This color educational/training film is about overcoming flow problems with dry materials in hoppers. There is no copyright at the beginning or end of the film so the date of the production remains unclear but it appears to be circa the early 1960s.

Exterior factory shot. A hand pushes a button. A gauge moves. A conveyor belt moves. A gauge moves. A worker looks up (:08-1:03). Opening title: THE MILLION DOLLAR RATHOLE, presented by US Steel Corp (1:04-1:20). A man hits a machine with a sledgehammer. He then pokes at it with a steel beam. A gauge moves. Men hit a railroad train with a sledgehammer. Conveyor belts move. A train car moves slowly. Particles fall through a tube. Engineers study plans of bins and hoppers. Different hoppers are shown. A train moves slowly. Exterior of hoppers are shown (1:21-4:21). Piles of rocks/coal. A hand lets coal fall from his hand. A bulldozer. Water hits a rock. A pile of sand/dirt. A sledgehammer hits a rock. A man moves a box that reads explosives. Engineers in a control room. Hopper flow (4:21-6:20). An engineer does an experiment with flow materials. A hammer hits the material. 1 per cent moisture vs dry material. A hand plays with dry material. Bulk material flows fast. A chart graph moves (6:21-7:53). Another experiment with bulk material. An engineer does an experiment. Close on dry material. Chart shows depth vs water pressure. A graph moves (7:54-9:25). An engineer works in a control room. A rathole. A graph. W – strength/density diagram. B-2 strength/density diagram. D-4 strength/density diagram. A hopper is open and material falls from it. Dry material slowly moves down. A graph that shows wall friction and wall slope degrees (9:26-12:28). Dry material in a 70 and 50 degree hopper. Another graph. Smooth vs rough walls are shown in a hopper. Bin installation (12:29-14:21). Materials flow through a hopper. Construction equipment comes and receives some dry material. Effective flow pattern is shown as materials are going through a hopper 2 different sizes of particles that try to move through a hopper can create problems. See the flow of both sizes. A conveyor belt moves particles. Material levels drop (14:22-17:29). Levels drop with materials causing segregation. Free flowing material drops quickly. Machinery moves. Pyramid hoppers. A model shows problems with hoppers. Rathole problems are shown. Materials are drained. Materials go down a belt. A rathole develops in a bin. Segregation of mixtures. Men use sledgehammers on a machine. A gauge moves. A sledgehammer hits. A crane moves (17:30-22:14). Material is squeezed by a hand. Material flows. A rathole. A worker looks over his forms at a machine. Close on ‘no feed stoppage’ (22:15-23:06). End credits (23:06-23:20)

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