You can almost smell the grease, cutting oil, and cigarette smoke.
Ballsy of those guys working that close to cast iron without much protection. Some big honkin' cores in those castings, too. Wonder if they were sodium silicate bonded or what method was used to bind them.
Hi Ogberi
It is amazing the "advancements" we have made since those photographs were taken, In fact I think on the so called advancements made in the foundry trade in my time scale over the last 58 years And my take on the matter is I would rather be back in the foundries I worked in then, than the similar apologies for foundries of today
It is a horrifying thought these guys were casting metal with no eye protection, In my young day's we had safety goggles and asbestos gloves!, As regards the hot metal , We were careful but not afraid, The core sands used then for the big cores was usually a mixture of a natural rock sand some silica sand, and additional binding materials to hold the sand grains together during forming the cores and casting the metal into the moulds, where they had to withstand the wash of the molten metal
The supplementary binders were numerous, We used a clay /water wash, starch powder , & sometimes some dried horse manure! For the tiny cores we used oil binders, Usually a linseed oil base, When making small cores this was pleasant stuff to work with.
In those days there was a lot of skill involved, the old moulders were a happy go lucky bunch of guys, One just jogged along at a reasonable pace, Unlike today with its zero hours contracts, folks in charge who haven't a clue etc.. !
Well I guess I had then youth on my side + enthusiasm, & did not mind getting my face & hands grimy with the graphite powder, Would I do it all again or some other occupation?