World's Largest Plate Mill-Lukens
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- The Lukens Steel Company was one of the top three producers of steel plates in the nation. Lukens operated continuously at its Coatesville Pennsylvania site since 1810. It was controlled by members of the Pennock, Lukens and Huston families in direct succession for over 180 years; the company is noted for being the first industrial company in the United States led by a woman, Rebecca Lukens (1794-1854).
Note: This video contains archived public domain / licensed footage. This footage serves documentary purposes on world history and is to be viewed as educational.
In those days even the milkman could buy a house.
And send the kids to college or get them a lifetime job somewhere!
@kahvac,
Our greedy, disgusting, dishonest, corrupt yuppie investment community and the politicians in their pockets ruined the American middle class and sold us out to the communists starting in the 1970s and 1980s, just as former Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev predicted they would. The short term greedfest and corporate raiding is still ripping us off.
My neighbor is a milkman who owns his own home and sent two kids to college and one to the military (true story) his extended family owns the dairy, but at 62 he still runs a milk run every day. and yes, you can get home delivery still here in Pennsylvania. It’s expensive but you can get it.
Roots run deep in communities like this. The ability to make a good living and provide for a family is any mans dream.
I was immediately struck by all these men being close enough to walk to work. As they met up, one by one, each was carrying the old thermos brand lunch boxes. My grandfather had the same one. I miss him for many reasons. Truly the greatest generation.
Remember when the US was a manufacting juggernaut? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
This mill is still open. It's owned by Cleveland Cliffs.
And instead of working three shifts a day 7 days a week, they work one shift with weekends off.
I worked with steel for 31 years mostly grinding it . Been retired 12 years but its still part of my life
The fab shop I worked for in the 1970’s bought quite a bit of Lukens plate steel. We also bought from Bethlehem Steel. Sad, a lot of good paying jobs gone. This was the backbone of the middle class.
I looked up this place. It's somehow still in operation. The town appears to be doing well, too.
That's good!!
The mill is still in operation, though at a much reduced capacity. I think they make small runs of specialty steels.
The town is not doing well at all.
So nice to see them walking to work
Yeah, they're walking DOWN to the mill. That must be a long trudge home after work!
Waking is so good for mental and physical health, but not the smoking 😜
The decline of our industrial base is beyond sad.
Jack Welch at GE started this road to ruin. It is criminal
We have the best economy on earth.
For now it is functioning…
It seems frail
Too big to fail, and too good to fail ruined our economy.
It didn't decline. It went overseas.
@@28704joe Minus debt.
We used to be a real country...now look at us.
Yeah, that whole bit about leading the world in technology, space systems, computers, size of our military (best on Earth) - all overrated. Bring back belching steel mills!! I guess we'll have to do with our clean (relatively) steel and other metals production...
[I'm in manufacturing. We're still doing well, just not poisoning our citizens while doing it]
From Steel Town to Skibidi Toilet town
We are a great country. why don't you leave if you hate it so much?
I was going to say how great this country is but then I saw your really weird selfie with a knights helmet and sword in your bathroom.
The 206” plate mill at Lukens actually still is in operation by Cleveland Cliffs
The background music makes me think that Dorothy and Toto are in big trouble!
2:38 gives Mom a kiss, gives his daughter a kiss, tells his son to get his elbows off the table, clean his room and get the trash out… it’s garbage night! 🤪
Get up at 7,your wife cooking breakfast for the family,your children smile and say good bye as you go to work for the day,what a time to be a man.
Yeah wonder what his shift was . Most started at 6:00
I miss the traditional family unit , it’s a beautiful thing
It worked for them and cemented the lives of the next generation. Bit it was so woefully old fashioned… ;)
Well, back then Science didn’t know there were 24 genders. 😏
It's not traditional, it's natural!!!
@@nunyabitnezz2802
“REEEEEEEEE!!🥴”
If you hate America so much, leave.
@@Acer_MaximinusSounds to me like Nunya loves America.
