British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

PAPER WORK

Series

Series Name
Mining Review 11th Year

Issue

Issue No.
1
Date Released
Sep 1957
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1PROP SHOP
  2. 2WATER POWER
  3. 3PAPER WORK
  4. 4SONGS OF THE COALFIELDS: "The Row Between the cages"

Story

Story No. within this Issue
3 / 4
Summary
BFI synopsis: printing and photographic departments at the NCB headquarters
NCB Commentary - At London’s Hobart House, headquarters of the National Coal Board, there’s more than meets the eye.
Deep in the basement you’ll find the paper store.
Each week 2 1/2 tons comes in. Stationery is only a part of it.
At Hobart House they have their own printing department whose job is to turn the raw paper into a means of communication.
The forms they print here have many purposes - working statistics, mine workers’ pensions, finance. These are only some of the ramifications of a nation-wide industry on which tabs have to be kept.
The Coal Board keeps a register of all its stores and equipment. Ten tons of paper a year keep it up to date.
This vocabulary of stores is bigger than the Royal Navy’s - but it’s not yet as big as the Army’s.
In all the Services, and most industries, there’s a rude name for this sort of thing but it’s necessary nevertheless.
In an industry employing three-qaurters of a million people, the printed work and the printed form are essential to keep track of all their many activities.
Training, engineering, general information, all absorb their quota of printed material.
There’s a photographic section so that pictures and charts can be incorporated in publications where necessary.
In the department they have their own expert who will lay out forms so that they can be properly completed. He’ll ask "Who is to fill it up?", "What will eventually happen to it?" and, most important, "Why do you want it?".
In coal mining you are always working towards the future. That future must be accurately charted.
Down here, they print pictures of the way coal lies in Britain, in as many as thirteen colours. These seam charts are the sign posts for the men on the job.
At Lynemouth Colliery, men are winning coal two miles out under the North Sea. The chart they’ve just received will tell Lynemouth’s Manager and his Deputy how far they’ve got and how much farther they can expect to go.
Back in London the Coal Board’s Clerk of Stationery and his staff of 74 are playing a big part in the smooth running of a nation-wide organisation.
Researcher Comments
Commentary recorded 26th July 1957.
Keywords
Mining; Photography; Public information
Written sources
British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.12 No.137 March 1958, p118.
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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