Glimpses of How it's made, 6 Minute Manufacturing
ptorrone writes "We (MAKE Magazine) have released a free 35 minute film for download - "Glimpses of How it's made" - a tour of how many things in our world are made, each segment is 6 minutes (hence the full name "Six-Minute Manufacturing Glimpses of How it's made"). Learn about, get inspired, and see how stuff is made: LectroSonics (wireless microphones), Rose's Southwest Papers (paper converting), Accurate Custom (Injection Molding), Mega Corp. (water haulage equipment), Earthstone International (recycled glass abrasives), Butterman Tool (tool and die), Eclipse Aviation (small jet aircraft), Optical Insights (optical equipment). Downloads and more info."
I'm not sure of the wisdom of the site owners in posting a 166MB file onto Slashdot... Why don't people just use bittorrent for distributing content like this? A mirror (a 100MB quicktime movie) is available, though, at http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/howitismade.mov
A fascinating file though, conveniently formated for the ipod with video.
Mirror of the video
Hosting 20G hd, 1Tb bw! ssh $7.95
In Canada on the discovery channel we have a "how it's made" series that shows how things are manufactured in about the span of 6-8 minutes. ... welcome to 2001
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
http://69.56.247.237/download/howitismade.m4v
Stanford University hosts another cool free site with manufacturing videos, entitled "How Everyday Things Are Made"
http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/
Here is the site's description:
"If you've ever wondered how things are made - products like candy, cars, airplanes, or bottles - or if you've been interested in manufacturing processes, like forging, casting, or injection molding, then you've come to the right place."
The videos play using Flash; some are longer than others. Since the videos are donated (they aren't made by Stanford) some of them spew a bit of propaganda, but overall they are excellent.