What a remarkable time capsule.
Sad to know that this part of america is gone forever.
I've made ingot moulds for this company..I'm proud of it.
Lol Ex Machinist here. That mill is soooo small☺ lol. like a lil baby nowadays! 😋 Yet Its was responsible for making so many things that probably exist today. Very nice!😍
My dad worked for Alan Wood Steel in Conshohocken. By the time he retired he lost 50% of his pension while the owners got rich after filing for bankruptcy... Made in America? More like stolen in America for my dad...
Still happens, look up what Trump did to his contractors
My Grand father and my father both worked there when I was a child !!!!
People these days wouldn't know what hard, honest work was if it dragged them to the bottom of the Mariana Trench by their nutsack.
Tens of millions of Americans work hard labor jobs every day, just because we have a lot more technology related fields today does not diminish anyone. In the past few years close to one million manufacturing jobs have returned stateside. We are on a path to putting more Made In America on shelves for the consumer.
Clevland-Cliffs is still the largest flat plate steel mill in North Americal in Coatsville producing 800,000 tons of raw steel annually. Nice to see some vintage footage of hot rolling.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve been waiting for almost 20 years to find something like this. Grew up in Coatesville but well after its heyday, always trying to search for archival film footage from this era. Where did you find this?
This is definitely some next level nerd stuff! Way cool! It’s this downloaders only video… I subscribed maybe he’ll find more 🤔😎
Yep...great stuff :)
The good old days..
Just imagine: No cell phones, no computers, no microwaves, no internet, no VCRs. Hats off to those guys, I can't imagine getting up at 7am everyday to do a manual labor job like that, and do it for 40 years straight. But, they probably could never imagine my job either (software developer). Amazing.
I did it, and still do. 40 years in construction. And up at 5!
We use to make everything a family needed. There was a day when a "Made in Japan" label meant an inferior product.
Love from holland,love usa.
Poor woman probably up an hour before everybody else. And probably had a working day twice as long as the men. Unsung heros.
She had a family - that's not exactly an unrewarding experience. She's the reason that guy went to work and breathed in toxic fumes and had his hearing ruined.
She can take a nap in the middle of the day to compensate for the early wake-up time while the kids are at school. Domestic labor does have that reward, and she could shop or visit with friends and family while the husband is at the mill. She wasn't allowed to have a bank account or get a divorce without her husband's permission though. We have come a long way in society since those days.
We as people like to look back at history and use rose colored glasses 1st and foremost what we as humans built and the work ethic is and was amazing. But let us not forget about the human sacrifice and environmental destruction and was created in the wake of progress. How many workers were injured or killed I'm betting many and look at the 1st 2 minutes of the film the town is right on top of the Mill and look at the Air everyone is breathing including the kids we tend to forget about these things just something to think about. These men and yes they are all Men are truly skilled craftsman and they deserve all of our gratitude for their sacrifice in these factories and steel mills and mines and construction and farmers, from then to now because we are still manufacturing here in the USA.
15:48 These open hearth furnaces look so clean! Must be brand new.
Taking lunch boxes to work is so out of fashion these days.
It's coming back
Worked at STELCO Hamilton on in the 70s.
I love films like this. Unfortunately people today couldn’t give two shiny shits about industry anymore! Where did it all go wrong?
China.
@@chuckoster8221 Here in the UK anything to do with “manufacturing” is regarded as a dirty word, and the Chinese have stepped in to fill the void.
Jack Welch CEO of GE. Read the book, “The Man that Broke Capitalism”.
@@joezeigler1064 I'll have a look - thanks!
@@chuckoster8221
It started LONG before China was our big importer.
Japan in the 1970's was a major problem.
Source: I was around back then.
CHEERS from AUSTRALIA
I believe this mill is still in operation and is now owned by Cleveland Cliffs?
If still in operation, I doubt if they’re still using open hearth furnaces. They probably have a continuous slab caster too?
