Steel Industry 1944 Youngstown, Ohio
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- čas přidán 13. 12. 2008
- An good look at steelmaking as done during WWII, long before OSHA and EPA. For most iron-making, the essential features are coke ovens and the blast furnace, where coke is produced from coal and iron ore is melted (reduced) to produce pig iron, respectively. The furnace is charged from the top with iron ore, coke and limestone; hot air, frequently enriched with oxygen, is blown in from the bottom; and the carbon produced from the coke transforms the iron ore into pig iron containing carbon, with the generation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The limestone acts as a flux. At a temperature of 1,600°C, the pig iron melts and collects at the bottom of the furnace. The furnace is tapped (i.e. the pig iron is removed) periodically, and the pig iron is cast into pigs for later use (e.g. in foundries), or is poured into ladles where it is transferred, still molten, to the steel-making plant. The purpose of steel-making operations is to refine the pig iron which contains large amounts of carbon and other impurities. The carbon content must be reduced, the impurities oxidized and removed, and the iron converted into a highly elastic metal that can be forged and fabricated. Alloying agents may be added at this stage. Different types of melting furnace are used in this process. Steel is cast into slabs, billets, bars, ingots and other shapes. Subsequent steps may include scarfing, pickling, annealing, hot and cold rolling, extrusion, galvanizing, surface coating, cutting and slitting, and other operations designed to produce a variety of steel products. Operations in the iron and steel industry may expose workers to a wide range of hazards or workplace activities or conditions that could cause incidents, injury, death, ill health or diseases. For a comprehensive looks at the hazards and their control, go to the 2005 Code of Practice for safety and health in the iron and steel industry at www.ilo.org/public/english/pro... .This was clipped from the 1944 US Government film, Steeltown.
I like how they name all the workers and explain their jobs
magic broccoli u rite, u rite
So they know what to put on their grave stones
Paul Mckenzie b
Paul Mckenzie 66m
@@arthurfrezza2964 ?
I am 67 yrs. old now, as a young man i worked in the open hearth @ the U.S. Steel Ohio Works. I only worked there 8 yrs. when it closed. A bye gone era. I am proud to say I was a part of it.
American pride.
I am 63 years old and I worked every job in this video at US Steel. Five different plants in four different states. The work was hard, hot and dangerous but gratifying! I retired after 44 plus years service to the Union and the Steel Industry. Hoping and praying it survives another 100 years!
@@plasma3211
Been at Inland, now Arcelor for 11 years. Minimum of 19 more to go. You and I both hope that it lasts.
Unfortunately, it won't. The way they run things now is a shame. The companies refuse to buy quality parts and we're forced to use cheap junk that routinely breaks (but hey...they saved money on paper). And anymore there are nearly more contractors on site than there are people. It's disgusting. At this point, I'm just along for the ride.
@@mephInc I hear you brother and you have my sympathy! I retired Jan 2018 from USS and they are doing everything you described above. When I started in maintenance they took our apprentice program from four years to two. When I left they were fast tracking people at 6 months. We had people who could not weld, burn, rig or do any layout! I tried to voice my concerns and was shut down from Union and Managers! We had IronWorkers do millwright work, we then had to go and correct the repair. Vendors are ripping off the company with cheap parts like you said. Unfortunately management is clueless as to how to run the business. They would not listen to experienced workers and pushed managers into retirement who protested.
@@plasma3211
I'm in maintenance myself, and I'm even pushing to bring back some kind of apprenticeship program. All I had to do was pass some baloney test and suddenly I'm a mechanic. Fortunately, I've worked with my hands my entire life. But as you said, we've got guys that don't even know what a pinch bar is. And yeah, bottom of the barrel contractors that we routinely follow behind to fix their screw ups. Hell, they hired a company to hang doors plant wide...at $10,000 a door. All they want is us to be parts changers, even when we ask to learn and do the work in house. They'll spend thousands of dollars on safety stickers, but I'm stuck using Chinese pipe wrenches that snap in half. Now they want to strip us of our insurance, lower our pay, cut vacations, and lower the pension. At least USS got a decent contract this time around. We're still on the verge of a strike.
The Steel they made for the railroads at the time stood the test of time. Im a Track Welder and on our rails we still have rails from 1915. Crazy. Much respect!
How do you weld railroad tracks? Is it all thermite welding?
@@josephtraverso2700No. Our rails aren't CWR (Continously Welded Rails) but bolted together. I weld and rebuild switches, frogs and areas on rail that need more metal.
@@legitdrumsticks215 cool! I’m taking manufacturing course and my prof used rail tracks to explain thermite welding
@@legitdrumsticks215duh. What idiot doesn't know RR tracks are bolted together😂
I work a rail yard in Toledo!
Some of the track is bolted and some of it is thermite welded! Pretty cool to watch that process! I don’t know why it’s done either way. Maybe welding is done for high speed rail.
