RCA Tube Manufacturing In Lancaster PA (1966)

[PLX]

[Findthetone1]

Man that looked monotonus. They had no idea 50+ years later those little glass bottles they were turning out would be so sought after.
Cool find!

[PLX]

Man that looked monotonus. They had no idea 50+ years later those little glass bottles they were turning out would be so sought after.
Cool find!

I've always heard the reason they can't make tubes in the US anymore is because of all the toxic materials that went into the production..

That's why the only tubes we can get now are from China and Russia.

[RockyStar]

Amazing how "toxic" that environment is said to have been yet how few that worked in those environments ended up getting sick.

[harddriver]

Cool video find. The narrator actually seemed to now a little about what she was talking about...how refreshing.

I don't know about the workplaces being overly toxic in the sixties though possibly so but I think they may have cared more about the workforce then than now.

Over the years I have have worked in many industries, Nuclear/Fossil power generation, Petrochemical, Petroleum, Chemical, Steel and Aluminum and I have seen industrial safety go to complete shit in the last 10-15 years since the 1990's when things were done right and to the book safety wise now it has gotten to the point where safety OSHA and other rules are being openly flaunted in many industries in the last ten years, due to maintenance budgets, production demands, keeping the budgets low in order to secure financing or selling the company(Its called asset stripping). Most companies are paying large sums to risk management teams to push the boundaries of legal enforcement of what used to non negotiable safety programs and that included equipment downtime and maintenance/repair. It used to be the rule that if a production facility had 70-75% uptime that was considered 100% used and useful production but the bean counters no longer use that golden rule, they want more and more for less and less.

I have been a Union Steward in the past and would constantly fight with the company that I worked for over implementing engineering controls for exposure to chemical and fumes. I am proud to say I never lost an endeavor or arbitration case in my tenure, the company was glad to see me go when I left... After I left the union/employees never won another arbitration case and the employees pretty much got F%CKed over. One guy who I was friends with was targeted by the management whom I warned on my way out that he needed to be vigilant about his performance issues( he was a good guy but a bit scatterbrained) I could no longer protect him. Within 6 months of my departure they fired him, now he did screw up and it was a safety issue to add to his list of screw ups so I didn't really feel it wasn't warranted, but as a Union representative one is legally obligated to fully and lawfully represent each and every member equally or you can be sued for failure to do so. I did to the best of my ability much the ire of my company.

I have heard and seen some horror stories in the last 5-10 years from petrochemcial, chemical, petroleum industries that used to be the pinnacle of safety. So what has changed???? I believe the workforce is now viewed as truly expendable it is all about production, profits and keeping the workforce skeleton lean maximizing profits while asset stripping the companies. That why the nursing staff during covid were wearing garbage bags instead of proper PPE and PAPR respirators when it wasn't sure what we were dealing with yet while the hospital administrators collect the big checks from who knows where?????

[PLX]

My understanding is the chemicals that caused EPA issues and drove vacuum tube manufacturing out of north America were:

Barium and strontium salts in the emitters, thoriated tungsten in the heaters, and lead in the grids.