Westinghouse Works (1904) User Reviews

Tracking shot

[TevildoVardoMeiota · 7/10 · 14 May 2005]

This documentary of the Westinghouse plant circa 1904 is divided into three parts. The second shows the almost exclusively female workers winding armatures for the electrical turbines, the third segment shows a "quittin' time" shot of the factory gate with the workers hurrying home. One significant thing that stands out is how formally factory workers dressed one hundred years ago.

The first segment is amazing for the innovative camera movement, a tracking shot has been arranged, apparently by using a factory overhead crane that runs the length of the floor, and the camera tracks literally through the process of the manufacture of the electrical turbines. A lot has been said about the shot that opens Welles's "A Touch of Evil", including elaborate homages to it in films like "The Player", so I was unprepared for this expertly photographed tracking shot in what is supposedly a run-of -the-mill promotional documentary of the early silent era. It is truly an astounding innovation for this period.

A Cool Inside Look

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 23 January 2016]

The films were taken from April 18, 1904 to May 16, 1904 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and document various Westinghouse manufacturing plants. They were made by G. W. Bitzer of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, were shown at the Westinghouse Auditorium at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, and may have been made for that purpose.

Although I do not fully know what Westinghouse is (or more accurately was), and know very little about Pittsburgh, this is a pretty cool document of history. We see not only the laborers (some working in dangerous conditions), but also an endless stream of well-dressed female employees. And I do mean endless.

In an age where manufacturing seems more and more rare, this is an interesting look back at America's history of building things.