I am 72. I worked in the Plate Mill at the Brier Hill Works of Youngstown Sheet & Tube the summer of 1969. My father was a Cold Strip Roller for 42 years at the Campbell Works at Youngstown Sheet & Tube
Films like these are our time machines.
We get to look into the past.
What a great video.
Tesla would like to have a word with you.
It's like the videos filmed of 100 year old folk during the 1920s talking about their grandparents from the 1700s while talking about growing up in the 1800s, watched in 2020 on a cellphone instead of some newsreel.
Comments like these are time machines.
We get to look into the past.
What a great comment.
Conan568 hi
Never forget what was stolen from you.
“Hey Mac! Your hat is on fire”
“What?”
Respect to all the guys who did this grueling work to make the world what it is today, and the ones who are still doing rough warehouse jobs.
😁thank you sir
make america what it is today, not the world. the imperial forces made sure ROW stays behind.
🤡
@@A.J.1656 clown
@@VIPK9
Dog.
These are the men that made America
African Americans built America
Stop being antisemitic
My grandfather fought in WWII and worked in the same mills before and after. He said many times that the steel workers were the real unsung heroes of the war.
a lot of them served. depending on the job classification- a woman or junior worker could be trained- and drafted workers could return to the their jobs later.
slaves
@Xcrysis slaves with more money than the ones today. These workers probably had more dignity and self respect than the workers of today. They hold peoples hands now flipping fake meat while they pay for an electric car they can’t afford. Uber eats delivery is literally fetching someone’s food. Fuck that I’m working on steel.
Мой дед тоже воевал в ВОВ, закончил свой путь в Германии в 1945 году. Когда выгнали немецких оккупантов из Сталинграда. Он так же мне рассказывал, как во время войны получил ранение и после восстановления его не брали на фронт еще целый год, но этот год он упорно трудился на сталелитейном заводе в Ленинградской области России, рассказывал, как близко он взаимодействовал с расплавленным металом) а сейчас я живу в Кливленде, с 2021 года, так как в России власть устроила беспредел и мне пришлось сбежать в США, мне 35 лет, но я вынужден начать новую жизнь и мне страшно от того, что я ни когда больше не смогу обнять моих маленьких дочек😢❤️
I'd say the real heroes in this matter are the housewifes and kids who collected all the scrap metal.
Without them, the steel mills wouldn't be as productive.
I am 63 years old and I worked every job in this video at US Steel. Five different plants in four different states. The work was hard, hot and dangerous but gratifying! I retired after 44 plus years service to the Union and the Steel Industry. Hoping and praying it survives another 100 years!
thanks for all you have done. my grandpa was retired in 1969 with 40 years service for USS @ campbell works. before working there, he helped run the steam trains at the carbon limestone quarry in hillsville, pa.
Ever work on the Missabe range?
I did about 19 years on a blast furnaces in UK , yep hot, dangerous, hard graft , but satisfying ,kept me fit. Just drunk pints of water .
all dead, even the mighty rouge facility.
but why you fake cunt
The production of a country. How beautiful
All that steel and iron to build the mill that builds more steel! The manufacturing process is mind blowing. I can't imagine the heavy equipment and the engineering that put together the mill itself.
classiclarry88 my thoughts as well. How did they manufacture the first press?
Amazing. It’s hard to imagine how they do everything.
Look up the Boilermakers Local 169 they're the ones that build the furnaces the boilers the big stuff
@@ryanstucke7811 that's the classic .. the chicken or the egg
It is and was amazing
The good old days: when a man could fall into a furnace of molten iron, and no one would bat an eye.
KillerSugar hahaha 😂 they would put up some sort of scoreboard to remind them of four finger joe
@Patrick Ancona ok boomer relax
@ . they'd be shocked (hopefully); yet, it's metal: you'd mostly be pushed to/near the surface, as you spin for moments, and disappear.
@Tyson ok Coomer
Simpler more wholesome time.
I work in a modern steel mill and this is so cool to watch . We definitely have made lots of progress in the past decades. It is so much easier and safer now
1978 to 2010 I saw many changes, thank God for SAFETY
@@danielmota1095 Safety is for sissies.
Like ear protection? Ventilation? Tags? Can you give some examples?
@@furtim1 Combination of automation and better safety standards. Automation has made it much safer. Now a days most of the work can be done from inside a pulpit like they showed the guys making the slabs before the hot strip mill. Even then the amount of input needed from the operators now is minimal. When you have to go on the floor you have to wear ppe. Hard hat, safety glasses, ear protection, and fire retardant slacks/shirt are the minimum. Any job dealing with the molten metal/sparks adds additional ppe, face shield, gloves, additional suit rated for molten splashes. Primary is still a little dangerous. I worked as an engineer in finishing on a hot dip galv line. 90% of my line was automated. Operators sleeping in the pulpits while the line runs is a regular thing.
These people built this great country. Hard working honest men.
@Denis Zhurov Its a great country though.
How do you know they were honest
@@VeeTwoPointOhwhy would they do this if they weren’t ? Wouldn’t it be easier to be a criminal and not work there?
