Steel - Man's Servant (1938)

[Music] from the good red earth comes iron ore the basic element of steel can you imagine what would happen if the great magnet suddenly wrenched all steel from our daily life what would happen to our skyscrapers what would happen to our homes what would become of our great fridges how could we travel how could we farm up weave and communicate with one another what would become of all industry what indeed would become of all of us only in a nightmare could such a calamity occur and so we begin the story of Steel but huge shovel dripping the raw red iron ore from its ancient bed 17 tons of the cup is the capacity this hungry giant eating into the bank of all at thirty four thousand pound load made possible by the strength and boundless capacity of steel this is called the age of electricity is it not also the age of Steel it's an age of tremendous locomotive strength made possible and press to the usefulness by steel lightweight stronger railroad cars rolling over ribbons of Steel open-pit mining is restricted to months when frost is out the ground but the year around we find the men of the underground mines like gnomes resting from nature or lying far beneath the earth's surface contributing to the steady stream of loaded or cars glowing between the Iron Range to the northwest and the northern harbors to the Great Lakes popping impatiently your boats of the Great Lakes feet await their loads under or bins at the docks they must go we must get this good red or to the mills so down comes the loading shoes like the mouths of a huge prehistoric monster to pour the ore into the belly of awaiting or boat up goes the gate then out pours a brown red stream of the earth which makes steel do you think that less value than this raw iron ore as we see it now yet there are a few things of greater value and benefit to our modern civilization when the labor and intelligence of man is applied these carriers must work fast during late spring summer and early fall while the ice is out scores have chipped in this large lake fleet are constantly on the go the loading completed they start in an endless stream for the southern lake ports to feed the hungry blast furnaces of the steel mills to the south [Music] three days later it's the end of the line and all hands on deck there's no rest for an orphan school two or three hours in port and that's all as men drive huge grab buckets like iron dragons which snatch great fights of the or stored in mountains of bread earth all ready for the blast furnaces [Music] riding the cab of the clamshell bucket along an old bridge as high as a six story building we see the or picked up from a cloth behind the unloaders by another clamshell and carried across the storage yard tramping along a giant or bridge just like the one we're on thousands upon thousands of tons of catalogs registered and practically pedigree door passed beneath us the aunt has nothing on the steel business pronoun for must be stored in summer the last to the winter when Lake carries a right stone steel skyline looms before us the skyline made up of blast furnaces tall thin floors of the steel plant which changed the order into molten iron and here the cycle of steelmaking really begins with a first step in the making of iron an eight-ton skipboys dumps into the blast furnace a rich mineral stool for limestone and coke [Music] we're getting up speed now down below on the casting floor the stage is set at intervals of six hours the charge smelt it down under infinity is withdrawn and here comes the signal to tap ready for their end of the job these fellows have an oxygen torch through the hole piercing a flooded play and here it comes a writhing stream of molten iron 2,600 degrees between 150 and 250 tons are tapped in aghast 800 tons are so streamed down runways of sand graphite into the first of two huge labels then the gate is raised and the molten stream flows to a second later [Music] outside lies the label a thermos bottle as big as a tank car lined with brick capable of holding molten iron at the highest possible temperature a lot goes on in the 20 minutes that it takes to make a cast not so much in the six hours between cast then there's time to relax but now another sample must be taken from the golden screen a test specimen which will tell the steel maker the quality of his work he takes skill man to nurse these monsters men are no the whims of iron men who've been beating the Polson taking the temperature of liquid metal for a good many years it's possibly uncanny the way these fellas with a single glance of their samples recognize the caliber of the whole batch and they seem pretty happy with this one now we have molten iron the first step in the production of steel this liquid iron goes for a while and a huge storage tanks call mixers we'll come back to this iron super little later but first the open hearth furnaces of Steel by far the greatest amount of steel produced in the United States is made in open hearth furnaces such as leaves the ravenous open hearth is never on a diet it devours food scrap metal odds and ends of antique flippers and chunks of old rails axles that may yet roll again even chicken-wire enough on the charging machine you see the operator handle a huge piece of machinery so agile then it picks up an 8,000 pound charging box of scrap thrusts it into the furnace twists and turns and brands and charges at the touch of a hand upon a switch and now back to that iron soup we left in