I was channel surfing the other day, looking for some local news that would tell me why I had woken up to a power outage that had lasted the better part of the morning. I don’t usually watch TV during the day, so I had no idea what stations carried noon time news broadcasts. As I was flipping through the channels, I came across a show about the workings of a machine shop. Then I heard the voice-over and recognized the soothing and unmistakable tone of Mr. Rogers’ gentle accent. Curiosity piqued, I had to stop.

Mr. Rogers narrated the video (which debuted in 1986) that featured Mister McFeeley visiting the manufacturers of King Musical Instruments. He walked through the processes for fabricating a trumpet, beginning with getting the raw material from the stock room and moving through cutting, shaping, soldering, bending, assembling, polishing and testing. Along the way, we saw tools, machines and jigs, while listening to Mr. Rogers explain how, “Everyone is very careful about their work, and very proud.”

The video moved seamlessly from one station to the next, describing the output of each process before proceeding. It explained what tools operators needed and what kind of skills were required for various tasks.

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