The boys would be amazed how steel is made now a days with continuous cast, atomized spray and electric arc furnaces
Yep made in China thanks to Trump
@@altestic9436 *Obama
@@altestic9436 Whaaat?
@@altestic9436 Steel has been foreign made long before Trump. Ask a welder. They know.
Al Testic China does make like half of the steel in the entire world.
My great grandfather worked in those mills. He came from Sweden to Youngstown. ..would walk down into the valley from Briar Hill with his lunch and a pail of beer. I remember visiting my great aunt in the 70's when some of the mills were still running...they would blow a big whistle before they let the smokestacks open so you could get your laundry and yourself inside before a coating of red dust covered everything. My grandfather worked many years as paymaster for U.S. Steel.
I was born & raised in Pittsburgh, and worked for Earl Scheib Auto Painting, "Any Car Any Color $29.95", in 1967. The most popular color was called "ruby maroon". It was a dead match for the reddish stain that iron oxide precipitation from the mill stacks made on the top surfaces of everyone's car. I suspect that when I pass and am autopsied, my lungs will also be reddish stained inside....!
I live for these films. Chow.
I live near brier hill ! He really took beer to work? haha !!!!
That's dope
That day would fly by...lmao @@khrisdominguez3825
One of my grandfathers worked in one of those mills his whole life until he retired. Absolutely grueling and extremely dangerous work.
I feel extremely lucky to be able to watch these old films and get a small feel for how people lived back in the day, without having to go through the hardships they did. God bless America🇺🇲
Anyone want to play a rousing game of "Count the modern-day OSHA Violations"?
Back in those days men were men and dying 100 times more frequently while making someone rich. Good old days. Of course, to whomever survives
Yea no doubt OSHA comes in and ruins everything. I miss the old days when the majority of men had a finger or two missing or maybe even an ear. Ahh the good old days.
@@billcoley8520 Ok boomer
OSHA doesn't exist in China and that's where the jobs went. Sure a lot of people died back then, same as China today.
The part where they are literally just tossing bags of alloy in had me dying, weren’t they worried about it splashing back up everywhere? I imagine someone at some point lost their balance and fell in. Pretty crazy.
my right ear enjoyed this documentary
Dark_T get a stereo system scrub
@@imjustsayingtho1464 he's deaf from one ear dickhead 🤣
Imagine complaining about the audio quality of a documentary made in 1944.
@@jonbon8403 It has nothing to do with quality of the recording, just errors have been made digitizing/converting, it is super easy to have only one channel of original audio and making sure it is used for both left and right channels when converting to a stereo format.. or at least noticing this after, and fixing it. Maybe imagine that? ;
absolutely made my day!
My right ear really enjoyed this video..
Stereo TV wasn't a thing until the 1980's.....
This is my hometown, born 1971! My dad was born in 1944 and worked in the mills during the 60s and 70s. One would be aghast to see what the city has become from where it was back then. Youngstown was affluent, bustling, and economically sound back then. It's literally become a shell of itself present day 2023 as part of the "Rust Belt". That industrial age economy was snatched away from thousands of working families in the late 70s and sent overseas for cheaper labor and more productivity. This choice to move production overseas literally decimated the spirit and morale of the middle class working ppl in Youngstown. When the economy failed some people were wise enough to relocate while they could. Many others who remained and couldn't leave due to financial constraints basically became the remnant products of a failed system.
gotta love globalism , rip youngstown, theres some cool old houses there, used to work there
Former steelworker here, friend….I believe it’s going to come back.
It's politicians and big companies failure to not adept in time. Some people even now still think there is a future for US steel, coal and oil industry, that's why those people will be left jobless wondering how it could all come to and end...
@@olivieraleman
People have been saying that since the 90s.
A Japanese company bought the plant my dad worked at and closed it down.
He had hopes. Never happened.
Until the government subsidizes steel like they do milk and grains, there are zero financial reasons for companies to manufacture steel in the states like they used to. Labor costs are too high.
I knew a janitor that worked at Delphi near Youngstown that made $28 an hour in the 90s.
He literally pushed a broom all day.
That's it.
Thank you unions.
@@-_-John-_- Isn't it terrible that we live in a world where working people asking for decent pay gets them put out of a job? It's not the fault of the unions, it's the system we've built for ourselves that's rotten.
I was a intern safety man at a steel mill in NW Indiana. Still in college. We had to get blood tests for the guys for heavy metals and lead every two weeks. You really appreciate the green of the trees and grass after you get out of the plant at the end of your shift.
Gary Indiana doesn't have trees or grass. It's a burned out cinder full of toxic waste.
wow that's actually pretty intense
@@EnragedEagle yeah, fkn' ugly price of 'progress', eh.
I live in Northwest Indiana. Did you work at Gary or SDI?
During the early 80s. I worked in the Ingot Mold Foundry at Inland Steel. Plant 2.
And these guys worked for 10 years and were set for life
Um. You sure about that!
