I want to thank you guy's for all your hard work my father work at the plant in Lackawanna, NY i never knew what you guy's dealt with everyday you guy's made it possible for us to go to college and not have to do this Thank you from the bottom of my heart , my dad is gone he died in 1988 but he is missed and i have a chance because you guy's doing this for us God bless every one of you.
I hope and pray that America won't forget these men and the mills that made the steel that built this country. I hope and pray that the kids of today will one day learn to make things again, here at home, with their own hands, in their own towns. The engine of manufacturing and commerce knows no bounds, and is irresistible once it is in the hearts of those who reap the benefits. Otherwise, this art will be lost to a generation of consumers without skills to make anything.
If this was taken at the Bethlehem Plant which was stated being shut down as of November 18th 1995, and this video was filmed there, then this is The D furnace because I worked on all 4 furnaces and was there for the final c furnace cast on the 18th. This video was taken in the 1990's because I recognize some of the workers I worked with. The D furnace is the only furnace of the 4 where iron flows on the right side and slag flows on the left side of the cast floor.
Maybe you knew my grandfather Ferdinand Ackerman, his knickname was Beans, and Fritz. He worked there from 1947 - 1987, he retired a year after my sister was born. Question, he said there was a lot of Problems with the "A" Furnace the time he worked there, was it still a problem then?
@@ChizAfterHours They were shut down in 1993. 1995 is when A and C were shuttered. Shameful to see the Plant gone and a Casino there that produces nothing that contributes to our Country's wealth.
Great video, takes me right back to my British Steel/Corus days at Llanwern Steel Works, S. Wales, UK. No.2 and big no.3 Blasts. Unfortunately no more, houses in there place now. I'm still in it of sorts though, working on a 150T EAF melting scrap. Small little pot compared to the Blasts but a violent bit of kit once she arc's down...
great video, thanks for showing us what's it like to work in the cast house... That reminds me of a tour in the steel mill (National Steel Corp. in Ecorse Michigan, the mill is now U.S.S. owned) I had when I was a kid...
At the foundry i work at we use silver suits and face shields when we have to remove the slag from the furnaces. When we take more than 25 minutes our face shields are usually melted by then. Also, i'd like to point out that the temperature has to be kept at 2,600 degrees when we open the furnaces, otherwise the slag hardens too quickly and it's much harder to remove it.
Electrician at Chrysler, & Navistar Harvester foundries in Indianaplis for years. Amazing places to work. Now will USA order tanks & weapon steel from China?
My Granddad Crews - Capt. Bob in the mill - retired in '62 as foreman of #s 9+10 Blast Furnaces at Beth Steel in Sparrows Point, Md.. Then in 1973, he was still a legendary, big strong ol' West Virginia born and bred steel worker, when I was on the Beth Steel Blast Furnace Labor Gang. It feels good to have that hard, dangerous work experience in my life. The way I see it is, "You know how some guys like to play hard at tackle football? That's how I loved going up against a badass Blast Furnace."
It saddens me to see pictures of the closed furnaces, and to think now it's just retail space. The very steel and the true American working man simply brushed to the side. I got a strong respect for those guys, and only wish I coulda worked alongside them. I can only hope maybe on day in my life scenes like that will emerge here again.
i worked at crucible steel in syracuse, hot as hell in summer . cold as hell in winter, stinkin gritty noisy dangerous and i was only a slag grinder. hellacious in the 70s.
love how the men at about 2:20 sit down and just think, "yeah...ive done this about 1000 times...gonna sit back, have a sammich, and wait 'till she's done emptying..."
Blast Furnace "C" is at the Burns Harbor, Indiana Works, which is now Arcelor-Mittal. BHW has furnaces "C" & "D" and both are still in production. This plant was built in the mid 1960's. The iron isn't cast into molds in the floor as incorrectly stated. It runs down a trough to a rail car and transported to the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) where the liquid metal is mixed with scrap iron and remelted. It then heads to the Ladle Metallurgy Furnace (LMF) for chemistry and alloy changes. Then it is sent to the Continuous Caster where the liquid steel is casted into slabs of steel. You do tap a furnace... open hearths and blooming mills are obsolete technology and not sure if any are still in existance
James Nelson you are 100% correct. I work in this exact spot today and while it's different (we have an iron tilter system and baghouse) it's still the same essentially.
