STEEL FOR THE NATION

[Music] [Music] um [Music] [Applause] hello [Music] canada in the later decades of the 20th century a major industrial nation thrusting skyward in its cities seeking the view from the upper floor putting a new face on the most durable framework known to man canada a vibrant vertical society resting on a massive horizontal base almost a thousand steel-making acres at hamilton on lake ontario producer of almost 40 percent of the nation's steel [Music] fire the basic ingredient of the steelworks catalyst and converter rearranger of molecules baking coal at 1800 degrees creating the more porous fuel known as coke to cool for handling add the second basic ingredient of steel making water 25 000 gallons of it required for every ton of steel water used cleaned and returned to burlington bay coke thousands of tons each day for the blast furnaces at the hilton works five of these 20th century infernos blast furnaces where the winds of hell go scorching through reducing iron ore to the basic component of production steel molten iron the elements enter at the top carried there by an endless chain of skips carrying coke limestone and iron ore by the carefully measured tub the giant cylinders are in fact brickline stoves their product superheated air the depths of the blast furnace this air rushing upwards makes the coke being fed into the top of the furnace burn at terrific heat gradually the ore melts and trickles through to the bottom of the furnace meanwhile the limestone joins with the impurities to form a scum called slag every three or so hours the molten iron is run from the bottom of the furnace to a waiting ladle car the slag is drawn off separately the base of the furnace inside the iron is ready awaiting only the removal of a clay plug and when it comes at the end of drilling it carries its own authority 2700 degrees fahrenheit a wide stream of iron flowing by gravity through a channel of clay for most of the centuries of man this was his basic material discovered by a distant ancestor probably by building a fire on some ore bearing rock molten iron the good white wine convertible to the fine brandy of steel in another part of the forest transportation is by rail and a brickline thermos car labeled a torpedo the flow stops the blast furnace process continues and will go on without let up for as long as five years until the brick lining requires replacement when the fires were first lit in this goliath most of the ore that went into it came from the great mesabi range in the northern united states today we produce our own since the second world war the iron ore industry has been repatriated and this raw material is largely within the borders of our own economy wabush on the western edge of labrador now developing as one of the great iron ore bodies of the world the mineral productivity of the canadian shield is fabulous in recent years the company has joined with several other major producers in converting the ore bearing surface of the north into the basic metal of civilization the scully mine named for a steel company officer who believed in it when the whole area was still a wilderness supplemented by a later development the wholly owned griffith mine north of ontario's lakehead the combined reserves are almost incalculable enough for our 21st century requirements and world markets too iron ore chewed from the earth by hard steel and ground into concentrates in buildings close to the mine site and shipped south by rail steel on steel for 220 torturous miles [Applause] construction of the rail line was in itself a legend-making accomplishment with materials going in by air on a round-the-clock basis an earlier set of tracks united the nation east and west this new line may be equally significant in opening a major part of our limitless north point noir on the north shore of the st lawrence where concentrate is converted to pellets pellets small blue black marbles of iron ore that constitute the most efficient fodder for the blast furnace which in their brief history have revolutionized the whole of the steel industry [Music] destination hamilton ontario all summer long the pellets pour in here so does new investment more than 90 percent of the company's shares are owned by canadian residents and in the past 20 years almost a billion dollars has been spent on expansion and modernization the huge amounts of capital required to finance growth and new technology depend on the willingness of shareholders to invest their money molten iron in transit from the blast furnace to the great installations of the open heart in these yards at hamilton about 75 miles of private railroad is crossed constantly by a dozen forms of rolling stock flat cars boxcars tankers and torpedoes the open hearths where steel is made the hour just before a heat a furnace door being built up with a substance called dolomite control panels being checked by the melters in charge men at work first second and third generation canadians with family names carried over from all the countries of europe and the british isles loading the furnace is an art in itself the technical term is [Music] charging yesterday's hardtops partially pre-chewed in the world outside and introduced as an appetizer steel is the most effective of all industries at conservation the purifying flames devouring everything from the kitchen sink to a retired railway car almost half