An Industrial Lake Port (USA Buffalo, NY, 1949)

[music] [music] [music] The five great lakes form a natural waterway which serves the most important agricultural and industrial [music] region of North America. At the eastern end of Lake Yuri is a city [music] of Buffalo, a principal lakeport and one of the country's leading industrial centers. To the port of Buffalo, a large fleet of lakeboats brings cargos of wheat, iron ore, and other products of the Midwest. Day or night, these ships can find their way safely into the deep channel of the harbor because of the lighthouse which stands at the entrance of the port. This beacon light can be seen far out on Lake Erie beyond the harbor. Tom McKenna is the lighthouse keeper. He is a sailor in the United States Coast Guard, which maintains and operates all the lighouses in our country. Tom's job is to tend the light. While on duty, he reports the arrivals and departures of the ships that move in and out of the harbor. The tower of the lighthouse is a good lookout station. Troops of sea scouts often visit the lighthouse and observe the port of Buffalo as part of their training. They are interested in the ships of the Great Lakes as well as in the lighthouse itself. >> Can we come up now? >> Okay, come on up. On their way to the tower, the scouts say hello to Steve Randolph, another sailor who helps Tom take care of the lighthouse. The Sea Scouts want to know why the harbor is considered so important. Tom explains that the port of Buffalo is a gateway for the products of the entire Great Lakes region, which are sent to the eastern part of the United States. But the lakeboats also bring raw materials for the industries of Buffalo itself. Electric power from Buffalo's factories and homes and for the lighthouse comes from Niagara Falls, which is only 23 mi away. The tremendous flow of water running down from Lake Erie into the Niagara River is used to make electricity in powerhouses below the falls. This source of cheap electric current so near to Buffalo has helped to make the city an industrial center. Communities much farther away than Buffalo are also supplied with hydroelectric power made at the falls. The electric power runs the machines in Buffalo's factories which process the raw materials that are brought into its port. Buffalo has become a large city because it is located on the Great Lakes and is connected with the Atlantic coast through natural lowland roots. Buffalo is not only an industrial lake port, but it is also a railroad center which is second only to Chicago in importance. Following the natural lowland routes, railways link Buffalo with the big cities of the eastern United States and of Canada. 12 railroad systems connect with each other at Buffalo. Altogether, passenger trains and freight trains enter and leave the city nearly a 100,000 times each year. Buffalo's location on so many good transportation routes has encouraged many industries to develop here. Buffalo's factories turn out a great variety of products. Almost every type of industry can be found in the city. The largest of these is the milling of flour. Buffalo's grain elevators and flower mills are the biggest in the world. A great deal of the wheat harvested in the central plains of the United States in Canada is shipped eastward across the Great Lakes. Half of it is brought to Buffalo where the grain is stored, mil, and finally distributed. The making of flour is almost entirely a mechanical process. Machines remove impurities from the grain, separate the husks from the kernels, and grind the wheat into flour. They sift the refined flour into sacks and even sew up the bags. Flower mated buffalo is sent on freight trains and ships to the markets of North America and the rest of the world. Another of Buffalo's big industries is a making of iron and steel. The manufacturer of iron and steel is possible only if a plentiful supply of iron ore, coke, and limestone can be obtained. Iron ore can be brought cheaply to Buffalo by boat across the Great Lakes. From Steve, the Sea Scouts learn how iron ore is obtained. The iron mines are across the lakes a thousand miles from Buffalo at the western end of Lake Superior in the section of Minnesota known as the Msabi range. Msabi is an Indian word meaning giant. The Msabi range supplies more than half of all the iron ore mined in the United States each year. This ore is used to make iron and steel which are the important basic materials for all industry. The ore, which lies close to the surface of the ground, is loosened by blasting. Sticks of dynamite are lowered into blast holes that have been drilled for them. Fire. Fire. Iron ore is rock which contains large quantities of iron. But when it comes out of the ground, it just looks like big lumps of rusty earth. The or is handled mainly by mechanical means. Trucks dump their loads through a trap door into a crushing machine. Then a long conveyor belt carries the crushed ore to freight cars. Trains take the ore from the Msabi range to Doo, an important port at the western end of Lake Superior. The tracks run onto a trestle and the trains stop directly over the loading docks. The ore drops through shoots into the holds of the ship. This method makes it possible to load large freighters within only an hour. Although the Great Lakes are bodies of fresh water, they