Exactly. Showed this vid to my father-in-law (retired BHW) and he remembers it exactly as it is shown. Much different in the old days compared to the way it’s done at the AMNS mill I work at.
Had some fun in the steel mill. But the company Arcelor-Mittal fuck them their a joke compared to the way the company was ran prior to being bought out. Furnace,LMF,Castors,Rolling Mill has fun an worked with a bunch of good people. Left after many years after that buyout though it went to trash after that
i drive by bethlehem steel everyday to school. my grandfather worked there for almost all his life. when bethlehem steel started dieng, buffalo did too.
I have a Forman that works with me at ak steel that came drone there he is one hell of a guy. I really like my job helping make steel even though I'm not at the blast furnace but over making coke for it.
Small correction in terminology. You "cast" a blast furnace. This is from the old days when the hot metal would flow out into molds in the floor. You "tap" an open hearth steel making furnace, in which you would, with a shaped charge, blast a hole in the bottom of the furnace, and the steel would flow out.
@adnanafif thank you for the work you did in that furnace, my fellow Americans and i are in great debt to you and your co-workers, although barley any realize it. what exactly was your position ?
Note I said "IN THE OLD DAYS" hot metal would flow into molds. You're probably correct in saying there are no more open hearth furnaces. However, at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant (now shut down), we cast the blast furnaces and worked in the cast house on each furnace. Possibly since Burns Harbor is so modern :-) the term "tap" was used instead of "cast".
I have seen pictures of workers shoveling what appears to be sand into the molten iron as it goes through the trough can someone please explain if that is actually what they are doing?
My dad used to over see the people who worked down below. He told me a horror story of a man VAPORIZING because the hot metal bucket dropped and poured in front of him. Yes, he watched a man vaporize in front him...that is just horrific.
We never had any of those fancy silver suits at Lone Star Steel, just green fire retardant (yeah-right) denim, hard hats and cotton gloves. No faceshields, either. It sucked-and I was only assigned there for a month as a temporary (my division was down) during the great Texas Heat Wave of 1980 over 100 outside temperature every day-probably 140 on the pouring floor. 40 year old guys who had worked their for years looked lie they were 65.
Richard Bishop the silver suits are a death trap in itself. We get them after many years of just the greens. The silvers are only good for an ounce of liquid splash or so. I still have photos of mine with way more burn holes than any of my greens ever got. Could never move around as well in the silver coat. An in Louisiana high heat an humidity them coats breathe none that in itself with the furnace is a death trap
when the Gulf States Steel plant went under here in Gadsden, the city went to hell soon after. we need more industry in our country and need to stop sending it overseas
What the hell is in that smoke? I can't imagine that being good at all to breathe. But damn that looks like one hell of an awesome job. Just being in there must be cool.
Shit, that is just awesome. I'm not a steelworker, merely a lowly zinc foundry worker. I just try to imagine the heat those guys on the floor are exposed to. PS, as I'm not into steel/iron pouring I don't know, but I sort of wondered about the length of that funnel. Won't that suck out an excessive amount of heat from the metal? A clogup there would really suck, I imagine.
That kind of power just amazes me. I probably would have like working there to an extent. I work at a scrap yard now, and honestly the only thing I DON'T like... is the pay... :-/
in reality, the blast furnace itself is little changed in over 100 years. The only significant changes are for envornmental controls, the rotating hopper & liquid cooled jacket... but the basic premise remains. This footage is rather old I am guessing. OSHA here in the states wouldn't allow this kind of a tap today.
Not all blast furnace cast houses are this dirty. Modern plants have sunken hot metal and slag runners, with covers on, and working surfaces are kept clean throughout the day. On the other hand, the smell of SOx coming off the slag takes your breath away - literally!
