And now... some extracts from a 1932 article in a national newspaper about the (tremendous) ACO.
Note the tensionous jostling of rustic and high-tech imagery in the mens' room, and the (when seen detachedly) hilarious separation of gender, both literally (different rooms) and by association (painting, faces, gardens etc).
So, the journalist is being taken on a tour of the buildings....
“Then the workshops – the faint murmur of machinery and the rustling tick-tick-tick of lathe-belts passing round their pulleys. Men manipulating queer metal shapes from the complicated internals of gyros, men peering through magnifying glasses, men gently waving magnets near hesitating compass cards, each man with the blank, abstracted face of concentration.”
Next...
“Three girls in a room apart, touching the small cylindrical faces of aero compass cards with fine paint brushes tipped with radium paint.”
And then, in the Magnetic Test Room...
“high French windows looking out upon the garden. Two women were bending over compasses on turn-tables, one a boat’s compass, one an aero compass. Had they been busied with embroidery the scene would scarcely have been more peaceful.”
Ha!
2 comments:
Oh, I missed this one before - it's funny. I notice how it's the girls who have to mess with the radioactive paint too.
Hi there, just come across your great post - thanks! can you remember the newspaper (and issue?) the 1932 article was from? i'd love to see the original
thanks again
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