter E. Flanders. It is the first time that any manufacturer of automobiles has taken the “show me” method of convincing the public that it’s cars are manufactured by the most up-to-date methods and out of the very best obtainable material, and that the work is all done in it’s own plants. One marked impression which the pictures make on the public,/is the possibilities of quantity production through the use of automatic machinery. One then begins to appreciate the complete meaning of the phrase, “To err is/'human, to be perfect is automatic."