INDUSTRY ON PARADE - ARGONNE BREEDER REACTOR

[Music] industry on Parade Peabody Award winner for public service produced on film each week by the naal Association of Manufacturers [Music] argon National Laboratory in Idaho 1951 an experimental reactor produces for the first time anywhere in the world useful electricity from nuclear energy the power of the atom a complicated cumbersome wholly impractical method has been devised for converting the heat which results from a chain reaction into steam the steam is fed into a turbine which operates a generator the result is electricity not much electricity but enough to supply the laboratory and its equipment on the basis of their first success atomic energy commission scientists with the full cooperation of the scientists and technicians of Private Industry work for four years to perfect a more practical way of tapping this immense source of power they design and install equipment which will Safely permit the Gen generation of steam inside the reactor itself these are the reactor plates of uranium alloy the fuel Elements which will cause the controlled chain reaction and the resultant heat water surrounding the plates will not only serve an essential function in the Chain Reaction but will also convert into steam to turn the generators the Machinery is installed which will raise and lower control rods that can speed up slow down or stop the chain reaction [Music] instrument and Servo control mechanisms are linked with a control room in a trailer parked half a mile away in the reactor building by remote control from the trailer tests are run at low power control rods are withdrawn from the reactor core and the first signs of activity show up on the numerous dials and indicators the critical point is reached and passed water temperature rises a TV monitor shows steam pressure of 300 lb water temperature 480° give the word turn a valve and enough electricity is generated to supply a small City a small City like Arco Idaho only 20 M away arco's just another town with the usual number of churches schools homes shops and all the rest population 1200 why not supply Arco with electricity produced by atomic energy the Utah Power and Light Company which serves both Arco and the Argon laboratory arranged to make its facilities available for the experiment was happy in fact to be the first utility to make the first tenative step into the atomic age so everything was set reactor standing by with power up ready and waiting Arco was ready too and so was the substation of Utah Power and life where well into the even the switch was thrown which cut off the normal electrical supply and another turned on to bring to a city for the first time in history nuclear power of the kind which before long will be running factories warming homes cooking meals driving trains and otherwise serving Humanity [Music] our population is growing at the rate of about 2 and A5 million every year by 1975 we will be more than 200 million strong this means that there'll be tremendous new demands for more and better products and services if our standards of living are to keep Rising it means new jobs must be created at the rate of 1 million or more each year industry continues to invest billions of dollars to meet the challenge of an expanding America its investment in the future means more jobs higher wages better products and lower [Applause] prices in Goods of aluminum and other elements to be alloyed with it are loaded into a Melting Furnace according to a very specific recipe later here at one of the two Miami factories of the atams engineering company the resultant molten metal flows from the Melting Furnace into special holding furnace in which it will be kept molten until needed meanwhile a small sample of the metal has been withdrawn allowed to harden and sent to a department in which is located the spectromet this is an amazing instrument which in less than 30 seconds can determine precisely which elements are present in the alloy and in exactly what amounts a job that would take a team of chemists 2 days so much iron so much silicon copper magnesium chromium and manganese character of the alloy is all important to the kind of working it will take and to its suitability in the end product on learning that the metal is as it should be workmen started flowing into the molds here are the 250 lb billets of aluminum alloy that come out of the moles each is marked with a number that indicates the formula by which it was made cut into twoot lengths the billets are placed segment by segment in one of two Extrusion presses one press forms aluminum tube this one the smaller of the two squeezes out the metal in a variety of shapes for use in the various parts of the company's products its products include among other things ABC aluminum furniture glass sliding doors step ladders and the one being fabricated here jealousy Windows some Northerners may not yet have encountered jealousy or Louver type windows but they will they will for Builders are now installing them all over the country in six years this company alone has zoomed from a staff consisting of founder Charles Silvers and a half dozen employees to an organization of more than 500 persons now the firm has equipment for manufacturing all the components it uses even has looms for weaving aluminum screening and plastic webbing in the land of year round summer weather an enterprising company has taken an idea that originated with the Chinese centuries ago and built upon it one of the biggest fastest growing manufacturing operations in Southern Florida 12200 lb of of wheat flour and water are deposited in a Neer at a Columbus starch Factory the mass of dough will be rolled and worked under a fine spray of water until all the starch it contains has been washed away the slurry carrying the starch flows into a large [Music] vat non-starch elements in the slurry are removed like this here at kever starch company the process of extracting starch from corn is pretty much like that of extracting it from wheat but because the end product in both cases must be pure wheat starch or corn starch only one type is produced at a time now most of the water is pulled out of the slurry by vacuum inside the rotating drum the water passes through a very fine screen leaving the starch solids deposited on the surface remaining water will be removed in a dryer before the starch is bagged for shipment not to the public but to other companies which either repackage and distribute it or put it to one or more of its many industrial [Music] applications one of the numerous valuable byproducts of the starch making