Western Electric Rod & Wire Mill 1925-2008 Documentary

Bear with me as I horribly narrate this video. This is a very niche video that will only appeal to anyone interested in the history of the Western Electric plant at Hawthorne Works. This video will focus on the Rod & Wire Mill's rod manufacturing side. I cover the retooling of the mill in the 1970's. The Mill stood at 2324 South Kenneth Avenue; Chicago, IL 60623 for 83 years and was the first mill to install the SCR casting system for copper rod. I had the privilege of working at this mill for its last few years of existence.
00:00 Intro
02:07 Billet heating furnace
05:23 Reversing mills
06:58 Coilers
07:52 Reversing mill principle of operation
08:51 Pickling tank
09:16 Midlife upgrade
11:34 Demolition of the old machinery
19:18 Arrival of the new continuous rod system equipment
20:42 Southwire continuous casting machine
22:50 Holding furnace
23:27 New continuous system installed
27:51 Startup Day!
32:55 Skip car
34:09 Casting pit
48:41 Traveling crane

After editing this video, I came to the conclusion that the section I did about the mill's second furnace may be inaccurate to some degree. I left it in because I wasn't sure and could not offer a better explanation.

Credits:
Pictures 1-4 https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/wom...

Pictures 6-43 are from my own collection.
Article from 1922: https://books.google.com/books?id=PtM...

710 connector cutter presser modular splicing kit:    • Telecom Copper Splicing Video  

"Wire for Sound"    • Wire For Sound 1960s   or http://www.globalimageworks.com