The Manufacture of Steel - 1945 - CharlieDeanArchives / British Council Archival Footage

Very interesting. I watched another old British film that showed the same forging process or one very like it shown at about 19 minutes. Although I believe it was in black and white and from the 1930's.

Wonderful video. So amazing to see how things were done back then

This video is so enjoyable to watch. I’m always amazed at the work it takes to produce, cast and forge steel into the numerous products that we use in our day to day lives.

Awesome video. Thx

wow

Stunning. Very direct commentary. Outstanding camerawork. I learned so much.

The suspense music is like far out and absolutely out of place at the same time.

And now rebuild it.Bugger the treacherous global financiers. Make it in Britain,with British coal.

Amazing in the modern day with robotics and all, there are so many intermediate steps of processing and re-heating and energy loss, that I sure modern taken on all of this. One could quite easily take raw directly to final product moulds, with post heat treatment and annealing process, before final milling is done by the company making the final product. So much waste. Guess time the British need to get back on their game because China is taking over, no steal plant or competitiveness well no independence or ability to defend it. Most are unemployed, so guess start become how long you going to sacrifice the short term for the long term. It's circular in the house as long as localize geographical money circles.

The Forge Master was like a conductor. He and his team deserved a standing ovation for their skill.
I suspect they wouldn't want bouquets.

Gawd. Stop the racket!

Throwing sap brush on top of the of steel surprised me. I think they were just doing it for fun

no OH&S back then

At peace once more. .
Sphh🙄
Idiot.

I don't want to know the number of men that were injured or killed in these factories. No health and safety in those days I see.

What a brutal industry. The development of iron and steel went hand in hand with the industrial revolution.
“What are we going to make these new steam engines out of?”
“I know, let’s invent cast iron”.
“How are we going to machine it?”
“Let’s invent tool steel”
And on it went. New steels and new processes. Fascinating video.

In some ways technical advanced for 1945, but still incredible skill was needed without automated or computerised controls of proces parameters.
In the part of rolling of armour plate the throwing of tree branches on the steel wasn't done to remove the scale, it was done to raise the carbon content of the outer layer of the plate to make it hard and more difficult for rounds to penetrate, yet the inside stayed softer and therefore less brittle to prevent the armour from shattering on impact.

So much done just by eye - incredible!

The life of 16 before he went cab over wheels

Proud to say that no safety equipment was harmed in the making of this movie.

Beautiful movie! Wonderful piece of industrial history!

Wonder how many guys got blinded or deafened, way before retirement ?
WAY TOO HOT and Smokey for me!
Very, very interesting, and looks similar to a lot of today’s methodology.

Some of the 'slag' will be formed into my ex.

The narrator is the father of the actor that played Dr house. What a world.

I love that the film producers had a guild. Probably explains why they front loaded a thank you to the factories and workers

Really interesting video.

My grandfather worked in the steel works of Teeside up to just before WW2. Built into his wages was a beer allowance to keep up the hydration. He lived to be 84 which I suspect was above the average.

What an interesting and varied career John Laurie was blessed with !

Always dreamed of being the guy who throws the anti slag brush on top of the steel all day long.

Well, that went wrong didn’t it. Now all we have are poxy call centres and weirdos claiming they oppressed because there aren’t mixed toilets.

Ps, come from a line of steel foundry workers. By the time I was old enough, the big foundries and manufacturing plants were starting to close or scale down. The close knit communities that each plant had, the on site social clubs, the working men’s clubs and pubs around the plants embedded and apart of the community, gone. It wasn’t just the manufacturing we lost.

I had 3 relatives on my dad’s side who worked at Holwell Works. One was a driver in the foundry, they found a small piece of steel in his eye when he was older during a cataract surgery. Another worked in the engine sheds overhauling the locos and the third was a joiner making the moulds for the molten steel. He used to take a sack of loco coal home and every so often had to get a new fire grate cast as the coal would melt and distort the fire grate.

It’s nice to see what it would have been like where they worked.

Steel making has come a long way. Fortunately today it isn't as filthy and dangerous due to modern automation and technological innovation. These men are forgotten industrial heroes that paved the
way for the 20th century.

Fascinating. Thank you.

All Gone, Thanks to Thatcher

These film makers were more than a bit good eh! Brilliant overall production with great drama and atmosphere...when we Brits are good ...there’s none better, like my grandad used to say!

Narrator was John Laurie who had a long career as an actor but is mainly remembered now for the part of James Frazer, the undertaker in the TV comedy series Dads Army.

When I was an apprentice we had some empty containers (don't know where they came from) which were labelled as "cooling draught tablets". It was written on the container that these contained salts to replace those lost by excess sweating caused by working in foundries and steel production etc. Does anyone remember such things?
Loved watching this film. It should be shown to all school kids and university students today. They should be asked how the world might have been if it weren't for the making of iron and steel.
We live in a society now where nobody wants to make anything, they just want to buy finished goods from places like China. They don't want to get their hands dirty, they think they can become an overnight celebrity on TV, it makes you sick.

Fabulous film, worthy tribute to all involved in our departed iron and steel industry - and they were all bloody magnificent heroes.

Fascinating..!
My deep respect to the workers..

Having done an apprenticeship in (very) light engineering, we "learnt" about converting ore into iron, iron into steel but the huge scale of how it actually happens (in the UK happened) is made clear by such truly educational films. Wonderful. The workers were very skilled but the work was dangerous, backbreaking and terrible for their long term health. I'm glad my path led to a world of Hi-Tech.

"We need to move the molten steel from this place to that place. . What's the best most efficient and modern way to do that?"
"How about we make channels out of piles of dirt along the floor? And if the dirt channels start to break or crumble, we can pay a guy a penny a day to stand there with a shovel and repair it?"
"Very well! That sounds reasonable!"

Suddenly my job seems so much better.