Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

80 Visual Education loaded box car into these immovable coal cars at gradually increasing rates of speed, from three up to twenty miles an hour. (The rate of speed was determined by placing a torpedo on the track at a distance of so many hundred yards from the coal cars, and startingthe stop watch at the audible signal given as the freight car passed over the torpedo.) As the picture is assembled, immediately after the freight car strikes the barrier a closeup showing the record of the impact register is cut into the film. All can read its significant report : Safe, Rough, Violent or Destructive. Then follows a closeup of the contents of the freight car. The screen makes it plain as day to even the the attention of switchmen and freight handlers and their immediate superiors. The plan we have found most effective is to take a portable projector right into the freight house and, while the men are on duty, have them stop work and come in to see the handwriting on the wall. It is our experience that the lesson sinks more deeply into the 'group consciousness' when it is thus driven home to each individual in his workaday environment. Special meetings, however, are generally arranged for groups of station agents, assembled from a number of nearby points for the purpose." Some of the reels in this series make it their particular business to visualize proper methods of stow can of tomatoes more or less is not going to break any one, is all too prone to make light of such a mishap. The film proves very clearly the fallacy of his argument. The liquid leaking out of that one damaged can spoils the labels on all the other cans in the carton, causes them to rust, and makes it necessary for the entire lot to be disposed of as "thirds" — involving a complaint and a claim. "An Ounce of Prevention" Other reels in the "Loss and Damage" series picture minor accidents and everyday possibilities in the handling of perishable goods like fruits and vegetables. Take, for example, a case of vegetables which has been standing in the hot WHAT A SEVERE JAR WILL DO TO FREIGHT The camera recorded this damage as it happened. At the left, a car loaded with miscellaneous freight is shown after a heavy impact. At the right, a heavy box, jolted from place, has crushed through the top of a lighter case below. The film warns against the mistake of stowing heavy goods on top of lighter merchandise. most skeptical switchman that at the higher rates of speed heavy commodities, sliding from place to place and pushing things around generally, will effectively crush any object in their path. At any speed above twelve miles an hour, the moving pictures show, there is total destruction fro m impact shocks. "What we wanted to accomplish," continued Mr. Melton, "was to give our employees a proof that would 'hit them between the eyes,' so to speak. Only by exciting their imagination could we he sure of receiving their earnest co-operation in our campaign of education and i eformation. Showing the Pictures "1 Taxing thus produced the film, the next thing was to bring it to ing goods. So intense is the interest aroused, and so loyal the spirit of co-operation which has been developed, that there is a story of a negro stowman who returned to the freight house at ten o'clock at night in ordpr to rearrange the loading, having thought in the meantime of a better way to stow a certain piece of freight. The Damaging Freight Hook The film pictures valuable "Do's and "Dont's" in connection with the ordinary freight hook — that convenient little tool known in every freight house in the land. Sometimes a freight handler, carelessly slashing his hook into a pasteboard carton containing liquid or canned goods, will spring a leak in one of the cans. The average employee, reasoning that an 18-cent sun somewhere down south. Presently a warm rain comes on and the vegetables become thoroughly soaked. Spoilage and consequent loss might easily be prevented by drying the contents of the case, but in the majority of cases the box is simply loaded promiscuously into the car. Another time, some one neglects to close the door of the refrigerator car, causing the ice to melt and paving the way for a claim for damage. The film teaches the men in the freight service to avoid such accidents and likewise how to repair various cases of minor damage before the shipment is delivered, thus eliminating many exceptions and reducing losses. Graphs and pictures show realistically how a little damage at St. Louis, plus a little