@adnanafif i salute you sir, you are a rare breed and sad to say a dying breed. My children (if i have any) and their children will most likely read about the american steel industry in their history books and the teachers will most likely talk it down and tell them that it was a drag on the environment and that its a good thing that is gone..... well hopefully that doesnt happen and maybe congress will pull their heads out that thing we call our ass
wow. creepy lookin' blast furnace. id prefer to work outside and drive one of those slag application wheel loaders, or a slag pot, ladle, or slab carrier.
should be tapping the door of safety . Nice little pour , but the place is horrendous , i've have seen bigger melts and better safety working enviroment , asking for and accident there, and safety is no accident, jees can't you tell i'm a safety rep for a steel making company, nice vid though .
My father emigrate and worked hard, few money in this fire. I HATE the name of the company Bethlehem Steel, I know the story. The video remember me the hard work of my father. Bethlehem Steel remember me the dark story the different boss of that company.
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I want to thank you guy's for all your hard work my father work at the plant in Lackawanna, NY i never knew what you guy's dealt with everyday you guy's made it possible for us to go to college and not have to do this Thank you from the bottom of my heart , my dad is gone he died in 1988 but he is missed and i have a chance because you guy's doing this for us God bless every one of you.
I've watched this countless times and it never gets old. Respect to all Steelworkers past and present.
I hope and pray that America won't forget these men and the mills that made the steel that built this country. I hope and pray that the kids of today will one day learn to make things again, here at home, with their own hands, in their own towns. The engine of manufacturing and commerce knows no bounds, and is irresistible once it is in the hearts of those who reap the benefits. Otherwise, this art will be lost to a generation of consumers without skills to make anything.
Amazing video and amazing American workers. Thank you for building this country.
If this was taken at the Bethlehem Plant which was stated being shut down as of November 18th 1995, and this video was filmed there, then this is The D furnace because I worked on all 4 furnaces and was there for the final c furnace cast on the 18th. This video was taken in the 1990's because I recognize some of the workers I worked with. The D furnace is the only furnace of the 4 where iron flows on the right side and slag flows on the left side of the cast floor.
Wasn't D shut down before the 90s with B?
Maybe you knew my grandfather Ferdinand Ackerman, his knickname was Beans, and Fritz. He worked there from 1947 - 1987, he retired a year after my sister was born. Question, he said there was a lot of Problems with the "A" Furnace the time he worked there, was it still a problem then?
@@ChizAfterHours They were shut down in 1993. 1995 is when A and C were shuttered. Shameful to see the Plant gone and a Casino there that produces nothing that contributes to our Country's wealth.
@@josephruiz7233 It is shameful, but we can at least take pride that Burns Harbor is continuing Bethlehem Steel's legacy.
great stuff i'm glad somebody has video's like this to show our youth how this Country was built.
this is the best footage of a pour and the cast house in general that I have ever seen. Thank you very much !!
Great video, takes me right back to my British Steel/Corus days at Llanwern Steel Works, S. Wales, UK. No.2 and big no.3 Blasts. Unfortunately no more, houses in there place now. I'm still in it of sorts though, working on a 150T EAF melting scrap. Small little pot compared to the Blasts but a violent bit of kit once she arc's down...
great video, thanks for showing us what's it like to work in the cast house... That reminds me of a tour in the steel mill (National Steel Corp. in Ecorse Michigan, the mill is now U.S.S. owned) I had when I was a kid...
I'm so glad we still remain strong in the Midwest in producing steel.
ross199218 we don't though... I mean, it's there, but not strong.
At the foundry i work at we use silver suits and face shields when we have to remove the slag from the furnaces. When we take more than 25 minutes our face shields are usually melted by then. Also, i'd like to point out that the temperature has to be kept at 2,600 degrees when we open the furnaces, otherwise the slag hardens too quickly and it's much harder to remove it.
Electrician at Chrysler, & Navistar Harvester foundries in Indianaplis for years. Amazing places to work. Now will USA order tanks & weapon steel from China?
SAD
My Granddad Crews - Capt. Bob in the mill - retired in '62 as foreman of #s 9+10 Blast Furnaces at Beth Steel in Sparrows Point, Md.. Then in 1973, he was still a legendary, big strong ol' West Virginia born and bred steel worker, when I was on the Beth Steel Blast Furnace Labor Gang. It feels good to have that hard, dangerous work experience in my life. The way I see it is, "You know how some guys like to play hard at tackle football? That's how I loved going up against a badass Blast Furnace."