From what I can remember when I worked for cliffs, Coatsville still casts ingots due to some of the high alloy content of their steel, but Lukes was one of the first steel companies in America to have an electric arc furnace.
I live about ten minuets from Lukins, they are operating at a fraction of the capacity of their hay day, but they are still making steel. They have an arch furnace, they make high grade steel now. I moved to Coatesville in 1977 when I was in 11th grade, I went to school with kids who's fathers and grandfather worked there. They were still going strong then, but the end was near. Bethlehem steel bought them at some point, then International steel group bought Bethlehem steel, I'm now aware of Cleveland cliffs being involved, but they could be.
I found this other video about Lukins, and there's a comment from someone that works there, and Cleveland Cliffs is involved.
ua-cam.com/video/m59oi9E5uVk/v-deo.html
I see a similar active plant exactly like this every day,much larger in fact…90% of the heavy equipment is still in use today such as forging presses and overhead cranes and furnaces….so don’t lose hope,we still do this in America….West Virginia to b exact.😎
it is worth another documentary to address why this mill is dead
206 mill now is used very little as the 140” mill just north of the 206” mill. Japan, with the help of Lukens built a 210” rolling mill in the late 1980’s. Date needs to be checked.
I worked for a sub contractor at a Nucor steel mill in SC. The lack of safety gear we take for granted is insane
I love all the drama! 🤣 So serious.
I guarantee you; John Jr. has higher aspirations than running an ingot chariot.
Like being a corporate shill?
Back when people were thankful to have a good job and family. Today people's expectations have grown out of much excess !
Today we have a myriad of bobbles for purchase, but housing, transportation, and education are far from affordable. Any one of the people in this video including the woman that worked in the lab analyzing alloys could go to public college for free. Now we have generations burdened with decades of debt. Thank corporate lobbying for that, slowly shaping America to their will, maximizing profit for overpaid executives and shareholders.
America used to make things. When wars started it helped us survive. Our political and business leaders should feel deep shame.
As a contractor who goes in (to what is now Cleveland-Cliffs) once a year for a few hours nowhere near the actual mill, my employees have to provide proof of a clean 10-panel drug and alcohol test in the last 12 months, OSHA-10 training within the past 5 years, annual site specific training and driver's license. They have to wear steel toed boots with integral metatarsal guards, long sleeves, hard hats, safety glasses, gloves and a few other odds and ends. They must to Lock out - Tag out, do work permits and be fully escorted while on site. This is in addition to our own extensive safety rules. I can't imagine the number of injuries and deaths they had in a mill run like that. 🤕
Regulations and red tape like that are also why modern products cost ten times more than what was produced back then. 😉
@@douglasharbert3340 those regulations were written in blood. Here’s the thing you can have an operation going fast and furious while skirting the rules. More product comes out and cheaper too but you suffer a number of crippling and fatal accidents. Now have an operation that plays by the rules. Fewer products and more expensive but everyone goes home at the end of their shift.
Which one do you want?
@@kaptainkaos1202 Pretty sure I still prefer a new vehicle off the assembly line to be $2,000 instead of $50,000. 😉
@@douglasharbert3340 You can buy new vehicles, Nice.
Believe me they had a lot!
The fourth and final generation of steel workers. I feel like at my age, I was born in an entirely different country than the one I'm living in now.
Back when men could be men, and we respected those around us
Sorry, John Jr. but the mill is going to close by the time you are old enough to work there. Put out of business by China.
It's still making steel, but at a fraction of their hay day.
RIP American steel
Phoenix Steel, 1973, 4 bucks an hour. No such thing as "OSHA" though we got 1 pair of safety glasses a year. Highest paying job on the floor was $16/ hr. overhead crane operator. Sudden death or dismemberment was waiting around every one of those 150 year old machines! This place had turned out cannon for the "War of Northern Aggression" and had NYT newspaper clippings about it framed in the pipe mill breakroom. Six months of that Hell hole convinced me to quit for something saver like maybe join the Marines and go to Nam.
