TIPTOE

Series

Series Name: Mining Review 6th Year

Issue

Issue No.

Date Released

Apr 1953

Stories in this Issue:

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: the manufacture of miners’ safety boots at Wilkins and Denton, Rushden, Northamptonshire. Also shows a seven-ton bus riding over a man wearing the boots.
NCB Commentary - Too many accidents in British pits involve men’s feet. If only men would wear proper safety boots, 90% of them could be avoided.
Here’s a test that will show you what these boots can stand. Take a seven ton bus, a willing guinea pig - and there isn’t a thing to worry about.
Here’s how safety boots are built. It all starts with a paper patten. From these, jibs will be made up so that the leather can be stamped out.
Now the sections for the uppers are cut out by machine. Guide lines are marked on, and the edges of the leather are bevelled. In goe the tongue, and the ipper begins to be recognisable.
After the heavy stitching has been put in, the eyelets for the laces are punched in like lightning. Here’s the inner sole going on. And now, the steel toecap. This is what makes an otherwise ordinary boot into a safety boot.
First the through sole is riveted into place, then it’s securely sewn on. On this seesaw machine, like an upside-down hiker, the boots are shaped to the foot. Now comes the heel. All the rivets go in at once - bash. These are the hobnails, spinkled in like magic.
With a pair of these on, you’tt [sic] never feel the pinch.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was filmed from the 5th to the 7th January 1953. Commentary recorded 9 March 1953.

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