Along the Assembly Line

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 656, 1 February 1952, Page 14

Along the Assembly Line

New | industrial documentary programmes from YA and 2YA

announcer’s voice, rises a strange and_ discordant -back-ground music-steel under chattering riveting hammers, whirring overhead cranes and motors driving massive machinery everywhere. This frenzied scene in one of the Hutt Valley’s largest automobile assembly factories is the setting for 2YA’s recently recorded programme "Birth of a -Car."’ The car-assembly presentation, designed to represent heavy industry in the Valley, is the first of a two-part feature, Industry in the Hutt Valley. It will be heard from 2YA at 8.15 p.m. on Monday, February 11, and will be followed by a similar documentary programme dealing with the manufacturing process of a biscuit factory, an example of the Hutt’s light industry. From the operation that produces the component parts from their cases, to the final run down the ramp from the assembly-line, "Birth of a Car" traces the entire process of construction. This on-the-spot documentary reproduces for listeners the atmosphere of modern machine production with all its associate symphony of discordant sound, its detailed management of smoothly co-ordin-ating assembly-line methods, its bustle and activity. Each carefully planned step in the way to final completion is detailed as the car is followed on its trip through the factory. A somewhat quieter scene is featured in the radio story of biscuit making, but again the documentary method traces each ingredient to its final presence in the finished product-a journey from flour bin to morning tea. Auckland Makes It Under the title of Auckland Makes It 1YA will present a series dealing with New Zealand-made goods manufactured only, or principally, in Auckland. And, says Rex Sayers, the NZBS officer responsible for these programmes, most listeners ate likely to be surprised by the volume and variety of articles made "right under their noses." Six half-hour programmes have already been recorded and at least another ten are projected. on subjects drawn from a list compiled in co-operation with the Auckland € ) vo above the

Manufacturers’ Association. They will be heard at 8.0 p.m. on alternate Wednesdays, beginning on February 6. "Our pbject was to illustrate the city’s growth as an industrial centre," Mr. Sayers told The Listener. "We found there has been phenomenal development within the’ last few years, and the Auckland area now contains over 40 per cent of New Zealand’s total manufacturing industry." By way of introduction, Mr. Sayers will take his listeners on a tour of a 14-acre factory where in 350,000 square feet of building floor area the bulk of New Zealand’s requirements for glass containers are met. This factory has a staff of 500; operates 24 hours daily 7 days a week, and is as up-to-date as any works of its kind anywhere in the world, he found. Silica sand from Parengarenga (15 miles from the tip of the North Island), lime from Nelson and Waipawa, and soda ash from England are the raw materials of the glass in the percentage of 74, 10, and 16 respectively. Broken glass is useful, too-tech-nically known as "cullet," it is collected by the truckload and added to the mixture in carefully measured quantities. The firm makes all its own corrugated cardboard, an excellent material for packing fragile articles of any sort, in sufficient quantities to supply a growing outside demand as well. A variety of plastic containers and closures such as toothpaste tube. caps, bottle caps and penicillin tube closures are made on the premises, too, and these two activities will be described in the second programme to be heard on February 20. Subsequent titles in the series will include "Cigars," the story of a family enterprise using leaf from Cuba, Su‘matra, Java and Manila; "Narrow Fabrics," describing the making of products varying from multicoloured ribbons of satin, taffeta, silk, rayon or nylon to paperhangers’ tape; "Sugar Refining," "Clockwork Toys," "Plywood and Wallboards," "Crockery and Clay Products," "Asbestos Cement Products," and "Insulated Wires and Cables."