I am in Youngstown area and this brings back memories for sure. Ytown is kinda dried up now, most of the factorys are gone now and its kinda sad to see it now (2021)
Yes, I started visiting the Youngstown area in 1971, I have family there. Big difference between then and now
Bunch a lazy adults, grab those bootstraps and give em a hard yank lol!
Pull real hard and see where ya get
Youngstown is a shit hole now
@@ctsvblk anyone who lives in northeastern Ohio will understand.
@@Gmoonw every part of Ohio, really
This popped up on my recommended and I was so exited because I literally live in youngstown and I’m like omg
Same lmao
Damn sorry you live there
Good ol' Johnny Chonco, always on the spot with that snort valve!
I'm a 4th generation Youngstown steel worker. V & M Star / Brier Hill Works - we all worked in the same building(s).
I just saw this video. I did automation work at the pipe mill at VMStar 5 years ago. My favorite mill of all of em.
This the time my grandfather was working his way up as a tool and die maker, through shops during the war. Now I continue the tradition as a blacksmith/metal sculptor/fabricator.....when I am not doing stonework. He is still and always has been my hero. He's 95 and still here.
hey dude is your grandpa alive
@@havakuvvetleri2.anajetussu534 95 + 13 = 108. If he is, he'd be a very small demographic of men!
@@assassinaria Fuck his grandpa, you know damn well a 108 year old man is a maga loser.
@@ablueairheadablueairhead3215 Uh, okay?
That last quote is what I’ve been saying forever. So much money, time, young minds and bodies to fight each other in war. If only we could all get along the amazing things we could all accomplish together. We’d be traveling the stars by now.
we used to play around the tracks near my grandma's house in Hubbard. What was neat was seeing the P & LE ingot cars (ladle cars, too) on their way to Struthers glowing at night- you could feel the heat they put out hundreds of feet away. never forget that....
Yes I know about those hot bottle cars ,over here going to what was sharon steel from Sharpsville pa when i was young 2
Always felt badass telling my friends how much welding I would do after school with my pops at 15. Then I look at these guys.....
Well to be fair, that is respectable in its own right. I wish I had picked up welding at an early age.
Thats Johnny Chocko on the snort valve. Go Johnny go.
Im 47, my Dad worked at the mills. He used to bring me a HUGE chunk of coal everyday. As a kid Id wash it and treat it as a Jewel lol. When we'd go pick him up, I always pictured him fighting some BEAST coming out the Mill all covered in soot and Coal dust.
This is a tribute to all those hard working people who contributed so much to get us where we are today.
"learn to work together..."
or move it all to China...
Ha!! What a concept!!
Americans are too far divided to work together!!
The elite like it that way!
"keep em divided, poor, and uneducated"
@Robert R
One of the reasons we are not a N0 .1 nation anymore in a lot of different areas!!
Don't get me wrong it is good that we have different cultures, but lately it is getting out of hand!!
Don't get me wrong, it is
Where its mostly automated anyways... it was bound to happen.
@@geoffreydevore9503
What has multiculturalism done for us? All I see is our Senate and congressional houses being filled up with Africans who claim Whites are the biggest terrorist threat to America.
The decline of US stell industry was on the way well before China exports any significant amount of steel.
Boy can leave steel, but the steel never leaves the boy. Y town for life!
That’s true, the coke and steel vapour are in our lungs forever!
My Grandfather was the first African American to work at this steel mill, he was an electrician. My Father use to work here also, I can still remember my mother, my brother and myself waiting for him to come out to the car after work.
Why did you mention his race?
Oh, right.
Blacks literally only think about race, at all times.
Almost forgot for a second, there.
@@staywhite6332 maybe cuz around these times they couldn’t even attend the same universities, he’ll even drink out the same fountain?? So ofc it’s an achievement if he was the first to do it- how are you so wilfully ignoring that??
That’s really cool, thanks for sharing that!😊
@@staywhite6332 WHITES always to downplay our accomplishments
Wow - I know that's hard, dangerous and deadly work. But wow it looks like fun too!
This is where my great grandfather worked. And immigrant from Poland. Amazing!
Great video worked in a steelmill in PA in the 70's when they had electric arc furnaces.While it was a good paying job safety was poor and the working conditions worse with many injured and killed on the job and later from the heavy metals and the widespread use of asbestos in the air.While in a millwright gang we would makeup rolls of asbestos right on the picnic table we ate off lunch time take a broom sweep off and sit down and eat never knowing the danger.Glad i got out after 10 years.
Shit dude I hear that man.
That is absolutely fucked.
Imagine that you never knew the danger of that smoke exactly. Northeast Ohio is the worst with cancer . !!!
The dangers of asbestos is over hyped.
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht I personally know of someone who got lung-cancer as a result of not using proper PPE while on an asbestos removal job.
i just noticed something, in newer documentaries you would be hearing all about how hot, heavy and dangerous this is, but in these old ones they talk in a way that lets you see how impressive this is
no wonder our perspective has changed, these small changes makes the world a more depressive place
These were real men..