It saddens me to see pictures of the closed furnaces, and to think now it's just retail space. The very steel and the true American working man simply brushed to the side. I got a strong respect for those guys, and only wish I coulda worked alongside them. I can only hope maybe on day in my life scenes like that will emerge here again.
Worked there on that Furnace for many years, it's a job and sombody have to do it. I am glad I was part of it.
Thanks for the explanation. My Grandfather was a worker at the old National Tube Works in McKeesport, PA
i worked at crucible steel in syracuse, hot as hell in summer . cold as hell in winter, stinkin gritty noisy dangerous and i was only a slag grinder. hellacious in the 70s.
love how the men at about 2:20 sit down and just think, "yeah...ive done this about 1000 times...gonna sit back, have a sammich, and wait 'till she's done emptying..."
Blast Furnace "C" is at the Burns Harbor, Indiana Works, which is now Arcelor-Mittal. BHW has furnaces "C" & "D" and both are still in production. This plant was built in the mid 1960's. The iron isn't cast into molds in the floor as incorrectly stated. It runs down a trough to a rail car and transported to the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) where the liquid metal is mixed with scrap iron and remelted. It then heads to the Ladle Metallurgy Furnace (LMF) for chemistry and alloy changes. Then it is sent to the Continuous Caster where the liquid steel is casted into slabs of steel. You do tap a furnace... open hearths and blooming mills are obsolete technology and not sure if any are still in existance
James Nelson you are 100% correct. I work in this exact spot today and while it's different (we have an iron tilter system and baghouse) it's still the same essentially.
Exactly. Showed this vid to my father-in-law (retired BHW) and he remembers it exactly as it is shown. Much different in the old days compared to the way it’s done at the AMNS mill I work at.
Had some fun in the steel mill. But the company Arcelor-Mittal fuck them their a joke compared to the way the company was ran prior to being bought out. Furnace,LMF,Castors,Rolling Mill has fun an worked with a bunch of good people. Left after many years after that buyout though it went to trash after that
i drive by bethlehem steel everyday to school. my grandfather worked there for almost all his life. when bethlehem steel started dieng, buffalo did too.
It is amazing how close some of the workers get to all of that.
I have a Forman that works with me at ak steel that came drone there he is one hell of a guy. I really like my job helping make steel even though I'm not at the blast furnace but over making coke for it.
When I started in 1974 we had 4 Blast furnaces, and I worked there until they shut the furnaces down in 1995.
you have to be one tough son-of-a-bitch to do this type of work. Bless you folks that worked here.
Small correction in terminology. You "cast" a blast furnace. This is from the old days when the hot metal would flow out into molds in the floor. You "tap" an open hearth steel making furnace, in which you would, with a shaped charge, blast a hole in the bottom of the furnace, and the steel would flow out.
@adnanafif thank you for the work you did in that furnace, my fellow Americans and i are in great debt to you and your co-workers, although barley any realize it. what exactly was your position ?
thanks for sharing this (unfortunately historic) video!
Harald
Satan himself would be impressed by such a demonstration of hell fire on earth.
Note I said "IN THE OLD DAYS" hot metal would flow into molds. You're probably correct in saying there are no more open hearth furnaces. However, at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant (now shut down), we cast the blast furnaces and worked in the cast house on each furnace. Possibly since Burns Harbor is so modern :-) the term "tap" was used instead of "cast".
I have seen pictures of workers shoveling what appears to be sand into the molten iron as it goes through the trough can someone please explain if that is actually what they are doing?
That was really interesting. Thanks.
@adnanafif You gave your life to steel! Cheers
My dad used to over see the people who worked down below. He told me a horror story of a man VAPORIZING because the hot metal bucket dropped and poured in front of him. Yes, he watched a man vaporize in front him...that is just horrific.
Great video, I used to work on a BF a few years ago. Was hot hard work but not too bad.
@adnanafif bless you mighty worker, respect for your work !!!
We never had any of those fancy silver suits at Lone Star Steel, just green fire retardant (yeah-right) denim, hard hats and cotton gloves. No faceshields, either. It sucked-and I was only assigned there for a month as a temporary (my division was down) during the great Texas Heat Wave of 1980 over 100 outside temperature every day-probably 140 on the pouring floor. 40 year old guys who had worked their for years looked lie they were 65.
