Machinist - Pumping out parts 1905 Business Card

Colorized photo from 1905 Original Title: Merchants' Despatch Transportation Co Machine Shop Location: Despatch Drive, East Rochester, NY 14445 Merchant's Despatch started around 1858, they built refrigeration cars (for trains), and operated out of Rochester New York. They started by making normal box cars, but by 1880, they made train cars that held ice, so they can chill meats and dairy products. In those days refrigerator cars were known as Reefers (which is a nice bit of trivia). Anyway, this company had 900 workers. By 1900, they owned 6,687 of these units. The factory grew in size, it was 64 acres, and they had a train station of equal size. This room is where they did the machining. On the left they are shaping axles on giant lathes. On the right, they are drilling parts and working with stair rungs. Safety wasn't big in those days as you can tell by the working conditions. Little light, and stuff everywhere. Nothing on cars, everything on the floor, open gears, tripping hazards everywhere.