how it's made

Decent program. As you note a little shy on details, but you can't expect to get that in depth in a 5 minute segment. I tend to largely ignore the voice over and just watch what's actually going on since I generally have a better idea the the folks writing the VO.

Most of the items covered have been pretty much as I expected them to be, except for those hard candies with the designs / text in them. I expected to see some 50' long multi screw extruder cranking them out by the millions, not someone hand assembling pieces and then drawing it down to size.

Pete C.

Fun to watch especially when the translation from FRENCH screws up. The often mix up welding and soldering since the French term for welding is something like solder. I think the production is based in Quebec. Randy

kinda light and fluffy, no real *in-depth* explanations, but, for me at least, utterly fascinating anyhow. (what made me think to post about this was, tonight they were showing the machining of prototype automobile brakes, i saw what i assumed to be some sort of EDM process (there were small sparks jumping out of the machining surfaces). was cool. i'm sure you guys would love it (if you are not able to watch it were you are).

tonight i watched "program 13; bicycle helmets, lithium batteries, car brakes, aluminum (or "aluminium" for youze british people). fascinating. too bad they can't go into (much) greater detail.

here in s.e. new york state the Discovery Channel usually plays two episodes back to back. (also saw "fire trucks, thermo-formed glass, pvc gloves." came in late and missed the part about wind generators.)

b.w.

Took the words out of my mouth. That was the show where they were soldering safes.

I don't get the channel, so can't watch the show, but just a quick aside, it's not the Brits that are the odd man out. The REST OF THE WORLD spells it Aluminium. The reason us yanks spell it WRONG is cuz back when Alcoa was just starting out, as in brand spankin new they made a mistake in having their corporate letterhead printed. They couldn't afford to reprint the letterhead so they lived with the misspelling, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Kirk

To superficial for me. "Dirty Jobs" does better at giving a complete overview of a process. It gets down and ..er.. dirty. :-)

oh! yeah! that is funny. i can't remember now what it was but it was plainly and clearly wrong (wasn't the solder/welding thing). was funny. i'm guessing the translation is like "post production" and the post production interns have no idea about the processes being shown. i thoroughly enjoy the show. can't remember all the stuff that i found fascinating, one thing that amazed me was "milk". fully automated cow milking operation. amazing. i've seen only a few milking parlors in my time but this one, there wasn't a single human shown involved in the process AT ALL.

b.w.

oh... kirk, i put the "aluminum/aluminium" thing in (as a joke) because there had just recently been a big discussion on that topic.

pete c. you prolly already know, that candy technique is an *ancient* glass making technique.

as another off-topic aside... today a goodyear blimp flew over (close to) my house. as always it's a lot of fun to see it...

fascinating.

Sort of makes sense when you think of other elements: magnesIUm, tellurIUm, cadmIUm, etc..

Harold

"William Wixon" wrote in news:VvqHg.8275$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny:

What is facinating is how utterly wrong the VO folks can be. They obviously have no clue as to what is actually going on. Saw one show where they were turning and the VO called it milling.

Another urban legend. My copy of "A College Text-Book of Physics" by Arthur Kimball, Ph.D. copyright 1911 spells it aluminum. It is an American textbook. I also have an 1899 chemistry text that uses the correct spelling without the extra letter used on the wrong side of the pond. Both published long before Alcoa was a glint in anyone's eyes.

They ran a "how it's made" program last week on the science channel that showed the "manufacture" of chickens from the egg incubation through the separation of the hatched birds from the eggshells and the separation of the sexes. Fascinating to see all of those tiny birds on conveyor belts going through separators.

That, or the VO is referring to something that was shown several cuts prior, or oddly jumps around between different processes.

Pete C.

I can't help but think that it's shot by a French speaking crew then tranlated to English by a non-technical person. Still a great show.

That's _exactly_ the impression I got as well. Just a few things, but basic errors in terminology or factual problems are very distracting from an otherwise enjoyable concept.

I have been really enjoying a similar show- "GI Factory" on the military channel. Tours of factories, pretty decent detail of manufacturing processes- recently I saw M16's being made- in america, but by a Belgian company, amazing how simple the factory was- a couple of cnc mills and lathes, but mostly hand processes. Also saw the Boeing final assembly plant for Chinooks- again, pretty simple stuff, winching the parts together with come-alongs.

Good program!! Lousy Music!!!!!!

Ivan Vegvary

If you can find these, they are fascinating to watch. I grew up on them...

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist