This film from the Kodascope Library, “Richest Tin Mines in the World” (1930s) depicts tin mining in the Federation Malay States (Selangor, Perak, Negrei, Sembilan and Pahang), modernly known as Malaysia . Tin was Malaysia’s economic driving force beginning in the 1820’s in Perak and Selangor. By the 19th century Malaysia was the world’s largest producer. Footage includes bucket dredging and tin plate fabrication using the finer quality Straits tin and hot dip galvanization. Miners excavate ore in open cast mines. ‘Modern’ methods of producing goods from tin plates commercially with precision tools and assembly lines are compared to older methods and small batch making. Equipment featured includes gravel pumps, sluices, bucket dredges, tinning machines, carrying poles and hand tools for the excavation of waste rock. Later portions provide diagrams of machinery used for tin plate production. Female workers are pictured on the factory floor during the tin plating section. Various metal wares are produced including cans for food items and tea kettles. Babbitt and Britannica alloys are prepared. Bearings are formed using Babbitt alloy.

00:00 The film opens with a map of Malaysia and portions of Indonesia. Title cards indicate footage is of an open cast mine (:24). Work involves the removal of waste rock and soil using some sort of transportation mode, in this case, men with carrying poles. Shots pan over mining grounds (:30). Overburden is removed (:34). Workers in paddy hats continue the process (:43). Waste rock is removed through sluices (1:02). Various forms of sluices are used including channels, wooden troughs and ditches in the ground. Ore separates from sand and soil as lighter materials are washed away. Workers transport materials (1:06). Water rushes through a ditch type of sluice (1:15). Wooden sluices run parallel next to one another (1:20). Water pours from the end (1:28). Title cards boast the bucket dredge’s usefulness (1:53). Bucket dredges (1:41) were specially crafted resembling small boats designed to remove materials from underwater deposits. A chain of buckets scoop up sediment (1:57) revealing large chunks of ore (2:07). Long channels are depicted with workers operating on the top layer of the structure (2:24). A man palms dried tin (2:40). After smelting, tin is cast into bars (2:44). An official in uniform stands in contrast against peasant type workers moving carts of tin bars (2:52). Straits tin and its distribution to the US is mentioned (3:07). Straits has a purity over 99.85 %. It was produced by the Straits Trading Company. They became a driving force in Malaysia’s tin industry. Workers move carts (2:54). Cargo is loaded for transit to the US (3:15). The ship departs (3:17). Tin plate production (3:26) begins at a tin plating factory (3:28). Materials are shoveled into furnaces (3:39). Machinery presses plates (3:46). Sheets are rolled using temper rolling (3:58) and set into to a conveyor belt system (4:27). Workers wash sheets (4:45) adding them to a rack for the tinning machine (4:35). Small cars transport plates (4:50). Liquid vats are used for hot dip galvanizing (4:57). Diagrams (5:12) highlight feed rollers (518), the flux (5:30), molten tin (5:45) and palm oil (5:45). Female workers appear on the factory floor (6:12). Hand crafting methods (6:52) are compared to commercial operations (7:27). Tin cans are produced (7:43). Workers add completed cans to a stockpile (8:24). A worker produces Babbitt alloy (9:10), invented by Isaac Babbitt in 1839. Copper and tin are mixed (9:24). Antimony metal is added (9:44). A chunk of antimony is zoomed in on (9:50). The mixture is blended (10:13) to form bearings (10:25). The completed bearing follows (10:46). Materials are mixed for Britannica alloy (11:44). Completed pieces follow (12:20). Precision tools size them (12:30). Slabs are fed into large rollers (12:39). Small metal wares are crafted (13:22).

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