Having grown up in cut and sew sweatshops - and worked for them my first five years after kid college - I know exactly what you're describing. Once I left the field I've had occasions to visit other cut and sew plants. The sound triggers many memories. The sound of all the different power machines running with short bursts sounds almost like a firefight in some ways - only with the sound of power machines rather than firearms.

I have marveled at the operators who can sit in one spot day after day and do the same operation over and over and over.

I remember the instructions given to new hires. If you sew your fingers together please don't scream or cry out. Just come to the foreman and we'll get you to the emergency room. Screaming when injured made all the other operators stop their work to see what was happening. That's a huge financial loss in a plant full of hundreds of operators.

It became my job at one point to make the drive to the hospital when such accidents occured. Amazing what an industrial sewing machine can do to fingers.

Ron