PIONEERS OF PROGRESS

[Music] this village blacksmith was behind America's dramatic pioneer days expansion from his smithy came horseshoes and wheel rims of fire and later of Steel the Prairie schooners that opened the continent blow down the blacksmith's products and ears who voyaged out across the plains depended only on themselves they relied on their own faith courage and resourcefulness but steel steel axe heads to hike out clearings in the forest for their homes was their great Ally the Pioneers ax Club to the forest and made of it a place to work and wear steel saws cut the forest into logs and steel tools shaped the logs into boards to make dwellings for the Pioneers steal flowers turn the earth into farmland to feed the country's growing appetite but ours was a horse and wagon civilization until a new pioneer the higher horse came snorting and popping across the Prairie to increase the rate of America's progress 100 for the railroads flung across the land a network of steel rails that founded into one nation more prosperous than anyone had dreamed any nation might be [Music] today steel and the industry that produces it continued to serve the pioneer spirit thousands of steel products pour from America's Mills modern pioneers opening new frontiers frontiers which offer greater happiness Security and Prosperity for our nation America steel industry is big business it's more than 250 companies make about 40 percent of the world's steel yet it is small business - or it's owned by over three-quarters of a million people one out of about every 200 Americans own steel stock [Music] nearly 700,000 men and women work in the iron and steel industry and they're among the world's best paid workers earning around four billion dollars a year more an average of more than $20 a day the making of Steel is a complicated highly-skilled process using the talents and crafts of hundreds of thousands of people in this open hearth furnace the raw materials steel scrap and pig iron which was made from iron ore are blended into steel along with these ingredients cause a carefully measured quality of limestone to change the metals impurities into slag which will later be drained off [Music] the molten steel is cast into ingots these weigh about six tons depending on what is to be made from them removed from their moles the in in a soaking pit this is an oven which ices the ingot heat bringing the entire chunk of metal to an even and very high temperature [Music] the buggy carries the white-hot ingots to the rolling mill to be formed into useful shapes and sizes American Mills can produce more than a hundred and thirty-five million tons of steel ingots a year the ingot arrives at the rolling mill in its white-hot malleable form it will be squeezed and kneaded back and forth through a series of rolls and then into a wide variety of plates beams pipes rails bars and other marketable shapes the men who guide the endured through the rolling mill are typical of the industry's most highly trained technicians operation of the mill might appear entirely automatic but no mechanical device can take the place of skill experience and judgment for steel making is more than a business it is an art gradually the steel is shaped into new forms this is a section of a rail and like every steel product it must be flawless in form and quality and must meet rigid specifications or that's the rule in a free competitive society good workmanship builds a good business and competition guarantees the highest standards of production [Music] Americans today are pioneers though we travel in Express trains instead of covered wagons no uncharted territory remains but there are other frontiers and we conquer them in the Pioneer way through our own initiative and resourcefulness and steal even more than it was for the pioneers is our ally steel-framed building sheathed with stainless steel open new frontiers in the sky steel bridges span all rivers and bays and steel machinery helps bring our mineral wealth into use the ships that sail our waterways helping to make the United States a world leader in commerce and industry our ships of Steel [Music] it's used for farm equipments to help make us the best fed nation in the world and our farmers the most prosperous [Music] steal vehicles carry us through the streets of our busy cities cities whose very backbone and framework are of Steel [Music] when an American goes on vacation cut across the country in his own car the car he drives is of Steel the concrete highway is reinforced with it [Music] from steal come the weapons to keep our country free in the traditional American way our nation steel companies help America handled not only the defense needs of the moment but those of the future this voluntary production means that our fighting men wherever they may be have the best equipment that mil engineer and technician can make [Music] [Music] still keeps America safe now and a freely popping steel in the guards our future as surely as these big guns guns of steel guard the freedom and security of America and the entire free world as our steel needs increase new mills and furnaces are constructed these mills provide a vast livelihood for countless thousands of other workers and businessmen a man who makes conveyor belts for ore mines a bookkeeper in a Great Lakes shipping company or a driver who handles huge earth-moving equipment like a toy large scale expansion and improvement since 1946 privately financed have raised our steelmaking capacity to about 2 and 1/2 times Russia's fault Oh hole it exceeds the annual output of Great Britain by about 6 to 1 and it exceeds the output of France by about 9 to 1 in Steel's laboratories scientists strive continually to develop new and better products millions of dollars of private capital are spent in the search for new uses for steel better in safer ways of making steel new ways to expand its production and to develop raw material reserves the world over to feed our ever-growing demands for steel products the gigantic electric steelmaking furnace is an example of the endless research in this furnace are manufactured the highest grades of steel for automobiles aircraft ball bearings surgical instruments the ingredients to be loaded are dropped into the top of the furnace now the heat has to be increased in some cases up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit for this enormous heat the furnace uses enough electric current to light a city between three electrodes and the metal below tremendous man-made short-circuit sleep back and forth the skill and judgment of the melter are all important in a job like this [Music] a special instrument is used to judge the molten metals temperature it's pronounced okay [Music] while developing and expanding methods of making steel the industry scientists also have made steel making saber thanks to their research hazards are minimized in handling even liquid hot metals like these and steel is now one of the safest industries for the men and women who work in it [Music] in this wire manufacturing plant steel is rolled into a rod and drawn out into wire vomit will come an infinite variety of steel products ranging from cables holding up a great bridge to a tiny pin whatever the final product the wire is checked to make sure it fits requirements precisely a tin plate mil take steel and turns it into tin plate for what are popularly known as tin cans the so called tin can a product that has revolutionized American living actually is only about one percent tin the rest is steel so it's more correct to call it the steel can most of the tin plate produced in the United States is shipped to the container industry approximately one half of it going into food cans the United States produces about three-quarters of the world's tin plates we are also the world's largest tin plate consumer using more of it than the rest of the world combined steel placing along here at 30 miles an hour is made into more than 20 billion cans for food alone each year many more cans are needed for oil toothpowder paints and other products all over the world [Music] the gleaming tin plate is cut into convenient sheets and before these are set out to be made into cans they are subjected to a terrible inspection [Music] a few moments ago we saw battleships bridges and skyscrapers in smaller ways to steal carries on it's pioneering job ways that bring it into the home and the life of every one of us cookie cutters pie plates humble but essential articles stainless steel doing the jobs that only steel can do goes to work in the modern processing of food helping to raise our nation's health standards [Music] steel comes into every home playa nearing new ways to make life easier and better each steel company buys with more than two hundred and fifty others for the patronage of the best customers in the world the producers of america's essentials and conveniences a steel hairpin for example making for a woman's happiness every one of us everyday uses steel in hundreds of ways and we start using it almost from the instant we are born America's free competitive economy depends and thrives on a free competitive steel industry [Music] from a razor blade to a skyscraper steel builds our nation steel from a hypodermic needle to a pipeline that stretches out across the country steal from a whirling eggbeater to an enormous suspension bridge steel from a needle in the hands of a woman to the Hall of the world's fastest ocean liner steal from the ticking mechanism of a watch to the frame with almost building fire layer of progress in America's past enriches our nation now and opens new frontiers for America's bright future [Music]