[1952henry]

Not sure if folks are aware how many people were maimed or killed when belt driven equipment was the norm. Hands getting caught in belt, body parts removed if/when belt came off pulley. Wonder how many people on here snickering about modern stupidity have seen a steam engine belted to a prony brake when the belt starts to jump. Brake operator gives the order for the engineer to back off immediately. Imagine that situation with a buzz saw or threshing machine. Think everybody in the old days knew how dangerous a belt on the fly was? Not unless you saw one unleashed. Then , later when pto shafts replaced belt pulleys, how many limbs were lost, and whole bodies spun around shafts until nothing but pulp remained. Ever notice modern pto shafts have a plastic sleeve to help alleviate entanglements? I remember John Deere coming out to farms in the 80s to weld the large clean out access on the clean grain auger on combines. They left you a slot barely large enough for fingers, no way for flighting to grab you. JD also came around in the 80s and installed guard on the 10 and 20 series tractors that was meant to prevent folks from standing in front of rear tire and jumping solenoid. Not a problem, unless tractor was in gear, then big problem. Think head with lug imprints in it.
My first venture in heavy equipment involved training from a rep with Butler CAT. He showed us his hand, it was missing most of the fingers. He was probably in his 60s at the time, the time frame was early 90s. He said catskinners his age were missing at least one finger. Why? Blades were cable operated, cable would get bunched up in the winch, and of course in went the hand to “fix” it. Out comes the hand missing fingers. I knew older farmers who were missing hand parts, thanks to corn choppers.
For all the folks that know what corn head grease is, but clueless as to what a corn head is, you wouldn’t know about the combination of a Farmhand F10 loader and a narrow front tractor is all about. Accident waiting to happen.

Care to guess show many older, smarter people were killed or maimed from working on 2 or 3 piece wheels before cages became mandatory?? I’ll bet many dollars several ol’ timers scoffed at the new fangled safety cage and didn’t make it to retirement before their luck ran out.

Anybody work in industrial settings? What do you do if you have to repair? Lockout/tagout. Where did that come from? Too many injuries or deaths from being in harms way and no clear rules about others knowing your whereabouts.

So, no people aren’t dumber, industry on any level has become more responsive to warning people of the dangers.