Treasure Chest (1956)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] here they come [Music] [Music] all the world loves a lover and all the world loves a newlywed and it seems all the world loves practical jokes at a wedding but it's a day that all remember because they all had a part in it many things played a part in the happy celebration even the tin cans well it looks like this member of the party was left behind but nobody noticed it I suppose that's the life story of a can it plays its part without being noticed I wonder about the story behind this can who who made it who filled it who used it I wonder what was in it perhaps we can find out if we do a little investigating H seems to have a name of a Kind t a m 10 well maybe that's a clue where it came from Tam well now that's just a code the Packer puts on there it's his identification of a particular pack in this case the item was Tomatoes we sell a lot of these all right if you found that can in the neighborhood chances are it came from right here I guess anybody could have taken it to that wedding party maybe suy wendle she bought a can of these Tomatoes just a few days ago she says that canned foods are a big help to her I've known Susie since she was a little girl way back when I started as a grocery clerk one day last week I happened to notice her doing her shopping she seemed to be puzzled about something so I stopped to see if I could help it seems her husband is very fond of tomatoes she was looking over the various kinds wondering if I had something different something she hadn't tried before Tomatoes stewed tomatoes preserves sauce paste why not try these hand packed whole tomatoes that just came in I knew they were good we'd had some at home ourselves the night before Susie is a girl who takes pride in her dinner table she's a good cook too fussy about food everything has to be just right and in this case I guess everything was right I heard all about it next day and she thanked me especially for recommending the tomatoes of course the real credit belongs to the caner these tomatoes are packed right out here in the valley you know I never thought much about it till I visited the caner but it takes a lot of skill and knowhow to put a can of hand packed Tomatoes or any other food on the shells of our markets packing takes a lot of equipment and skillful work by a lot of people yes the Packers do a share of the credit for helping Susie and as time goes on she will recognize that more and more you won't have to tell Susie what's happening as her family grows the needs grow too why I read where the average family uses about 800 cans a year and all of us together use a 100 million cans a day that's a whale of a lot of cans and I guess each one has a different history be pretty hard to trace a whole story on any one I suppose but if you really want to know more about this can why don't you look up the people who made it their can making plant is right over there in the valley too drop in they'll be glad to see you yes this is one of ours we made it right here in this plan we make millions of these and we can easily recognize them I'll tell you how we make these cans in fact I'll show you come on along our operation starts with these bundles of tin plate we don't make the tin plate ourselves we buy it from the steel produce it we order it in many sizes and thicknesses and with various tin Coatings depending on the kind of cans to be made we bake a coat of enamel on some of the sheets before doing anything else for some foods this enamel gives special protection certain cans have labels and decorations printed directly on the tin plate it's done by this lithographing press now the tin can you asked about had an anal lens but the body was plain so its history really started here the sheets of tin plate feed into the slitter which Cuts them into pieces called body blanks the blanks go on to this body maker where a sequence of complicated operations notches and hooks them and forms them into cylinders called can [Music] bodies after the body is formed the seam is SED then cooled by a blast of air now we have our Cann bodies and they're really moving aren't they about six every second of course they are open at both ends and in the meantime this press stamps out the tops and bottoms a curl around the The Edge holds a gasket material which forms an airtight bond between the body and the end when we join them together on the double cement of course we only put on one end here we send the tops along to the canery and they seal them on after the can is filled to make sure the cans are perfectly leak proof we test them here by air pressure we check up on the machine too by sending a test can through it intervals the test can has a microscopic hole in it if there's any leakage in a can the machine automatically rejects it rejection of the can tells us the machine is working properly we ship a lot of our cans out in paperline box cars like this with the tops packaged separately other shipments go out by truck we make the cans and send them out to the Packers ready to work in other words a story of teamwork the can maker takes tin plate from the steel producer sends tin cans to the Packer and times his movements precisely yes these cans will be on time to meet the Packers needs but meanwhile let's take another look at that tin plate as a load of finished cans goes out more tin plate arrives drives to keep the cycle going feran suppose we take a sheet of feran and Trace the story back a bit farther at United States Steel we're always glad to talk about our tin plate ferah stands our trademark for electrolytic tin plate I guess you know that a tin can's about about 99% steel we take a sheet of Steel and put a protective coat of tin over it then you have tin plate well of course it's not as simple as all that as you'll see out in the plan in our Mill the job starts with inspecting and preparing slabs of Steel the slabs are about 6 in thick and average 15,000 lb looks like a pretty big bite to chew on doesn't it well just wait and see what we do with it before we can roll the slab we have to make it soft this reheating furnace does that job it takes 2 to 3 hours at 2200 de to condition the slab for roll the high temperature creates a surface crust or scale on the slab it's broken off and removed by giant rolls and jets of High Press water then the slab is rolled on a series of roughing stands reducing its thickness and increasing its length with each pass through the powerful ropes then the slab moves along to the six finishing stand it getss longer and thinner as it progresses through each set of [Music] rows see how much longer it becomes that runout table is longer than a football field and right now that strip is doing 25 M an hour [Music] at the end of the 1600t line the racing steel strip is trapped and wound into a corridor ready for further processing each coil is assigned a code number which permits identification during any step of production After hot rolling the coils are cooled cleaned and then go to the cold reduction Mill coold reduction is an accurate and efficient method of reducing Hot Roll steel to Tin plate thickness each successive set of rolls further reduces the steel until it finally reaches the specified gauge as the steel is called reduced an x-ray gauge automatically controls the setting of the roles to assure close tolerances in the finished product [Music] now our steel is coiled at nearly a mile a minute and is 13,000 ft long while Cold Rolling reduces the thickness of the steel it also hardens it so we have to soften It Up by heat treatment first the steel is