process is gluten an edible wheat Protein that's very important in the human diet dried in ovens it will be ground up and sent to food food manufacturers to be used as an essential ingredient in soups cereals bread and the flavor enhancer mon sodium glutenite when a loaf of bread is labeled protein enriched that means gluten has been added truly a vital factor in the public health the development of additional products food products adhesives paper Coatings better sizings for textiles and carpets waterproofing compounds and many others is the full-time concern of Ker's laboratory staff no less than 8% of the company's Personnel are engaged in production control tests and the development of new products or the discovery of new uses for existing ones that's a research effort unex by many companies much larger than this and one that holds promise of great things in the [Music] future today America's distribution system accounts for 6 7% of the nation's business distribution or marketing includes selling packaging advertising Transportation all of the things that happen to a product after it leaves a manufacturer's plant or a farmer's field until it reaches the consumer or user distribution is one of the nation's three leading economic activities along with production and agriculture you may not realize it but the good sold by one salesman or saleswoman represent paychecks to 33 other men and women on farms and in factories and in offices a classroom in Los Angeles attended by men and women from 11 states and several foreign countries in which the sole subject being studied as gemstones the school is one of three operated by The gemological Institute of America a nonprofit educational organization of the jewelry industry and the students are mostly Jewelers who come here to improve their knowledge about the evaluation and identification of gemstones also part of the organization's function is to help Jewelers with tricky problems evaluating or expertising questionable Stones detecting frauds recommending whether and how and where a gem should be sawed or cleaved in addition The Institute manufactures gem testing and diamond grading instruments by means of the institute's equipment our ceram man is able to obtain some striking close-ups of the Interiors of gems real and synthetic this is an uncut diamond 16 karats octahedron in shape notice the inclusions separate crystals that were formed when the diamond was being created now they're going to show us how a stone that looks like a large beautiful emerald is proven to be a fake first it's checked on the refractometer which reveals whether the stone bends light waves as a genuine Stone would but to really show it up submerged the so-called emerald in liquid and we find it was really made up of two colorless pieces of stone joined by a colored cement which made it look deep green when viewed from [Music] above here's a sapphire is it natural or man-made the uned eye can't tell but the curved growth lines reveal it to be synthetic man-made or not it's still a spectacular gem just so you know what you're getting and pay a fair [Music] price now a natural Sapphire see how the growth lines are straight and form in a hexagonal pattern [Music] finally a 55 Point Diamond looks like a real Beauty until you look closely and since one can't ordinarily look this closely at a gym being considered best idea seems to be to look for a reliable Jeweler not a part of France Schuster's business but an important part of his life nonetheless are Civic activities here meeting in his office are the directors of the Perry Township School building Corporation this was organized to help the community build new schools in spite of a state law that strictly limits a Town's borrowing power using their business judgment and experience Fran and the other community leaders set up a nonprofit holding Corporation now it borrows the money builds the schools then sells them back to the community over a period of years in addition to getting schools built where they otherwise could not be provided the corporation has been able to save the community many thousands of dollars for example in the construction of a number of new grade schools the savings caused by building all of the schools alike came close to $50,000 the new High School pushed through to completion by Fran Schuster and a few other dedicated businessmen is a model of what a high school should be and in addition to its educational facilities like the other schools in the system it doubles as a center for General community activities here we see in the pool a swimming class for the small [Music] fry there aren't so many natural swimming holes in Indiana but with an excellent substitute like this who needs one the goal in this lesson is to see how long each youngster can hold her face underwater getting them used to the idea of being submerged [Music] meanwhile France Shuster is in another part of town looking in on another of his community activities he was one of the founders and the first Chief of the Perry Township volunteer fire department so he's really interested in every new truck or piece of equipment the department gets in this case the boys are proud to show him a new fog nozzle designed for use in putting out fires in hard to- reach places [Music] with all Fran shuster's heavy workload and the generous share of his time spent on civic affairs he still finds plenty of hours each week for his very favorite activity boating with his family Sue Ellen and her sisters Diane and Carol are inveterate water skiers so almost any summer weekend we'll find them being towed around by who else but Dad although a day on the water usually means a 100 Mile Auto trip each way Fran and his wife Evangeline say it's worth it and they don't pretend it's just for the children the whole family gets a kick out of this and that in brief is the story of one so-called small business man whom we first encountered at a meeting in New York and Then followed out here to Indianapolis small businessman perhaps but not a small man Fran Shuster fuel oil and oil Heating dealer conscientious employer devoted father Civic leader all in all a pretty good track record for any one man as for our young journalism student she too has uncovered some interesting facts she never knew before learned unsuspected things about the type of man her father is pretty nice people wouldn't you say [Music] American industry builder of a better tomorrow has presented industry on Parade a public service of the National Association of Manufacturers produced this week with the cooperation of the National Fuel Oil Council