No girly boys today could last 1 shift in the Mill.
Once they started crying the men would kick there asses ( that was called human resources)
@@lawrencelitterini4973 ok boomer
@@yyeetmax2849
What are you 15...
Trans boy...
What offended you..
The fact that real men built this country...
Because I guarantee no little sissy brainwashed punk built it.
Smartasses like yourself is exactly what's wrong with this country.
Wtf is YYEETMAX HIDING BEHIND WORDS.
Edit: seems like youtube removed half of this mans comments
@@lawrencelitterini4973
1 i am 21 and a craftsman, a jeweller to be exact, though i like knifemaking as a hobby
2 being trans is not an insult anymore
3 you actually seem way more offended than i do
4 i do not live in America
5 i was not talking about how manly men from that time are, i am talking about how much of a shame it is that we do not appreciate modern engineering marbles and how we prefer to talk about dangers or inconveniances
6 i do not think i am hiding anything, though the fact you went there seems like you are still stuck in the cold war era
My family is from Youngstown. My grandparents grew up in Briar Hill on Calvin St right by the ITAM bar. They are Italian American and loved growing up there. I remember going to visit them and walking up to St. Anthony's to get a Briar Hill pie. Good memories
At one time Youngstown held the distinction of having the most owned homes in the states. Now half are gone
Since Soviet Union started to degrade, there were no more competition. New market start opening for US and more importantly new places to move out your production lines.
Main reason all the major US industry centers degrade and fell into a ghost towns with no jobs and high criminality.
No need to keep your own Youngstown or Detroit running when you can pay 1/5 of your wages and settle dirtier production lines in some countries earlier held by socialistic camp.
Ask yourself why US medicine, heavy industry and education started dropping significantly in late 70's - mid 80's.
@@user-bd1si1ru3x Тоже самое и у нас
@@nevoobrazimiy ну у нас же Чубайс задницу рвал, чтобы рыночек впустить в страну на полную катушку. Вот и расплачиваемся теперь за свободу финансовых отношений. Весь мир по сути вздохнул с облегчением, когда альтернатива капиталистической модели общества была успешно задавлена, и больше не было необзодимости заигрывать с этими грязными работягами. Теперь можно было послать всех нахрен, профсоюзы разгонять и сажать председателей, медицину и образование урезать, восстанавлия элитарность этих услуг. Ведь теперь не было опасности, что твои рабочие решат и у себя сделать альтернативу, которую они видела за океаном.
Плюс новй рынки сбыта, открывшиеся на территориях бывшего Варшавского договора существенно разгрузили кризис начала 80-х годов, душивший процветающие Штаты.
Беда в том, что и это "топливо" не вечно и мы сейчас наблюдаем, как заканчивается и оно.
Заводы попилены, население переферии стремительно теряет покупательскую способность, производство дорожает, людям режут зарплаты и сокращают персонал, продукция дорожает, доходы населения падают, безработица растёт.
Знаешь как капитализм обнуляет закольцевавшийся кризис? Война. Производства загружаются востребованными заказами, неплатёжеспособное население миллионами уничтожается в мясорубке войны, кредитные обязательства пересматриваются с перераспределением зон вляиния, географических границ и новых обязательств. Вот пример - Греция. Сколько она там миллиардов должна МВФ? Много. Страна банкрот. А война поможет стране в списании старых долгов под гарантии Грецией новых обязательств.
И то, что у нас то же самое - это не должно тебя удивлять, ведь у нас буквально то же самое, мы в одной системе теперь вместе со Штатами, Грецией, Иднией, Францией и прочими странами капиталистического толка.
Социалистические идеи развиваются, в старую теорию внедряется учёт новых технологий, от компьютерных и коммуникационных до финансовых, аграрных и производственных. И однажды социализм сменит текущий порядок, где прибыль меньшинства обслуживается трудом миллиардов, это неизбежно и закономерно.
It seems that someone needs these houses .. You talk about these houses as if they were of 300+ meters. The standard of living is low, why breed a bunch of low levels?
Full of crack a POCs that wont work. I SEE IT EVERYDAY. SAD AS SAD CAN GET.
The ash would fall like snow on every thing in Gary Ind.
Still does if we screw up... lol.
Sounds healthy lmao
all that is gone now, moved were the taxes and labor were cheaper:South America.
czcams.com/video/pnvMowbbp_o/video.html
Iwas like "This look like one of factories in my country (Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia) and than I hear this: 5:34
I wasnt expecting that :D
Thank you markdcatlin for such great video!
Every person in that factory looks like they take their jobs very seriously. No smiles, no clowning around, just good quality steelis the goal. Good video, one year till the war is over...
No smiles no clowning around think about what your saying android mentality
Steel making was incredibly dangerous work. Men were frequently injured and yes, they did occasionally fall into the vats. We owe them and the unions they formed thanks for the cities many of us live in today. All that is gone now, moved where taxes and labor were cheaper. The new plants are smaller and mechanized, and much safer. But those men, from the black and white past, look like giants to me.
