Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER JULY 1940 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Distillation. Production: Arthur Elton. Direction: Peter Baylis. Animation: F. Rodker. Distribution: Non-theatrical. 15 minutes. A silent version is available. By an industrial chemist THIS FILM deals in a simple manner with the practice of distillation applied to the purification of crude petroleum, and is suitable for students of the ages 12 to 16, or audiences with little chemical knowledge. Commencing with shots of the usual laboratory models of the carbon and hydrogen atoms, the film then gives a conception of the structure of some hydrocarbons. The possible constitution of many of these compounds present in crude oil is built up, and the heterogeneous nature of this oil indicated. The familiar type of bench distillation apparatus is used to introduce the real purpose of the film. Shots of an actual distillation of a liquid of three components, previously mixed, show clearly the operations involved in separation by distillation of liquids of different boiling points. A return to the subject of hydrocarbons is made with the introduction of superimposed titles to indicate the closeness in boiling point of many of these compounds and the difficulty of separation by such simple methods as the previous distillation, or the use of the old type of cascade stills. The procedure in a modern petroleum refinery is illustrated by an animated drawing of a crosssectional view of a fractionating tower. Separation offractions of known boiling range by means of baffles is shown and their operation explained. By a layman THIS FILM represents, as far as we know, the first attempt that has ever been made to explain the molecular theory by means of film. There is no doubt that it succeeds in making that difficult conception intelligible to the lay mind — in itself a remarkable enough achievement. Yet the film also will stimulate the expert student of the structure of matter by giving visible life to phenomena which previously have been represented only in text-book diagrams. Both layman and expert cannot fail to be excited by the curiously tactile beauty of the model sequences. The animated diagrams are the most ambitious and the best that have ever been made. The film utilises a courageously simple series of visual analogies with complete success. It is at once a source of pride and exasperation that (the world's highest achievement in scientific ■exposition by film should emerge from this beJeaguered democracy in June, 1940. Shell Cinemagazine No. 5. Distribution: Nontheatrical, available on 35 mm. and 16 mm. 7 minutes. THE SHELL FILM UNIT distributes copies of its technical films throughout the world in eight languages. From the wilds of Malaya to the mountains of Peru embryonic engineers sit and learn the mysteries of the internal combustion engine and the meaning of oil to the present world, through the efforts of Arthur Elton and his boys. And in getting these films shown so widely they are doing a vital service in propaganda. The world has been flooded with German technical and instructional films. The training colleges of such important markets as South America were learning German methods and German thinking. And the long term policy of all this, from the German propaganda angle, was not so much to create a demand for German machinery and mechanical products as to instil in the minds of the new generation that the British ascendancy in the production of machinery was gone ; that the hall-mark "British Made" no longer meant the most advanced and desirable in engineering. "Made in Germany" was what was wanted. After all, the engineers had seen German products working on the screen. But even engineers must have their lighter moments. And Cinemagazine No. 5 is one of the quarterly items that the Shell Unit produces to leaven their technical programmes. It consists of three items, all carrying the underlying message of the importance of oil in the community but told in the pleasant terms of the more intelligent travelogue. The first item shows a sheep farmer of the South African Karoo adopting modern methods of cultivation. Another sure-fire low angle shot for the cameraman has gone. Instead of the mule or oxen team on the skyline there comes once more the ubiquitous tractor. The second item shows us how oil engineers move oil tanks around on rollers. It has a pleasant "Believe it or not" quality and reminds one of those stories that we read about of how Americans, for some reason best known to themselves, move complete houses incredible distances. But the sight of this huge gasometer-like structure being casually levered around is completely fascinating. The last item tells how the air-conditioning plant of a modern cinema works. How the air is washed, cooled or heated and then released into the cinema. Apparently, and this was completely new to me, thermometers placed around the cinema allow for special heating or cooling arrangements to be made for any given section. I wonder if statistics would prove that biological influences aflect this? That, in fact, the front row of the threc-and-sixpennies needs more heat than the back row of the nincpennies! Altogether Cinemagazine No. 5 is well up to the high standard of its predecessors. Vital Service. Production: Arthur Elton. Direction: D'Arcy Cartwright. Photography: Stanley Rodwcll. 7 minutes. THIS FILM, about a vital hospital service of which few of us have realised the importance, is a competent and worthwhile job. The photography is first-class and the film without pre irai jfliia in ijr,o It"; itim ii ' I El la tensions. It aims at taking us for a few minutes behind the scenes of a modem hospital and giving us a new angle on up-to-date methods. Perhaps more than anything else, a hospital nowadays needs quantities of hot-water and steam. Hot-water for washing and cooking, steam for sterilising. Cleanliness is the watchword. And so the boiler-room becomes an integral part of the hospital's organisation. As important and as necessary as the operating theatre or the wards. Not only must constant supplies of steam and water be on tap night and day, but emergency calls for heating special sec-Ai tions of the hospital must be carried out withoulfSfi delay. Vital Service shows us how this is done. Froir an elaborate boiler-house the hospital engineer, are in constant touch, by means of gauges ancATJit thermostats, with every section of the buildingi Kit An emergency call means the turning of a lever< « the springing into life of some more oil jets anc .nidi the immediate reaction of a tell-tale needle. The film ends with tracing the part played by urn the heating department when a sudden operatioi i«e is ordered. It is fascinating to see how large ii kl the part it plays from the moment of the patient': arrival at the hospital right up to his being liftet on to the operating table. The film ends there, and there, perhaps, wa. the only disappointment. My natural sadisn would have liked the surgeon at least to hav reached for the knife! Britannia is a Woman. Production: British Movietonews. Distribution: Theatrical. 9 min utes. ALTERNATIVE TITLE for the first part of thi film would be "Fledgling Amazons", and for tbt |ii rest of the film "Sewing, Nursing and TyW IJii changing Bee" ; that's not meant to be 6ii respectful to women — far from it ; if anything ( is the film which is disrespectful. Do the ATS Ilk WAAFS, WRNS and what-have-yous only stOI 1 1 marching about in order to stand still and loa h camera-conscious? Are the thousands of wome voluntary workers simply the dumb creations c i[ Lady somebody or other — no particular dil respect to her either? The film, for all its high-sounding title, seeffBU to fall between two stools. Was the object just big parade of machine-like efficiency? Then should have been something more emotional tha a lot of news-reel shots strung together. Altemr tively, was the object to show the job that wome have to do in this war, a sort of recruiting filn in other words, bent on getting more and y |, more women to join the Colours, whether uniform or as volunteers? Then in the name < women surely there must be a deeper story < what they do, and why they have come to do and of how more and more women are need* for this or that useful task The film would appear to be another cor k II