Play, speed, competition! Fancy the sound of that? On the Assembly Line you can have a go at assembly line work. It’s a playful experience for children, a family or a school class. Two teams compete against each other to supply ball bearings to the ‘world market’. The quickest team to assemble the ball bearings wins. Your body will get a feeling of what it’s like to work on an assembly line. You can try your hand on the Assembly Line during a regular visit, but classes can book special school programmes, in which they learn all about the history of assembly line work and work on the Assembly Line.

The assembly line was one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. The idea of the assembly line came from the slaughterhouses of Chicago. The slaughterhouses were fitted with rails in the ceiling that directed the animals through the slaughterhouse, bringing the product directly to the workers. In 1910, Henry Ford opened his new car factory, making the assembly line world famous. The factory improved how the assembly line worked and it quickly spread to other industries.