''Out of the Fiery Furnace'' is a seven-part documentary series which was completed for

ABC television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

in Australia in 1983. The series traces the discovery and use of

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

s, and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

resources through time and was shown in over twenty countries. It was produced by

Robert Raymond Robert Alwyn Raymond OAM (7 July 1922 – 26 September 2003) was an Australian Logie Award winning producer, director, writer, filmmaker and journalist. A pioneer of Australian television, he with Michael Charlton in 1961, co-founded the Austra ...

, was written by Robert Raymond and

Michael Charlton Michael Charlton (born 1 May 1927) is an Australian-born Gold Logie winning former journalist and broadcaster, who worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for many years. Biography Charlton was born in Sydney to broadcaster Conrad and Haz ...

and was directed by Chris McCullough. Supported by the Rio Tinto group (via CRA Services Ltd) it consisted of seven episodes, each an hour in duration. Australian nuclear power advocate

Ian Hore-Lacy Ian Leslie Hore-Lacy (1940 – 2 December 2021) was an Australian nuclear industry communicator, author and advocate for nuclear power in Australia. He semi-retired as Senior Advisor with the World Nuclear Association, London. Career He was a ...

was closely involved with the production.

Episodes

# "From Stone to Bronze" # "Swords and Plowshares" # "Shining Conquests" # "The Revolution of Necessity" # "Into the Machine Age" # "From Alchemy to the Atom" # "The Age of Metals: Can it Last?"

Broadcasts

''Out of the Fiery Furnace'' premiered in the USA in 1986. In 1986 the series was used by the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

as a teaching aid and was available to other American institutions via the PBS Adult Learning Center. It continued to air on television in the USA through the late 1980s (often during prime time) and early 1990s including on cable channel

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

in 1993 and 1994.

Book

The subject matter of the documentary series was covered in a book, also titled ''Out of the Fiery Furnace'' and also the work of Robert Raymond.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Documentary television series about industry 1980s Australian documentary television series 1983 Australian television series debuts