Blacksmith - Forging ahead 1905 Tie

Colorized photo from 1905 Original Title: Merchants' Despatch Transportation Co Machine Shop Location: Despatch Drive, East Rochester, NY 14445 This is the Merchant's Despatch Transportation company. They made refrigerated cars for trains, est in 1858 in Rochester NY. They made everything from the wheels up, and this particular dept is the blacksmith. As we can see here they are making a variety of parts, and more than likely there were a few blacksmith shops. On the left is a large machine called a Bulldozer, it has a form on either side that smooshes metal into shape. A set of operators stands to each side holding the straight metal with tongs. I believe they heat the metal up, then place it in between the forms. The machine comes together and it forms the shape. However the timing between dropping the metal in place and letting go and picking up the formed piece was tricky to time. If the tongs weren't moved in time they would be thrown because the metal would move violently as it was being bent. So the team working on this had to have some high skill to get it done. On the right you'll see a linkage being made and assembled. And in the back they are stretching some metal. Hear is a fun Easter egg, this image was made by joining two parts as a panorama. There is a guy in the middle dressed in red, who appears in both halves facing himself. He's seen in another image that has the machine shop. I assume that because he had the time to do that, and that he's not posed at a machine, he's probably the foreman, and his function is to stand.