Richard Bishop the silver suits are a death trap in itself. We get them after many years of just the greens. The silvers are only good for an ounce of liquid splash or so. I still have photos of mine with way more burn holes than any of my greens ever got. Could never move around as well in the silver coat. An in Louisiana high heat an humidity them coats breathe none that in itself with the furnace is a death trap
This country desperately needs a revival of heavy industry.
That is an amazing video. What was the person doing in the middle of that?
good video
How long would it take with this "mud Gun" to end a pour, as shown here.
Hi thanks 🙏 great 👍 video fantastic to watch you can not beat it.its like a controlled volcano 🌋 great 👍
Is in dangerous to work at the furnace?
when the Gulf States Steel plant went under here in Gadsden, the city went to hell soon after. we need more industry in our country and need to stop sending it overseas
I love watching the mudgun
Especially the revamped Sterling Steel...Formerly Northwestern Steel and Wire, but now completely all-electric.
there is no de dusting unit in the plant which is not environment friendly
What the hell is in that smoke? I can't imagine that being good at all to breathe. But damn that looks like one hell of an awesome job. Just being in there must be cool.
the smoke is mostly iron oxides, graphite and sulphur dioxide. at least it is at our plant now. could have been way worse back then
Shit, that is just awesome. I'm not a steelworker, merely a lowly zinc foundry worker. I just try to imagine the heat those guys on the floor are exposed to.
PS, as I'm not into steel/iron pouring I don't know, but I sort of wondered about the length of that funnel. Won't that suck out an excessive amount of heat from the metal? A clogup there would really suck, I imagine.
The heat is insane
That kind of power just amazes me. I probably would have like working there to an extent. I work at a scrap yard now, and honestly the only thing I DON'T like... is the pay... :-/
in reality, the blast furnace itself is little changed in over 100 years. The only significant changes are for envornmental controls, the rotating hopper & liquid cooled jacket... but the basic premise remains. This footage is rather old I am guessing. OSHA here in the states wouldn't allow this kind of a tap today.
Looks like there are about a million ways to get killed in that place.
1940 wants its steel mill back.
what comes out of the mudgun to stop the flow?
brimac70 refractory clay
Not all blast furnace cast houses are this dirty. Modern plants have sunken hot metal and slag runners, with covers on, and working surfaces are kept clean throughout the day.
On the other hand, the smell of SOx coming off the slag takes your breath away - literally!
@torturetactics
You mean, unemployed steelworkers out there, including me!
Bethlehem Steel should have shut their Bethlehem blast furnaces down in the late 1960s and installed electric arc furnaces coupled to bloom casters.
@xxxDeath9572xxx It takes from start to finish about 2 minutes to shut the taphole in with the mud gun.
when Bethlehem Steel died... america died..... :( r.i.p. Bethlehem Steel
100% agree!
real action starts 4:39
@adnanafif i salute you sir, you are a rare breed and sad to say a dying breed. My children (if i have any) and their children will most likely read about the american steel industry in their history books and the teachers will most likely talk it down and tell them that it was a drag on the environment and that its a good thing that is gone..... well hopefully that doesnt happen and maybe congress will pull their heads out that thing we call our ass
The only thing that's as fascinating to watch as steel making is molten glass being poured.
wow. creepy lookin' blast furnace. id prefer to work outside and drive one of those slag application wheel loaders, or a slag pot, ladle, or slab carrier.
Ahh back when my city didn't suck...
nice videos
THanks for the video fucking badass.
you must reply with back up information
should be tapping the door of safety . Nice little pour , but the place is horrendous , i've have seen bigger melts and better safety working enviroment , asking for and accident there, and safety is no accident, jees can't you tell i'm a safety rep for a steel making company, nice vid though .
My father emigrate and worked hard, few money in this fire.
I HATE the name of the company Bethlehem Steel, I know the story.
The video remember me the hard work of my father.
Bethlehem Steel remember me the dark story the different boss of that company.
its all made by folks working for a bowl of rice a day nowadays
that furnace doesn't exist anymore (sadly)
Sean Ninneman yes it does. I work on it.
Wow
2018?
sadly that is not true.
We have a old equipment too. See my video.