Shots of pitheads. Overhead transporters dump slag onto slag- heaps . Mechanised washing and grading of coal at a pithead. The location and size of the main coalfields are indicated on a map of Britain. Miners walk along a shaft to the coal face for the night shift. Horses pull wagons. A miner working at the face. A Davey safety lamp in operation. A naked flame lamp in a gasless Scottish pit. Miners working at the face. A sandwich break. An electric coal cutter in operation. Coal is shovelled into trucks which are hauled off; commentary gives statistics of accidents in the mine.

The winding machinery brings the men to the surface in the morning. They check out. The miners make their way home - rows of terraced houses owned by the company. Pithead chimneys. A tree. A miner walks under a line of washing. Slag- heaps. Tree blowing in the wind. Ruined building. Trees and sky. A railway marshalling yard. A train moves off with coal. Shunting coal wagons; a signalman operates points. Horse-drawn coal carts distribute coal locally. Commentary gives statistics of coal used by the major industries: the electricity industry - shots of pylons, worker in a power station; railways: coal is loaded into a tender, the locomotive moves off; express trains . Shipping: dockers load coal into a ship. A mechanical grab hoists a load of coal and empties it. Industrial landscapes. Pitheads. Miner walking along a street. Pithead at evening.