the storage mixer a moment ago as the work goes on this molten metal is combined with the melted scrap first high above the crane man watches the ladle spill then guides giant hooks in to carry the ladle down the line to the furnace meanwhile an old hand at the game waits by the open heart for the hot metal coming up from the mixer ready to direct the crane men's pouring of the pirate charge into the blazing furnace about 50 tons of liquid iron are now added to the melted scrap and the sheer beauty of this scene never fails to grip the thousands who visit these plants [Music] years ago the making of Steel was the experience guesswork of smart old-timers but today their experience is backed up for the most accurate with scientific instruments this is steel in the making throughout every stage of Steel's vivid evolution repeated test to take the helper dips his test spoon spoon mines you into the soup and to the steel MEK it is just that soup and this sample poured into the test mole goes to the laboratory for analysis [Music] these are the craftsman of Steel these are hundreds of thousands like them men born and raised the companionship of hot metal young men learning their trade old men grown brain the University of Steel itself men who know all the moves and fancies and quips and quirks a molten metal who know how to tame and temper disclaiming monster through the service of mankind by their watches and their blue filter glasses shall ye know them a golden blow on their faces they peered into the open hearth to read the future of this steel as a gypsy read your fortune in the tea leaves even as a great ship expertly adds just the right seasoning to his famous dishes so these expert chefs of the open hearth add the condiments that season steel in this case a helping of Pharaoh manganese these boys certainly can handle their shovel they swing and follow through with all the power and bracing a champion dog they must hit a certain spot inside that furnace and that believe me is quite an art [Music] on the ranch or in a lumber camp this means come man get it or we throw it away it means brother but in these mills it means poor steel here are the synthesis Jack's of all trades ramming rod ready they wait while men on the other side prepare the furnace for tapping another pinch of this and that from the bins and boxes according to the sure recipes of Steel's cookbook meanwhile the helper with an oxygen torch burns through the clay which plugs the tapping hole they're raring to go these cinder snapper lads but it takes time to uncork this bus just a moment now only a few more ashes to get out of the way and then the go-ahead will come it's a welcome signal because the smash of ramming through a heap of Steel is always the highlight in their days were all together there she go steel backbone of the world's steel four axles sprains girders steel four bridges where ships automobile magic and marbles from the earth from the labor inflames of men who serve their fellow man [Music] it takes about 15 minutes to fill this ladle slag the scum or flux of land stone floats on top of the steel finally overflowing in the slag part bathed in a red glare the crane man handles with ease his heavy load of glowing metal this gigantic ladle like a huge soup bowl 150 tons of liquid steel flames licked through the scum of its surface a blood-red touch from the seething cold [Music] Stapley as a shipment the ladle moves to its position at the pouring platform ready at the mere touch of the hand to discharge in the waiting in that moves skillfully the praying man maneuvers the heavy load to rest centering the nozzle above the first of the loan the stopper is released and out gushes the steel to fill them one by one [Music] every little movement has a meaning of its own in steel tests for quality such as these are very important they go to makes needle one of the most scientifically controlled operations in all industry meanwhile the fascinating work of pouring goes on here's a young apprentice in steelmaking taking a lesson from the older heads of the boarding platform as with an optical pyrometer he measures the temperature of the molten steel and we are seeing just what he sees through the pyrometer steel at 2,800 degrees hot [Music] slowly cooling beautiful to look for the ended Sparkle and never pests in their mo when cooled enough they will be stripped of their most unfashionable jackets another day without an accident it is now common for months to go fire without a single man being injured so highly-developed is modern safety practice one of the most thrilling operations the whole dramatic story of steelmaking is the production of alloy steel in the electric furnace inside this hardest of all furnaces huge electrodes suspended over the massive selected scrap slowly creep down an electric arc leaps from electrodes to scrap and produces one of the most spectacular sights ever filmed here is internal [Music] after three hours under this man-made lightning the scrap is melted and the electrodes per over the molten steel now ready for the addition of alloys finally the precious soup is cooked and out of the cauldron for is another heat of stainless steel steel for kitchens for architectural trim for fine instruments and for laboratories and hospitals for use wherever a glossy acid and rust resistant surface contributes to modern industry and the modern living [Music] rising before you like a Harvest Moon is the hungry moth of the Bessemer converter g-factor