Nose to the grindstone,
Knowing that this meant, "working hard", I never looked deeply into the meaning of the phrase. The other day, just surfing out of the blue I came across these pictures.
Their noses are literally _to_ the grindstone.
These are the master of knives, les coutelliers, from the city of Thiers France, at the turn of the 20th century. Laying down, they apply their craft using (likely) water powered shared shaft driven grindstones. A likely very dangerous machine (because it wouldn't easily be disengaged if something got caught). But this would seem to be a safer (and more ergonomic, I suppose after several hours, then sitting) approach.
I love the bright windowed, 'bring the dog to work' open office aspect, and it seems that many of the shoes resemble Dansko clogs, which means these folks had an eye for comfort .
Original Link to Linkedin Post: http://bit.ly/3tDb9sY