Whistle while they work

Friday was tour day. I'd been prepping the kids with episodes of How's it Made on Discovery Science Channel while we were in Atlanta. Using the FactoryToursUSA site I mentioned awhile ago, we found a couple of places to stop on the way home that conducted tours of manufacturing companies. First on the list was the American Whistle Corporation in Columbus, OH. They are the only manufacturer of metal whistles in the US.

The owner gave a very informative presentation in the factory about how they make whistles. He made a comment at one point about how a lot of people, especially the young people these tours were for, think that there is a giant machine that you pump raw materials into one end and it spits out the finished product from the other end. He dispelled that belief pretty well as he showed us the different stations and tasks that need to happen to turn a sheet of metal into a finished whistle. He talked about everything from the importance of recycling the scraps from the die press machines, to the importance of having a whistle handy while outdoors, to the fact that they sell 30,000 whistles a year to the NY Police department. This factory (incredibly smaller than I'd imagined) was/will be featured on John Ratzenberger's Made in America.

I think it went over pretty well. And the kids each got a whistle of their own at the end of the tour. Shhh...I might have to accidentally lose them later. :-p