Many of the cannon at Gettysburg Battlefield National Park are marked as being made in Phoenixville.
sixteen dollars an hour in 1973 was the same pay as ten minimum wage employees. Talk about hazard pay!
When they closed Homestead and the plant was gone the big mill was still there they brought my freind who was laid off for years back to run some armor plate for the Goverment because it was the only rollers that it would not blow up.
This was the life.
You weren't even alive at that time. How the hell would you know.
@@matthewmoilanen787 You don't know how old I am.
Hauled something into or out of there 20 plus years back ,,, ! ,,, I believe they sent many an oversize plate to the ship builders on the Gulf coast ,,, !
Alarm at 7am & walking to work. Lots of people are driving to work at 4:30am to get to work by 6am due to heavy traffic.
Urban sprawl...
And now we have crime through the roof and people that want everything for free
Crime is not "through the roof"...
Another part of Americana gone with the wind.
7 am wake up? Today he’d be late for work! At 7 am most people have already clocked in. Some have been working for an hour or more by 7 am.
Yep he is over sleeping!
Amazing how these people did that without COMPUTERS?
Title of Worlds largest plate mill appears to be a little misleading, since that must have changed from what looks like a film made in the early '40's!
Worth checking out the river don engine videos it's a large steam engine used to drive a plate mill in Sheffield uk
It would still would be there if the company kept up with modern technology, but instead of reinvesting,they paid out to stock holders, today's business are handicapped by stock holders wanting more and bigger returns
It is still there. Owned by Cliffs Steel now.
My guess is this was filmed pre war.
Mills must been lot cleaner back then . Never seen anyone go to work in a steel mill in a white jacket and sweatervest and tie .
They weren't. I worked in one of the offices directly outside the (coil) rolling mills at Youngstown Sheet & Tube in the 70's. I had to wear a white shirt, tie and suit. At the end of the day, the soot covered your car and even us office guys had dirt rings around our shirt collars. Foreign built cars in the lots (Hondas, Datsuns, VWs) were definitely frowned upon and women employees had to put up with a boatload of grief. The IT staff (it was called DP back in the day) were pretty much referred to as "Hey, college boy!". It wasn't a term of endearment.
amusing how 1940s America is almost indistinguishable from 1970s Britain, especially that bedroom and breakfast scene
He got all dressed up to go to a steel mill? 😂
Pretty scary situations shown in the video. Well paying job until one got horribly burnt.
Hard to do in the US because of cheap Chinese steel, EPA regulations and high union wages. Note walk to work and wear coat and tie. No hard hats, goggles or heat aprons.
High union wages do you mean middle class wages?
@@neilpuckett359 no, union wages
Among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $1,263 in 2023, while nonunion workers had $1090
Union wages aren't even close to being high. Especially compared to back then AND compared to what the company profits are today.
@@-jon-477 I find them 30% higher than non union but I don’t get a 30 % better job
Was this like a mini doco prior to the Saturday night movie at the cinema/picture show
now they cast into slabs then reheat them in a in and out furnace then roll them threw hot mill
Funny how people romanticize this type of work; It was very hard and your body was broken down by the time you were 50. There were plenty of lost time injuries, lost limbs, lost lives as just a matter of showing up to work every day; Not a week went by at a steel mill where someone was not leaving in an ambulance or a hearse.
The quality of what was produced was 'spotty', and was still using steel chemistries that were thirty years old by this time.
Engineers, chemists and customers were demanding better products at a lower price so automation was introduced to take the thirty guys who stood around while a plate was rolled out and reduced that down to five people. The work those five people did required higher skills so folks who only had a sixth grade education could not keep up.
The pollution output of these plants was incredible; Poisoned air, poisoned water, unregulated landfills stuffed with things that still haven't broken down in to something non polluting. We are still living with that legacy.
