Bridgeport History Center
Bridgeport History Center
The Bridgeport History Center at the Bridgeport Public Library maintains a special collections and archives devoted to Bridgeport history. The BHC youtube site features films from the department's collections. The History Center accepts donations of footage and videos that document different aspects of life in Bridgeport and the physical features of the City.
203-576-7400, #7
bportlibrary.org/hc
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Bridgeport Connecticut has an actual wonderful history that no one has capitalized on yet, even in 2024. From the first man to fly as in Gustave Whitehead who flew before the Wright Brothers in 1901 and possibly earlier in 1899, to being a major manufacturing powerhouse. It seems people are embarrassed mentioning that for some reason. We know Bridgeport was held back from keeping pace with the rest of the times, but this was mostly because of greedy land and property owners that kept the defunct factories and slums, while they waited to make a big cash score. Fortunately, at least some of those people have passed away and a new breed of people seem to have a clear focus on what Bridgeport could actually be. A few suggestions if I may: 1.) Get the Airport remodeled & upgraded to keep up with Tweed Airport in New Haven who 're-discovered' there's quite a market in Connecticut. 2.) If the Power generating plant near the Total Mortgage Arena is no longer in use, knock it down and put back a Baseball Stadium or a Soccer Field or in combination with a nice waterfront Hotel. Boston has done it with the waterfront Marriott. 3.) Continue to knock down & clean out the surrounding slum homes and stop feeling obligated to house everybody. Many people's lives are the result of their own decisions and how History itself has played out, it's not Bridgeport's fault how History has turned out for people, but it is the City's obligation to set a direction for itself with achievable goals, not so grand of a plan that the City can't achieve it, but goals it can reach along the way. Help people feel good about the progress along the way. 4.) Do meaningful research on Bridgeport's history of true "First In Flight" with Gustave Whitehead, tie in with all the great research already done by the Whitehead Museum in Germany and other well known researchers, and capitalize on that with a true Museum built in Bridgeport (possibly with Federal funds from the Library of Congress, perhaps the National Endowment for the Arts, etc. And possibly combine with the Sikorsky Helicopter Museum in Stratford (offer them a new home!) and staff it with State Park Rangers & Historians who give as clear a story as they do at Kitty Hawk Memorial in North Carolina. (BTW, when I visited the Kitty Hawk Museum, a Federal Park Ranger told me he knows Gustave Whitehead beat the Wright Brothers.) - but if you build such a Museum, please do it professionally like other major museums, not some neighborhood quality Museum. (please). 5.) Renovate\upgrade Seaside Park & Beardsley Zoo for real. I recently busted Seaside Park & couldn't help notice the still existing graffiti & crumbling concrete. Again, Bridgeport was a jewel in the past and just needs some sincere elbow grease, but again, in measurable steps. Not a $10 Million study that no one can achieve. For good measure and to pick up some prime, I mean prime Real Estate that the City already owns is getting rid of the land fill right next to Seaside Park. One of the people that decided to put it there, Carl Kish, used to work for me and told me the City had no choice but to put it there because no one else would take the trash. Well, that was over 30 years ago, a lot of it has decomposed and is mostly dirt now. Again, with some elbow grease in a research sense I'm sure by now someone will take that dirt and clean up that, what could be, prime water front property.
9:15 - "This is the skull of Man Au Trol!" Please, someone must make a low-budget horror movie called _The Skull Of Manautrol_ .
Wordin Avenue. NOT Wording.
That is an absolutely awful name. What were they thinking?
Baby weve come a long way.
2:38 Sorry, Milford is in New Haven County.
It’s a ghetto now.
We had a Bullard vertical lathe at a place I worked at in 2010 that was dated 1927.A lot of brass fittings on it.A lot of holes to squirt oil into.Had those drip lubricators too.
What a big joke it's disgusting corrupt government
Amazing.
Ran one of these till 2016 making aircraft frames. Real workhorses, most operators were scared of them. Maintenance guys didn’t want to touch them. Usually cutting 2 or 3 surfaces at the same time. Can’t say I miss it
watching for a second time, just noticed at beginning, this was a IATSE Union made film
Very nice video, thank you. That technology is as good now as when it was devised. Elevators worked in a similar fashion until the 1980s, but the mechanical aspects are still being used. Of course, the transistor and servos made the next great leap in control systems possible. Though not as robust, setup times decreased a hundred fold, with computer code replacing all those dogs, wires, and adjustments.
It’s like black hawk down
Can you see if you cn find any footage of Jimi Hendfrix's concert at Central High School in 1968?
In the 70s we had a24/7 dump fire
Local gangsters are untouchable
@29:16 is that the west Ave area like in between park Ave prospect st area?