Did you ever consider that labor union greed was the primary reason for the decline and fall of the US steel production? Ten weeks paid vacation and ruinous work rules led to the loss of this bed rock American industry.
Smaller hell, more efficient and productive. Unions destroyed Youngstown. Maybe if they'd have fought for more modern equipment instead of ridiculous benefits, the mills would have stayed. Obsolete open hearth furnaces and antique equipment + hostile labor = black monday.
Randy Magnum the failure to modernize is on the CEOs and board members, not the unions. Europe has strong unions but OWNERS also invest back into the companies. The American way is run something until it can't go any more, then patch it up and send it in for another round. That's on the companies, not the unions.
Andrew Nardo, ha! They wernt going to invest in mob run Youngstown, with hostile labor unions, where every pellet of ore had to be hauled in. They modernized, but not in youngstown!
If the unions would have fought for capital reinvestment instead of crazy benefits and 13 week vacations, the dumb mill hunkys would still have jobs, instead of whining on the radio every day. But, they didn't care as long as they were fat and dumb, screw the next generation, right?
Randy Magnum you're delusional. Even Pittsburg had to haul everything in. Same with Cleveland and everywhere else. The unions didn't help their situation but what killed the mills was outsourcing and micro mills. Same with every other ounce of manufacturing in this country. The companies ran off. They would have even if the unions weren't the way they were.
I grew up in Buffalo, a city that was supported by a giant steel industry. I knew people who worked at these plants... it was hotter than hell! 120 degrees F was the ambient temperature. When they opened the furnace, it was unimaginably hot. Only a few people could stand the work. They had permanently burned skin, and drank "boiler makers" on the way home.
Amelia Elizabeth Voss
I work in metal foundry and can confirm your statement! I'm the youngest guy on the melt deck currently. They hired 6 men in a 3 month period for my job before I came along and stayed.
The last guy hired before me walked out after an hour.
It ain't easy work, but I like the pay and enjoy the science! The senior crew taught me the trick to staying on your feet is to drink at least 2-3 gallons of water/gatorade per shift. Otherwise you'll become dehydrated and collapse. It's not for everyone, but a few of us wierdos enjoy it! Haha
I can certainly identify I was a slag and metal tapper for FMC in Pocatello, Idaho from 1989 up until the plant closed in 2001 The furnaces weren't the open type because the product we made was phosphorus, captured as a gas from the molten ore...the gas then went through electrified precipitators, then condensed down into a sump as elemental phosphorus. The tapping floor was as you describe "hot" especially during summer where your sweat soaked your shirt, then clung to you form literally doing nothing but standing there watching your tap. Each furnace had a tapping shed equipped with an air conditioner which sometimes worked depending how fast maintenance could get to it. Sometimes it was cooler outside in 100+ degrees where at least mother nature provided a draft. Sometimes your furnace got sick when the feed combination of ore, coke, and silica were not right you would be at the tapping hole burning multiple burn pipe, spilling over because you couldn't get a decent flow or even plugged, the slag therefore would build up and then you'd have to jackhammer it off the runner and turn box, then start all over. Fuck I remember those days, some were shitty fucked up stressed out days, but ironically I had some of the best and weirdest times of my life there. And by weird I literally seen ghost workers there dressed in their regalia of their time. I thought I was hallucinating at first from sleep depravation from the graveyard shifts, so I didn't tell anyone until I asked another co worker/ friend of mine if he had seen these ghost and he confirmed it as he described them to a " T " as wearing the same clothing and vintage hard hats the same that I saw in the same location as well. It added a whole new meaning to the term 'graveyard shift.
C D Kennedy chills down my spine. Spiritual sensitive here with a few encounters from the other side. I know many sailors in the USN speaking of seeing either workers of former sailors in odd places throughout the boats. Let us pray that we all one day see the light and to be carried by the Holiest of Hollies.
Did you have to be college educated for this job ?
@@n.ll.8796 No, but you had to identify as non binary.
9:24 there is no smoke in the skies now sadly! I live in Akron and I can remember the city smelling like burning rubber in it's heyday. My Dad use to say smell that boy, that's money! Only good thing now is the air..
Akron, Ohio, the tire capital of the world! At least as I knew it back in the 1960s.
I’m commenting through my sons account. My father immigrated from Mexico. He was a scarfer in the 40” finishing dept at Ohio works In Ytown. I worked in the mill after I graduated from Hubbard High (1966) and when I was in Law School. Made me appreciate how hard my Dad worked to educate me. Thanks Pops.
I'm from Pittsburgh, PA and we have a very similar history as Youngstown, OH because we are 1.3hrs away from each other. I'm proud of this.