in one of the trade shows in Steel closely watching this rising monster are the men who run the show looking at life and steel from behind shatterproof glass 30 feet away from the tree old Bessemer converters mounted on a high platform the operators whistle was the signal which brought the hot iron from the mixer and started it pouring into the mouth of the Bessemer converter this iron whale if really hungry could swallow the score of jonna's at a gulf bar could find room in his red-hot gullet for a good-sized motorboat every night is 4th of July when the best Murs go into action and here's your action roman candles lansing the blackness of the night [Music] the girders of a railroad bridge marched past silhouetted by the licking flames of these beacons of Steel as many of you have often seen these huge torches flare up in the dark as symbols of Steel working for men you are seeing it at the steel maker season engaging the carbon content by the color of the flame when the flame displays the tell-tale characteristics the conversion is complete and the bessemer's are ready to pour the magic metal which first we saw as plain or then softened molten iron and now transformed the steel for all the needs of man [Music] here in the stripping yard is the row of jacketed ingots we left sparkling a moment ago and now cool enough to shed their moles reaching down the human-like fingers of this Martian giant grasp and pry the moles mingotts weighing between twenty and forty thousand pounds an impressive safe as the rich crimson velvety glow emerges from beneath the rising mold Steel has no competitor in modern life no possible substitute wherever you look the counter examples of its service to man the nation's parade of blowing in Vince's a barometer of economic conditions and is watched by many who seek to gauge business activity for as the ingots gold so goes industrial America the golden colors of fire go next to soaking pits or reheating where they literally soak in the bath of flame which evenly restores their temperature [Music] that was the signal to send one of these glowing ingots from the soaking fair it is 2200 degrees hot as you see it now and we begin to get an idea of the innumerable processes required to make fine steel and our economical the finished product is after all this labor and effort after all this is a hairpin thumbtack a monkey wrench a of beam in infancy [Music] through a mirror directly in front of him the operator sees the ingot bumping along the conveyor rollers like a car on a corduroy road unaware of the punishment to come as it will be squeezed pounded and pressed into one of the thousand shapes which meet the demands of Industry the big idea here is to crack off the scale which is formed and to prepare the Endit for the real rough stuff to come the ingot is manipulated from the Pope protected by heavy screening and shatterproof glass supported by the post partially hiding the end of the roller man glances at the dials and brings the role down it's a squeeze play an inch or more of time until the huge ingot is flattened to a slab about five inches thick ready to be cut like cheese into shorter lengths for further rolling in the continuous rolling mill skill workers in focus set high up across the floor from each set of rolls chart the course the slab must follow as the phone dimensions adjustments to stand stand these continuous mills cover so much ground that the traffic lights familiar is important as the red and green stuff and gold lights for small down all clear the rolls are set and ready and here it comes to white-hot slab a steel sliding swiftly and smoothly toward the old powerful rolls first pass takes off the scheme then a quarter turn on the turntable sends the slab sideways into the spreader to increase its with an extra push is needed here to force it through the roll that's only the first step farther down the long line the width is checked and then the rapidly transforming slab of Steel races on beneath showers of water and steam to enter the reversing mill and back and forth and back and forth again Ditmas Park and this reducing process we don't recommend to the ladies [Music] it's hard going for the slab but it's just another dial setting and a turning of a switch to the man at the levers he sits at a control board like the keyboard of an organ and casually watches the huge rolls do their work getting longer and longer the plate races on to run the gauntlet of the finishing stands for giant stands in tandem each one squeezing the plate thinner and thinner from the beginning from this pictorial drum of steel we have seen our machines have been called the aid of the men who makes you these machines of the steel mills our gene a more powerful more incredible than Aladdin ever summoned by rubbing his wonderful land watch this servant work for man his master machines obedient to the merest touch some as delicate as the flutter of a butterfly's wing some house powerful as an avalanche these same machines while producing amazingly low-cost steel have created many new commodities many new markets thus providing for countless workers occupations which never existed before one of the most interesting of recent inventions the rocking shear was suggested by an ordinary rocking chair perfected in a wooden model which sheared chewing-gum instead of Stephen [Music] and now watch the result rocking power my pressure shear cutting coal steel plate with incredible ease and actors such is the story of