Testing time
Series
- Series Name
- Mining Review 12th Year
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 2 / 4
- Summary
- BFI synopsis: A recently opened laboratory to serve the scientific needs of the Scottish coalfields.
NCB Commentary - With increasing competition from other forms of fuel, scientific control of the techniques of coal getting and of its use is becoming more and more important.
From pits all over Scotland for instance samples are brought to a new Divisional Laboratory in Edinburgh for analyses.
First these samples must be broken down to a workable size, crushed and ground to a fine powder.
The powder then goes through a series of tests to find out how much heat can be obtained from it.
In the model furnaces another sample of the powder is burnt to ash. Clean burning fuels with little residue are important to industry.
The ash itself is heated again, this time electrically on an instrument called a spectograph which analyses its composition. From this and other tests the scientists can tell for which use the coal is best suited. In Scotland alone 750 grades are mined so its quite a job. If the industrial side seems to techinical the laboratory has a splendid gadget to solve the housewives’ problem, thermometers mounted on a sort of fire guard record efficiency under home conditions.
Analysis of coal is only one of the services which this new Divisional Laboratory will provide for the Scottish Coalfields. - Researcher Comments
- Commentary recorded 29th June 1959.
- Keywords
- Science and technology; Mining; Fuels
- Written sources
- British Film Institute Databases Used for synopsis
Film User Vol.14 No.160 February 1960, p82.
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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