This 1940s British instructional and educational film, produced with the Ironfoundry Association, shows the process by which cast iron products were made prior to the highly-mechanized era. Here, almost every step of the process to make a finished article, is done by hand and with very little mechanization.
A foundry is seen at 1:00, with pig iron being brought into the factory to make stove hotplates. A pattern maker is seen at 1:29 using lead and tin to make a mold. At 2:00, sand with clay and coal dust is used to demonstrate the pattern in use, through an impression process. The mold is prepared at 2:50 by a foundry man using various types of moulding sand. At 4:40, the pattern plate is pulled off the sand, so that another mold can be made. At 5:50, the process of melting the iron is seen, with a large furnace being fired by coal, limestone, and filled with pig iron and scrap iron. At 7:20, molten iron is seen flowing out of the furnace at 1400 degrees centigrade. The molten iron is wheeled away in a bogey to be poured at 8:00, using ladles or hand shanks. At 8:40, the molten metal is poured into the mold. At 9:40, the newly made hotplates are seen emerging from the sand, and excess iron knocked off with hammers. Now finishing or fettling is done at 10:30, with grinders being used to smooth ridges and wire brushes to remove excess sand. At 11:10, cooker plates are trimmed up with scrapers. As the film ends, a finished, enameled hot plate is seen in a British home.
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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