steel today steel plate for use in railroad cars steam ships bridges and buildings well boys you're doing a swell job and we're getting a real thrill watching you or going on let's have a bottle of pop together drink hearty moving on in the production of Steel we come to the manufacture of sheet steel hot roll like steel plate sheet steel is nearly rolled thinner and thinner and then cleaned with acids it is coal rolled in coils to even lesser gauges emerging on the other side of this machine as coal roll sheet or use an automobile fenders and bodies and stoves refrigerators and the many products are pressed even further reduced and tin coated coal rolled steel s thousands of uses as tin plate here's where the girls come in as inspectors of the finished plate these shining services must tempt the vanity of any daughter VIII but surely not this girl oh well to err is human it must have been the oversized mirror that didn't with that little touch of feminine vanity satisfied she goes back to a work an artist at her job these girls are mighty useful employees in a template mill and their schedules arranged according an hour on and 15 minutes off for coffee tea and rest here we are back again with hot steam and there's a red-hot rail coming through the first pass taking on his first big impression like everything else in Steel this rail was rolled down from an Indian the rail bar takes more definite shape with each new pass through the road after the first pass it pulls down to the end of the line across the conveyor table and up on the High Line in the middle to an intermediate fast and then across another conveyor table and down the land at the right to the finishing rolls for its final impression the finished rail over which the wheels of your friend may someday flick [Music] steel-cut steal the cold biting through the hut sawing a rail bar of more than 100 feet long into standard lengths we go along now to still another most interesting episode in the fascinating drama of steel production there's still another pictorial chapter in the saga of steel rolling giant B how many people would ever guess that from this six-foot engine a 36 inch I beam almost as long as the city block could be row patrols Steve and sizzled but an operator skillfully trips the switches controlling a pressure of many thousands of pounds back and forth under different controls the end of classes but it takes on a faint shape the semblance of an i-beam suggestion of a girder that may support a bridge or a skyscraper it's all as easy as falling off a log or so it seemed as this young man steel handles the controls passing the hoops form backward and forward reducing the gauge shaping the rough beam into an almost finished product and sending it all down the line on its way to the finishing standards there comes the Eyebeam out of the finishing stem and we have actually seen how 150 feet of strong sturdy steel can be rolled from a six foot in the columns and girders with which America builds its future the beam slides down the rollers coming to a stop at the saw to be trimmed and cut to length [Music] they're mighty particular to get things right these steel men here they're taking a sample from the hot beam a test piece which will go on to the laboratory but right now they have another use for it the hot beam sample performs a dual role serving all sorts of fireless cooker deluxe for Mike's private coffee pot it's too good a thing to keep to himself so big-hearted my calls powerful Pat to have a sip from the old Java with him I shipped with thanks to C but don't ever let the wave know you're this foot or she'll be after pin and apron on you now let's go over the axel forge for immense hammers are pounding like file drivers this machine does the heavy work but man's hand shaped was the railroad axe tacking an awful wallop this hammer slams down on the helpless round beating it into shape [Music] two crews alternated the hammer as each axle astern now the axle is forged from the other end as the giant hammer shapes the color see between the hammer blows the alert intense faces of these men [Music] while the axle is getting its finishing touches railroad wheels are being turned out in another impressive operation of the modern steel plant the first thing which will catch your eye will be a red-hot wheel block as the steel man talked about to take its place between the two halves of the wheel mold and then his man and machinery take advantage of the precise moment the glowing hot block is formed under 20 million pounds of pressure slowly very slowly pressed flattened and shaped into a blank something close to a railroad wheel but not yet the real article and then with scarce an instant falls the blank is lifted from old number one by a bold number to slide slowly and easily to the left and relentlessly grips the victim between its powerful jaws and then comes the final shaping in the finishing mole under further terrific pressure if you thought the first one was a squeezer watch number two [Music] the throttle of Casey Jones never controlled as much power as these levers which now release the rough wheel and send it on to the caliper man only perfection gets by this chip and upon emerging the wheel is ready for finishing perhaps to convey you someday possibly soon on a journey of your heart's desire here's another chapter in the tale of Steel coming out of a reheating furnace is a pair of billets 30 foot lengths of steel about two inches square they too were