Sun, Apr 24, 2022
It's the holiday season and we're in Wilmington, NC with the police trying to make the season safe. In the worst case scenario someone calls 911. The call is connected to the nearest emergency call center where a trained operator gathers all necessary information and relays it to a dispatcher who in turn decides what kind of help is needed, police, fire department, medical. In another situation we meet Marian. Marian is a Labrador Retriever capable of sniffing out 19,000 combinations of explosives. We also get to see the helicopter division in action in a drug related operation.
Sun, May 1, 2022
In an industry with an annual production totalling $200,000,000 we find ourselves at the Burgen Ranch in Southern Oklahoma. It isn't all cowboys on horseback riding herds of cattle. The modern ranch is more mechanized with trucks, tractors and ATVs because time is money and sometimes the cowboys need to be miles away quickly. We see all of the ins and outs of herding cattle, veterinary services, feeding, tagging and branding. This is one of 700,000 ranches across the country.
Sun, May 8, 2022
Every day America's farms process 100,000 tons of corn every day. From the farms there are 40 corn mills across the country to turn the raw corn into consumable products. No corn on the cob comes out of these places. But, we end up at Lifeline Foods, a mill in St. Joseph, MO. Do you know when their busiest time is? It is in the winter. Yep. Because Super Bowl Sunday the country eats more food than any other day of the year. So, we are introduced to the various work stations to take the raw corn, break it down and produce the necessary products. And with Mike Rowe narrating the program you know there has to be something to go wrong.
Sun, May 15, 2022
Welcome to Logan Aluminum in Russellville, KY. This facility pumps out around 5,000,000 pounds of aluminum on an average day. Not only is it better for the environment, but it is cheaper to recycle aluminum; and that is exactly what happens at Logan Aluminum. And with Mike Rowe narrating this program there are bond to be problems to cause some unexpected fun, or problems with production.
Sun, May 22, 2022
Textiles have been around for about 100,000 years, give or take a few. But, here in America the textile industry is on the decline. Where there used to be around 30,000 mills, there are only 13,000 left in the country. Wanna guess where they mostly went? But, tonight's episode takes us to American Woolen Company in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, one of only four woolen mills in America. The wool comes from sheep raised in Montana. In the mill the fibrous wool is broken up in several processes, which is then rolled out into individual strands that are then twisted to add strength and placed on a roller as thread that can be woven together to create any number of products. With a company that has been around for nearly 200 years using finicky machinery older than the employees who are at retirement age there are plenty of problems during the day.
Sun, May 29, 2022
Let's visit the Volvo Construction Equipment Company in southern Pennsylvania. Here we see a joint effort between humans and robots producing some of the largest machines produced. We see how various areas work on a strict timeline putting together the various assemblies that ultimately ends up as very large machines. Of course, all of this doesn't work flawlessly, yes we see the trials and tribulations when things don't go as they should and the quick response in resolving the problem.
Sun, Jun 5, 2022
We are brought onto the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier while it's 6,000 personnel crew are performing exercises. With a length of 1,000 feet and 70 stories high there is constantly something going on 24 hours a day, every day. During this period 30 aviators have qualified in carrier landings while teams around the ship are performing other training exercises and tending to their daily tasks. There is one thing to emphasize with what Mike repeats with the various people he introduces. The amount of time on the job and the training that each person in the Navy receives is far more intense than that in the civilian community. But, all of this doesn't happen without the other ships in the task force that are both above and below the water doing training of their own. All of this training bring the crews to a high level of efficiency that allows them to do their jobs under either day to day conditions or during the severe conditions of battle.
Sun, Jun 12, 2022
As the country that consumes more sugar per Capita than any other country, we also produce a fair amount of it; nearly nine million tons. That comes out to around 18,000,000,000 pounds of sugar. Most of our sugar comes from beets, but the most saught after comes from cane, which grows in the South, mostly in Florida where we will be with U.S. Sugar. The company has 300 miles of railroad tracks to get the cane to the refinery. Here we are treated to the various work areas and seeing who does what, along with the huge machinery required to process the cane. But, let us not forget that not everything in the mechanical world works perfectly forever, so we also see some of the problems that occur and how the workforce resolve these problems.
Sun, Jun 19, 2022
Of the 38 brick manufacturing companies in America we have found the Old Carolina Brick Company with its 55 employees that crank out on average 30,000 handmade bricks a day. We start by blending rock and soil into a uniform clay. This mixture is cut, smoothed down, dried and finally fired to harden. And of course there are always problems that crop up.
Sun, Jun 26, 2022
Let's step into the wonderful world of paper. Not just your everyday piece of paper, but tons of it being manufactured. Sound exciting? Then come along. So, a little tidbit of information ... there are 200+ paper mills in the country producing over 200,000 tons of paper every day. Reality check, that's 400,000,000 pounds of paper a day, and that could really ruin your day if it fell on you. Additionally, America is the largest paper manufacturer in the world. So, for now let's visit International Paper in Columbus, MS. Here these folks produce the pulp required to produce paper products. The inbound products coming from local sawmills are anything from wood chips to tree logs. From little bits to really big bits they are all cut and pressed into uniform square chips and then dried. Many additional facilities like Proctor & Gamble in Northern Utah take huge bales of pulp to make the finished paper products. They process it, package it, wrap it, store it until it's time to ship it. And don't forget, Mike Rowe is announcing and we all know what that means ... yep, let's hear from the maintenance teams and the people that know how to troubleshoot problems within their area. Great job everyone!