Wwii Film “Trifles That Win Wars” Plastics Industry Shatterproof Glass Bomb Sights 54854 (1943)

Synopsis

This film, created during WW2 shows how three inventions have made major contributions to the U.S.A.’s war effort. It shows the use of celluloid which lead to the booming plastic’s industry, Edouard Benedictus’ innovation of using a thin layer of collodion on glass to prevent shattering and the silk of spiders which is the best material used for the cross hairs in periscope sights and bomb sights. The film is a part of a series hosted by John Nesbitt that were produced from 1938 to 1949 (:09). It was produced by MGM / Loews Incorporated (:23). The three trifles are pictured over WW2 era troops marching (:55) which are a billiard ball, an empty glass bottle without it’s cork and a spider and it’s web. As the Civil War ended, the US was cut off from it’s supply of ivory which had been used for billiard balls (1:24). A newspaper clipping shows an advertisement posted by Phelan Collander Company searching for a replacement material for ivory and offering a reward of $10,000 (1:26). Workers are seen opening samples of the materials sent from inventors in the testing room of the billiard company (1:39). Some of the samples are shown to crack upon impact (2:08) and others shaped liked eggs (2:19). One sample with ‘S 13’ written on it does not crack (3:07). Upon inspection of the note sent with the sample it is found to have been made with nitric acid added to cotton to form celluloid (3:20). This led to the plastic’s industry and plastic tooth brushes are seen being manufactured…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

10 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage