Argon-filled airless factories of 1959 and the space-suited workers who toiled there

Posted by Cory Doctorow, February 22, 2008 5:40 AM | permalink

In May, 1959, Popular Science reported on the advent of argon-filled, airless factories for new materials fabrication, and the novel "space suits" that would be worn by the workers.

EXOTIC metals that can survive the heat barrier of hypersonic flight soon will be mill-worked at a white-hot 4,000 degrees in a forbidding atmosphere of argon gas, similar to that inside an incandescent light bulb.
Men working in this out-of-the-world gas-chamber metal mill will wear “space suits,” trailing umbilical cords plugged into air-breathing and exhaust manifolds.
Should a lifeline break, a man might live a minute or two—as helpless as if he were out in space or under water without an oxygen supply. Crash doors will provide a quick escape. But in case he is injured or some obstacle gets in the way, he will have an emergency air capsule to keep him alive until rescue comes.

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#1 posted by Keith , February 22, 2008 5:50 AM

I love how back in the fifties everyone thought the future would eb designed by Rube Goldburg. Is there a hamster wheel running the breathing pump?

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#2 posted by Moon , February 22, 2008 6:09 AM

Plutonium glove boxes are about as close as they came to this.

(or maybe Earl Schieb auto painting!)

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#3 posted by arkizzle , February 22, 2008 6:33 AM

Some of the clean-room silicon-production environs are pretty close.

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#4 posted by SC_Wolf , February 22, 2008 6:43 AM

Compare and contrast to the protective gear and procedures used in a Biosafety Level 4 "Suit Lab".

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#5 posted by jonathanpeterson

, February 22, 2008 6:49 AM

That's exactly how Soviet alpha-class submarines were built. Their titanium pressure hulls were built in inert-gas filled dry docks by welders wearing re-purposed diver's helmets.

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#6 posted by jimkirk , February 22, 2008 7:34 AM

"Universal-Cyclops Steel Corp". Man, they sure don't name companies like they used to.

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#7 posted by raygundan , February 22, 2008 8:08 AM

I think most titanium welding has to occur in an inert atmosphere. I have heard that titanium bike frames are welded together in setups not too much unlike the picture-- spacesuited welders in a room full of inert gas, or via glove ports into a clear box full of inert gas.

Wikipedia seems to confirm this: "welding of titanium must be done in an inert atmosphere of argon or helium in order to shield it from contamination with atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen or hydrogen."

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#8 posted by Neill S Mitchell Esq. , February 22, 2008 8:15 AM

I can concur, I work for a Silicon Semiconductor Manf. and there are many paralells! Though, as the product is rather smaller than a ship, we tend to isolate the processing equipement, and either pump it to Vacuum or purge with something inert.

But we still wear dopey suits.

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#9 posted by Maurice Reeves

, February 22, 2008 8:31 AM

#6 The only thing that would have made the name any better was if they could tack an 'Amalgamated' on it somewhere:

Universal-Cyclops Amalgamated Steel Corp...

Has a nice ring to it.

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#10 posted by ubernym , February 22, 2008 10:33 AM

Universal-Cyclops Amalgamated Steel Corp...

UNICYCLAM Steel would be a pretty cool truncation of that

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