This short film “Round the Works in Four Minutes” promotes the Firth-Vickers Stainless Steel Co and its Staybrite Works in Sheffield, England. It probably dates to the 1950s. The brief tour of the works shows steel plates, sheets, wire and bars being formed, shaped and cooled. Firth-Vickers was a major name in Sheffield’s steel empire, and perhaps are best known for the invention of Stainless steel in 1912. The company branded their stainless as ‘Staybrite’, which gave this works its name. At 2:08, spinning machines that are centrifugal furnaces are shown, initially used in the aircraft industry. At 2:33, automated lines are shown. At 3:10, bright and mirror finish stainless steel sheets are shown. At 3:30, various uses of steel are shown including in a meat processing plant where cleanliness is very important, a bottling plant and a milk dairy.

Firth Brown Steels was initially formed in 1902, when Sheffield steelmakers John Brown & Company merged with Thomas Firth & Sons. In 1908 the two companies came together and established the Brown Firth Research Laboratories and it was here, in 1912, under the leadership of Harry Brearley that high chrome stainless steel was developed. The companies continued under their own management until they formally merged in 1930 becoming Firth Brown Steels. In 1934 the stainless steel business, based at the Staybrite Works, Sheffield, was split off as a jointly-owned company with English Steel Corporation Ltd. and was re-incorporated as Firth-Vickers Stainless Steels Ltd. The company is now part of Sheffield Forgemasters. During the 1970s a market downturn, the Thatcher era recession and labor problems caused several Sheffield steelworks, including Staybrite, to close. The Sheffield Works is now derelict.

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