HOW IT'S MADE: Aluminum

The industrial production of aluminium is shown explaining it's elemental properties, ore mining, extrusions, fabrication, and manufacturing of products by factory workers such as bars, ingots, rods, sheets, foil, beams, and wire.

[whydahell]

Everything ever, needs to be explained with this production method.

[oldschoolman]

The reason foil is dull on one side and shiny on the other, because they have to run two sheets at a time to get it thin enough. The sides that touch the rollers get shiny, it's not made that way on purpose, it's just part of the manufacturing process.

[NeedXplore]

it's amazing that with less resources for video editing, filming and such they could explain this process better in 10 minutes that they can do now in 30, 40 minutes in recent documentaries

[zaptor]

It seems like the narrator narrated all of the films in the 50’s. His voice is so familiar and ubiquitous.

[pistolannie]

How many of you felt like u were back n grade school watching the old projector screens??

[hoosiered]

I know the manufacturing technology in this video is very dated, but the video is a great example of how complex it can be to create something "simple" like aluminum. Most people have no clue how in-depth the infrastructure of the U.S. industrial base is.

[rcarmisin]

I was thinking about turning on the lights when it was over.

[stevenkimball]

Why is this so easy to comprehend? Takes me back to my days in elementary school.

[iPervy]

Somehow this documentary gives me hope in the world. haha I wish we could have more documentaries voiced by a guy like this nowadays.

[kylesmith]

There is a kaiser aluminum plant in washington state still up and running this is pretty awesome to see how they did it back in the day. Actually work there and it has came a long way since then but the tech was pretty good back then great video

[cootermcguffin]

...and twenty years later, the aluminum electrical
ground wires for all that infrastructure had to be dug out of the ground and replaced with copper.

[Miitsu]

Man, this was made way before my time, but somehow feels homely

[-covid-]

These old educational movies remind me of the old get together in the school gymnasium with a couple of other classes ...and watch these educational movies ....miss those

[Psycandy]

brilliant, clearly communicated and illustrated

[drivestowork]

Fun to watch these and see which ideas worked/still work and which ones failed!

[kingdpsht]

Watching this vid while conducting tensile tests on 2024-T42 aluminum sheet. Cool to see the backstory of its origin.

[etubrutus]

They mentioned Kaiser Aluminum, I live near the old factory, been shut down for years. All processing has been shipped over seas.

[briananthony]

Wow, never realised it was such a complicated process.

[liberalslayer]

What gets me is how complex some things were and how educated some were to find ways of doing things, such as this and many other things 100+ years ago, but didnt think hand washing was necessary because they couldnt see any germs...

[canuckloyalist]

Aluminum brake drums, I wonder how that worked out for them...Lol!