Pageant In Steel (1959)

[music] [bell] [music] >> Let's keep it clear in front of camera two this time. Well, this rehearsal ought to do it, don't you think? Don't think I'll have any luck at all. Are you on your starting marks, Don? I think so. It's nearly gone. All right, everybody. We'll take it from the beginning. This is a dress rehearsal. Don, take your opening a little slower. We want our television audience to know that we're in the Coliseum and what this exposition is all about. Sheet steel. All right, Will. We'll take it straight through, film included. From the beginning. Music. >> [music] [music] >> Good evening. And welcome to the fabulous Coliseum, Columbus Circle, New York, and to America's first annual pageant of steel. This actually is an exposition about you, because much of your life and what's good in it depends on steel, no matter who you are or what your living is. For all of us, steel is everything. And the kind of steel every one of us meets every day is this. Sheet steel. And I mean everyone. Let's say you're a gardener. All right, let's talk to one right over here. >> [music] [music] >> I know a Puritan doesn't believe in chattering when there's work. If any would not work, neither should he eat. Thessalonians 3:10. But I did want to ask you about these tools. Oh. As a man with an eye for fine tools. Iron, aren't they? Iron and from England. But I must confess my muscles ache after a day with them. I can believe that. Look how thick the iron is. Well, iron is iron. Must be thick to be strong. What are you doing with that scythe? Sharpening it, of course. With a hammer? Well, if it is not too dull, I use a stone. This is faster, though. Only wrought iron had some temper. How'd you like some new tools with muscles of their own and real temper? I'd like tea without the tax, too. Come over here. Watch this. I'll show you how to cut grass or hay EASY AS WALKING. >> IT'S TOO EASY. MUST be sinful. No sin to save your youth. Why wear yourself out? It seems easy enough for a child. What is this metal? Sheet steel. Steel? But steel is for swords and clock springs. It's too fine to use. >> In the 20th century, steel is for everything. This is sheet steel. So is this. And this. Gardeners have all the best of it these days. Gardeners and everybody else. Take a look at this. What might this be? We call it an outdoor living. You don't live outdoors. Much as we can. We have furniture to make it comfortable and beautiful. And yet take the weather. This is sheet steel. >> [music] >> I disapprove. But this has great comfort. Must be a sin. >> [laughter] >> Is this a fireplace? Well, not exactly a fireplace. We call it a grill. You can move it wherever you need it. The steel in this is thicker than the iron in my shovel. Of course, we can make steel any thickness we like for any job. How'd you like to see some real husky uses for sheet steel? >> [music] [music] >> Here's a grown-up set of garden tools. Only with this equipment a couple of men can cultivate a garden of hundreds of acres. Our colony had these tools. >> [music] >> We would have been putting the cart before the horse. By 300 years. Before we could get sheet steel in the quantities we need, we had to invent the continuous mill, for instance. This is all gibberish to my ears. Of course, this is strictly 20th century. >> [music] >> You'd find the mill in a place like this. It's one of the great plants of Bethlehem Steel Company. There was a time when we said steel mill, we thought only of rails and big steel beams. [music] But today at Bethlehem, more than half the iron ore out in the yards goes into products for everyday living. Steel making has changed our lives in just two generations. Although it's one of our oldest crafts, iron has always been smelted the same way, with limestone >> [music] >> and fuel. These days, the fuel is coke. The beginning is at the blast furnace, where oxygen and earthy materials are separated from the iron. Here is the hot blood of industry. This is the basic substance of nearly every durable product we want and buy. Iron. >> [music] >> But the iron is only iron. It still carries elements that must be eliminated or brought into new balance in the open hearth furnace. Electronics measure and control this inferno automatically, and somehow a miracle happens. >> [music] [music] >> Now, it is steel. >> [music] >> But, this is merely the start. Steel making goes on even in the ladle and the mold. The mysteries continue in the red heart of the steel, too hot to approach, but still carefully controlled by the metallurgist. >> [music] >> Now, the steel begins to cool and solidify. The ingot is formed. >> [music] >> Then, in an inferno, the steel is heated again, not just to any temperature, but to a right degree of brilliant incandescence. This ingot is ready to be rolled. Here, with the force of giants, the ingot is lengthened into a slab. As it is compacted, the steel grains are refined to meet all the trials no other material can take so well. Pounding, pulling, the wear that steel shrugs off every day. By now, the surfaces have been inspected and prepared, and each group of slabs has its own metallurgical pedigree. Their movement is scheduled as tight as a passenger train and accounted for at every station. Item four, product account 5640. Ordered weight 360,000 lb. Customer, a steel drum manufacturer. So, this slab will be steel drums. The next may be an automobile frame, a refrigerator, or water tank.