This color educational film from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is about the construction of a coal burning plant in Paradise, KY. Known as the Paradise Fossil Plant, it operated from 1963 through 2017. The film was copyright in 1964.

Opening: Fire, water, they make steam. Title: Tennessee Valley Authority presents “Power From Paradise” (:08-:51). Power lines. A woman plus in a device. A cow is being milked, aerial factory shot. Aerial field. Western Kentucky, the Green River. Paradise, KY, men sit outside a mom & pop shoppe. A dam, water comes down the walls into a river. A barge on a river. Electric power station. Tractor. A forest. Factory aerial shot. Transformer on a pole (:52-2:59). Smoke stacks give off smoke at a factory. Map of TN, AL, GA, NC, VA, KY and MS. Transmission lines connect the stations on the map. Coal burning steam plants are shown on the map. Nighttime city shots. A coal field. Men at work on the field (3:00-4:50). Bulldozers mow down trees. A man uses a jackhammer. The ground is blown up. Men look at a map and point. Trucks move in. Bulldozers go across muddy dirt. Earth and rock are removed. Bulldozers assist. Coal is mined and moved by crane (4:51-6:25). Cars go down a dirt road. Men work on a pipe. Snow on the ground as men head to work. A building is built to house the offices. Men weld. Men cut steel and sheet metal (6:26-7:22). Concrete mixing plant. A truck pulls in, a man turns a knob in a control room. A crane set on a gantry. Men set concrete. Construction equipment pieces a building together. A building is being set up with steel girders (7:23-9:20). A railcar brings in some pieces. Steel girders are lifted by a crane. Men leave the worksite. Paradise, KY building. A man lays bricks. Giant chimneys. Men build the chimneys. A worker uses a communication device (9:21-11:31). Aerial shot over the high chimneys. Dirt is moved and scooped up. Inside a tunnel. A man climbs a ladder inside the construction. Dredging is done on a channel. A skimmer wall is built. Pre-cast concrete beams are laid (11:32-13:56). A truck backs up and dumps rock into the water. Inside of the construction. A boiler is being built. Workers use wrenches. Furnace walls are membrane constructed. Men pull pipes and sections (13:57-16:08). Workers climb a ladder. Boiler tubing. A man checks the boiler. Flash evaporators. Pressure system being worked on. Tubing for the steam lifted by a crane. Welders work in shifts round the clock. Steam lines must be insulated. Burners. Water comes out of a pipe. Men weld (16:09-18:58). A crane lifts steel. A low pressure stator is brought in on a railcar. Turbo generators. Low pressure rotor. Turbine blades (18:59-21:05). Men check alignment. Inside the turbine engine. Construction continues inside. Coal is brought by special trucks. Hoppers receive the coal. Coal goes down a conveyor belt. Coal is carried away for storage. Trucks move the coal. Standpipes will deal with the live piles of coal. Man in a control room (21:06-25:45). Coal goes up a conveyor belt. A man moves a steel sheet. Exterior of the plant. Main power transformers are set up (25:46-27:41). In case of fire, water spray is tested. Circuit breakers are also installed as a safety device. High voltage wires. Porcelain insulators are installed. Men work on the wires (27:42-29:21). Power lines. Inside the main control room. Men look at the wall. A worker sets up wiring. Plans are looked at. A worker sits and looks at the numbers and buttons. Control panel. A man looks at the control room. Exterior of the plant. High chimneys. Exterior of completed plant (29:22-31:54). End credits (31:55-32:03).

TVA’s Paradise Fossil Plant was located in western Kentucky on the Green River near the village of Paradise. The plant had three units and three large natural-draft cooling towers. Paradise was TVA’s only coal-fired plant with cooling towers, which are typically seen at nuclear plants. Units 1 and 2 went on-line in 1963 and at the time, they were the largest operating units in the world. A third unit became operational in 1970. Units 1 and 2 were retired in 2017, and Paradise Unit 3 in 2020, effectively closing the plant. TVA invested approximately $1 billion to build a gas-fired plant to replace Paradise; it opened in April of 2017.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com