Bob Dzurenda you've come a long way!!!!
Industry gone industry promised. Buildings recognizable. Progress???
Most of this was demolished to build Route 8/25. History buildings communities destroyed for a highway
wow!!! i remember all this
I’ just turned 22 and i feel happy for my self knowing i can use them manually on Bullard machines
This is before a lot of Blacks and Latinos took over I mean moved into Bridgeport, get my drift??
this guy saying how good Bridgeport is actually sounds like a comedy routine, I couldn't stop laughing
Love it then and now
wow finally, I was able to see the location of Bridgeport light house on the route area of Port Jeff Ferry. would see only pictures and tried to locate where on the harbor exactly.
Thanks for the memories. Good old Bridgeport!
RIP BPT
Seems to me the world of machinists, die makers, mold makers etc. is being overtaken by computers which means the operators can be paid less, have less skill, less education. The machine does the thinking. It's like that in a lot of things, people working at fast food places at one time had to know when to start a batch of french fries by looking at a temperature gauge so the oil had recovered to the required temperature otherwise you have greasy fries. Now the friers lower the basket into the oil when appropriate, and the baskets rise out of the oil when done, about all you need to do is dump frozen fries into the baskets, even a slightly educated monkey can do that. The history of the highly skilled machinists and tool makers are about gone, probably still some hanging on before they retire. It's too bad this has happened.
Technical question: What caused film to deteriorate in this fashion with consistent thin vertical black lines? Also what company manufactured the film?
Not sure on the film but I’m now intrigued and will look it up… the company was none other than Bridgeport based Peoples Savings Bank, aka Peoples United Bank, aka now a part of M&T Bank
Wear and tear when moving through the dirty transports of projection and editing equipment over the years. A more common cause is "tugging" the end of the film on a reel to tighten the spool.
Technical question: I've always been taught heat is major enemy of cutting edge sharpness. Did the saws rarely need sharpening? Or did ice dull cutting edges quickly and regularly?
Some machine still operate with the many of these principles. Like screw machines
These were the days when a person could think for him self you were trained as a machinist.
Now illegals are machinists
Just imagine doing offsets mechanically throughout the day.
Can you find a film on the Mag/Demag, chuck control to round it out. Was introduced to them in 1973 as an electrician. They were absolutely fantastic. Mod-u-trol if I remember right
We need to bring all this back from çcp China... Evil sell out in 1990s ..
" a new set up can be completed by a team of engineers in as little as two months!"
ABOUT THE TIME THAT THIS FILM WAS MADE I OPERATED A BULLARD 6 CHUCK MACHINE IN ENGLAND MAKING SIMILAR CROWN GEARS CASTING
In the early 1980s, I worked on Bullard three-head vertical boring machines for Canadian Steel Wheel in Montreal. The machining of train wheels with a diameter of 33, 36 or 42 inches required this type of machine, but with a turntable with a diameter of 52 inches. A simple change of wheel diameter to be machined required an 8-hour set-up. I have seen train wheels fly off these machines during the machining process, following the breaking of the bolts holding the jaws to the turntable. When this happened, the safety instruction was to run as fast as possible.
As a consultant, I had a client company that had half of their very large facility filled with these Bullard machine tools to produce their products which were large machined castings used in the pipeline and petrochemical industries. The company started in the 50s and most of their Bullards dated from that time, including some they bought from other machine shops in the area. The level of accurate work and heavy machining they did always made it interesting to call on them. The other half of their facility was filled with CNC machining centers. This video filled on some gaps in my knowledge about the capabilities of the Bullard tools.
I ran a Bullard multiple spindle D16 at pacific valves many years ago
Well ahead of its time
A mechanical computer. These machines are amazing!
Marvelous Afrikan machines developed by the brainstorming that has always been central there.
Not African at all. American ingenuity. African ... LOL
Ahhh the slide rule ; went to the moon and back 🤔
Great machines for their time!
CNC of the old times. I enjoy watching these kinds of videos and have a lot of admiration for the brains that put all this together with no computers or calculators. Thank you for these videos and I hope that these kinds of machines are sitting in museums or still in use.
People who developed these mechanisms were extremely intelligent.
And they were not hindered by pro nouns....
We stand on the shoulders of giants.
I worked at Bullard back in 79 detailing tooling for turn key machines.
Do tell what that was like! I'm from Fairfield/Bridgeport myself
@@sethcane5161 Absolutely huge machines but the machines at Farrel in Ansonia were even larger where I worked as a process planner.
Farrel roll grinders are still being retrofitted. Just can beat old iron for longevity. @@catranger01