History Main / SteelMill

A steel mill is one of the closest approximations of HellOnEarth, if [[DivineComedy Dante's Inferno]] is used as a yardstick. Since metal work requires extremely high temperatures, a steel mill is a [[BigLabyrinthineBuilding humongous maze]] of [[EternalEngine eerie machinery]], [[HellFire fiery furnaces]], extreme temperatures, [[LavaPit molten metal]], poisonous gasses, foul smells, deafening sounds and, most of all, [[NoOSHACompliance heavy objects]] [[AccordionMan falling from height]] [[SquashedFlat when least expected]].

* The pivotal scene of {{Robocop}} occurs in an abandoned yet surprisingly functional steel mill in Old Detroit. The scene was filmed at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Mill in Monessen, PA.

* The resolution scene of {{Robocop}} occurs in an abandoned yet surprisingly functional steel mill in Old Detroit. The scene was filmed at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Mill in Monessen, PA.

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** There is also a map call "Steel Works" which is exactly what it say's in the map title.

-->--'''Jack Gilbert'''

->''You can't work in a steel mill and think small. Giant converters hundreds of feet high. Every night, the sky looked enormous. It was a torrent of flames - of fire.''
->- '''Jack Gilbert'''

** Keep in mind this was of a ''[[FridgeHorror West]]'' German factory in the early eighties.

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->''And was Jerusalem builded here''
->''Among these dark, satanic mills?''
-->-- '''William Blake''', "Jerusalem"''

-->''And was Jerusalem builded here''
-->''Among these dark, satanic mills?''
-->-- ''William Blake, "Jerusalem"'']

* Dwarves run also one at the basement of Erebor in ''Film/TheHobbit''. Which qualifies as a DangerousWorkplace with NoOSHACompliance. Dwarves have apparently no concept of occupational safety.

The steel mill can be either an integrated mill which produces steel from iron ore, or a mini-mill which produces steel from scrap. The nucleus of the former is the smelting works, which consists of ironworks (a blast furnace, which makes pig iron from iron ore, coke and limestone) and steelworks (either a converter or open hearth furnace, which makes steel from pig iron and scrap), and rolling mill, which prepares the steel products. The latter has typically an electric arc furnace for smelting the scrap and rolling mill for producing the steel products, such as sheet metal, slabs, girders and pipes. Usually the integrated steel mill also has cokeworks for making metallurgical coke from coal, and a chemical plant for further refining the coal tar into various chemicals. The by-product of blast furnace, slag, can be used on making roads, bricks and cement.

Mini-mills have superceded traditional integrated mills rapidly, and they are important scrap recyclers. The electric arc furnace can be considered as a [[HellFire man-made lightninig]]. They are usually located in places, where scrap can be easily obtained and where is an abundance of cheap electricity.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' Batman goes inside Sionis steel mill, the first time through a chimney which there's a pool of molten metal below and second time trough the cooling tunnels with rivers of liquid nitrogen, the factory also serves as Joker's main hideout.

* The climax of ''Franchise/{{Terminator}} 2: Judgment Day'' takes place in one, of course.
* The droid factory in ''StarWars Episode II'' is the scene of a brutal battle between the heroes and their Geonosian adversaries.
* Saruman runs one at Isengard in ''Film/LordOfTheRings''. Filmed using real ironworkers in orc costumes, pouring real molten iron, which must have been a nightmare for health and safety.

* In ''{{Rudy}}'', the local steel mill is where Rudy's father and brothers work, where he is expected to work, and where his best friend dies in an accident, generously providing the catalyst for Rudy to decide he'd rather be elsewhere.
* The climactic fight scene from DrunkenMaster II takes place in a steel foundry.

* Super8. The steel mill shown only at the beginning has a prominent banner of the ilk of [[XDaysSince 'X days since the last workplace accident']] ... before a worker resets the already not-stellar number for the time to 1. This sets the tone of the movie to come as one where AnyoneCanDie.
* Creator/ChristianBale plays a mill worker in the 2013 film Out of the Furnace.

* In a similar vein to ''Ganz Unten'', HGWells's short story "The Cone" involves a disgruntled worker and his boss on a catwalk, viewing the pressure-valve cone on top of a blast furnace. Note to all steel bosses: it's probably best ''not'' to stand in front of disgruntled workers when you're overlooking an area that has red-hot metals and searing gases.

** There is also a map call "Steel Works" which is what it say's on the map title.

* Tony Iommi worked in a Sheffield steel mill before going HeavyMetal on BlackSabbath fulltime.

* The description given of Hank Rearden's mill in the second chapter of ''AtlasShrugged''. However, the incredible heat, heavy weights soaring overhead, and so forth are portrayed positively as symbolizing man's creative power and conquest of physical nature. Although a furnace leak later in the book does portray the extreme danger that are inherent in the processes of steel production very well.

* Saruman runs one at Isengard in ''LordOfTheRings''. Filmed using real ironworkers in orc costumes, pouring real molten iron, which must have been a nightmare for health and safety.
* Dwarves run also one at the basement of Erebor in ''TheHobbit''. Which qualifies as a DangerousWorkplace with NoOSHACompliance. Dwarves have apparently no concept of occupational safety.

* The Cybermen set up one of these in Victorian London in the [[Series/DoctorWho Tenth Doctor]] episode "The Next Doctor".
* The sports-movie parody sketch from ''ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' carries the bad research jokes beyond [[GretzkyHasTheBall sports]] by having the characters work in a steel ''mine'', combining the two standard "got to get out of this dead-end town" industries of plucky underdog movies.

* Po has a pivotal encounter with Shen at Shen's foundry in KungFuPanda2

A steel mill is one of the closest approximations of HellOnEarth, if [[DivineComedy Dante's Inferno]] is used as a yardstick. Since metal work requires extremely high temperatures, a steel mill is a [[BigLabyrinthineBuilding humongous maze]] of [[EternalEngine eerie machinery]], [[HellFire fiery furnaces]], extreme temperatures, [[LavaPit molten metal]], poisonous gasses, foul smells, deafening sounds and, most of all, [[NoOSHACompliance heavy objects]] [[AccordionMan falling from height when least expected]].

* Jurgis worked in one in Upton Sinclair's ''Literature/TheJungle''. He described working in one far more favourably than working in Chicago [[NightmarishFactory meatpacking industry]].