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NOT THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY — I don’t know about you, but I always get caught up in wonder when I learn how something is made.
In fact, if I turn on the show “How It’s Made” or “Unwrapped,” I’m immediately sucked into a rabbit hole of fascination. I then come to my senses hours later, incredibly disoriented but with a large desire to invent or craft something. (Hyperbole is fun!)
If you have similar feelings, you’ll certainly find this candy-making video from 1957 a true viewing treat.
Even though industrial machinery was in wide use in most manufacturing at the time, there was still an incredible amount of hand work that was done, and not just with candy. But in this particular video, you’ll see that the only machines used to make some detailed, round hard candies are for cooking it. There are not fancy extruders here.
From mixing in the food coloring to crafting each letter of the company’s name into the candy, everything else is done by hand. Not only that, but the workers have to do the process quickly (in about an hour) so the candy doesn’t harden before they can form it properly.
One of the most incredible facts about the system is that to even learn to make the candy at production level, apprentices would train for six years. Let that sink in. You, as a young worker, would have to work for six years to even be considered basically proficient at your manual labor job. It’s the mark of true craftsmanship.
But if none of that intrigues you, may I suggest simply watching the video for the then-timely, dry jokes that only the British (and dads) seem to do so well.
Visit British Pathe’s YouTube channel to see more incredible vintage videos from old baseball spotlights and newsreels to celebrity commercials and science videos.
