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Title: WIRECLOTH MAKING

Reference number: 4094

Date: 1949*

Production company: [ Park Film Studios (?)]

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 29.38 mins

Description: A film about the process of making wire, and wire mesh. The various processes involved in making wire from metal ingots are shown stage by stage. The factory exports larger gauge wire to New York. Both men and women were active workers within the factory operating the various machines and production lines.

Probably filmed at United Wire Works, Broompark Avenue (now Granton Park Avenue), off West Granton Road, Edinburgh. See also ref. 9362 and 9371

Shotlist: metal ingots in brick shed (0.22) man in overalls weighs an amount of metal, breaking off pieces with a hammer (0.31) c/u shots of metal ingots and dial face of Avery weighing machine, ingots are wheeled away (0.42) metal ingots are dropped into a machine (0.52) gvs men walking around machines containing white hot metal, showers of sparks fly upwards (1.11) women working in a laboratory, measuring and recording results of tests. (1.28) Man uses a wheel to carefully fill eight cylindrical vessels with molten liquid from the crucible (2.08) Gloved man removes rods of steaming solid metal from molds, building a stack of rods (2.27) Rods are fed into a machine, drawing them out, then through successively smaller apertures; rods are stacked on a conveyer (3.36) c/u of stack of rods (3.46) gvs a machine making coiled wire, men stack coils (4.32) c/u chain rolling through cogs (4.39) gvs parts of a working machine (4.52) Man on buggy passes a large conveyer belt ? (5.17) a wire coil is wound onto a drum (7.47) A man wearing safety goggles abrades a section of a wire held in a vice (6.02) pan from wire coil, past Brook electrical machine to wire being wound onto a spool (6.18) A man mounts a specimen which is spun, and examines it using an eye glass? (6.55) Winding drums with wire (7.23) Man on buggy offloads a coil of thick wire by a machine (with a lever swinging back and forth) spinning thin wire (7.47) Man feeds wire into a machine set up on a platform, the wire is wound onto large spools, which feed a large machine, where it is pulled out again (9.20) A man tests the tensile strength of the wire, onto a drum recorder, fills out a "Test Certificate" for the Reel, which is packaged in a barrel marked "Excelsior Wire MFG Co. 288 (? street number oov) Ainslie St. Brooklyn New York USA" (10.22) gvs women tying bundles of wire, using machinery (10.45) man oils parts of a machine with four sets of four pistons (11.01) man examines item under a microscope (11.12) woman sets fine wire onto a machine with three sizes of roller, lacing near invisible wires through rollers (12.07) Men oiling large machines rigged with a number of shining, fine wire spools, wire spools into the machine, becoming a sheet, shot of a man fixing a broken wire (13.55) men load large spools on a roll each with a number of wires wound onto it; these wires are threaded through heddles? and tied onto the machine (15.40)man lifts and lowers a stack of wound wire off the roll (16.04) the wound wire is washed through several sinks, and dried (16.26) A woman is shown setting up wire on a spool and roller in a large machine, other women collect a set of finished wire, putting a number and white circle up on a board (18.04) Men and women oversee machines weaving wire cloth (19.58) A roll of wire cloth is carried by three men using a trolley, and carefully wrapped in a fabric sheet, includes c/u man examining cloth (22.27) The roll is unwrapped into a double thickness, is measured and a fine strip cut off (23.30) gvs interior, the quality of the wire mesh is checked by a man wearing leather gloves, each bench has a gas cylinder. includes microscopic c/u of mesh (24.38) A woman sews mesh under an electric light (26.53) A sheet of mesh is laid onto a roll, which is inspected by rubbing a hand over the surface, imperfections are brushed?(27.11) Wire mesh is packed with shredded paper, covered with paper and covered in a box marked "The contents of this case are VERY FRAGILE please handle with extreme care", "WITH GREAT CARE THIS SIDE UP" "MUST NOT BE DROPPED ON END" also "COTE SUPERIEUR MANUTENTION SOIGNEUSE", "DEZE KANT BOVEN MET ZORG BEHANDLEN", Punjabi? and Hindi? signs (28.07) A lorry, painted with "Edward Ferry, Granton" loaded with cases leaves the factory (28.33) Shot of house exterior (28.36)