the tonnage of all new steel is composed of scrap for some recipes a sprinkling of high grade iron ore is added and then molten iron now airborne in giant ladles moving in to where the action is in many ways steel is the ultimate in mass production yet every heat is custom controlled watched over by melters and a supporting crew of chemists and metallurgists at the hilton works there are 14 open hearth furnaces this one is the legend maker number 35 capacity more than 500 tons time of heat four hours or less the open hearth in essence a dish like structure on stilts with giant flamethrowers at each end and flames playing constantly over the surface changing the chemical structure of the metal composition at oxygen by injection lances and heat time is reduced further still an innovation pioneered by the company frequent samples are drawn off at the melter's instruction and move to the lab for analysis at which point the melter may refine his recipe iron ore may be used add burnt lime to speed the absorption of impurities such as sulfur and phosphorus in the last hour of the heat an air of expectancy grows inside the great chamber the transformation has taken place [Music] [Applause] 0-10 seconds an explosive charge is inserted [Music] steel for automobiles and launching pads oil tankers and loading cranes for surgical instruments and aerosol cans add salt and pepper or more specifically alloys such as manganese nickel chromium or copper [Music] down the line once more controlled from a high-level cabin by a man with sensitive fingers [Music] teami pouring the steel into moles frequently in the presence of an international audience in this vast interlocking world most of the secrets of steel are open secrets [Music] continuous casting is one of stelco's newer technological developments molten steel is fed to a machine which contains oscillating curved molds as the molten steel descends in the water cooled molds solidification begins to take place the billets leave the bottom of the molds on a horizontal plane and are sheared to the desired length this new method of billet production eliminates the present intermediate steps of removing the molds reheating and rolling the ingots a basic form of production steel the ingot some are as large as 25 tons and most of them have an individual pedigree related to final use [Music] the modern steel man thinks not only of the making of steel but of the multiple uses of the new steels here a whole division thinks primarily of use sales engineering where metallurgy meets up with mathematics and a curved line is often the strongest distance between two points in this division men are paid to think railroads and oil wells pipelines and bridges bridges are changing every day an orthotropic bridge designed to get the superstructure below the surface made possible by light plate steel of great toughness fabricated in box-like sections and joined by new techniques in welding a radical innovation in railroad cars inspired by the new high-strength steels this particular curve permits large savings in weight and money the prototype of the new hopper car was banged around severely it survived without a whimper and today thousands of them are in the nation's service to be a steel man in the modern world it even helps to be a writer there's a whole new literature is still to be prepared on the uses of the sophisticated steels from the beginning of time design has been influenced by materials today there's an increasing interest among architects in steel for low-cost housing for schools community centers pavilions and a variety of structures requiring lightweight and durable strength [Music] the soaking pits another point of control originally ingots were simply buried in the ground to slow the cooling process and achieve a constant texture gas heat does it better the objective a uniform 2400 degrees followed by a short buggy ride the basic principle of rolling is that cold steel can shape hot steel and that ultra hard steels can press thin steels even thinner the secondary shapes of steel formed from the ingot are labeled blooms billets and slabs an ingots headed for the universal slab mill and a long hot ride presided over by a pulpit operator whose technical knowledge is enriched by the experience of countless journeys through the gap [Music] compression improves the quality of steel changes the structure and adds resilience a single pass between the rollers may reduce the overall cross-section of a slab by as much as 25 percent a slab which will go on to become plate the side of the nation the tough outer shell after reheating in a furnace the slab is formed on the 148-inch plate mill one of the great instruments of heavy industry finished width to 140 inches thickness up to a full six inches during various stages of heating and cooling an iron oxide scale forms on the surface of the slab removable by water sprayed from jets under extreme pressure let's make steel a cry that has been heard in hamilton for a century that has inspired an impressive number of industrial firsts including the making of the rails which help to cement confederation plates elongating and thinning out now contracting slightly as it cools every piece that goes through is individually checked and marked with reference to its ultimate use some of it destined for the hot strip mill within a span of three minutes the rollers can reduce