TRAINING FILM

Series

Series Name
Mining Review 10th Year

Issue

Issue No.
5
Date Released
Jan 1957
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1SEA SHIFT
  2. 2TRAINING FILM
  3. 3OLYMPIC FLAME
  4. 4TEN YEARS ON: The Chairman sums up.

Story

Story No. within this Issue
2 / 4
Summary
BFI synopsis: Men being instructed in up-to-date mining methods using films and strips
NCB Commentary - In the precincts of Britannia Colliery in the Rhymney Valley stands the Mining and Machinery Instruction Centre of the Coal Board’s South Western Division.
The new age in mechanised mining demands that Britain’s pits shall be worked by men fully instructed in up-yo-date mining methods.
Here a group of chargehands and mechanics are getting to grips with the internal workings of an A. B. Cutter. Instructor Morgan takes under his tutelage men from the whole range of the far-flung Welsh pits.
Coal-cutting machines, power transmission systems, compression engines, all of them have to be mastered. The use of electric power in the pits is becoming a more and more complex study.
As in all the classes held at Britannia, visual aids of all kinds are used to punch home the instructor’s message.
Here, in instructor Judson’s class, a film strip projector is used to throw on the screen essential information in readily understandable form. Film strips are, of course, the modern light-weight version of the olf lantern slide.
But motion picture film too plays its part in the Welsh curriculum for mining instruction. At Cardiff Headquarters, Divisional Recruiting Office Williams, seen here with Recruitment Manager Davies, maintains a fully stocked and well-equipped library of current films on mining subjects. Maintenance and inspection are carried out in the film library which serves a Division pin-pointed with motion picture projectors at strategic locations.
Teaching notes and scripts for film strips all find their place in the Cardiff Library.
The Division’s transport service takes projectors and film programmes to wherever they may be needed. Technical films are playing an increasing part in the up-to-date instruction of Welsh mining technicians. Films on machines currently in use in British Pits, such as the Anderton Shearer Loader, all help to build up the technical background of men whose job it is to maintain and install new techniques in the collieries of the nation.
Keywords
Education and training; Mining; Cinema
Written sources
British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.11 No.128 June 1957, p258.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960
Credits:
Production Co.
Documentary Technicians Alliance
Sponsor
National Coal Board

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