Dad was a steel worker there. Talk about balls.......just incredible drive, effort, commitment to make America great!
tom parker sadly it is messed up nowadays thanks to PCs
In those times the Americans were able to to work ⚒ now are a bunch of fat and lazy and sometimes drug addicted people, never great again are gone
@@franciscodelbarrio2101 cuz it is more difficult to control 300 millions of great people. Easier to control a bunch of divided office hippies.
You will make America great, and America will not pay attention to you, because America is not a territory, but people .. Why make other people great who don't give a damn about you? Make yourself great better.
@@franciscodelbarrio2101 oh please man, there were tons of people back then drinking themselves to death being lazy pieces of shit. If you want to work to work in America you're just as able as you were then, I'm 26 with no college education and I've never had trouble finding honest work. Those rose tinted glasses are blinding you, the 40s wasn't some magical time.
Yes, at night going across center street bridge ,fascinating watching them pour the hot molten!
I love these old short documentary films. Loved watching logging. And railway construction. And mining.
Amazing video! Pure History! I work in a Brazilian Steel Mill Nowadays...I have been to Yongstown-OH in 2010, visiting a supplier, and I can say that you still can feel the Steel legacy there!!
have there been any redundancies in the Brazilian steel industry in 2020-2021? Any mass lay-offs?
Wow!!
Youngstown is having a hard time now . Sad it was so full of life back then
Youngstown was devastated when the mills closed down.
... why would people dislike this video?...I really don't get people lol like YOU clicked on the video, it isn't labeled "hotties in bikinis", it's labeled correctly and actually pretty informative. Thanks for the cool old video OP.
During a shut-down of my home division, I worked on a temporary assignment on the pouring floor of the blast furnace at Lone Star Steel (now US Steel) during the Texas heat wave of 1980. We tapped the blast furnace, routed the slag to an outdoors cooling pit and the molten iron through sand-lined brick ditches to torpedo cars. After the furnace was emptied we stood on boards on top of still red-hot remains of iron and slag in the ditches, cleaning them with shovels and wheelbarrows and adding a new layer of dry sand to protect the ditches used to carry the molten iron to openings in the floor to the torpedo cars on a lower level. As soon as were were done, it was usually time for another tapping of the furnace. My additional duty was to take the temperature of the molten iron with a long road and thermocouple. We didn't have any fancy silver suits and face shields, just green fire retardant denim jeans and jackets and cotton gloves. It was unforgiving, punishing work. I was so glad to get back to my home division of the plant when that line came back up. I can't imagine doing that for 20-30 years. The 1940's era blast furnace was disassembled back in the 80's and sold, along with related equipment like the coke ovens. Those jobs are gone forever.
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these processes are still in vogue in most of the parts of the world!!
Far from gone forever. I work at the largest blast furnace in the western hemisphere. We make 14,000 tons a day.
And yes, the work is still punishing.
I did pretty much the same jobs at a 50's era Blast furnace at Algoma Steel. A tough job on the best of days, but it could get a lot worse. We were tapping the furnace one day when the drill got stuck. Only way to get it free was to use an oxygen lance. About 40ft of copper pipe screwed together with pure oxygen fed in one end. The driller repeatedly rammed the lance into the drill hole ( eye of the monster), two summer students (I was one) were behind him helping to hold the pipe as we repeatedly rammed it into the hole. The oxygen burned everything, the drill the fire mud and the copper lance, which got shorter as you went. The pipe got shorter and shorter until we were so close that the driller could hold the pipe by himself, and waved us away. The old driller had a face shield that was so distorted from the heat that he kept it up, held the lance in one hand, and used his other arm to protect his face from the heat. Right when the pipe was so short that the driller was within a few feet of the furnace the thing popped like a balloon. Molten iron sprayed across the room , the driller disappeared in the shower of iron. We ran for our lives, I thought he was dead. He ran out after what seemed like an eternity, his eye brows and mustache had been burned off his face. He sat down on the bench beside me, and started to cry. He said, 'Marco, I hate this a f'n joba, I gotta three more years, Marco stay in a school!'. Best lesson I ever had. Went back to school and finished my engineering degree!
I did the same thing at Sharon Steel Corp, Romer Works, blast furnace in the 1960's it was very similar as you described it, I worked mainly on the cinder side but remember standing on the the smoking boards working in the troff and skimmer taking turns with a sledge hammer driving huge bars to breakup iron build up and clinkers. Shovels and Wheelbarrows were the main tools!
Thank you all. For all you do.
My home town was Rawmarsh in UK . Worked on Open Hearth furnaces exactly the same until 1968 (19th century technology and work practices in the 20th). Hot dirty dangerous work.
I am 79 years old and i oh my, what an era that was. You can see me in the video at 3:29, my father (who also fought in world war I) was also the owner of the factory, and we used to eat cigars in the lunch break.
Oh,I guess that was bad times, when people starved so they started to eat cigars....
We’re you the one standing there slacking off?
I do concrete construction and it's hard work but this makes what I do look like a cake walk! I have a lot of respect for the men who did jobs like this! Cool video by the way!