Steel mills are hell holes. I worked at Lukens for three months in the 90s for an electrical contractor, I was almost killed a few times, and a Lukins employee died of a heart attack while we were there. It was winter so I would wear about four layers of clothes, but the fine dust still made it to my skin, I had to scrub my whole body with a brush to get clean.
Yes I agree to a point But today with technology Its 95% cleaner than what it was back then.... And yes fewer people to run the plants but More opportunity for those 6th graders down the line because of the cheap steel. Plus the possibility of economic growth. Now the plant is closed and cold because of greedy CEOs, So not only is no steel being produced. But everyone who could benefit now live in tin shacks. And even the poor people suffer MORE.
Yeah, so much better now that all those bad factories are gone. So much better with low wages, poverty, no healthcare insurance, young families can't afford houses, broken families, overdose deaths, male suicide at never before seen levels. Yep so much better now. Btw, I was there at Lukens Coatesville and at Luria Brothers who ran the scrap receiving there in the 80's and 90's so I am not "romanticizing" I was there getting dirty
@@ironwolf6849 The plant is closed? No it's not, it's still running though with only one shift five days a week.
At least they had jobs.
Pretty awesome vid.
16:34 How Twinkees are made.
ah, the pre television world - before we were conditioned into being consumers and commodified
I bet it was wild when the Terminator went in there
On the two DVD set of Terminator 2 they talk about the steel mill and after the movie was complete the mill was totally dismantled and moved to the CCP China ! That was in 1992.
it was in kalifornia
The publisher's notes fail to mention this video's release date. The cars and music suggest perhaps the late '30's
Anyone have a clue?
Everyone wears hats
The sad thing is that now that we sold most of everything out we still have horrible pollution just now we can't control how much and when just sad 😔
But everyone does deserve some of the dreams right to ❤
I notice a much simpler life.
Way overdressed to be working in a steel mill...
The big mills are gone and so is our integrity.
This is America our integrity is just fine. We lost it for a while with Trump , but he'll be in prison soon.
@@28704joeNiiice!
@@28704joe I always say, America has always been great except for four years.
@@bigredc222 Those four years were a cancer that was narrowly rejected in 2020. That cancer still runs thru America, we must ensure it doesn't raise its head again.
Puleeze wearing suits going to work in a steel mill. I worked in a blooming and tin and chrome plating mill next to blast furnaces. They played it up that day for the cameras.
Reparations to many countries destroyed during AMERICA'S wars were the ones that benefited from the changing technologies. Much of Europe was destroyed during WW 2, yet in 2024, it produces some of the finest high-quality steel. The combined forces of total distruction and reparations to build back better ( sound familiar) while America didn't invest in new types or processes of steel manufacturing because it was tried and true.
Steel mills today have the arc furnaces that melt scrap, but American steel companies made the steel with blast furnaces. Steel made a century ago is still being recycled, and for that reason, companies like Bethlehem steel and the products it produced is still in structures built around the world today, 2024. As the world changes, cutting-edge technologies advance, you can either create, copy, or steal ideas, but history has shown
Time only stands still in a picture frame! DragGone
American kids had wet dreams about working in these factories from childhood on forward. They grew up, got their dream jobs, worked lifetimes in these companies, earned pensions, bought houses of their own, and supported their families on the one salary from the factory, while the wife raised the kids and sometimes worked part time for extra cash, if she wanted to. The standard of living in real purchasing power parity for the average American was way higher than it is now. Over regulation by bureaucrats egged on by tree huggers, and poor investment policy thanks to greedy investment yuppies destroyed American industry. These huge factories are all but a memory, their equipment sold to Communist China and other countries, or scrapped, and the skills of their work forces lost.
Wrong. Purchasing power today is multiples what it was at the time this was created. Over regulation? Men didn't make it to 80 back then. Died in the work place from accidents. Died because of hazards at the work place like black lung, heavy metal poisoning. As corporations continued to grow (while working wages did not). Pollution was a real problem.... Acid rain just one example. THE PEOPLE demanded their society would not accept that and drafted legislation passing it into law. Because of the many "bureaucrats & tree huggers" Clowns like you directly benefited... and benefited greatly.
