During 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, Hendey commissioned a well-known photographer, Robert Yarnall Richie, to produce a picture essay of their production processes. Richie's consummate skill is amply demonstrated in the following pages with the beautifully composed pictures made the more dramatic by low-angle lighting. The complete set is a masterly piece of work and must rank as one of the most artistic studies ever to be published of a machine-tool manufacturing company. Interestingly, for a machine-tool plant, the illustrations portray a manner of production that relied upon quite ordinary lathes (though operated by highly-skilled employees) with, from the pictures, little evidence that help was afforded by the use of mass-production capstan or other specialist equipment.
Fair-weather cumulus clouds over the factory, summer 1943
The Board Room: Mr David Ayr, President and General Manager, consults with the Vice President and Assistant General Manager Mr. Edgar G. Seybold.
The General Sales Manager, Mr. F.J.McCarty and his assistant, Mr. H.V.Rebillard
A section of the Sales and Billing Department
The Incentive and Rate Setting Department where each factory operation was dissected and costed before production began.
The IBM Tabulation Room where card records were mechanically converted into operating costs and payroll calculations.
