Teesside Iron and Steel Memories Interview: Brian Saunders

Background & early work:
Born 14/1/1940 in Dormanstown
Dad worked at the steelworks and got him a job in 1959 labouring at the steel-plant at Warrenby
There were 20/25 men doing odd jobs on the plant at that time
Then moved to the loading bay, loading scrap for the furnaces
Had to shovel scrap from waggons to large pans for charging to the open-hearth (OH) steel furnaces
There were 5 furnaces 'A' to 'E' in a bank with a mixer in the middle, then another five up to 'K'
4 men on each shift had to get into waggons
No Health & Safety features - no helmets etc, just flat caps
The bay was a foot deep in lime & lime dust, like walking through snow - no gloves (had to supply their own)
All material had to be shovelled out, including crushed limestone like dust - there was no breathing protection (perhaps a screwed-up scarf around the head) & no eye protection
Charging pans were steel, 6'x3'x3' and six of these were needed to charge a furnace - they'd fill 20/25 before a break
Then promoted to a fourth-hand smelter for 6 years
At 25 yrs old, BS was earning about £11/wk
Part way through his service, he went on to short-time because of a lack of orders
1 week in 3 on the 'dole' for £3/10/- a week
Got up @ 5am & cycled to the plant to see if anybody hadn't turned up for work - rarely happened.
At that time, oxygen was just being introduced to the furnaces to speed up the process - fairly basic practices, but it meant the furnaces could be tapped twice per shift (per day??)
So had to work twice as hard to load the furnace
All were good men at the time, so could ask advice freely
Managers & staff had safety helmets, but the men did not
Flat caps & towels round the neck were used on the furnaces
Drank lots of water with salt tablets supplied by the Company
One of BS' jobs was to take samples from the furnaces for analysis
A small sample was removed, cooled down & drillings taken to the laboratory for analysis for carbon, sulphur & phosphorus levels
This took about 10min in the laboratory
It was quite easy from the nearer ('A' & 'B') furnaces, but could be about ½ mile walk from the furthest ('K') furnace, so a signalling system similar to 'tic-tac' as on the racecourse was employed to pass results quickly back to the furnace for the first-hand smelter to re-adjust the mix from his experience
A 'tamp tapper' was in charge of tapping the furnaces
The first-hand would tell him when the furnace was ready
Then the team would tap the furnace
The tap-hole was lanced, or if stubborn would need to be released using large hammers & chisels until molten steel flowed out
This was poured into ladles held by overhead crane
The 'sample passer' would dictate additions of scrap or slag removal as necessary
The furnace was then prepared for the next charge by adding basic slag for about 5/10mins via front vertical doors using long shovels
The only protection was bits of scrounged canvas worn on the left leg like cowboy 'chaps' - not supplied by the Company
Even had to supply their own blue glasses to look into the furnace - these had to be bought from the stores
BS also worked on the manganese (Mn) crusher at Redcar
Big pans of Mn were needed for the furnaces as alloy additions
Mn came in as large chunks of ore which were not magnetic, so had to be picked up & dropped into a large crushing machine, then shovelled out into big pans for charging to the furnaces
These were very heavy, so was hard work
Crane slinging was part of the job to lift the pans

Later career employment:
BS left the steelworks at 25yrs old after 6 years and took a job at ICI
His brother had a good job there and secured him an interview
He worked at Wilton in the warehouse on the polythene plant
This was easier work thanin the steelworks, but he looked back fondly on his time there as it 'made a man' of him
He remained @ ICI for four years until he was 29, and then joined the Police
Saw an advertisement in the 'Gazette', applied & got the job
Stayed in the police for 30yrs, and received a long service medal from the Chief Constable
Served in various dept's (vehicles, licensing dept., vice squad) and ended in the Charge Office at Middlesbrough
The pay was quite poor (his wife in the Criminal Records Office earned more than him) and didn't really improve until an Enquiry into Police pay near the time of his retirement