Here you are attacking your government when yet again corporations and the top 1% are trying all they can to protect their way of life at the expense of yours. Price gouging at every turn. Continuing to widen the pay gap while posting RECORD revenue's.
Take note one of us hides behind an alias... trying to bring society down to their level. The other standing proud lending a hand to the society he lives in...
Unions killed the steel mills in America. High wages, and expensive pensions that were never approved by taxpayers.
America is facing a FLOOD of unapproved pensions. Military, Government, and Unions. Those pensions can’t be paid for one simple reason: Young workers never promised anything to anyone. Taxing kids to give money to old people is a financial crime. It’s called “Stealing”.
The entire pension system is bankrupt. But Washington would rather have 300% inflation than reduce pension payments. They’re going to tax the kids with huge increases in the price of food. That’s more stealing.
The pension system must be declared insolvent. But the Army has plenty of machine guns.
Foreign competition killed the US steel companies.
You are the direct result of many actions in the USA. Off the top of my head I can see education being a primary factor.
AMERICA.
The amount of lung didease that had to come out of that place. No clean, fresh air...
When men walked to work!
We can thank free trade for loss of all of our jobs and industry. Ross Perot warned of the giant sucking sound that would happen with free trade as all the jobs left the country, and that's just what happened.
Dramatic music😅
Is this a looney tunes soundtrack?
Good old American know-how.
This tech was in use for decades all over the world for goodness sakes, it's old dirty and inefficient. The good old days weren't all that good if you had been there.
Thank our politicians and the epa for sending this to China.
Also NAFTA and osha.
Odd how you attack government on behalf of corporations that care nothing about you. Corporations that would gladly grind you up and step over your discarded body if it made them a profit.
Interesting reading en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukens_Steel_Company
This is another video about the history of Lukins.
ua-cam.com/video/m59oi9E5uVk/v-deo.html
Ahh so sad. None of the hard workers are shown. Just a bunch of softies.
Right... Love to see you on the floor...
This film was made longer than 6 months ago check your facts... This is definitely the old or lack of technology..way of doing things...
Who or What gave you the impression this film was only six months old?
It was uploaded six months ago.
Imma gunna check my facts…
Yep!!
This film was made three years ago inside the USSR.
The film crew posed as steel buyers. They smuggled little tiny cameras made by the Japanese right after we nuked them into the stone age. That’s why they had to film it in black and white all the radiation. Bad stuff.
The craziest thing is everyone knows steel is just melted rocks but since the USA likes $5 dollar fancy coffee, electric cars, and electric blankets we don’t have the electricity needed to run a huge plant like that…beside never going to the Moon we don’t have the RIGHT rocks to melt anyway. EVERYONE Knows you can’t make steel from just any old rock it takes special rocks that are only on the Dark Side of the Moon. Since the USSR built a moon base we can’t go get the rocks.
Luckily…
Since Australia is a giant meteorite they can make steel so we trade cannabis, chocolates, and good craft beers and they build are boats and stuff we need.
FACTS!!
Did you know kangaroos can’t swim? Facts!!
Did you know if you report me to the chief of police in the United Kingdom he will send 14 Kangaroos over to the USA arrest me and take me back to England because I’m cyber bullying you with misinformation and I always wanted to be involved in a knife crime as I tourist my way from London to Belfast Ireland so I can attack Conner McNuggets.
So…….
Yah.
Old film…I don’t think so.
BeWell and StaySafe ✌️
@@PuFFerTV98368 where is the chief of police in the UK going to get his hands on 14 kangaroos? Oh and as a fact, kangaroos are quite good in the water.
🤣
@@mrcamelpmwplenty of uk citizens identify as kangaroos , cats and who knows what , the only thing the bulk of people don't identify is indigenous, lol
Terrible film transfer