Charging coke ovens, Steelworks, Newcastle

Coke is indispensable to the manufacture of steel and vast quantities of coal is coked daily at the steelworks of Broken Hill Proprietary. The charger filled with fine coal moves along the top of the coke ovens and deposits the coal through charge holes into the fierce heat of the oven compartment where it remains for approximately 14 hours, when it is discharged as coke, having had all the by-products extracted. The fine coal in the charger hopper catches fire as it runs through to the oven. R Malcolm Warner undertook this watercolor drawing at Newcastle during his commission as an official war artist. Ralph Malcolm Warner (1902-1966) was appointed Official War Artist in 1943, covering the activities of the RAAF in Canada, United States and the Bahamas. His first mission was in Papua New Guinea recording Australian operation against the Japanese. In 1945 Warner continued to work as a war artist recording civil and industrial war efforts and food production in areas of New South Wales and Victoria. After the war he returned to commercial art, designing posters, murals and postage stamps and illustrating books.