are actually like inland seas. The Great Lakes do not have tides, but are often stormy and rough. Except during the cold winter months when the water freezes in the Great Lakes, hundreds of vessels ply the shipping lanes. Sailing on the Great Lakes is not much different from sailing on the ocean. The lake boats are out of sight of land for hours at a time. their navigators use the sun and stars to determine the ship's position. The captain of a freighter on the Great Lakes is responsible for the safety of his ship, the same as the master of an ocean vessel. Like saltwater sailors, the crews keep the lakeboats in good order. Many of these same men work on oceangoing vessels during the winter. Shipping on lakeboats is one of the most efficient and least expensive forms of transportation in the country. Between the ports of Duth and Buffalo, ships cross Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie. The thousand-mile voyage takes 4 days. The link between Lake Superior and Lake Hiron is the Sue Canal. In this canal, boats are raised or lowered from the level of one lake to the level of the other. The deck crews get ready as a ship approaches the lock, which is a section of the canal that can be made watertight. When the boat is inside the lock, deck hands go ashore to handle lines and fenders. The water level in Lake Superior is 21 ft higher than that of Lake Huron. When a ship enters the Sue Canal from Lake Superior, the water level in the lock is the same as that in the lake. After the gate has been closed behind the ship, water is led out of the lock. Finally, when the water inside has dropped to the level of Lake Huron, the gate is opened ahead of the ship, which can then continue on its journey. Each year, this small waterway handles more traffic than the Panama and Suez canals. Near the Sue Canal, the shore of Canada is not far from that of the United States. Farther east at Detroit, the shores of the two countries are linked by a bridge. A freighter loaded with iron ore makes the voyage from Duth to Buffalo in about 4 days. Steve explains to the scouts that freighters remain in port as short a time as possible. At Buffalo, they unload rapidly and then return to Duth for another cargo of ore. The orboats make so many trips back and forth that the captains know the crew of the lighthouse. As the ships go by, greetings are usually exchanged inside the harbor. The freighters bringing ore tie up at docks close to iron and steel plants. Giant cranes are used to unload the ships. The engineer who controls the crane sits in a cab inside the moving arm up. >> This complicated piece of equipment, like the other large machinery used in making steel, requires skilled operators. One crane lifts 17 tons in each bite. In half a day, it can transfer as much as 10,000 tons of ore from the holes of the ship to the stock piles of the plant. As the ore is needed, other cranes move it from the stock piles to skip cars, which carry it to the tops of the blast furnaces. In the blast furnaces, iron is made. To the ore is added limestone, which has been brought from northern Michigan by ship. Coke is also added. Coke is made from coal which comes by train from the Pennsylvania coal fields. Coke is made by heating coal in great ovens. After certain gases have been driven off, what remains in the ovens is called coke. Coke has been found to be the best fuel to use in blast furnaces. The hot coke is dumped from the ovens into a freight car which carries it a short distance to the quenching Chef Skip cars carry loads of iron ore, limestone, and coke to the tops of the blast misses. In these towering ovens, the ore is melted under tremendous heat. The limestone in the mixture removes the impurities of the ore while the burning coke keeps a steady high temperature. The pure molten iron sinks to the bottom of the furnace and is drawn off into molds which are called pigs. Iron molded in this way is called pig iron. Steel is iron which has been refined and strengthened by the addition of other minerals. The white hot liquid metal is poured into molds. When the metal cools, it hardens into blocks. These steel blocks are called ingots. Steel is stronger than iron. Yet the metal of these ingots can be shaped to fit many needs. In the rolling mill, the ingots of steel are reheated and softened. Then the metal is sent back and forth through heavy machines which gradually work it into bars, strips, and sheets. Even with all the machinery, many delicate and dangerous jobs in steel making must be done by men. The mills of Buffalo provide part of the steel which is a basic material for our country's industries. At the lighthouse with Tom and Steve, the sea scouts review what they have learned during their visit. They have seen for themselves how ships bring the raw materials of the Great Lakes region to the harbor of Buffalo. They know that hydroelectric power made at Niagara Falls nearby supplies the mills and factories of Buffalo, which turn raw materials into manufactured goods for shipment to all parts of North America. a launch takes the sea scouts back across the harbor toward their homes in the city of Buffalo. At this industrial lakeport, many important land and water routes cross, linking the eastern United States with the Midwest and the entire region around the five great lakes. >> [music]