I was only a small kid when it all came crumbling down but the thing I remember most was how massive and intimidating all of it was. Driving over the Center Street Bridge, you could get a peak at some of the action sometimes (at least what I could remember). There is little left now to define the industrial landscape. A few buildings here and there but nothing reminding you of how giant it all was.
Hard working men from an era that we must never forget!
I was born in Youngstown Ohio. I’m at ‘97
Watching this video is like going back in time.
Lol
Oh how we would be blessed if we were still making our own steel again, on high levels.
How... explain "blessed"...
Millwright here - been in and around and every which way with those rollers at 8:30
Amazing pieces of machinery. Ancient, but still moving and grooving here at the Gary Works like they're brand spanking new.
Dangerous stuff out here, but equally as cool to watch!
When Bruce Springsteen writes a song about you, you’ve had it rough.
Why is CZcams recommending this after 13 years 💀
OH NO, THE OHIO SYNDROME
@@lunaticzeroone fr Ohio taking over
normal day in Ohio
14 years as a steel worker in Alton Illinois
Proud to have been one
I lived in Youngstown for a while and loved it there, great people!
It’s cool knowing that I’m in Ohio and my father is an iron worker so it’s cool to watch and learn about this stuff
Can have steel in Ohio.
Amazing how much things have changed . Modern steel making is alot safer and efficient now days. Thanks to these pioneers that built this country with blood sweat and tears !
And millions of slaves.
@@user-bd1si1ru3x slaves ??? What are you talking about ???
Nowadays
@@drunkenduncan7285 cotton plantations
it's safer and efficient in the imperialist center, in the global south it's often just as dangerous as it was back then
Breaks my heart to see what that building and town lookED like. Got to paint the boxes at ellwood one time.
Omg that video was awesome, it was like hell on earth in those factories back then
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Dad worked from 1937-1979 at U.S. Steel, Homestead. This posting is very interesting, thanks.
Excellent archival film. Views inside an operating mill are hard to find.
I grew up in the Akron area, and at that time NE Ohio was the industrial heartland; an era now long gone.
I am 114 years old, i worked in steel mill very simillar to this for 6 years when i was a young man. Sadly I was forced to retire after a ball of hot iron snagged my balls. Still very proud to have been a part of this!
😂😂👌🏽
My grandfather's generation! Respect!
My grandpa worked at The ford Rouge plant in the steel mill he was a roll Turner
Great granddad, granddad and my dad worked at republic before it closed. I woulda too if it hadn’t
I work in manufacturing at the corporate level and have visited some paper mills that our company owns. have a lot of respect for the work ethic of those guys working dangerous and very dirty jobs.
My right ear is really enjoying this
Even in 1944, they knew hard times would come in the future. It's sad when towns that depend on a single industry begin to crumble when the plants close one by one. I remember a line from Coal Miner's Daughter, "You got 3 options. Coal mine, moonshine, or roll on down the line." When there's no opportunity left in town, you have to move on down the line to find it elsewhere.
I used to put pennies on the railroad tracks. That was my low cost copper rolling mill.
Mike Day: My siblings, and I, used-to do-that, too. My dad caught-us doing it, once; let's-just-say that "he wasn't pleased." One reason was that his-own father got hurt, as a kid, while playing near some railroad-tracks.
Haha I put a quarter on the rail tracks once in new Jersey and I went inside after panicking it would derail the train! When I came back, much to my disappointment and relief, someone had picked it up before it got nailed by the train. It was a poor area.
Documentaries like this one, is a treasure.
Earl Strong a man who blessed our community. Rip and thank you for all you did! My Uncles James King and John Copeland both worked at the Steel Mill in Youngstown
Hats off to the men and women who actually made this country great, the best two generations ever known!
I dont think they made it great. We still have issues that we had back then. We're still working on it
@@aalayahlinear3460 Oh that’s right these superficial times are more difficult with this traffic and drive-thru wait times, these men and women were at war go read a history book and kiss the ground you walk..
@@Clovethelightrespectthepower um no. If u take a look around do a little quick search on google even just a quick look around u would see why our world today isnt no better than what it was back then. Those men and woman were at war yes, what they were fighting for wasnt only freedom we're now "fighting" for oil what is my freedom have to do with oil?
They did not make the country great, but the wallets of the owners of factories and plants.
My grandpa German use to work there until he passway in 1972.he had big heart attacks there he use to work in the furnaces.
2:35 That's JOHNNY CHONKO on the SNORT VALVE controlling the BLAST. God damn what a line.
I live in northeast ohio,after all this industry left nothing really came to replace it. There's a reason it's called the rust belt, most of this places are just left abandoned.
my greatgrand father emigtrated to USA in 1912 from former Czechslovakia , and have worked in Pennsylvania for US STEEL... :-)
A hellish environment to work in. Those guys were tough as nails s.o.b’s
As an 38 year old I'm not ashamed to say this just may have been the greatest generation of America.
I used to run a crane at a steel rolling mill. Our cranes were old, but I can't imagine running these old ones especially moving ladles.