given an electrolytic cleaning then in the operation called box analing the coils are covered and a furnace is placed over them and fire that one furnace will anneal 150 tons in about 72 hours that's more than 60 M of Steel continuous analing line does the softening up job in an improved [Music] way slack in the line permits us to weld the ends of the coils together without interruption here the steel is first clean then races along through the line at the rate of 1,000 ft a minute the steel undergoes many physical changes as it climbs the 60t towers and drops into 50t underground pits over the 400t length of the line only minutes after entering the steel speeds along to the coiler completely un [Music] need after a kneeling the steel is too soft rolling on a temper Mill gives it the exact degree of stiffness and finish required I know these processes look pretty complicated they have to be because each one has a definite purpose in meeting the customer requirements at this stage our unquoted steel product is called black plate a lot of cams and other items like toys trays and waste baskets are made of black plate now over here are the tin plating operations one way of putting tin on the steel is the hot dip process after shearing the black plate is clean before going through the bath of molten [Music] tin the hot dip puts a comparatively heavy coat of tin on the plate it's necessary for certain products but over here we have the electrolytic process of tin coating the tin plate which comes off this line like the sheet we're investigating is called Ferro [Music] at the start of the continuous electrolytic tinning line the coil ends are welded [Music] together during the welding operation Loops of the steel hanging in 60t pits continue to feed the line in the ferand process the steel runs through cleaning tanks on its way to the plating cells bars of pure tin are being submerged in the electrolyte solution that fills the plating [Music] cells electric current is passed through the electrolyte from the tin bars to the steel and Carries tin to the surface of the moving steel when required a light coating of tin can be deposited on one side a heavier coating on the other now the steel covered with a matte finished tin deposit runs through the melting Tower electric current passing through the steel Heats it to the point where the tin deposit melts into a bright finish a water quench cools the steel and solidifies the tin then after chemical treatment the steel is coated with a luant which serves to prevent scratching in handling and promotes easy feeding into the high-speed Machinery of the can making plants now the strip of tin plate is ready to be cut into sheets but first an electronic device tests for variations in thickness and activates a mechanism that rejects farther down the line any off gate sheets now we come to the Flying Shear which cuts the tin plate into sheets an electric eye checks the tin plate for pin holes and rejects any sheet that's less than perfect [Music] and here at the end of the line are the prime sheets electronically sorted and counting but even with all the modern electronic devices we make an extra check on representative lots of electrolytic tin plate the work these women are doing may look easy but it takes many months to learn the job I know you'll recognize this bundle it's just like the one you saw in the can making plant and that's just where this one's going our plant here is just one of five which the company is built in strategic locations at Morrisville and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Gary Indiana Birmingham Alabama and Pittsburgh California located to give convenient service to can makers and other consumers of tin Mill products and we do business in just about every country country when we ship tin plate overseas it's packaged in special metal wrapping it's used by can makers and Packers all over the world well that's our part of the story of tin cans we make the tin plate here send it off to the can makers and well you know what happens from there on yes we've seen what follows and I guess there's just one last question to ask where does the long chain of events really start the slabs of Steel that are stretched into thousands of feet of tin plate where did they come from well that's an easy one to answer we requisition them from our steel Works specifying exactly what type of Steel we need for each purpose to make steel a fleet of giant ore boats brings iron ore from distant miles sometimes over 1,000 M away equipment of awesome size is required just to handle the stock piling that will see the plant through the winter when the boats are icebound meanwhile coal is flowing in from another source and coal too must be transported over long distances by rail or barge and then converted into cold limestone is coming in from yet another Source all these raw materials travel through an intricate network of Manpower and Equipment before they even arrive at the blast furnace you first make iron in the Blast Furnace from raw materials that have been carefully prepared we can't just take them from the mines and quaries and dump them into the furnaces they must be sorted Blended and processed first the story of the tin can really begins right here a force of thousands of men an investment of billions of dollars in equipment are required for the job The Open Hearth refines the iron into steel molten steel is poured into molds to cool and solidify to become ingots ready for shaping into slabs and now you have the story of the slabs you asked about yes we have the whole story now a slab of Steel born of iron ore coal and Limestone fashioned with a specific nature for a precise purpose a slab of Steel whose form and appearance are dramatically changed in the [Music] Mills a slab of Steel whose hard resisting form is squeezed and rolled rendered workable by a kneeling tempered and stiffened steel a willing servant made willing by the care and skill in its manufactur it accepts and Dawn its coat of tin and at another time in another place it accepts the forming and shaping of the can making plant and comes out The Shining perfect container that was its Destiny and all this while as the steel was made and the cans were shaped and shipped fish were caught and prepared meat was made ready for processing food stuffs of many kinds were growing in the fields precision timing by the steel maker can maker and Packer assur that the cans are there to receive these Foods as they are harvested in their Prime research by can maker and Packer has developed varied methods and techniques scientific processes that seal all the nutritional goodness of the foods inside the can and preserve them indefinitely by making a complete variety of foods available all year round cans have helped change the economy and health of the nation helped create a new standard of living that standard of living enables the average family to enjoy the products of the whole world delivered in a steel container that costs approximately the same as a postage stamp these are the products of a special science a science that became an art through the research of the steel maker can maker and Packer better cans more varied products big cans small cans long ones short ones special cans pressure cans cans with keys with lids with [Music] hinges the life story of a tin can is the story of enormous facilities vast resources huge investment skillful work and precision timing by Steel maker can maker grower manufacturer and Packer it's a story of the tremendous teamwork that brings you the riches of the world locked in a treasure chest of Steel [Music]