an 18 foot long slab of heavy steel into a thin strip a quarter of a mile in length speed is essential because approximately one third of all the finished steel processed in north america takes the form of hot or cold strip and sheet steel [Music] plate steel ready to move out to be formed into power generators and mine fans and massive structural members cheat steel to withstand winds of hurricane force and mountainous waves on the world's greatest lakes steel with uses sublime and uses functional galvanized pipes for eavesdrops galvanized culverts to drain the city ditches [Music] corrosion resisting steel formed by adding a coating of zinc to cold rolled sheet the galvanizing operation is continuous the zinc dip then up the high tower at the end it can be wound into coils again or cut into sheets [Music] tin the shining armor of the food industry cold rolled sheet tempered and the surface prepared to receive a thin coating of tin by electrolytic methods electronically controlled inspection is constant millions of cans a year made by the company's customers for soups soft drinks and canadian salmon [Music] steels for automobile bumpers and special steels for the whole transportation industry hot strip for railway cars and for pipes especially processed steel called scalp pipes to carry water and compressed air to transport natural gas and oil and in the world of tomorrow possibly to carry freight over long distances in liquid suspension endless versatility in constant motion pre-painted steel with a flawless color surface the rod mill where billets become wire rods and are subsequently converted into a host of finished products cables strong enough to arrest an aircraft landing on a carrier deck and a revolutionary spiral nail the ardox now in use all over the world a giant world of steel however the money the buildings the machines would be of little value without the skills and the work of the more than 20 000 people who are employees at stelco increasingly educated people are required for the complex processes of steel making but there are also career opportunities in steel for those without a university education across the nation the company provides grants and bursaries to students of the humanities and business administration as well as to engineers and science majors and supports the chair of metallurgy at hamilton's mcmaster university on graduation many will join the steel industry perhaps in the invigorating life of the new north where orr is mined [Music] wahbush today a far cry from the mining camps of yesteryear in truth a swinging place in which to be young and bright [Music] other careers may begin here in chemistry metallurgy and data compilation with the opening in our centennial year of this multi-millionaire center canada entered a new era in basic steel research the field of interest extends big knowledge into the realm of pure science and the effects may be far-reaching [Music] hopefully one result will be to make canada a more attractive place for some of our best young minds [Music] science at work chemistry aimed at the further beneficiation of raw materials and a deeper understanding of the inner nature of steel tools of the trade range from simple filtration equipment to highly sophisticated instruments with names like electron probe micro analyzer and quantitative television microscope the ultimate hope a whole family of new steels in the tradition of this extraordinary steel stealth alloy used on the exterior of the center itself a steel that forms its own protective coating against corrosion that needs no painting that over the years will turn to a deep shade of blue precision research a world where feminine patience and feminine intuition are at a premium where daydreams are the working capital and the most productive question is what would happen if whatever the characteristics of the new steels one feature will remain dominant simple strength think to resist the pull of a hundred tons to endure cold without becoming brittle and to survive extremes of heat without undue yielding production steel on the move 24 hours a day seven days a week heading out to the great spaces of ten provinces providing the material base for a complete society deep in the flames of the open heart you can discern most of the elements the super efficient weapons of new agriculture stockpiling for the world the dilemma of urban tango being resolved in the swift and silent underground the challenge of our vast god-given resources being met in outlying forests and just below the topsoil in the 1880s steel and coal joined our oceans now steel and petroleum are opening every far corner of the land with the road builders and the road users almost overnight a world of scarcity has become a world of abundance for the possibility of leisure for all there is nourishment for the human soul on our snow-covered hills and in laughter at the top of high steel we have long sought a visible style and suddenly it is upon us an exciting composite skyline an air of grace in our cities to equal the grandeur of our landscape steel against the mountains and across the great harbors far from the open heart in the decades just ahead research will bring exciting new developments in the art of steel making stelco will be among the first to know and to embrace whatever technology will add most to canada's second century [Music] [Applause] [Music] you