Vintage work crew photos

[Frank S]

Riggers riveting the red-hot rivets on the lower outside south chord, Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1930-1931 / Sam Hood.

How are these rivets kept ´red hot´ for this operation?

Actually the rivets were heated on site as needed, in the early days they would have used small 17" diameter coal forges in more modern times they would have started using cylindrically shaped propane forges much like several knife makers use . Even more modern way of heating rivets on site is by induction coils. Induction coils can heat as rivet in seconds simply by passing the rivet through the high energy field.

[hemmjo]

Riggers riveting the red-hot rivets on the lower outside south chord, Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1930-1931 / Sam Hood.

How are these rivets kept ´red hot´ for this operation?

There is a furnace on the ground. A guy take one out of the furnace, tosses it up to a guy who catches it, then hands it off to a guy that puts in into the hole, then a guy hits it with a big hammer, while another guy hold a block behind the head. Seriously...

click the link to watch on YouTube

[Frank S]

Tossing red hot rivets has always been a common practice among iron workers however on can only toss a 4 ounce object so far and doing so from possibly a barge moored below the bridge doesn't seem very likely given the height of the bridge. Iron workers who built the sky scrapers in NYC and other places carried their forges up with them. to each additional floor level I would suspect much the same would have been done on the Sydney Harbor bridge by heating and inserting the rivets from the inside holding the buck against them while the worker on the scaffold platform did the hammering probably everyone went deaf

[daniel82]

Riggers riveting the red-hot rivets on the lower outside south chord, Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1930-1931 / Sam Hood.

How are these rivets kept ´red hot´ for this operation?

See the well-dressed rivet-tosser in the right side of the pic holding a pair of tongs.

[Ralphxyz]

Quote Originally Posted by volodar View Post
Riggers riveting the red-hot rivets on the lower outside south chord, Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1930-1931 / Sam Hood.

The video shows a squad of guys the picture shows one guy with a pneumatic hammer and another guy who might have something in his hand watching.

The hammer appears to be straight down and I do not see anyone below backing up the rivet.

Ralph

[Jon]

P-38s being finished outdoors, when Lockheed ran out of indoor space in their facility. Burbank, CA, 1943.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...s_fullsize.jpg

[IntheGroove]

My father worked on P-38s for Lockheed in Honolulu...

[Ralphxyz]

Lots of people walking around, I love the piles of junk all over the place.

[marksbug]

I had a uncle that worked for lockheed, my did did a lot with them too, especially where there was a issue with the c130's he knew that plane inside and out and has probly flown every single one.as well as flying them before the USAF even had them .he thought the schools as well as possibly had the most flight hours in them. he retired from the USAF his last 10 years or so was flying the black bird SOS plane. then went on to working for lockheed as the chief of training. he took every assignment that came along.Im surprised he wasent killed in combat as he spent way tomuch time in it and other places we were not at....He could not receive the medal of honor as "we"(the usaf) were never there. som he got the next one down....and oh somany others. I probably saw him a total of 2 years between the age of 1&13. I dont think he wanted us.....treated us all like sub standard people. mom too. he also hated the navy flyers...so... we planted his ass at the end of the runway at penscola navil air station. the navy's blue angles did a fly over during his service. a fitting place for him.

[IntheGroove]

I had the opportunity to work on this P-38 brass ashtray that was made for my friends father who was serving on a aircraft carrier in WWII. Made with bullets and shells, the tail had fallen off and the cleaning person threw it out. I made a pretty good replacement...