This website appears to be related to music in some way, but I was drawn in by this bit of 1950's ephemera. What is shown in this picture is what was called a "Robot Slap Line". Back in the day when the U.S. was caught up in the great "Robot Race" with the Soviets, this was common practice among the robot building factories. Similar to the method of doctors slapping newborns to get them to cry, as robots would come off the assembly line, they were slapped in the face one by one, however in this case it was to make sure they showed no emotion. Why did they have to do this? Because there was so much factory infiltration by saboteurs in those days that it was necessary to weed out the imposters. Though there has been no known case of robot factory infiltration in the past forty years, the practice of hitting robots in the face as they come off the line continues, though these days it's all automated (the robot is simply whacked in the face by a fly swatter attached to a mechanical arm).
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