Westinghouse 1904 -- Night Dance

Return to the days of the Industrial Revolution, where the aim of a company was monopoly and a single factory complex could be its own city. Westinghouse, 1904, contracted out little to nothing. They forged, welded, wound, assembled everything on site. Work days were long and hard, safety was something you had to depend on luck and good sense for, and tools were primitive. This film is a compilation of a series of fascinating strips taken from the Library of Congress's American Memory Collection. American Mutoscope and Biograph did the filming, and after all those Edison reels, you might wonder why not them? Westinghouse and Edison were not friends at all. You can see why as the girls wind coils for the Alternating Current Westinghouse adopted from Tesla instead of Edison's pet Direct Current. As accompaniment, 'Night Dance', neo classical or steam punk? A driving rhythm undertone pushes an elaborate and occasionally fractured melody, weaving together what is constant and what is emphermal. This was a time when the humans were the machines. Yet they're still human. Notice the pretty shawls on the work tables of a few of the girls, the surprised looks up at the camera and cameraman on the overhead trolley -- and for the point when the camera knocks down boards and sparks down on the workers below. Welcome to Route 66.

Channel: Music
Uploaded: November 9, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Author: Goldenthrush

Length: 06:06
Rating: 5.00
Views: 1628

Tags: 1904  Alternative  Biograph  Classical  Dance  Mutoscope  Neo  Night  Punk  Smith  Steam  Tedd  Westinghouse  

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