British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Testing time

Series

Series Name
Mining Review 12th Year

Issue

Issue No.
12
Date Released
Aug 1959
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1Children’s day
  2. 2Testing time
  3. 3Automations
  4. 4First course

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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