rolled down from an engine rolled in a billet mill much like a rail mill the billets run the gamut of 16 sets of reducing rolls each roll reduces the diameter and hastens the rod with ever-increasing speed toward his final reduction in a moment you'll see it began to step out the snail turning into a scared rabbit his rate of speed through the rolls will jump from 4 to 45 miles an hour better than a racehorse as its length increases from 30 feet to almost 3/4 of a mile these close shots show exactly what takes place slow at the start then faster in this intermediate pass and still its speed increases if you watch closely you can see it dart through these roads and at last there it comes whistling into the coiler to be tamed into a shape the coil at finished rock [Music] these marvelous machines are steel pull their own tapping heavy wire from broadness we see here in these big dies but we're not through yet with this metallic candy pulley now the rapidly thinning wire goes to a huge drum which is a real taffy puller and our wire gets tenuous and more tenuous the operator most accurately measures the gauge for a thousandth of an inch counts in the kind of accuracy that is standard in wire drawing [Music] the rest of the story of we're making is one reduction after another a hundred thirty thousands of an inch at a time finer and finer the tough steel wire is strong on the wire goes darting twisting weeding to and fro through as many as eleven guys and finally it comes out all bright and silvery almost as fine as silken thread and so wire is made for countless demands for bed springs nails fence telephone and telegraph lines more than ninety thousand uses represented in our modern civilization production of Fife and cubes is another important phase of steelmaking the finest kind of to be seamless starting as a hot round a reheated cylinder of solid steel is hustled along and rammed into the seamless piercing mill by means of great pressure created by a boiling cone shaped rolls forcing the malleable steel forward over a piercing point the round emerges on the other side is a seamless tube a hollow pipe of hot rolled steel it's remarkable up perfectly this round of gold and hot steel is pierced expanded and finished to meet specifications what are the most interesting operation to be found in any of these great steel mill and so mile after mile of seamless to finds its place in the pipeline for service for heat fuel water and the other necessaries of modern life let's turn from the colorful dramatic site of the mill to the quiet of the laboratories and to the scientists much of what you've seen would not have been possible without the research man constantly working into the future of steel and devising new ways for it to serve its master man here we see Steel's Anatomy photograph to study here's a piece of Corten steel getting the tensile test that dark colored piece the metallurgist had just placed the machine is being subjected to the severus possible tension see how remarkably a piece of steel can be stretched almost like rubber 50 60 70 thousand pounds of bull per square inch and more to find the breaking point it's amazing the steel can stand such punishment finally it does break under much greater strain than ever will be exactly in its actual use with little furnaces such as these the scientists worked with patients studying experiment to develop stainless steel whose shining surface reflects the research and the effort devoted to its production this is the fascinating world of steel many are those who walk its paths the miner the engineer the crane man the melter the role of the scientists hundreds of thousands among the men of steel more than 500,000 men are engaged in making steel over half of them in the countries of United States Steel alone men are a confident and competent in their world men who can return to their homes and firesides proud and happy in the knowledge of their contribution to society beyond the door of the furnace we see nothing but hot gases and bubbling metal but the man who makes steel sees their streamline frame is streaking smoothly across the continent great ships carrying the products of the farm and factory to the four corners of the earth sailing the seven seas for the promise of world peace through world trade with Commerce profit to all he sees concrete roads made from the slag of blast furnaces busy with cars and trucks of steel he sees beyond that bubbling steel the wire lines of modern telephone and telegraph communication and the high towers carrying electric power to home and industry he sees modern farming made possible by steel machinery and fencing countless oil derricks stretching their structures to the heavens God frameworks of Steel landmarks of another of America's great industry big and little things he sees the big little conveniences of modern cookery stainless steel utensils in kitchen sink hammers and little nails that play a big part or the melodious vibration of a finely drawn steel piano string he sees acid resisting cans for food preservation or a fine steel watch spring set in the steel chassis and he sees tall buildings of Steel raring they're proud heads almost above the clouds great bridges spanning rivers and harbors bringing commerce and its people closer and closer together all these and more the Man of Steel sees new IRA's new standards of living as the world moves forward with the men who makes steel [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music]