Today, October 2, is Manufacturing Day…”a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers.” There are opportunities for plant visits all over the country, many open to the public and some limited to school tours, etc.
There’s a lot more manufacturing going on in the US than most people seem to realize, but not as much as there should be.
See my related post faux manufacturing nostalgia, also myths of the knowledge society and “protocols” and wealth creation.
I consider a dam a manufactured item, although what is being manufactured is a large piece of infrastructure. Linked below is a playlist of archival video captured by Icon Water documenting the design concepts and construction of a new dam on the Cotter River outside Canberra Australia, just downstream from an existing dam. It includes several community use projects around the dam site as well as two earth-filled saddle dams near the main dam site. I find this not just fascinating, it gives the viewer a good sense of how large and complex of a project building a major dam actually is.
The project took about 4 years and cost about $500 million. Where the old dam impounded a 3 billion liter reservoir, the new dam impounds 78 billion liters, a reservoir 26 times larger. The playlist is in chronological order, from project overview at the beginning, to openings of the community recreation sites as they get completed, and finishing with the completion of the dam. Watch them all in self play mode, or pick and chose through the project by selecting from the playlist.
It takes a few hours to watch the entire set of videos, which are exceptionally well made. Maybe something to watch one evening or afternoon, assuming you have an interest in this sort of thing. I love this sort of thing. These are the kinds of projects successful societies are built around. Canberra, the capital of Australia, came very close to running out of water during an extended drought about 10 years ago and that provided the political impetus for for a complete reassessment of the regional water supply. Several water projects were spawned, the new Cotter Dam being the centerpiece.
https://youtu.be/TKneuLJHDSA?list=PLeQaOCNguHaiE7ok0bDHb_skHYRdg2Xvk
A series of amazing photographs of the Hoover Dam arched bridge were captured by Jamey Stillings when he happened onto the site while it was under construction. This is a short (12 minute) film about the power of art to convey information. Well worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuO0sK1VSWw
“There’s a range between what I call the narrative and the metaphoric. The narrative being a descriptive way of expressing or showing what’s going on with the construction of the bridge. The metaphoric being, ideally, a way to move the image visually over to where it’s something other than what it literally is. Where you might have an emotional response, or connection to the image in another way.” ~Jamey Stillings
“What Jamey’s done in recording the construction of the bridge, is to remind us of those moments when it wasn’t a forgone conclusion that this bridge was there. And he gives us a glimpse into the men who built the bridge. This was a process of all these improbably small steps that result in this phenomenal bridge. When you look at those pictures that show you the bridge coming into being, you have a new appreciation and a new – very deep – understanding of the fact that things don’t just spring completed into full form, but they have to be grown and constructed.” ~Rebecca Senf
http://www.bridgeathooverdam.com/