THE KEY TO POWER

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

1

Date Released

Sep 1951

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1THE KEY TO POWER
2. 2ROYAL CHAMPIONS
3. 3THE LAMBTON WORm

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: Festival of Britain exhibition of Industrial Power at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow; focuses on the coal exhibition that takes up to one half of the total exhibition.
NCB Commentary - Glasgow, the centre of Scotland’s heavy industry, is the scene of the Festival Exhibition of Industrial Power.
In huge Kelvin Hall, one half of the exhibition has coal as its theme. Past a glowing sun - the source of coal’s power - you move into a prehistoric forest of 200 million years ago. Here is the beginning of coal - decaying vegetation and animal life on the floors of vast forrests.
Millions of years later, men picked up the black lumps from the seashore and found they would burn.
The primitive shafts were shallow, but as they became deeper horse gins came into use to wind the coal.
The coming of steam meant more coal, deeper shafts, the first winding engines, but still only a century ago men were dropped into the pits swinging on chains.
A hundred years ago this was still common. Safety regulations were unheard of. Explosions, floods, disasters were everyday news.
Out of this nightmare we move into the present. There’s a full-sized cage to take us down into a modern mine.
The only difference you’d notice is that there’s a bit more headroom at Kelvin Hall Pit! Mechanised mining’s on show. The Meco-Moore - one of Scotland’s contributions to greater and safer output. The man-riding diesel is a popular echibit, set in an authentic roadway. There’s a Samson loader, too, which draws the crowds as it clatters into action. It’s another Scottish made machine.
It’s one of the most complete exhibitions on mining that we’ve seen. It puts the miner on a pedestal, shows us somethings of this struggles and his acievements, and reminds us that coal and the men who mine it are keystones of Britain’s industrial power.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suugest that this story was filmed on the 21st June 1951. Commentary recorded 7 August 1951.

Keywords

Entertainment and leisure; Celebrations and festivals; Industry and manufacture; Mining; History and archaeology; Exhibitions and shows; Fuels

Locations

Glasgow; Scotland

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for Synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Support services

Basil Somner

Camera

Charles Wilford Smith

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Support services

John H. Shaw-Jones

Camera

John H. Shaw-Jones

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Director

Peter Pickering

Support services

S. Hart

Camera

Wolfgang Suschitzky