This color educational film is about zinc smelting at the Swansea Vale Spelter Works. It was made in the early 1960s based on information in the film itself. Swansea is a coastal city and county, officially known as the City and County of Swansea in Wales. During the 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea was the key centre of the copper-smelting industry, earning the nickname Copperopolis. In 1876, the Swansea Vale works were the first smelter to be built in Britain primarily for the production of zinc metal.

Opening: Men in a factory. They pull a hot ore from the furnace. Push it down a cooling hole. Grab another. Close on the furnace. Close on a working man’s face. The men poke holes in the center of what they pulled out, tubelike structures. The men are doing horizontal retort zinc smelting. The men throw things into a furnace and then poke at it with rods. The smelting continues. Horizontal distillation (:14-2:49). Exterior of a factory. Opening credits: They Make Zinc At Swansea – the imperial smelting process (a blast furnace method for the production of zinc and lead) (2:50-3:53). Exteriors of new plant at Swansea Vale. Animation of smelting is shown and explained in great detail (3:54-5:48). More animation continues to explain the process – various stages and what is used in great detail. Vapors, the cooling, water, lead, gases, etc. (The smelting process is shown in its entirety) (5:49-8:55). A machine glides down a rail, looks like a mini train. A crane lifts a metal case. The metal case is carried by another crane and then lowered. Metallurgical coke comes up a conveyor belt, its the macroporous solid carbon material which is produced by the carbonization of coking coals during the destructive distillation of coal. Exterior of the plant. Charge control room. Close on controls. A worker monitors the systems. Other parts of the plant are in service. Two tubes go up and are carried by a crane like device (8:56-12:13). A furnace that produces zinc. A worker pulls up a rod. A man in the control room hangs up a phone and moves around. Exterior of a compressor. A man writes things on a chart in the control room. A glimpse into the combustion zone. Man stands near a furnace as sparks fly (12:14-14:11). Close on sparks flying in the plant. Molten lead is cast as poured. Furnace exteriors. Ash is cleaned. Water in an exterior part of the plant (14:12-15:41). Zinc and lead are separated. Zinc droplets float on top of the molten lead. A man charts in the control room. A worker near the furnace. A pail has parts on fire. Zinc is poured and kept at casting temperatures. Zinc slabs are cast by a machine. A man uses the machine. Close on parts of the machine. Zinc slabs are picked up and stacked by a worker. A forklift pick up some zinc. Stacks of zinc are loaded on slabs. Exterior of the factory. Animated map of Europe and France. France is building a new factory for smelting. Workers hoist steel beams and use cranes. Workers build (15:42-20:06). Africa – northern Rhodesia, Broken Hill. A new factory is being built there as well. A smelting furnace is being worked on. A crane hoists. Men move a heavy beam. Workers maneuver and build. A man directs others. Exterior of a factory being built. Australia, new South Wales. The new factory was built in 1961. Exteriors of it. Imperial smelting furnace. They make more zinc at Swansea (20:07-22:14). End credits (22:15-22:21).

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

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