“Industry On Parade was a television series created by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) from 1950-1960. The series consisted of weekly episodes that highlighted American manufacturing and business. Hundreds of companies and products were documented during the [program’s] decade-long run.”
October 1953’s episode (no. 155) begins with a segment titled “Elusive Aluminum!” The segment shows a bauxite field in Arkansas (00:46), where clay-like ore is blown up to find bauxite deposits that are needed for making aluminum. Trucks haul the ore from the mine. Powdered ore is made into a solution and pumped into a seven-story precipitator (02:17). The film shows a shot of an aluminum plant. Men perform various jobs inside the plant. Train cars loaded with processed aluminum leave the plant (03:22). The next segment shows the manufacturing of batteries at the Gould National Battery Company of St. Paul, MN. Cars drive on highways. Batteries are made at the Gould National Battery building (04:40). The film shows how batteries are made, starting with making battery grids, then coating the grids with a chemical paste (05:22). Coated grids come out on a conveyer belt and go to a drying oven. A man inspects and separates the grids (05:54). Men on assembly lines put batteries together (06:15). Women insert fiberglass plates into the batteries (06:48). Using molten lead, a man seals the connectors and terminals (07:35); a pump fills the batteries with acid and then the batteries are charged in a large storage room (07:55). Workers test the batteries before they are shipped out. The next segment is “Trackless Train!” At R.G. LeTourneau in Longview, TX, new trackless trains are being developed. The company demos a trackless train (08:50), each wheel of each car moves with its own electric power. A trackless train pulls out onto a dirt road in a rural area (09:25). The final segment shows viewers the manufacturing of fishing supplies and equipment at Wright and McGill’s Denver, CO building. The segment starts with two boys fishing from a dock while dangling their feet in the water (10:43). The segment shows the exterior of the Wright and McGill building (11:11), then it shows men manufacturing fishing hooks (11:27). Hooks come off a small conveyer belt (11:55). Young boys attend the College of Angling Knowledge, an annual fishing school sponsored by Wright and McGill (12:08), where they learn to cast. The segment ends with the same two boys fishing from the bank of a river.
